love this boy

... even though I bitch about laundry, and often aren't as nice to him as he deserves. He is my person, and my favorite. Just a little about Joe (and me), and a few of the reasons why I am so very lucky to have him in my life:

(1)  We met playing softball on our co-ed team "Smack My Pitch Up!" and, well.. the rest is kinda history. I could tell right away Joe was a good person because he was still fun and supportive even when  I  some girls on the team sucked... He was always carrying the cooler, hitting ground balls to everyone, and generally being a good guy.

* team player, in more ways than one *

(2) He let me teach him how to wakeboard. This was arguably our first "date" (depending on what that even means now a'days....) and he was quite a sport! Didn't even act nervous about me driving the boat...

*spontaneous * fun *

(3) Speaking of driving the boat, he is much better at pulling me wakeboarding than anyone else that comes to mind, and he has skillz, meaning I totally trust he will not run me over and take off a limb. PLUS he looks sexy in a life jacket!! Not an easy feat....

* can handle 350 HP. GRRRrrr *

(4) He is not embarassed when I feel the urge to rock a side ponytail. Very important.

* appreciation of dorky *

(5) If I was lost in the wilderness, I would want Joe around. Not only for the obvious companionship reasons, but also he's quite handy with the whole fire-making, shelter-building, knife-wielding sort of stuff...

* can build a fire *

* resourceful *

(6) Love me, love my dog. And he loves Mr. Bondi.. so much that he would take him out in the middle of the night when there was a foot of snow on the ground when Bondi was sick. That may have been more love for me (and un-love for cranky morning Jenny who hasn't had enough sleep) but regardless.. this one is definitely on my list!

* excellent big spoon, with bondi and me *

(7) Joe is sweet and thoughtful. He likes it when I get "dressed up" and never forgets to tell me so... in orther words... he's a good at giving compliments!!! And PS- it's so easy to take that for granted unless you've been with someone who doesn't do that, and it REALLY sucks. Well, that is not a problem my amazing boyfriend has. SweetHeart. Oh, and I think we clean up well together :-)

* can "vegas" with me - muy importante *

* will wear a suit just so i don't feel over dressed *

Mmmmm.... now I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.

That is certainly not all.. but I also certainly need to get some work shit done. Like right meow...

Just thought I'd let y'all know how lucky I am :-)

one more thing...

PS on laundry...

... the whole beauty in *not washing* everything after wearing it just once (besides the obvious benefit of having much less laundry) is that it's actually a sort of an excercise in self-image therapy.

What I mean is, if I washed my jeans every time I wore them, I would constantly feel like I was gaining weight. Every day I would have to go through the whole Jeans Aerobics process of *bend and squat* stand* lunge left* lunge right* repeat.. and on really bad days (I always blame the dryer) insert *lay down * lean back *button *sit-up and hope zipper doesn't break prior to the whole *bend and squat* stand* routine.

Whereas... and here's the lovely part... if I wear my jeans 57 days and counting a few days in a row without washing them, I feel fantastic :-)

I mean, every day is just like "Woww.. I feel GRRrreat, my jeans fit sooo well!!! Must be all that CrossFit..."

image source.

Just sayin...

you win some, you lose some

I recently got a VPN from my laptop at home to my desktop at work, which is pretty awesome because it means sometimes I can work from home!!

Working from home = HUGE PLUS because:

(1) I get to skip the whole.. sitting in gridlock traffic thing that is so lovely in Seattle... member my rap about it?
(2) Excluding the usual gmail, facebook, blogger, etc. there are No distractions, so I actually get much more accomplished.
(3) I can catch up on laundry while I'm working.

While we're on the topic of laundry, today I had a a miniature laundry breakdown. I hate laundry. It freaking NEVER ENDS...

Lucky for me, laundry is my responsibility... because Joe is "scared" to do laundry. I have no idea why that would be. It surely has nothing to do with the fact that I might have freaked out a teensy weensy bit after the 11th time he WASHED my dryclean only and DRYED my lacey undies and bathing suits.. surely that cannot be the reason. I mean, we had several lessons on what can and cannot be washed/dryed, but apparently I have instilled the Fear of God in him and he will.not.touch.laundry less he be subjected to the "Wrath of Jenny". His words.

In all fairness, he does dishes. But I would SOOooo rather let him deal with the whole 'cleaning' thing do dishes.

Anyway, relationships are all about compromise and what have you. That's what they say... so I do the laundry. Here's what I accomplished today... these are clean, btw:

Somewhere under this massive pile is actually a basket. It's a-freakin-lot, right??? I mean, seriously. How is this even possible???

