I never said I was perfect

I've spoken to you in the past about my problems with spilling items on myself...

It is a SERIOUS problem. I have to work, in a real office, with actual people around, and somehow I am incapable of getting food from a container to my mouth without spilling on myself. If I don't spend the latter half of the day with food splotches on my top and pants, then I spent the latter half of the day with discolored stains from Shout Wipes. Or discolored stains and a huge wet spot across my boobs because then I always try to rinse out part of the discolored stain in the hopes that you'll see it less. The Shout Wipes ALWAYS leave discolored stains, but yet I continue to use them.

This week I've updated my stain arsenal to see if this helps.




I'll give you a review as soon as I spill something on myself, probably in the next 10 minutes.





Honestly, though, I think I may be food and liquid cursed. For example, two days ago while walking with favorite Googly Eyes colleague, my Starbucks Maple Latte exploded out of the tiny hole in the top and all over my pale pink sweater set. Two items, off to the dry cleaner with big discolored stains from trying to remove coffee with the wipes.

Yesterday's lunch training? The piece of lettuce from my salad FLEW off my fork and landed in my lap.

Today? Walking to work, pulled my breakfast banana out of my purse, peeled just the top few inches, turned to see the new display in Boston's Downtown Crossing.







Hey! It's Christmas already!!!











Hey! Where'd the top of my banana go? Oh. Broke off and tumbled down the front of my pants.

Did you know that bananas leave an unsightly trail of spludge when they slide down your pants that is remarkably impervious to water, paper towels and Shout Wipes? Did you???

The one shining spot in my day? My Halloween flowers died a pitiful death over the weekend and the florist offered to replace them. Ta da!






They still aren't orange and black, but they'll do.

show and tell

Blackbird's show and tell this week is addiction.

I've discussed my addiction in the past, but here it is again in all its glory...






I LURVE Dunkin' Donuts iced coffees- extra extra milk and three splenda. Yummm. I have to control myself to not want to go down and get another later in the day. I often use them as a motivation to get up. The thought of drinking my iced coffee cheers me up every morning.








Now that I think about it, perhaps that really does count as an obsession.

Truthfully, though, my real Addiction (with a capital A) is this:





I love the little buggers, all three of them, and I can't live without 'em.

back to hilarity

I love that I will now be able to tune into DogCatRadio.com to keep Tango and Murray company while they are home alone.

It is a message that many of her listeners need to hear. Ms. Harris is a D.J. on DogCatRadio.com, a new Internet radio station for pets. Now dogs, cats, hamsters and parrots can keep the anxiety, the loneliness, the restlessness at bay while their owners are out. It is radio just for them, live 17 hours a day, 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. Pacific time, and podcast for the rest of the 24 hours.

This is not at all crazy. Noooooo, not at all.

And in case you were concerned that since I work such long hours, perhaps Tango and Murray aren't keeping up their Spanish skills... fear not.

Since many pets are apparently bilingual, DogCatRadio also has a "Spanish Hour," 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific time daily, with Hispanic commentary and music, like Luis Miguel's "No Se Tu": DogCatRadio.com was started last June by Adrian Martinez, who is also president of Marusa records, an independent record label in Los Angeles. He runs the station out of a customized RV parked in his office lot in the Eagle Rock section of Los Angeles.

I know I will rest easier at night and be able to work more effectively for my employer knowing that the pups will be entertained.

Chew on.

in which I risk you thinking I am a lunatic

One of the things I missed this Halloween was snuggling under a blanket with the scent and sounds of a crackling fire, watching old horror movie classics with the curtains drawn just in case someone might be outside watching me. I love the Shining and the Exorcist, or Friday the 13th and Halloween. Those movies don't scare me, because I find them fairly unbelievable. What does scare me, however, are movies or stories about ghosts or spirits. I used to have nightmares about Poltergeist and Pet Sematary (Cemetery). I've always maintained that I am UNINTERESTED in connecting with the "other side." I am fine in my little world of disbelief.

In my 101 things, though, I told you that I believe I once saw a ghost. And I do. I'll share my story with you, as long as we all agree that I am not crazy and didn't lose my mind for this one night.

As I've mentioned before, my little immediate family was the only family living in the United States, so we traveled pretty regularly to Argentina. My mother's mother, my Nonna, was the only person that came to visit us religiously. She lived with us from my birth until I was 9 months old, and then returned yearly, often staying for months at a time. In high school, as her health was deteriorating, she came to live with use in California. As you can imagine, she drove me nuts.

My Nonna loved me to death, but she was soooo nosy! She would ask where I was going, who I was seeing, what I was doing, and whatever my response, she had a story at the ready that didn't relate IN THE LEAST, but she'd find a connection somewhere.

Nonna was tough. She'd divorced my mother's father when my mother was 2, because she realized he was abusive. She raised my mother on her own, sewing clothing for a living and scraping together enough to give my mom anything she needed. When I met Josh, she told me that she was happy he was Jewish, because in the early years after her divorce, only the Jews would give her work because she'd violated her fellow Catholics' religious laws.

She was fabulous.

