Kyoo 193 - Valentine's Day

Remember this?

It lives. 

 

(yes, there was a picture of me wearing it walking down the stairs but I try to exercise good judgment when it comes to posting incriminating pictures of myself online...and this was one of those times when the swift call of judgment was passed.)  (in other words, I look absolutely ridiculous in the thing.)  (and you never know when stuff like that will come back to haunt you.)

This Christmas Story relic came to me in a springy round container complete with bath confetti and delivered on Valentine's Day by my Squishy.

My proud, beaming Squishy.

He was so legitimately excited that I will now be wearing a bunny suit of sorts around the house and to bed.

Most men resort to typical gifts like teddy bears and chocolates and flowers on Valentine's Day.  Squishy knows I prefer the gifts that require a bit more thought...

...like pajamas (read a bunny suit).  Pajamas that have removable feet...

...and pockets...

...and thumb holes...

...and a hood...

...and fuzzy pink fur...that keeps you warm from head to toe...

As humorous as they are (and as incredibly ridiculous as I look in them (and in his defense, they only came in pink)), they are super warm and comfy.  And I will love them for those two months out of the year when it does get a little chilly at night in San Antonio and I'm being stubbornly cheap and don't want to turn on my heater.

Squishy you da best.

Have a great day :)

Kyoo 192 - Rockport Weekend

Whoop-whooping crane...strut!

It's quickly becoming a tradition.  Second weekend in March = Whooping Crane Strut = Camping at Goose Island State Park = Weekend in Rockport.

And I love every minute of it.

Best part was, we planned this weekend a whole 3 WEEKS in advance.  That's almost unheard of (we're pretty spontaneous people...mostly because we have commitment issues...)  Scary thing is we're already planning on next year!  If we stick to it, we might just have a record.  Will we get married any time soon?  Probably not.  But I think committing to weekend plans is a step in the right direction for me and mis amigas...

What does a weekend in Rockport entail?

I'm glad you asked.

First, it involves piling in a small car (go Casper!) with all your camping gear and a couple close friends:

These close friends must be willing to make fools of themselves...for the camera:

These friends also must be willing to wait for long periods of time while you fumble with your keys and mumble something about needing to replace the battery in your remote clicker unlock thing (I don't know if that will ever be priority on the pesky to-do list...).

Only the finest accommodations will do for this weekend.  Love me my tent!  (however, I do not love waking up the last morning and realizing that the dew point was reached and I have a wet tent to pack up).  (very messy).  (and then I have to let it sit out and dry for days on my tiny back patio).  (and trip over it when I step out the back door and forget it's there).

But I still love my tent.

 

There is cooking on this Rockport weekend trip:

Delicacies like dutch oven enchiladas (favorite!):

And cherry peach cobber (also favorite!):

Of course a trip to Goose Island State Park wouldn't be complete without visiting the "Big Tree"!

It's a coastal Live Oak estimated to be over 1,000 years old!  And it looks it.  There are all these metal supports and thick wires supporting the thing.  But I guess if I had a circumference of 35 feet, a "crown spread" (take that as you will...) of 90 feet, and was 44 feet high, I might need some help standing as well.  (take my word for it, the tree looks much bigger in person.  and for surviving that long just off the beach, it's pretty impressive).

Lying out and tanning on one of the cleanest beaches in Texas?  Yes, I think we will.  Not only is this a good time to relax and rest aching running muscles, it's a really good time to scroll through your facebook newsfeed and read about everyone hating winter where they live (*gloating smile*).

Souvenir shopping is a must as there are so many fun shops such as this one:

And who can resist a $2.99 mysterious grab bag deal??

Not us!  (look close and you'll see our tight sticker jewel earrings.  remember those from elementary school??)

Did I mention I got 4th overall and 3rd in my age group in the Whooping Crane Strut 10k?  Word.  You better believe I sported my cheesy medal all day:

Funny story here is that I literally choked during the race.  I was with the first and second runners for the last mile and a half or so...right up until the last drink station less than a half-mile from the finish.  I still haven't mastered the whole "running and drinking at the same time" thing and I managed to swallow a big gulp down the wrong pipe.  A coughing fit later and I was a few too many seconds behind the winners.  (but lets get real, even if I had stayed with them...they would have sprinted at the end and still beat me...I have no kick).

Speaking of sporting cheesy "accessories", I also wore my nifty survival bracelet all weekend.  I love this thing!  It makes me feel cool (and I made it all by myself using an Internet tutorial!):

How does one end this crazy weekend?

By chillin' on a pier watching the sun set over the ocean!  (please notice the super cool walmart aviators and coordinating bandannas).  (they're a must).

Sun set?

Yeah.  It was about like that.  Only even better in person.

Ugh.  Is the weekend over already??

Time to roll up your super comfy sleeping mat and pack it away for next time!

Back to work.

Have a great day :)

Kyoo 191 - "Master" Bedroom

And without further ado.....

...the condo tour begins!

Remember how I closed on this thing almost a year ago??  Ok, so it'll be a year ago in May.  On the 28th to be exact.  But that's still over 9 months ago.  Which rounds up.

That's still a long time to go without posting any show-offey pictures though!  I love my little condo (hence why I bought it) and I want to share what I've been working to create over the past 9 months!

Babies take 9 months.  I guess the same goes for condos?

Who knew.

Before.  For perspective.

This wasn't exactly what the room looked like before I closed on the house, but it shows it at it's worst.  What I worked up from.  Now just imagine that white wall a really dark red color and paint some ugly baseboards and old carpet in your mental image and you have the room.

Add heaps of time and elbow grease and voila!

The finished product:

Though on any given day it looks more like this:

 

With more clothes on the floor.

But lets not focus on that!

