Excitement Everywhere

Well, Frappie got engaged over the weekend. It sounds weird just SAYING that! How exciting though! I had a feeling it was going to happen when she said they were taking a long weekend. I knew about the ring for at least a few weeks, and it was hard to keep it a secret, so I avoided all talk about love, relationships, marriage, etc. at any cost. :) I knew I wouldn't actually SAY anything to Frappie, but why torture myself when I was already busting at the seams, right?

Fantasy football is about to start! The league was established, and most of our crew has already signed up. The format changed again, and I'm not too keen about it, but football is back!!!! QE was laughing at me for several weeks because I was getting pissy at how long it took for the site to get its act together. I mean, how long does it take to activate the season, people?! Geez. :)

Lastly, I'm still reveling in last weekend's concert. I should have screamed more.

Afterglow

Yes, I am still enjoying the afterglow from our concert. I had a really good time with QE. Even though he kept his arms folded and crossed through much of the Goo's show. Ah, reminds me of Vegas... :)

We had lunch at Mike's American on Sunday. As expected, the food was delish. Excellent service too. All was good til we saw something nobody wants to see in a restaurant. (good thing it was after we finished our meals!) We promptly told our server, who told someone else (floor manager?). The guy came by to apologize and offered to seat us elsewhere. No matter, we just wanted them to know about the situation. Then, the big cheese manager came, apologized again, comped our meal, and asked us to provide contact info so HQ could contact us. Holy cow. We really didn't expect anything, not even dessert, so a free meal was nuts. I guess that's why GAR is such a kickass awesome chain--they hire the best in the business and go out of their way to ensure customer satisfaction. We really just wanted to let them know. End of story.

My only wish is that they would diversify their menu selections from one restaurant to the next. Places like Silverado and Sweetwater Tavern (more rustic, steakhouse themed imo) shouldn't have the same food as Carlyle, their flagship. And Coastal Flats should focus more on seafood. The food is consistently awesome, regardless of the restaurant. May they live long and prosper.

I WANNA WAKE UP WHERE YOU ARE

What a weekend! The concert was awesome, even beyond my expectations. Since we didn't have the excitement build-up that comes from buying tickets months in advance, the anticipation and exhilaration was compacted into mere hours. Eliot Morris opened the night and was quite good. Adam D. of the Crows came out, looking rather frumpy, and introduced Eliot as a good friend, hope we like him, etc. We thought that was a nice touch. Eliot worked hard at the concert--he was at a merchandise booth signing CDs for people who purchased his album. Really nice guy. Totally approachable, seemed humbled by the experience. I hope he does well in his career.

The Goo Goo Dolls were fantastic. The attandance seemed to sway more towards older people vs the young teeny boppers. As such, all the old farts had no idea what the Goos were performing except the popular Iris, Name, and Slide. What a disgrace. They should have been sitting on the lawn drinking their pretentious chardonnays or something. I was the only one--ONLY ONE--jumping, screaming, and singing. Sigh...the life of a Goo fan is a lonely one. :)

My beloved QE's face lit up when the Counting Crows went on stage. It was really cool to see my hubby enjoying himself. Adam is funny as anything! "ok, this next song is f'n depressing, but I hope you love it anyway" or "wait, I have the wrong chord" or stalling because the guitarist wasn't ready. Or making us sing Happy Bday to Dan because we didn't participate the first time, and threatened to make us sing it again.

Goo Goo Dolls and Counting Crows. What an awesome billing. QE and I both got to see our favorite bands, the only band we'd want to see live.

I'll Stay With You

Walls will fall before we do...take my hand...

Tomorrow is the Goo Goo Dolls/Counting Crows concert. I love the Goos, QE loves the Crows...what could be better right? I've been lamenting about how it's at the po dunk Nissan Pavilion. Well, now I finally understand why Em procrastinates and is late everywhere. Apparently it gets rewarded with section 101 seats!!!! Yup. We didn't pay to join either band's fan club, so we couldn't participate in the internet presale. Knowing that, it wasn't worth my effort to get crappy seats, and definitely not lawn! So I've been trying to justify why we didn't, SHOULDN'T, go to the concert. I decided to look at what seats were available just for kicks. A few days ago, best available seats were in section 301. It's Friday, during the 4 PM hour that I decided to look again. Well whadda ya know...section 101!!!! Ok, so it's not front row, but not to shabby, eh? Called the dear hubby with the exciting news. "Honey, I told you I'd take you" note that he didn't say Yeah! Let's go! Good score on the tix! See, my dear QE hates crowds, hates concerts, and hates how the Crows artistically alter (i.e. butcher) their songs during concerts. But he's taking me anyway. Sigh. That is true love, my friends. Now I just hope that my precious Goos are the headlining act and not the loser Crows. :) QE has only been to one other Goo concert and he vowed it would be the last. This one will be the last. I promise.

True Love?

QE told me that the kids were in a constant state of unrest last night. They usually settle into one room on the main level of the house and lounge there until we go upstairs for bed. Last night, both Angel and Davis went from room to room, never settling in anywhere. QE thinks it's because they missed me and were looking for me. Sigh. Maybe they do love me after all.