At the end of my first year of law school, Nonna decided she wanted to return to Argentina to visit friends and family, so my dad accompanied her for a short trip. He chastised her to never leave the house by herself and insisted he was happy to take her everywhere and anywhere, she just had to ask. But Nonna was stubborn. One day, when my dad went out, she decided to take a walk on her own. Although she had a friend with her, she fell in the hallway and shattered her leg. After being rushed to the hospital and undergoing surgery, the reality of the situation settled in. With a break like this one, she couldn't return easily to the United States and would have to be admitted to a nursing home, at least temporarily, until she had healed. In Nonna's mind, this was a death sentence.

She stopped eating and began saying that she was ready to die. At first, my mom and dad laughed it off and told her to stop being silly, it was just a broken leg. But within a few days, she stopped communicating and her health began to deteriorate. I booked a trip to Argentina for the next week, confident that seeing me would cheer her up. On the Sunday before my trip, my dad called my mom and told her that he thought my Nonna really was ready to die. That the doctors had told him that for no apparent or practical reason, her body was shutting down.

That evening, my dad put the phone to Nonna's ear and my mom told her that if she was ready to go, my mom would be okay. Nonna died that night, 4 days before I would have arrived in Buenos Aires.

I don't know the words to tell you how sad we were. My mom was distraught, I think I was in denial. Sometimes I would sit on the phone and my mom would cry and ask me over and over again how you die of a broken leg? It was terrible.

It wasn't until a few months later that I realized how far I was from believing she'd really passed away. I didn't see her every day since I was in Boston and she was at home in California, so it wasn't unusual to go long periods of time without seeing her. One night, though, I was sitting alone in Josh's apartment where I'd been staying while I summered at a Boston law firm. He was traveling to one of his exotic Midwest locations on a consulting project.

I'd been watching reruns of Sex and the City, and in one of these episodes, Miranda's mother dies. In one scene, Miranda cries in a dressing room as she realizes that she will never fight with her mother again. And then it hit me.

I'd never roll my eyes through another one of her stories, never hear her broken English ask me silly questions, never get to show her my new engagement ring. I'd never hug her, kiss her, fight with her again. So I cried. I cried more that night than I had when she'd first passed away and when I finally went to bed, my last thoughts before sleep were that I could not believe it possible for me to live another 70 years on this earth without seeing my Nonna again. It just didn't seem possible.

The next thing I remember is feeling a hand brushing against my cheek and sliding down my chin. I opened my eyes to a pitch black room, but above the bed in front of me was a shape. Not necessarily the shape of a person, but almost a cloud of shimmering sparkling light. The only way I can describe it is to say that it looked like oil and water when it separates, but the little particles of oil were lit up with this bright light. I gasped, and then it was gone. My heart was pounding as I fumbled for the lights and climbed out of bed. I dialed Josh's cell number with shaking hands and barely started to speak before the sobs began. I had only gotten a couple of sentences out when I remembered what my final thoughts of the night had been. I hung up quickly with Josh and called my mom. It took only a couple of words out of my mouth before we were both crying.

I slept with the lights on for the rest of that night, although given my tearful reaction I didn't think it would ever happen again.

Of course, there is always the possibility that I dreamed it, but I believe I was wide awake. I felt the weight of the hand against my face for hours after it happened- almost a tingling sensation. I don't know what it means, either, but I can tell you that it was beautiful and it made me believe that whatever comes after death, it cannot be bad because that shape and the lights were far from bad.

happy day after halloween!

You all are the sweetest!

My dad is doing quite a bit better, and I thank you for your thoughts and prayers and good wishes. Lest I get sued for libel or slander, I will tell you that his employer is a car manufacturer who makes jeeps and whose name would fall into "get the hell out of _____." I'm not sure that our boycotting them would do much good, since they seem to be having financial troubles anyway. He is back in California, though, and happy to be with my mom again, who he hadn't seen in over a month and a half. He has been to speak with his former employer and we'll have to see what their response is. In the meantime, he'll be starting the job hunt elsewhere.

As for my favorite day of the year, I am sad to report that I didn't get out of work until 9pm, so I missed all the kiddies and costumes and scary movies. I generally don't mind working late, but last night I was bitter that I missed all the fun. I've decided that next year I am taking the day off or insisting on working from home. Halloween only comes around once a year, ya know?

It was SO sweet of all of you to think of me on Halloween! I loved all your comments!! I have to admit that it made me chuckle that you remembered me yesterday! Apparently the husband did also, because yesterday afternoon I received these at the office...






See? This is why I keep him around! Halloween flowers!










Thanks also for the compliments on the pumpkins! I've had lots of practice over the years, as you can imagine. I'll have to upload the picture from the year I carved a pumpkin to look like Tango. It was a hoot.

Tonight I'll need to start (sadly) taking down all of my spooky decorations, and then I'll start preparing for Halloween next year. Just kidding. I'll wait until January, at least, to do that ; )

happy halloween!

When I was a sophomore in college, I shared a suite in a dorm with 7 other girls. It was crazy, hectic, cramped and SO MUCH FUN. 4 bedrooms with 2 girls in each, 2 bathrooms with separate sinks, toilets and showers, a kitchen and a huge living room and dining room made for great living. We all got along except for one girl that happened to be my direct roommate, but that is a story for another time, I think.