Well I'll tell you why: Mister boyfriend goes through about 12 lbs of clothes a day! Yes, that's right. NONE of those clothes are mine. They're ALL Joe's. Seriously.

Here's Joe's day with clothes:

Wake up and throw PJs on floor... unless they were already on the floor ;-) Regardless, they end up on the floor.

Get dressed for work... that involves at least 4 items of clothing, more if its a "professional attire" day.

Get home from work and change into comfy clothes.

Add gym clothes if it's a work-out day.

Shower and throw towel on floor (actually truth be told Joe's towels usually make it in the 'laundry' wherever that is, and mine end up on the floor, but heyyy at least I usually reuse 'em).

Change into comfy clothes (*not the same* as before post-work, pre-shower comfy clothes) which may or may not end up on the floor by the morning....

This is totally.out.of.hand!!!

So I kindly sent Mr. Joe a few text messages just now:

"If u don't stop throwing everything u wear ONE TIME in the laundry I'm going to kill you."

"I know where you sleep."

"Unless you sweat/poop/pee/make sexy time in it, it is NOT dirty. Unless it touches your balls, then it can be washed."

"Blood, blood counts too..."

I thought this was short and sweet! But no response....

UPDATE: Joe just got home from work. He's wearing sweatpants, sneakers and his button-down work shirt. This is actually a cute look, btw :-) He said he was going to the gym tonight but the dress shirt threw me off, so I asked what the deal was. He said he was trying to "save" his shirt from wrinkles.

Good boy...I guess I DID make my point!!!

However, he wouldn't let me take a picture. Oh well, you win some.. you lose some...  :-)

need a laugh?

OK I got some more good ones to get you through this hump day.

DISCLAIMER: The last one is really awful. Don't scroll down if you're not prepared to be seriously disturbed.

WARDROBE: FAIL

HARD HAT: FAIL

RESTAURANT NAME: FAIL

PATERNITY: FAIL

HYGIENE: SERIOUS FAIL 

parenting: fail

From one of my favorite time-killers websites, the Fail Blog:

Parenting: FAIL!!!

image source.

Ridiculous. That is all.

Bring on hump day...

... because I'm ready for this week today to be over.

Our Subaru has been having a rough time lately.. to the tune of, oh, a bajillion dollars $2,000+ in repairs rough in the last few months.

Rewind to Sunday while I'm being all independent and what have you, driving to get some space "run some errands" and all of the sudden there is smoke coming out of the hood. Lovely...

So I pop the hood, because, clearly, I.CAN.HANDLE.THIS.

What to do? Of course... check the oil!!! I pull the little oil dipper doo-dad out, wipe it off, stick it back in. Hmmm... There's oil in the car. Now what?? I was not going to call Joe just yet, cause I.CAN.TOTALLY.HANDLE.THIS. but SHIT... dad's on business in China... don't know country code or need a $78 international calling charge.

Next man on the list: My Uncle Jack. He tells me to check for anything that could get lodged in the engine that may cause it to smoke, and I find a piece of cardboard (which I later learn Joe uses as a funnel and stores on the side of the engine intentionally, go figure) and determine this must be the cause of the problem.

Remove cardboard. Restart car. DAMN. Still smoking... and lovely, there's green stuff coming out of the hood. This, apparently, is antifreeze. Good times. (Sidenote: antifreeze is very tasty and incredibly poisonous to, as in sure fire way to kill, dogs).

At this point I call Joe. HANDLING THIS: FAIL.

Long story short, the radiator was cracked which I have learned causes the antifreeze to leak, the car to overheat, and can do all sorts of bad stuff. So there goes another $500. Yippee!!

Oh, and the car was supposed to be fixed this morning but it wasn't so I had to reschedule my dentist appointment that I urgently scheduled yesterday because I keep having dreams about my teeth falling out and this one tooth is killing me and I'm SURE I have a cavity but when I went in this afternoon I just found out it's just phantom pain (whatever that is?) which is good, I guess, except now I'm pretty sure my dentist who I've seen since I was 3 thinks I'm crazy because I told him about my recurring teeth dreams... and *breathe* aaahhhh.... was that sentence long enough?

So I decide to go to CrossFit to blow off some steam. Good plan. Except I get there and realize I have no sports bra. Whatever, I'm gonna do this anywayy...

And then I learn the WOD (workout of the day) is "Annie on the Run" - translation: a VERY bad day to forget your sports bra. This workout involves a lot of double unders (yup-Jump Rope, lovely) and a lot of running. I hope it was entertaining for all the men.