Homesick

I miss my kids. I am mentally and physically drained from work. Churning out proposals less than a week apart is starting to wear on me, and we still have two to go! I left the house at 5:40 this morning. Most people aren't even out of bed at that time. Thankfully Davis cooperated and ate his breakfast with minimal fuss. He won't eat unless I sit with him in his room. Angel won't eat canned food until she knows there's no chance of getting kibble. She started sleeping with us again, so it's nice to wake up in the middle of the night and being able reach for her soft little feet. Buddy misses boobie time but I never sit still long enough for him to lay on me. Maybe tonight. I don't know how parents juggle family and work. Although most get to duck out early or work from home, a priviledge us non-parents don't have without getting grief from bosses or coworkers. Maybe not having kids means we don't have a real family.

Our New Arrival

QE and I would like to take a moment to welcome the newest addition to our family. We couldn't have asked for a cuter fellow. Yes, our mini mac arrived today, earlier than scheduled. QE says it's tiny, even smaller than our computer speakers (those JBL ghost looking things). I will post pics of our new cutie soon.

I Need a Baby

Babies are so cute and so soft. And they smell so good when they are clean. Newborns weigh next to nothing. It's a total miracle how something so precious is derived from two cells. What could possibly define perfection like a baby? A baby with knitted booties. I need babies to knit for. I want to knit cute booties, jumpers and hats. I want to dress babies in tiny little sweaters. I need a baby. Or two. Or ten.

Losing Everything

I took Friday off from work to spend some quality time with the QE. We did a day trip to Atlantic City. The drive wasn't too bad. Parked at the Taj Mahal. $10 for parking because we didn't have their stupid club card prior to entering. I would have pimped out my info and gotten a card once we arrived, but nooooo....Trump's other casino allowed us to show the card and pay upon exit. No wonder that ass is a gazillionaire. We spent the whole day at Taj. I wouldn't say NEVER again, but ACY is like the Wal-Mart of casinos--I'd rather not go. It was smelly, smoky, and full of old people, many with canes, walkers, wheelchairs, a few oxygen tanks. Good to know our Medicare checks are being put to good use. Now I know why I get taxed on my hard earned dollars--so these crusty old people can gamble it all away.
We ate at Hard Rock Cafe. Service was good but the food was only ok. In all, I lost $80. QE won $50+ on $10. $80 doesn't sound like a lot, but that tightwad Trump did not let me win very frequently. I don't need to profit from the trip, but one "win" every 20 slot pulls would have been enough positive reinforcement for me to keep playing. I lost $20 in about 20 minutes. On the penny slots. Betting $.03 per pull. That's ridiculous.

I went to Jenny's baby shower on Saturday. I have never seen so many kids in one place. WTF. What's with these kid factories???? I befriended twin one-year old girls. They both took a liking to me. As I was ready to leave, she wanted me to hold her, so I did. I tried to explain I needed to go bye-bye and she responded by plopping her head on my shoulder and snuggling into me. Speaking to kids is very similar to speaking to cats. That cutesy wootsey voice is what gets their attention. So these girls are one-year old. And became a big sister that very morning. Mom gave birth to another baby girl. So she now has twin babies AND a newborn. That husband should pay for doing that to the poor woman! Jenny made out with lots of loot. The baby can go at least a few months of wearing new clothes without ever duplicating outfits.

The highlight of our weekend was our hard drive frying. I turned on the computer to get directions to Jenny's shower and it wouldn't boot. Tried five times. QE used the recovery disks and had to reinstall Office, our internet SW and everything else. He lost all of his school work. And we lost all of our digital pictures. In addition to cat pics (which didn't bother me too much since we can always take more pics of our cuties), we lost our house photos. All the weekly trips and pictures of our house as it was getting built is gone. I have some of the nicer pics in Yahoo and Flickr, but I lost at least half of my pics. And the ones published aren't the full sized pics. We are very upset about losing our photos.

Personality Disorder

I took the Myers-Briggs test as part of a work training thing. I've taken it once before, in high school, but forgot my results. I am ISFJ. Introvert, Sensing, Feeling, Judging. The F is barely registering, at a 6 on a 30 point scale. I thought I would be Thinking (logical) instead. I think I was a T in high school. I knew I was an introvert who liked the facts (sensing) and structure (judging). I was the only introvert in the session! That's what I get for working in my company's industry I suppose. But all the J's agreed that if it's not in our plans, we'd rather not do something spur of the moment. And because we're all planners, it drives us crazy when people are late. We planned everything to time perfectly! :)

The Metro ride in was interesting this morning. The whole train was empty and we started to wonder why. Too good to be true!!! The moment we stepped into the cars, we knew. No AC. And in addition to no air conditioning, it felt like the train was baking in the sun all day (even though it was morning). So the train is literally empty. I decide to tough it out and took a seat. Had to get to work on time and all. What do you know...some white chick decides to sit next to me. I turn around and see at least 10 rows, not seats, ROWS that were vacant. And this stupid white girl has to sit next to me. WTF. I wanted to smack the white out of her. Geesh, QE, control your people! hahahah!