We decorated for every season, and Halloween, of course, was the main attraction. I went nuts with the decorations and put all of my roommates to work hanging lights and ghosts and decorating the windows. That year we had a huge co-ed slumber party and dragged all our mattresses into the living room and camped out watching scary movies into the wee hours of the morning.

One afternoon that year, one of my roommates (the now Brilliant Pediatrician) and I arrived home from class to find that all of our decorations and signs bearing the words "Happy Halloween" had all been changed to "Happy Happoween!" We set out immediately to figure out what was going on. We walked around the house examining all of the signs to make sure they were all the same, all wishing us a Happy Happoween. Once that was set, we sat down to try to figure out who had done it, why they'd done it, and what it could possibly mean. Did it mean happiness on Halloween? Was it a cultural thing? Had our Indian roommate changed them? Was it a joke? Why didn't we get it? I kid you not, we fretted about it for HOURS trying to figure out what it meant and who'd done it. In the meantime, various roommates were arriving home and expressing surprise and insisting that they weren't the culprits of the redecorating.

We were stumped, and seriously disturbed over what we considered a vandalism of all our hard-work decorating the house. That night, while we were wandering down the hall, we heard muffled laughter coming from one of the bedrooms. We cracked open the door and found two of our roommates dissolved in tears from laughing so hard. It turns out they were the vandals and they'd done it for precisely the effect it had elicited, to DRIVE US CRAZY.

The idea had sprung into their minds that morning, and they knew that when we got home and discovered the signs changed, we'd wonder and worry about it all day, as we had. 7 years later, that story still makes me chuckle.

Last night the Brilliant Pediatrician came over for a pre-Halloween celebration. We made Scrivener's Frankenstein pie (minus the meat), she brought Halloween cupcakes, we watched scary movies in front of a crackling fire and carved pumpkins.

Here are our masterpieces...




My haunted castle is on the left, and Herman, the Brilliant Pediatrician's pumpkin, is on the right.






Here is a rat trying to sneak his way into the haunted castle...
















I am hoping to get home in time to hand out a little bit of candy to trick-or-treaters, although Josh says that kids will come out before the sun goes down and the odds of my getting home by 4pm or so are pretty slim. I left out a big bowl of candy, though, let's hope the squirrels don't get to it!!














Tango and Murray, dressed as their favorite Red Sox players, and the rest of the Halloweenlover family wish you a very very Happy, Spooky, Creepy, Scary Happoween! Happy Halloween everyone!

almost ironic

For the past month and a half, my dad has been in Florida tending to my great aunt who is ill. It arose out of a call from my great uncle in the wee hours of the morning asking him to come because my grandmother's sister was in the hospital in terrible shape. That afternoon, my father dropped everything to fly to Florida to be at my aunt's side.

Once he arrived, he discovered an ailing aunt, who barely recognized him, and an uncle suffering from dementia, prone to intense rages at the drop of a hat. Needless to say, it has been a difficult month for him. He would call me sometimes in need of an ear and a laugh, telling me about a rage that morning where my uncle forced him out of bed at 5am because he thought he was a terrorist. Or another afternoon where my uncle threw all the food in the house out, including groceries my father had just purchased that afternoon, because of all the bugs. Bugs that didn't exist, but my father didn't have the heart to argue. This also includes day after day in the hospital, dealing with my aunt's illness, her subsequent strokes, a viral infection she acquired that could have been life-threatening for any visitors including my father, and the ups and downs all elderly and intensely sick patients have.

My dad lost his job during this month and a half because he was unable to go to work and the Family and Medical Leave Act only covers immediate family: parents, siblings or children. Although my mom wrote his employer letters and made numerous calls, the dismissal letter arrived all the same.

Still, he stayed. And when I'd speak to him on an almost daily basis, he would tell me that he had stopped at the local church to light a candle for my aunt. Ever wishing that she would get better, when all I could wish was for her suffering to be over. But it isn't my father's personality to ever wish for the end of life. He wanted her well again, but it was not to be.

My aunt was moved into a nursing home earlier this week because she seemed to be in a vegetative state. My uncle's rages had been increasing in size and frequency, despite my dad's visits to his doctor and requests for help. Finally, on Wednesday, my dad decided that it was time to leave. He had promised to wait until my aunt finally passed away, but given the state she was in, there was no telling when that might be. And living with my uncle was getting to be impossible. He booked a flight to leave today to return to California, said goodbye, and boarded the plane at 6am.

On a layover in Denver, my dad received a call. My aunt passed away this morning.

My heart breaks for him. For the guilt he said he feels, for his fear that this is somehow God punishing him. For the terrible awful timing.

show and tell: ode to my bed

I think I've mentioned before that I love my bedroom and particularly my bed, and not for any lewd reasons that you might all be thinking (well maybe a couple). I just love everything about it, the antique white furniture that reminds me of New England, the tan (very calming) walls, the pillow top mattress that I never have to flip over, my fluffy comforter and the excess number of pillows on it.

Once Blackbird announced that this week's show and tell consisted of showing off your bed, I had to participate. So here I present to you my favorite spot in the house.




