Oh, and one more CrossFit woe, because I haven't complained enough in this post. Back in December I did a benchmark WOD that was freakin brutal. I think it's called "Fran" or "Angie" or I dunno, but regardless it is:

• 100 pullups
• 100 pushups
• 100 situps
• 100 squats

Afterwards I was literally so sore that I COULD NOT straighten my arms for days. One night, I was using those hand-warmers some people use while skiing to try and relax my biceps, and I fell asleep with one on my arm.

Well, it slipped from my bicep down to my forearm and I woke up with freakin' 2nd degree burns on my arm... seriously!! I had 4 blisters that oozed and hurt like hell and were just plain nasty. And worst of all, they were in the shape of a freakin' PENIS!!!!

I did the whole neosporin - don't touch - don't pick thing for weeks. I'm kinda OCD about picking but I SWEAR I was really good about it because I DID NOT WANT A PENIS SCAR.

But alas, it was meant to be. Today in the elevator, I looked down at my forearm and have come to terms with my Angie-Induced CrossFit Penis Scar:

 

Okayy it doesn't really look like a penis anymore, but it used to!!!

Now it just slightly resembles a long skinny curved one with very small testicles. Or it looks like I cut myself. Not sure which is better... thoughts?? 

So how was your day?

8===D

PS-that could totally be a new smiley face!

quick thoughts on haiti

There's been a lot of buzz about the earthquake in Haiti... because shit.. it's devastating and sad! But the buzz is bothering me a bit too... and here's why:

Haiti has been raft with devastation for years, no decades, now. This is NOT news. Haiti is one of the poorest nations in the world, and hundreds upon hundreds of people - men, women, children - die there every day due to poor drinking water, easily preventible and treatable diseases, etc. But the mainstream media is covering the earthquake as if these people's lives have been devastated by this natural disaster, when in reality, their whole lives have been pretty damn destitute, earthquake or not.

A few years back I read this book called Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. It is a biography of the incredible Paul Farmer... a doctor who has devoted most of his life to helping the people of Haiti (as well as other disease-ridden impoverished countries).

A quick summary:

"At the center of Mountains Beyond Mountains stands Paul Farmer. Doctor, Harvard professor, renowned infectious-disease specialist, anthropologist, the recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant, world-class Robin Hood, Farmer was brought up in a bus and on a boat, and in medical school found his life’s calling: to diagnose and cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. This magnificent book shows how radical change can be fostered in situations that seem insurmountable, and it also shows how a meaningful life can be created, as Farmer—brilliant, charismatic, charming, both a leader in international health and a doctor who finds time to make house calls in Boston and the mountains of Haiti—blasts through convention to get results."

It's a good book. You should read it.

Anyway, I'm not sure now what the point of this little rant is. Just sayin' ... the world is an f*d up place... and it's sad and tragic that this happened in Haiti. But Haiti's been sad for a long, long time... I wish there was more awareness (and action) in general, not just in times of "crisis" ... because really, it's a perma-crisis over there.

And don't even get me started on Africa!

FYI - pink giveaway week..

Happy MLK Day!!

Just poppin in to let y'all know that Teresa at Blooming on Bainbridge is doing a giveaway this week.. in honor of the color pink, I think...?

Anyway, it looks fabulous so go check it out :-)

If her fabulous giveaway isn't a good enough reason to head over there right meow, well here are two more:

1. She's from Seattle. Well, Bainbridge... Very cool.
2. She has an adorable pup named Doogan. I think he and Bondi are long lost pals.

Just sayin'....

in case you had any doubts...

DISCLAIMER: This post probably won't be interesting to anyone except me... just sayin'

I'm obsessed with my dog Bondi. He comes to work with me, and he sit's like a little man in the front seat of my car just about every where I go, he is my perfect little spoon in the evenings, and when it comes to social events, if I can take him, he's coming!! And you never know unless you ask...

Speaking of, did you know you can bring your dog into any Nordstom or Macy's??? It's kinda inconvenient if you're trying lots of stuff on.. especially because Bondi has this bad habit of sticking his nose into other people's changing room stalls.. I imagine that could be somewhat alarming to the unsuspecting nakey person! But for the most part, we just make lots of friends, and sometimes convert dog-scared people to Bondi fans.. that's my favorite!!

Anywayyy... In case you had any doubts that I'm a crazy dog lady "dog person" let me just say... it's true. And I can prove it. Here is a sampling of January from my camera:

Bondi with his beloved bear.