Ze master bedroom also doubles as a nice home office, yes?  Complete with exercise ball!  Makes late-night work sessions more productive.  Or at least makes it more difficult to fall asleep at my desk.

And please notice the baseboards (and the new carpet).  Lots of blood, sweat, and tears were put into those baseboards.  Mine, thank you.  (P.S. that's not the finished finished product.  It's the only close-up I could find on my computer...that closely resembles the finished finished product.)

Ignore my creeper face in the mirror.  Lets focus on that closet!  When I bought the condo, the closet was nothing.  I think there was a clothes rod in there and nothing else.  It simply wouldn't cut it.  So I gutted it (aka took the clothes rod down), slapped on a fresh coat of paint, shopped around at Home Depot, and assembled and installed quite a nifty "closet storage solution".

Also notice the fine carbon monoxide detector off to the left of the mirror.  Installed that myself yes I did.  Don't provoke it.  It's loud.

All sorts of nooks and crannies and boxes and hangers for stuff to go!

 Clothes, clothes, clothes.  I already told Squishy that if he's serious (and just look at that face, he's serious)...

...that we are going to have a very interesting time fitting his schtuff in there.  Good thing I'm not faced with that problem yet!  I will happily revel in my closet space while I can.

This is Borris.  He was Grameez.  I still remember the day she became his moose-lover.  We were shopping in Red Lodge, MT and it was pretty much a done deal from the get-go.  I'm a very persuasive person but it didn't take much work to get her to walk out of that store with his cute little antlers poking out of a shopping bag.  Borris and Grameez had a happy life together.  He added another friendly smile to her room during the day and sat and guarded her stack of extra pillows during the night.  I remember many visits to Grameez and I would always sneak in and steal Borris for a night or two during my stays.  Borris and I were buds.  And I loved how he always smelled like Grameez.  Borris was among many people that sat with Grameez during her painful last few months on earth.  I asked her on one of her better days if she would let me keep him was she was gone.  She agreed.  So, soon after she left this world behind, I took Borris in as my own.  He still smelled like her for a couple months after I adopted him but now he just smells like stinky ol' me.  He's my bud though.  And I always look at him and remember my Grameez as he adds a friendly presence to my room and guards my bed at night.

He's really good at guarding.

This is what a cat would see if it were walking into my room wearing sunglasses and looking up.  But that won't happen because I don't see myself ever letting a cat set foot (or paw) in this condo.

Happy little tree!

My table has a bird on it.  I acquired this fine piece of furniture from a roommate who was moving out and leaving all behind in my last house.  I'd always been envious of it...and while I miss Mel...I'm really glad she left the bird table.

The plant blends in with the wall...don't you just love the green?

And this concludes today's tour of the my "master" bedroom.

Have a great day :)

Kyoo 190 - Clear Conversation

I'm not a fan of this button in the iPhone UI arsenal.  Why?  Because it's gone.  All gone.  In less than the blink of an eye.  And by the hand of a curious 4-year-old.

(Yes, I know the conversation in that pictures is just riveting.  And what are they starting next??  You may never know...)

Call me sentimental (I will argue it's a mixture of laziness and procrastination) but I had my entire texting conversation history with Squishy saved away.  Every single text we'd ever sent to each other.

I remember it started on June 12th, 2010 at 3:38 am.  "My arm still smells like your lotion."

Isn't he so romantic???

The real story here is that my sample bottle of coconut lime verbena lotion (or something like that) exploded in my purse and, while he was making fun of me, I successfully swiped some across his arm.  What now Squishy??

And that's what started it all.

And "Clear Conversation" ended and erased it all.

Ten months of our crazy texting history.  GONE.  And I won't lie, I'll miss it.  Sometimes, when I was stuck in a long meeting at work or other places (no, of course not at church...), I would skim way back over them and laugh at our relationship and watch it develop all over again.  

It was probably my fault.  I probably shouldn't have let the 4-year-old play "the bird game" on my "big" phone.  You wouldn't believe how adept 4-year-olds can be on the iPhone.  She found screens I hadn't even discovered.

Like "Clear Conversation".

As much as it bites, I'll take responsibility for it (note how adult that is of me...), and we'll just start over.  Our first text now reads:  "Your 4-year-old niece just erased our entire texting history.  I might cry."

But this whole ordeal (that wasn't really an ordeal...I'll be okay, really) got me thinking that some texts are just meant to be shared.  Some texts you get are just so random or laugh out loud funny or so puzzling that they just need to be shared.

So, without further ado, I will share my favorite texts of the past week or so.  Just in case that "Clear Conversation" ever pops up again...

• "You have never said a snake was cute!  I can't believe you didn't run screaming to your car and peel out!"
• Thanks for the vote of confidence mom.

• "Nebraska beat Texas in basketball."
• Two words (and some punctuation):  BOO YAH!

• "The margin of error is HUGE with this trip."
• Read:  We have horrible luck and everything that could go wrong will go wrong with this trip. 
• Better yet is that it was soon followed by this text:
• "If everything works out, I should be able to afford a $2000 car."
• Yes, that is the car we'll be using for that trip.

• "They wouldn't think I was drunk, I was driving with too much precision."
• Was Squishy driving slalom down the freeway?  I'm not a liberty to say...

• "So, if you have no fingernails, what do you do at a manicure?"
• A valid question.

• "Where do penguins get their water?  Do they eat ice??"
• Another valid question.  I just fall head over heels in love with Squishy all over again when he asks random questions like this.  Tug at the heart strings!  After some research, I discovered for him (because he was very restless not knowing the answer...) that they have a gland that can filter excess salt out of their bloodstream, therefore making it possible for them to drink salt water.  But, it sounds like they mostly eat snow.

• "You forgot your pickles.  I am now holding them ransom for your pants."
• Does this need an explanation?  No.

Have a great day :)