It may not look like much, but it took me quite some time to perfect my bedroom. Our bedroom furniture was easy to choose, because I'd been coveting the wide white slats and creamy color for months. Unfortunately, Josh and I weren't married and didn't live together, so I had to wait to order it until we'd finally moved into an apartment that could fit a queen sized bed and both nightstands and dresser. By the time I could finally order it, some of the pieces were discontinued and I was only able to buy the bed and nightstands. Still, I love them and we just used an antique dresser in oak that my mother-in-law refinished for us.

At that time, my sister-in-law offered to purchase our bedding as an engagement/wedding gift, so we chose the most decadent beautiful bedding we could imagine for our first years of married life together, a wine red duvet cover and pillows with chenille on one side and velvet on the other. Beautiful, but not durable, so when the button holes started to tear within 6 months, I ran to Ikea and picked up a plain tan cover until we found something that worked. Pale tan with white furniture results in a boring room, so when we traveled to Finland after the Bar Exam and my law school graduation, we picked up a Marimekko comforter with huge splashes of black and (what I thought was) tan flowers. Our room was painted a deep tan and all our sheets matched this tan, so I assured Josh that it would work. Ummm, it didn't. The poppy color was a greenish khaki, nothing like the tan of the bedroom or sheets or accessories.

At this point, however, I was afraid that any request for new bedding might result in marital problems, so I lived with the unmatching black and khaki green poppy bedding. I cringed every time I came into the bedroom, though, and my once happy place became less so.

I kept my dislike to myself, and months passed without my secret revealed until one day I confided in my mother how much I hated the bedspread. "Oh thank God," was her answer, "it's hideous." So a deal was struck, and we shopped together for new bedding that would conform with my perfectly good sheets, the furniture and the wall color that I preferred. Since it was a holiday gift from her, little protest came from Josh. That is how I came upon my current bedding that I LURVE.














I love the cheery colors, I love the alternative to have the tan quilt up in the summer with the duvet folded at the bottom, and vice versa in the winter, I love the ties on the sides of the tan pillows (hard to see in the picture), I love the quantity of pillows to nestle in after a long day. The rest of my house is brighter colors and more eclectic decorations, but my bedroom is streamlined and simple.

And I think that is the best way to start the day. Share your bedroom, anyone?

ghosts and gravestones

In keeping with my chosen name, last night my favorite work colleague Miss Googly-Eyes and her husband, another work friend, Josh and I went on a tour of Boston called Ghosts and Gravestones, otherwise known as Trolley of the doomed. MWAH HA HA HA HA (insert creepy laugh here).

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so I can't show you a picture of Igor our trolley driver, or Lucius our guide, who asked all the ladies to call him Luscious instead. He was cute and funny, with a spooky and creepy voice that was clearly contrived. He made us laugh, though, so we forgave the mildly cheesy voice.

I won't tell you about all of our stops, just in case any Bostonians choose to take the tour at some point, but I'll give you some highlights.

Did you know that there are a series of tunnels underground in Boston's North End that connect many of the different buildings and converge beneath the Copp's Hill Burial Grounds? Our guide Luscious had a key to all of the cemeteries, so we wandered about in the pitch darkness with only his candle to light our way. Trust me, it is spooooooky. Along with stories about haunting in these tunnels, the cemetery and adjacent houses, it creates quite the mood.

I was shocked to find out that the Boston Common, one of my favorite places to sit and read a book in the summer, attend Shakespeare in the Park or ice skate in the winter, was the site for public executions in Boston for many decades. There was even a hanging tree where people would attend hangings, a la festival style with lots of crowds. And to make matters worse, there are bodies buried throughout the park without markers. It does make you wonder why there are no flowers in Boston Common when you cross the street into the Public Garden and there are bounteous amounts of flora and fauna. Hmmmm.

Then there is the Old Granery Burial Ground, where Paul Revere lies, with many reports of hauntings and strange figures appearing in the frames of pictures taken in the cemetery. Miss Googly-Eyes' husband took some pictures, and I'll be sure to let you know if any spirits graced us with their image.

In between the sights, Luscious graced us with stories of the Boston Strangler, the Omni Parker Hotel and a few more spooky sites. I recommend the tour if you're looking for something amusing, but not too scary, with lots of history thrown in.

I may take a trip down to my favorite video store tonight to start stocking up on scary movies for this weekend. Any suggestions? The scarier the better.... Boo!

mischief and mayhem

This Saturday night, I agreed to host my entire office, all 40+ attorneys and their significant others for a Halloween party. Thankfully for my teeny tiny house, not everyone was able to come and we kept the numbers to a manageable 30 or so at any one time. The weather also conspired against us with our first rainy frost of the season.

I was most nervous about not having enough food for everyone, so I enlisted the help of a few friends and set everyone to task.

I copied Frankie's brilliant idea for pumpkin devilled eggs- they were a BIG hit!















I also borrowed my mother-in-law's BJs card and purchased 300 different frozen appetizers at her urging. I was originally planning to cook everything and was trying to develop a menu which included crab cakes, gorgonzola cheese pasta, salads, butternut squash soup, and assorted appetizers, until she called me crazy and said that I needed to scale down the food. She is brilliant, I might add, and this saved my sanity in the end. I did try to make one thing from scratch, a pumpkin pineapple cheese dip neatly shaped into a pumpkin shape. That stupid pumpkin pineapple cheese dip almost killed me.