Bondi with Mr. Giraffe and mommy.

Bondi snuggling with *lucky me*

Joe and Bondi... on a walk along Elliott Bay.

New Year's kiss. Had to throw it in there :-)

No, Bondi was not with us, but he did join us later!

Can you tell he's not a fan of his new sweater?

Found it at Value Village for $3.95 (so random) - score!

Chillin' on his dog bed, by Epoch Design

New Years - Bondi and I playing Up the River, Down the River.

Bondi was concentrating cause he hates to drink beer.

My sexy boys, chillin' on New Years Day.

Love.LOVE this pic of Joe :-)

More Up the River, Down the River and Catch Phrase..

at my new favorite bar: Twilight Exit

Cheap drinks, tater tots, pin ball, a photo booth, and *dog-friendly*

Doesn't get much better than that!

Gangsta dress up.

Bondi is such a tolerant little spoon :-)

Love this guy.

Joe and I - clearly enamored with Bondi...

at my new 2nd favorite *dog-friendly* bar: Summit Public House

Bondi's eyes match my shirt!

We like other dogs too. Meet Cooper! ..and Teia... :-)

Precious. Just sayin...

And this is Tanner, the newest addition to the family.

Our girl Sophie is in the background...

...and this crazy-dog lady is my mom.

I don't know where I get it from! :-)

starts with "m" .. rhymes with scary

Sooo the other night Joe were doing some our thing... lounging with Mr. Bondi, watching man vs. wild or some other ridiculous show, and enjoying a glass of vino....

... when Joe decided to share some (apparently) newly acquired knowledge.

**background info: Joe and I have "cohabitated" - as it's called now, I guess? - for a year next month**

Joe: "Did you know that couples who live together before getting married are twice as likely to get divorced as those who don't??"

Moi: "Hmmm...." **long pause while I carefully craft my response**  

Hurt my head trying to remember Statistics. Sampling error, hypothesis testing, normal distribution and confidence intervals jumble my thoughts. Not sure what applies here...?? Wishing I would have gone to class more regularly instead of just cramming for those exams. 
Must.respond.intelligently.

"Well I think the Mormons seriously skew that statistic quite significantly."

Joe: "How so?"

Moi: Well, they certainly don't live together before marriage. Most people, I think, probably do. And they aren't lining up for divorce either... pretty sure that's not "allowed".

** conversation ends. next topic.**

Good talk.

But you know what? Marriage is kinda scary! For lots of reasons, but oh.my.gosh -- could NOT believe when I saw this about Weddings on Consumerist the other day! $50k??? REALLY???

Take a closer look at this graphic here.

Anyway, that's all I got right meow.

inStyler giveaway

Fabulous Giveaway by Juliana at "A blonde walks into a blog" ...

She's giving away the InStyler:

QUICK! Head over there now and check it out :-)

grieving greys

This is from my crackberry (first time!) so it's gonna be short, cause I'm too lazy to go to my computer. Sad, I know.

I just have to say... Ohh Grey's Anatomy, where have you gone??

After a lovely evening of ice skiing, I came home to find neither Grey's nor Private Practice was in 'My DVR' ... What gives? Did the folks at ABC just decide to take the whole freakin' winter off?? Is the cast pregnant, incapacitated, getting plastic surgery, hungover, all of the above???

Or worse, did my trusty DVR malfunction and after weeks, no months, of anticipation.. I MISSED it??

Please bloggies, say it ain't so!

I can't take these 'games' .. Given this total lack of trust, communication, and dependability.. I think we might have to break up. Just sayin'...

oh, brother.

Well, heRRo!!

Bloggy world, meet my family. Minus my sister. Plus Joe.

Please excuse my holey dress.. I really don't know what I was thinking. Anywayy, on the right is my awesome little brother. Officially a teenager now, but still cool. It's amazing.

SIDENOTE: There are 12 years between my sister and I, and my lil bro. People tend to ask if he was a "mistake". Nope, negativo. Apparently my sister and I were.. but Gabe.. he was planned. In fact, I distinctly remember my mom giving my dad her IUD in a ring box for Christmas one year. Special :-) But I digress...

So Gabe's a cool kid. My sister and I take full some responsibility for this (mom- if you're reading.. I kid!) because, well, what 13 year old doesn't like to hang out with his awesome older sisters?

And so I try to "hang out" with Gabe as often as possible.. and in the winter that often means heading to the slopes.

