Just Say Yes

Random musings from the last two weeks…


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HSG, got engaged!!! I’m so excited! 2012 is already shaping up to be a year of weddings and we’re still two months away from it starting! Crazy, but definitely fun and exciting. Now if I can just find five minutes to actually meet HSG’s fiancé…

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It snowed here. In October. Unacceptable. And of course it was while L was out of town (in Austin, no less; my blood was bubbling with jealousy already since it was cost-prohibitive for me to be able to join him, and then God decided to play a little joke and throw snow in my face. Too far, God. Too far.). This whole incident really drove home the following facts: 1) I am not a fan of cold weather, regardless of where I live, and 2) Snow really just makes me angry. Like, seriously angry, not I’m-just-a-little-annoyed-but-elevating-it-to “anger”-level-for-attention-or-something. I got home from work on Friday and tried to get the snow stuff out so that I would be prepared in the event that shoveling became necessary. I did a quick glance around the sun porch and didn’t see anything, so that meant it was all in the basement. Which still had a ghetto rope lock on it from the silly hurricane back over Labor Day weekend. That was the annoying icing on my anger cake, because of course crafty L with his Eagle Scout ways tied the most ridiculous knots to keep the whole thing taught and the door closed.* The sprinkles on top of the icing on my anger cake was the massive, dirty spider web that was casually draping across the stairwell and rope system. (Spiders are probably my #1 fear, as referenced here.) I ended deciding to go inside and open a bottle of wine and just deal with rope shenanigans on Saturday morning instead. That was a good decision because after some of my fury subsided, I found the shovels in the sun room. They were hiding behind a sad ficus tree. The snow didn’t start til Saturday, anyway, but once it started, it sure did not want to stop. This is a pic of what it looked like at 4:30 on Saturday across from the CVS I had to run into:

Looks like December or January, right? Right. Cue the anger resurgence. However, my anger ensured I would not be defeated by snow. Mrs. FBI and I headed into DC and had dinner at Oya. Sushi makes most things better. The really good news is that the whole snow debacle was basically like snow in Texas and it all melted within about 30 hours.

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We didn’t do anything for Halloween. No costumes and no big plans. I’ve gotten out of the groove of dressing up for Halloween and doing crazy things in the last 3-ish years. What I still do is decorate the house and OF COURSE I carve a pumpkin. Check out my awesome pumpkin that I carved while on the phone with one of my old roomies:

I got mad pumpkin carving skills, yo. That’s the fastest I’ve picked a design, cleaned out seeds, and carved a pumpkin in my whole life. Last year I swear I seriously spent about an hour trying to decide what to carve. Check out the way her hair is billowing in the wind. The key is the pumpkin carving tool kit, people. Don’t just use your kitchen knives or you’ll end up with a 3-legged cat like I did last year.

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Extreme coupon-ers freak me out and make me feel like an idiot for actually paying for my groceries. So I don’t watch that show. But I do clip coupons that come in the Sunday paper. I’m just not always that good about remembering to use them. I just try and buy stuff when it’s on sale and if I have a coupon and I remember to bring it with me, I’ll use it.


I went to the grocery store a few nights ago and scanned the weekly circular before I went. I made my list of stuff I wanted to get. I took four coupons with me; three were $1 off a specific item and the fourth coupon was for $5 off a purchase of $50 or more. I don’t remember how many items I bought, but the total was $105.20. Then I scanned my frequent shopper card and handed over my four coupons. I ended up paying $65.37. HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE? I was so proud of myself for saving $40 on groceries!!! (Okay it was $39.83 if you are really doing the math but please throw me a bone and just round up.) It wasn’t even really intentional! I’m definitely not on board with extreme coupon clipping now but it does inspire me to put a few minutes of time into scanning the circular and buying sale items.


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One of L’s good friends, The Professor, visited us last weekend.  We took him out in Adams Morgan on Friday night and ended up at Dan's Cafe, which is a place I never need or want to go to again.  The Professor and I didn't feel so hot on Saturday.  He may or may not have been unswallowing Friday night's fun all day long.  But he rallied and we did end up going out to watch the LSU/Alabama game.  I was proud of him!  Hopefully he'll make it back again in 2012 so we can take him where we'd originally planned to go on Saturday night.

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I knew today was going to be a really good day because on the way to work, I heard Thong Song by Sisqo (who apparently is ended up being gay, a fact which I find quite entertaining).  Thong Song is at the top of my list of "Songs So Funny/Awesome You Can't Not Love Them" list.  Consequently, I present you with a playlist I created today of songs that make me happy:

1. James - Laid
2. Snow Patrol - Just Say Yes
3. OneRepublic - Good Life
4. Florence + The Machines - Cosmic Love
5. Missy Higgins - Where I Stood**
6. Spoon - Anything You Want
7. The Bravery - Honest Mistake
8. Coldplay - Paradise
9. Tom Petty - Learning to Fly
10. Bloc Party - I Still Remember
11. Aloe Blacc - I Need a Dollar
12. Plug In Stereo - Oh Darling
13. Varsity Fanclub - Future Love
14. Michael Jackson featuring Akon - Hold My Hand
15. The White Stripes - My Doorbell
16. Ghostland Observatory - Sad Sad City
17. Matt Nathanson - Suspended
18. Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody
19. The Black Keys - Everlasting Light
20. OAR - Love and Memories
21. Dexter Freebish - Leaving Town
22. Coldplay - Lost+
23. Ryan Star - Losing Your Memory**
24. Indigo Girls - Closer to Fine
25. Dixie Chicks - The Long Way Around
26. Nelly Furtado - Try
27. The Black Keys - Lonely Boy
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Finally, no adult man should seriously drive a "'stang" that has a 1" clearance off the ground.  But just because they shouldn't doesn't mean they won't.
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*Except these weren’t actually even real knots. I know a little about knots (thank you, Camp Fern, for making me take Nature and learn how to tie knots for my advancements). A bowline would have easily done the trick and then been easy to untie. I don’t know what L did but it was not budging. The whole thing is still in place and just looks super ghetto. Or like we’re holding a prisoner hostage in our basement. (Disclaimer: we do not have any prisoners in our basement.)

**Not actually happy songs, per se, but I love them anyway.