Those are also thumb sticks in the background, with half an olive pressed into the top to look like a thumb nail, get it?

Since Scrivener has been goading me to post our Halloween costume pictures, which I only JUST received in time for the party, I present to you Wonder Woman (cue music) and the Incredible Hulk!



















Wonder Woman's costume was not the appropriate size, so she spent a good chunk of the night pulling the tube top up to maintain her decency. Stupid boobs.

We also had some cat burglars that tried to smuggle out some household goods.















We also had a Brownie/Girl Scout, Sue Ellen Ewing (and J.R. who was suffering from a gun shot wound elsewhere in the house) from Dallas and Bree from Desperate Housewives.















Later that night, Sue Ellen tried to shoot me as well, but I was able to head her off with my bullet proof wrist cuffs.

Another member of the Justice League was there, Bat Woman, as well as a devil and a Gladiatrix. Doesn't YG&B look FAB-U-LOUS in her silver wig? I think she should wear it all the time.
















All in all, the party was a success! We had more than enough food (I have 150 appetizers in my fridge and 25 hand dipped caramel apples left over) and a delicious hot apple cider drink that consisted of cinnamon sticks, 3 kinds of apples, organic apple cider and Calvados apple brandy. I highly recommend it!

This is pretty much the sum of our Halloween celebrations, except for some pumpkin carving, scary movie watching and answering the door to trick-or-treaters on Monday. What are your plans?

brown sugar, maple syrup, chocolate chips, and raisins, OH MY!

I am working on a post with pictures featuring Halloweenlover as Wonder Woman at a work party, but in the meantime, I thought I'd tell you about my breakfast.

Now, one fact you should know about the Halloweenlover household is that mornings are not a happy time. Josh is definitely a morning person, and in order to leave at 7:15am, he wakes up at 6am so that he can take his time getting ready. He likes to eat breakfast, linger over the paper, take a leisurely shower, use the bathroom in peace, get dressed slowly, check and double check his school bag, and finally scoot out the door. For our 7:15 am departure, I am far more likely to wake up at 7am and throw myself into the shower, fling clothes across the room in an effort to find a matching outfit, scream at Josh to grab my cell phone and blackberry and put them into my bag, and find myself at work without having yet brushed my hair for the day. Sometimes I go whole days without brushing my hair (NO JUDGING), and thankfully it is straight enough that you can't really tell.

This isn't that conducive to eating breakfast, as you can imagine, so I often scream at Josh to throw a yogurt smoothie into my bag in addition to the phone and blackberry. And I keep a stash of granola bars in my desk drawer.

This morning, however, my friend informed me that the Au Bon Pain near our work has an oatmeal bar. An honest-to-goodness oatmeal bar with several toppings and flavors you can add to the mix. 3 minutes after hearing that, I hightailed it out of the office and braved the Nor'easter winds that threatened to push me over to view this oatmeal bar for myself.

But kids, I went a little overboard in my zeal for oatmeal. Faced with the sheer quantity of wondrous choices, I piled the brown sugar into the tiny container, pressed some raisins into the mix, added some honey, a little maple syrup, a touch of cinnamon, and as I was pressing the container closed, I spotted a canister of chocolate chips, and I mean, honestly, how could I resist chocolate chips?

And now my oatmeal looks like this and I feel rather like vomiting.
















That is chocolate smeared on the side, and what I can only guess is maple syrup, honey and brown sugar pooled at the bottom. My desk is all sticky now, too!

Tomorrow, I'm sticking to the granola bar. Bleh.

an untapped resource

Where have you people BEEN for the last year? I could have SOOOO used your advice in my decorating woes! But no more, I am definitely tapping into you for your wealth of advice.

Next up, my kitchen. I am in some desperate need of advice for my kitchen. And while we are discussing it, my basement too. We have been considering remodeling the basement for some time now, and by remodel, I mean tile the basement and paint it. We aren't daring enough to assume that it won't flood someday, even though it hasn't yet. I am thinking Mediterranean tile, with orangey yellow walls, very bright and fun colors and simple furniture with Ikea spot lighting all over the place.

In other topics, are any of you good at being internet doctors? My leg hurts. It has been aching for 2 weeks now, for no apparent reason. And please don't ask my activity level, it just makes me laugh. Walking to and from the subway and down to Dunkin' Donuts, oh, and around the office to visit colleagues, is the sum of my activity level. Still, it hurts! The pain is this sort of achey pain on the outside of my lower thigh, knee area.

Bloggy doctors, diagnose away!

Tomorrow: pictures of the kitchen.

my bathroom needs your help

I can't remember if I've ever posted about the bathrooms in my little colonial money suck, but they are abysmal. I cannot say that they are the bane of my existence, because that would actually be my seafoam green hideously ugly kitchen, but they do cause me quite a bit of unhappiness.