Well, it's officially winter now. We have a season passes to Snoqualmie/Alpental - a pretty decent mountain about an hour from Seattle - and have yet to go. Shame on me!

I kinda sorta planted this seed in my brother's head that I was going to take him up night skiing slash snowboarding with Joe and I this week, and it kinda sorta hasn't happened yet. And it's Thursday.

Monday - 7" of new snow but Joe and I were exhausted from the holiday weekend. Gabe, not so much. But what are ya gonna do?
Tuesday - it rained. Me no likey rain.
Wednesday - more rain. 'Nuff said.

Today... brother texts me.

"Is today snowboarding"
"Sure if you want. Currently 21* and hard ice pack. Better than rain."
"Do you want to or are u being sarcastic"
(Brother apparently knows me well, or else 13 year olds 'get' sarcasm)
"No I'm not being sarcastic, icy is excellent! Better than rain anyway. I just wish it would freakin snow already haha"
"Alright :-) ill go if u want"
(Don't twist his arm, right?)
"Okayy then joe and I will leave when he gets off work at 5... pick u up @545 and be up there by 630 or so. It'll be cold so remember dress warm"
(Brother checks weather report - see below - online)
"K but also sunburning conditions!!"
"WTF Gabe... nightskiing. Really??"

Oh, brother!!

Too harsh? :-) Anywayyyy... so I guess we're going skiing, or I should say.. slip slidin' away.. tonight.

Looking forward to it. Seriously. No, really. I am.

dolphin slaughter and a "cheese samich"

HeRRo and Happy 2010!

Lots to say but no time so real quick like, lemme just say this...

PLEASE. Please. Pleeeeeease...

Watch this movie:

image source.

At a Glance (from Netflix):

This riveting documentary (winner of the Audience Award at Sundance) follows a group of animal activists to a scenic cove in Taijii, Japan, where they use surveillance equipment to capture footage of a secretive and heavily guarded operation run by the world's largest supplier of dolphins. As the daring group risks their lives to expose the horrifying truths behind the capture of dolphins for the lucrative tourist industry, they also uncover an environmental catastrophe.

All I have to say about this movie is... OH. MY. GOD. The Cove is a documentary (that entertains like an action film) about the trade and brutal slaughter of dolphins (~20,000 per year) in Taijii, Japan. Ric O'Barry, the infamous dolphin trainer from the Flipper series turned activist, together with the Oceanic Preservation Society, leads a crew of activists and free divers to expose the dolphin drive hunting and uncover the heart-wrenching atrocities taking place in a secret cove in Taijii.

It is seriously disturbing, and so many people I have told about it just say "I don't want to see that... it's sooo terrible!"

image source.

Well shit! That's exactly why people should see this movie! People need to know what is going on in the world because, well, in the words (terribly paraphrased from memory - I apologize) of Ric O'Barry, you can't rely on the governments of the world to change these kinds of moral disasters. Change only happens when enough people are revolted, that said activities become a PR nightmare for the offenders (in this case, Japan) and the perceived "benefits" cease to outweigh the costs.

A snippet of a review from Netflix that I wholeheartedly agree with:

"If The Cove were a fiction film, it would be derided as far-fetched, contrived, even hard to swallow. The fact that it's nonfiction doesn't make it any easier to believe - if only because the footage is so horrifying, the facts so disturbing. It's not that you can't believe it, but that you don't want to - and that's what makes The Cove not only the best film of 2009 thus far, but one of the best documentaries I've ever seen, period."

And umm, if you already know all about this, have already seen The Cove, and just want to learn a little more (or spread the word!!!), I seriously recommend checking out SaveJapanDolphins.org. Otherwise, go watch it, please!!! And then let me know what you think :-)

As for the "cheese samich"
... on a lighter note. Joe and I also recently watched "Love and Sex"
It was pretty cute. We liked it. Y'all can decide for yourselves.

At a Glance (from Netflix):
Adam in the movie says something that was kinda interesting.. he says that when couples get old they probably don't say "I Love You" much because it's so jaded, it's like saying "cheese sandwich"

"Love is war, and sex is the battleground in this wry, funny look at contemporary mating and relating. Kate (Famke Janssen) is a magazine writer who discards boyfriends the way some people change shoes. Adam (Jon Favreau) is a serious-minded serial monogamist. When they meet, it's love at first sight -- but staying together may take more than just love and a liberal dose of sex."

...and at some point during the movie Joe said "I cheese samich you"...

...and it was cute...

...and we may have been saying that lots and lots since then...

...and I like it :-)

Maybe it's because I love cheese so much?

..... hmmm...