A whole weekend of crafting!

I can't wait to get home from work today for two reasons: 1) It's Friday and at my office that means overweight men squeezed into Hawaiian shirts who say, "Smile!  It's Friday!" and you know being instructed to smile is the fasted way to get me to do otherwise.  And 2) I've got weekend crafting plans!

One of these projects is secret and is flying under the pseudo-name "Project NASCAR" for reasons I cannot explain.  Bruhuhahaha!

Also I'll be heading to the fabric store with my new coral BM shoes in tow to purchase lovely fabrics for my new belt.  I'm trying something out here, people, and yes, I plan on parading the result in front of a billion of my bff's friends and family.  So, I'm taking this seriously and have developed several courses of action.

I have no plans this weekend. Even the boyf is going out tonight and I'm staying home.  I cannot wait to be surrounded by the colorful contents of my craft box.  And, not gonna lie, a glass of wine or three.  Also, next weekend is the second annual Crooner's party and I've got to get geared up for that gem.

Sunday Spring

After unwinding a bit after my parents' visit, I spent all day yesterday being a lazy SOB.  I began my day of laze with a little coffee on the balcony, book in hand, and enjoyed a solid hour of uninterrupted reading while the dogs relocated their bodies every ten minutes, trying to follow the patches of sunlight across the porch.  The dogs then got a good brushing and a nail trimming.

After that, Justin woke up and my laziness only got worse.  I took my entire basket of nail stuff out on to the porch and gave myself my first Springtime pedicure in a lovely shade of hottttt pink. The only thing left to do with my day was to do one measly load of laundry, and then spend about 2 hours squeegeeing water into the sump pump down in the basement.  Things your landlard won't tell you when you move into a 100 year old East Coast house with a basement: Hey, those 4 1/2 days of rain you had last week?  That's going to flood your basement for the foreseeable future.  Fetch your leopard-print wellies and carry on with your business!

Our night wrapped up when I finally deemed it the right time to eat the roast I'd started in the crock pot 6 hours earlier.  Despite getting something in my eye last evening (if I were a betting man, I'd bet it was a hair belonging to either a smallish brown dog, or a smallish black dog) and then after an hour of rubbing, rinsing, crying, screaming to the gods to get it out of me!, it was a much-needed day.

ETA: 1 hour

The house has been cleaned.  The dogs have been bathed.  The various decorations that we purchased when we first moved here have finally gone up.  Why?

In preparation of the parents' arrival in one hour!

I picked up the keys yesterday to the apartment they're staying at in the building my friend manages, and they've got a tenth floor view of the city and a few flat-screen TVs to keep them happy.  J's mom just called to find out what we're serving tonight because she doesn't want to serve them the same thing tomorrow night at the great meet-and-greet.  

I almost can't stand the excitement of this weekend.

Friends + neighbors

Right before our gaggle of friends showed up to our impromptu "It's 80-degrees outside!" party on Friday night, I ran down and slapped a post-it on the corkboard at the bottom of the stairwell inviting our neighbors to come up for a drink.  Not thinking anyone would actually show up (considering the inhabitants of this condo alone run on pretty opposite schedules, our neighbors must leave 5 minutes before we do and get home 10 minutes after...we hardly ever see these people, it's so mysterious), you can imagine our surprise when J and I open the door to two gentlemen from the first floor.

Flash forward an hour.  We are out on the balcony laughing with our friends...laughing with our neighbors.  They were hilarious, one in particular, and I think he'll be joining our gang again soon -- having equally impressed everyone with his wit.  He's Cajun and insists we'll be having an "etouffee -off" soon.  Seriously.  Anyone who knows me in this life knows I love two things: etouffee and a challenge.  Bring it.

On a side note, I have my first sunburn of the year!  Not a bad one, but enough that I know I'll get some comments at work.  In what seemed like a much-needed weekend of togetherness, my friends all met yesterday at one of our favorite brunching spots at the beach.  Afterwards, we parked it on the beach for a few hours, enjoying the warmth of the sand and the mildness of the March sun.  Our guys played a little football.  The girls sat around talking about their guys playing football.

Too bad they say it's going to be 32 on Friday.  

Ode to Fah-yay

I'll be daydreaming about you all day, my love.  I really enjoyed our weekend together.  And what's more?  That my boyfriend loves you too.  I prefer you mixed with a little Splenda.  He prefers to add a little sugar-free maple syrup.  Either way, you've changed our lives for the better.  I was worried I'd only be able to find you at Trader Joe's, but thank goodness you also reside at Harris Teeter.

I miss you already.

Ring, ring!

Yesterday, something miraculous happened.

In one 24 hour period I spoke to LEMonade, Va va va Bloom, and Oh Beehive.  ON THE PHONE.  Heck, I spoke to Oh Beehive 3 times on the phone in a 24-hour period.  Not to mention all the emails.

Girls, that's a record.  And it was fantastic.

Snowed Out

Being snowed out is the opposite of being snowed in.  Let me elaborate.

On Friday at work, in the 70 degree weather, the inclement weather email came out, warning everyone about potential winter weather conditions on Sunday/Monday.  Ok, sure.  It's 70 degrees outside! Saturday's all-day nasty rain threatened to dampen (but did not) Berkley's first birthday party and then later going to watch J's mama performance (she's in the symphony's choir).  But more on that later.

The rain continued alllll day yesterday, too.  It kept us inside most of the day.  Last night during my phone date with LEMonade things finally broke loose.  I'm sitting at my office, starting to work on our design when -- LIGHTS OUT.  The balcony door blew open.  The pure blackness surrounded me and I started freaking out a little.  After bidding a sudden adieu to Miss Lauren, I set out in the blackness of the condo, arms outstretched and using my cell phone as a mini flashlight, looking for J or the babies.  We lit every candle we have, and it was a beautiful little haven...albeit freezing and very quiet.  We decided to play Clue because it seemed like the right thing to do, but then realized 3 players are needed -- dang it!

Then this morning.  Oh this morning.  J had to be at work at 6, and I figured if there was snow on the ground, he definitely would've said something to me.  And since he left for work with a regular good-bye kiss, I figured I'd be on my way to work shortly.  So the snow on the rooftops, balcony, streets and cars was a huge surprise!  The wind's a howling out there, blowing flurries around.  The blue-gray skies were ominous when I took the dogs outside, doing my best to avoid the scenario running through my head:  being pulled down the arctic street by my newly-transformed huskies...mush! mush!  This girl's snow boots were in the backseat of my car...fantastic planning, right?  As I scraped the 2 inches of snow and ice off my car I couldn't help being grateful for my Midwestern roots.  I looked around at my neighbors and a few were using make-shift scrapers.  One was using a teeny squeegee.  Being my father's daughter, I've got a 3-foot-long monster that just busted right through this East Coast snow.  

I started to inch my way down the road.  A few intersections were a little slick, but nothing I couldn't handle.  I turned onto the entrance ramp of the Midtown tunnel to find a neon-clad VDOT worker detouring traffic away from the entrance.  CLOSED.  Try again later.

I've called my boss and informed him I'll be trying again at noon.  Have to say, it's the first time I've wanted to go to work, and not been able to get there.  Pity.  Now I'll have to squeeze in another cup of coffee and a snuggle with the pups during some righteous daytime telly.