We have one full and one half-bath, and the problem is really the tile. The downstairs half-bath has peach tile from the floor to halfway up the room, with a finishing row of black tiles at the top. The peach is incredibly difficult to match, and to add insult to injury, the previous owners found some linoleum tiles that are tan with yellow and gray flowers and laid it over the traditional black and white ceramic tiles that most 1930's homes have. They must have loved those yellow and gray flowers, because they also tiled upstairs in the same non-matching linoleum tiles.

The full-bath upstairs is slightly less offensive, with pale yellow tiles running more than halfway up the wall in the toilet/sink section and most of the way up the wall in the shower. OH, and on the ceiling too.

Think I'm joking?





Can you imagine what cleaning this bathroom is like? My neck hurts thinking about it.











I mainly find it less offensive because yellow is one of my favorite colors. But this yellow is very pale and very hard to match. For the past year, I have been steadily purchasing and returning shower curtains, rugs and bathroom accessories in my quest to find one that works. We had a yellow striped one, but it was too gold of a yellow. We had a green with yellow stripes, but it didn't look good with the black stripe. We had a plain white, but it was too boring. We had yellow, green and lavender butterflies, but it just looked weird.

Recently I found the current shower curtain, white with little embroidered bees on it, and I think it works. I figure that with a yellow and black bathroom, it is rather fitting to have little bees on the shower curtain. But now my little Eiffel Tower shower curtain rings don't fit anymore, which causes me great sadness, and I've been unable to find any rugs or accessories that match the bathroom. And this is where you come in.

I went to Tarjay this weekend and picked up some different colors of rugs, but I can't decide between the two front runners. I need suggestions, or I need you to tell me to go back to square one because they are all awful.






Here is the current state of affairs. Old green rug that used to match a previous bathroom, but now is old and ratty and is missing a patch of thread from being washed too many times.









Option one:




Hmmm, now that I look at it in this picture, it doesn't quite look like the right yellow, although it looked okay in person.













Option two:




















I still need to find shower curtain rings, plus garbage can, plus soap dispenser, etc., but finding a rug will help me narrow my search.

Thoughts?

And just so you have a clear vision of what this tile is like, here is a picture of the spot just near the shower. It looks more yellow than it really is here, less bright in person.

What we will do with this in the future is unclear, especially because it is cracking in the shower area. No mildew or rotting because the tiles are set into concrete, but it is unattractive all the same.




















No commenting on the dirt, please. Cleaning is Josh's responsibility, and his school duties have taken him far far far away from his responsibilities. If I told you it had been 3 months since the house was cleaned, it would NOT be an exaggeration.

the eyes are everywhere!

I know I owe you a picture of my fabulous Eiffel Tower lamp, so here you go... Isn't it fun!

I wanted to give you a broader view of the office, but right now it would take me an hour to clear it of incriminating papers and to cover up my diploma, so that will have to wait.

I will, however, give you a peek into one of the most fun parts of my office.

When I was out on Monday, my favorite colleague attacked my office and deposited little gummy, rubbery, sticky eyeballs all over the place. Literally EVERYWHERE.

So when I arrived on Tuesday morning, I found eyeballs in the printer, eyeballs on the bookshelves...

Eyeballs under my desk and in my plants...

Eyeballs in my drawers and on my chair... (my stash of vitamins and whole grain goldfish too)

And eyeballs in my keyboard and on my festive pumpkins...

This is only about 1/3 of the total number of eyeballs in my office. There are also eyeballs on each deck of the Eiffel Tower, as well as living on the tape dispenser and the spare umbrella in the office. She also gave me the ghost candle! Isn't she the best?

I can promise that my office, with the red lamp and shade and the pumpkins, ghosts and rubbery sticky eyeballs, is definitely the most festive in the whole firm. I am very popular with the summer associate interviewees, as you can imagine.

it rained, and then? it rained some more

Remember back when I asked you about the leaves changing colors in Vermont? And you all so kindly assured me that they would indeed be changing colors by this past weekend, and then, toward the end of the comments Jo(e) piped in to assure me that there would indeed be color but she couldn't say anything about rain? Mmmm hmmmm.

Well, it rained.

It rained on Friday night, and then it rained on Saturday, and then it rained on Sunday, and then to herald us out, it rained on Monday too. We had brief moments of non-rain with heavy gray clouds on Sunday that allowed me to take some pictures, but that was the extent of the weather. Anyway, I think Jo(e) cursed us, but it's okay because we still had a great time : )

Friday evening, I finally made it out of work by 6pm and was met with buckets of traffic on the highway leading out of the city. Josh and I decided to postpone our departure for another hour to try and avoid some of the traffic. We did, and Josh drove expeditiously to get us from Boston to Stowe, Vermont in 3 hours, including stopping for some Dunkin' Donuts and gas along the way. We stayed at the Gables Inn, just a mile away from the touristy part of Stowe, but still surrounded by stores and restaurants. We had a lovely room in a separate building called the Carriage House, with a jacuzzi tub and a fireplace.






















The pups wanted to show you the fireplace that kept billowing smoke into our room. Still, it was pretty, no?



















My favorite part was the green ceiling. Purple walls, green ceiling. Funky, funky.








On the first morning we woke up to rain (i.e. Saturday), we had our introduction to the glorious experience that is The Gables' breakfasts. I believe that fall will hereafter be synonymous with the flavor of butternut squash fritters with apple gravy. YUM. Josh had raisin bread french toast stuffed with maple syrup and cream cheese. I know, I know, my thighs have been up in arms since Saturday morning.

After venturing out to the Stowe Arts and Crafts fair that featured many mud pits and inches of water soaked grass, we did what every other person in the vicinity of Vermont did... The Ben and Jerry's factory tour. Seriously, they came within 30 people of beating their record of visitors in one day. It was a madhouse.



















Josh's favorite part, of course.

Everyone definitely needs to go out and try the Oatmeal Cookie flavor because OH MY GOODNESS, it was fantabulous.








Then we putzed around the center of Stowe with the dogs and wandered in and out of stores and looked at the leaves through the rain. I took a very important nap with Tango and Murray while Josh studied, and made it an early night with dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then sleep.

On the second morning we woke up to rain (i.e. Sunday), our delectable Gables' breakfast was a Vermont cheddar and apples omelet (for me) and a tomato, cheddar and mushrooms omelet (for Josh). YUM again. Given the rain and our desire not to drive too far from Stowe, we decided to do a tour of the apple cider mill in town. Are you sensing a pattern yet? All indoors, all food.






The apple cider and cider donuts were delicious, though, and we decided to have donuts for lunch instead of real food. What? I see NO problem with that.





As we were leaving, GASP, it stopped raining for a brief shining moment and for the next hour, Josh drove while I screamed STOP STOP and jumped in and out of the car taking pictures like a mad woman. A few turned out nicely, despite the fact that I was attempting to take them without actually slowing down.
















































That night, we did dinner at a really lovely restaurant that deserves recommending if you visit Stowe- the Blue Moon Cafe. Very cute decorations, delicious food and responsive wait staff.

The owners of The Gables were also incredibly sweet and attentive. It was a couple team, and the woman used to work at a New York City law firm before burning out and escaping to Stowe. We chatted about lawyerly life for a while and she told me all about the joys of running a B&B. Plus, they had cake and coffee every night for their guests! Hurray for Randy and Annette!

Oh, and somewhere in there, I also took a nap on Sunday. It was a big nap weekend in the halloweenlover family. Tango and Murray were happy to oblige.

Monday, we had another delicious breakfast of english muffins, poached eggs, tomatoes, sprouts, cheddar cheese and herbs baked in the oven (for me), and a broccoli, tomato and cheddar omelet (for Josh), before heading back to Boston. We stopped for some more cider and donuts, because we are pigs, and Josh did his bang-up racing job back to Boston and made it around 3 hours even though we hit traffic. This is why I keep him around, people.

So we are back, and we did see leaves, and honestly, our trip was a total success. We slept excessively, spent loads of time relaxing together, ate copious amounts of food and saw some beautiful foliage, even if it was through the rain. I really cannot complain. Plus, we are close enough to go back to Vermont in the coming years, even on the spur of the moment, if we felt like it. I did have sympathy for the buses of tourists that were dragging themselves through the pouring rain and drizzles, though, I hope they get at least one day of sunshine.







Tango and Murray (and Josh and I) also wanted to wish you a happy fall, rain and all!

I just need an invisible jet, and I'll be all set

After seeing how adorable Scrivener's daughter was in her costume, and since I was obsessed with Wonder Woman as a child, I couldn't resist ordering the adult version. It has yet to arrive, and I'll be doing exercise videos and stomach crunches between now and Halloween, but I still think the costume is really cute.












It took some time to figure out Josh's costume also, since Wonder Woman doesn't really have a partner in crime, but we narrowed it down to 80's super heroes and he chose. I think he looks cute in green too.













We were equally repulsed and intrigued by these costumes, but ended up deciding they were just a little too crude.
















This one just made me laugh. Long and hard.















In case you didn't catch that, she is a "Brick House" and he is a "Brick Layer".

Come on, it really is very humorous. And clever, if we're honest. But really, I can't see work colleagues with a cat* in my crotch area.

*Please note that "cat" is not the word used in the costume's description.

let's stop the charade

I BEG OF YOU.

This can't be real.

Oh, and Nick and Jessica split. It's the end of the world as we know it.

Or not.

la la la la la la la

U2 rocks.

Seriously.

It was definitely the best live band concert I've ever seen!!! I say live band because I feel like seeing one individual in concert is so different that I can't compare, but OH MY GOODNESS, they were fantastic. A partner at my law firm had gone to the concert the night before and said that it wasn't much of a "show", just mainly U2 singing on stage and I have to say I disagree. They had quite a few special effects, like this circular stage that had lights circling around the edges, sometimes at opposite times, I guess to create the "Vertigo" effect. There were also these hanging sheets of tiny mirrors that reflected whatever lights or laser shows were bounced on them, so sometimes it was rainbow colors, other times an image of a man walking, other times a face speaking, those mirrors were unbelievable.

Bono walked around the circular walkway and even once pulled a young woman out of the audience to stand on stage with him as he sang "With or Without You." He often met out in the middle of this circular stage with the Edge or another member of his band and they would sing and play together.

U2 played all the new famous ones and all the old famous ones. I'm afraid I'm going to forget so many songs, but they played:
One
Beautiful Day
Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of
Elevation
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Sarajevo
I Still Having Found What I'm Looking For
Where the Streets Have No Name
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
All I Want Is You

And several more that are slipping my mind right now. He spent a good 15-20 minutes speaking about basic human rights and flashing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights across a screen hanging above the stage while he talked about poverty and the need to unite to help others, whether they be in Louisiana or Mozambique. It was political, but political on such a basic level of decency that I doubt anyone got offended. Of course, I was ecstatic for him to discuss human rights at the concert given my history.

One of the most powerful moments of the concert was when he asked everyone to pull out their cell phones and make them light up. The lights were shut off in the huge concert hall and it looked like an upside-down planetarium (if that makes any sense). All these little pinpricks of light coming from cell phones waving around and it was surreal. As if we were swimming in the sky.

Before I forget, Keane opened for the band, and they were really good! Very energizing and I surprisingly knew several of their songs. This morning I heard two of their songs being played on the radio so they must be becoming more popular.

I would definitely recommend seeing them, although paying the ticket prices was painful. My firm gets seats to each concert so we were guaranteed good seats but I was shocked at how expensive they were. My one complaint is that a drunk couple snuck into our section (we were in the front row of the first section above the floor but below the boxes) and were dancing and practically having sex right next to me. I suppose the female part of this couple was trying to be seductive, so she kept throwing her hips and arms all over the place and whipping her hair across my face. Josh had to brace his arms around me at one point to keep her from whacking me with her crazy dancing and we asked her twice to knock it off. They didn't actually have seats and were just standing in the aisle and slowly inching their way into our row so we could have called a seat usher, but I didn't want to make a scene with drunk people. I don't know who we watched more for the first half hour, though, the drunkards or Bono. At least they were amusing!

party with bono

Guess where I am off to tonight, work permitting?

The U2 concert at the "Garden" or whatever they are calling it these days!!!

YAY! I am really hoping that U2 plays old songs, though, because I'm not all that familiar with the new stuff. Luckily, I am going with my favorite work colleague and her husband so Josh and I should have some fun.

Tee hee! Any requests just in case Bono asks what I'd like to hear? I'm sure he will ; )

I swear, it's all Josh's fault

On Saturday, because we are obsessive dog owners, we signed up for the Annual Forest Hills Cemetery Dog Walk. The annual Dog Walk consists of lots of dogs and owners meeting up at the Forest Hills Cemetery for a tour of the monuments and walk through the park. And trust me, there were a LOT of dogs. Big dogs, small dogs, loud dogs and even some crazy dogs. I was a little shocked at the number of misbehaved dogs that owners insist on bringing to events where they will encounter other dogs. Like that nasty mean little dog that kept snapping at Tango for no apparent reason, and that big brown dog that kept barking whenever the tour guide tried to speak. Look, if you have a mean dog, I understand it MAY not be your fault. But when you take him to a function that calls for friendly dogs since we will all be walking in a big group through the gravemarkers and sculptures? Then I will blame you and glare angrily. Moving on.

It was so beautiful, I cannot recommend it enough if you live in Boston and like to spend time outside. The tour was pretty interesting and since the cemetery was founded in 1848, it has a good assortment of tombstones and sculptures. It is especially good at portraying different attitudes toward death. I almost burst into tears when the tour guide took us over to see a Victorian grave of a very young girl. If you scroll down to the description of the dog event on this page you can see the statue. The young girl's family included a statue of the family dog at the foot of her grave so that she would never be alone, even though they had to bury and leave her. The girl's pet companion would watch over her and keep her company for eternity.

Now if that doesn't touch your heart, then we soooo can't be friends.

It was a beautiful day with blue skies and higher temperatures than you would expect in October. Tango and Murray were their normal sweet selves and Murray even sniffed a few dogs and said hello for a change. He is my one anti-social pup as opposed to Tango, who is a sniffer and a shaker. Tango loves to meet new dogs.

I was so excited to share pictures with you of the different dogs and all the sites, especially with such gorgeous weather. I was feeling particularly proud of myself because I'd remembered to grab the camera off of the coffee table before we left. After we'd signed in and tied the appropriately colored walk ribbons around Tango and Murray's neck, I pulled out the camera and realized... no battery. And then Josh saw fit to inform me that he'd taken it out that morning to recharge. I even wore a festive orange turtleneck to look more Halloweenish, but no such luck. So I have nothing to share with you, although I did dredge up last year's pics so you aren't deprived of my cuties. : )






In other fun, on Sunday I was able to meet Frankie and she was as funny, clever and entertaining in person as she is on her blog! I didn't even notice the time fly by until it had been three hours and I had to run to grocery shop and make dinner! I guess we are both talkers, and it was so nice to meet a new friend! I can't wait to get together again, although I am a bit jealous because she gets far more crazy action on her blog than mine. She gets naked pictures, people!!! The most I get are pictures of people's dogs! Maybe I need to sex up my blog a bit, although I'm not sure my mom would appreciate that.

Hope all your weekends were fun and relaxing! But seriously, STILL NO LEAVES. I don't want to get prematurely upset, but this is getting ridiculous.