Made in Richmond

(I figured that was a more clever title than “Here are some bullets.”)

• The lovely RA, one of my fave bloggy friends *and* a “Gap brand enthusiast” recently held a giveaway on her site for a gift card good for a $69.95 denim purchase. And I won! She’s forbidden me to spend any of it on the kid, so I guess I will be making a clothes purchase for the first time in many moons.
• Ross and I just finished watching Arrested Development. It was a nice change after Band of Brothers and The Pacific. Even though I loved all of the characters, Buster is the best. Mostly because of how he always said, “Hey, brother…” I will now greet my own brother with that every time I see him.
• The thing I said I was only going to talk about once has stalled somewhat. There is still interest but much less enthusiasm.
• I recently put this together for work and, I must say, it’s the most fun I’ve had in a long time. Also: my job is fun and strange.
• I’m currently reading Gone With the Wind. I’m 911 pages in with over 500 to go. GAWD.
• JR loves singing now. The ABC song is his favorite. It goes something like “Ah-bee-cee-dee-ceee-emenemlo-p…” and so on. I’ll try to get a video so you all have something to watch over and over again.
• Ross and I are now watching The Last Airbender. So far it’s just delightful, and I’m told it just gets better. I’m also told that I should never, ever see the movie.
• I can now sing the Veggie Tales theme song by heart. It’s a charming song really.
• The wikipedia article on Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean is fascinating. You should all read it.
• BLT’s are the best invention ever. Ok, mayonnaise, then BLT’s.

Feel free to share your bullets in the comments.

Ross sent me this tonight. I’m not sure where he got it, but I had to share it because it so very much represents my life right now. Sad but true.

After handing JR over to my mom (and after quite of few tears on JR’s part and some on mine) Ross and I celebrated our three nights/two days of freedom by eating at Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken and going to see Eclipse. Because we know how to party.

On Friday we slept until the luxuuuuuuuurious hour of 8:30am and then headed up to DC, stopping only to get gas and for me to get a fountain soda. Regular Coke (see my previous mention about knowing how to party). We hit no traffic at all and only kinda almost died once upon getting into DC because I become an idiot the minute I leave Richmond’s city limits. The above picture is of our room at Helix Hotel. There was a bed curtain.

After lunch (which involved delicious pizza that I contemplated leaving Ross for), we took the Metro like grownups and found our way to the Newseum. I highly recommend this place, even if you do happen to run into individuals like those pictured here who thought it appropriate to “flash the 303 gang sign” in front of the Berlin Wall. But, I guess that’s what America is about, guys.

(But seriously, the Newseum is awesome, particularly the exhibit on Pulitzer Prize winning photos. I cried multiple times and felt lots of emotions. But don’t worry, Ross’s robot heart didn’t short circuit or anything.)

Saturday included a trip to the Natural History and American History Museums, but the World War II Memorial was the highlight of the day for me. Again, with the emotions.

More on this shot here. And go here or here to see a few more pictures from our weekend.

Thanks for a good time, D.C. You also know how to party.

I’m not actually sailing, I just spent a good portion of this weekend shouting that at Ross (I don’t remember why), so I thought I’d share this with you:

This isn’t totally unrelated to my life, though. Ross and I are taking a mini-vacay in DC this weekend (you could call it “A vacation from my problems,” much like the one Bob took in the film excerpted above, although mine will hopefully end with less dynamite). JR will be spending three (!!!!) nights with his Grandma while we nap, eat, learn things in our nation’s capital, end spend absolutely no time dealing with diapers. It should be great.

(Oh, but who am I kidding? I’m already having a nervous breakdown over being away from him for that long.)

(And as usual, our house will be occupied by two very annoying dogs and one very not-annoying friend of ours. So don’t get any ideas, readers-of-this-blog-who-also-moonlight-as-robbers.)

Sorry for the absence. I’ve been busy working, parenting, and watching ridiculous amounts of Arrested Development, The Bachelorette, and The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Consequently, I have very little to say about anything.

So instead, I leave you with this:

I call it “The Temperamental Artist.”

A few weeks ago, Ross and I were woken by the sound of a monkey screeching outside of our bedroom window.

Ok, it wasn’t *really* a monkey, but it sure as hell sounded like one.

Neither one of us said anything as it was happening, and we drifted off to sleep. The next morning we were both somewhat convinced that we had each imagined it, but eventually we started talking about it and confirmed that we both heard this monkey-like creature causing quite a raucous the night before.

We expected it to come back that night. It didn’t.

It didn’t come back the next night either.

Or the next, or the next. We were convinced the Monkey Bird was a one-time thing.

Until last night.

At around midnight, when we were both in bed reading, trying to calm down from the drama that is The Real Housewives of New Jersey (Danielle, psht, what a wacko), we heard the Monkey Bird again. But this time, the Monkey Bird had a friend. There were TWO MONKEY BIRDS, jumping back and forth between the trees surrounding our bedroom (which happens to be positioned in the upper, stage right corner of our house).

That’s right. We were surrounded.

So, I did what any normal person does. First I tweeted, “THE MONKEY BIRD IS BACK!” Then I Googled “bird sounds like monkey virginia” on my handy-dandy iPhone.

Mystery solved, thanks to YouTube.

It seems our trees have become the occasional habitat of two boisterous (and I’m guessing amorous from all the noise that was going on last night) barred owls. Have a listen and you’ll understand why we were freaking the eff out:

Interesting fact: The mnemonic device for remembering the call (because I guess that’s important?) is “Who cooks for you, who cooks for you all?” Listen again and you will totally hear it.

Nature! You are terrifying/awesome.

I realized it’s been two whole months since I filled you all in on my skin!

HOW HAVE YOU HANDLED SUCH SUSPENSE?

Well, basically, no news is good news at this point. I still get a few whoppers every now and then and they are always on my chin — although I remember reading somewhere that blemishes on that part of your face are caused by hormonal fluctuations, so I feel somewhat better about it.

The most important lesson I’ve learned is when I get one of those whoppers, I just need to leave it the mess alone. A little touch of tea tree oil and MAYBE an application of spot treatment left on for 10 minutes are as far as it goes. Other than that, it’s hands off and keep moisturizing — none of this “ASSAULT” mentality that I used to have. I’m getting older and my skin can’t take all the riff-raff.

But, while we’re on the topic of spot treatments, what do you use?

Drinking
I’ve developed a new unwinding ritual as of late and I highly recommend it: a John Daly served in a jelly jar. It’s just about the most perfect thing ever.

Watching
Ron Livingston’s video diaries of Band of Brothers Boot Camp. Ever since finishing Band of Brothers a few weeks ago, I’ve seen my obsession with it grow. While watching episodes of the show tend to make me ugly sob, these are a nice alternative. They also remind me that Ron Livingston (my boyfriend) was not *actually* a member of Easy Company.

Reading
One of my former jobs was, um, not fun. So from time to time, in order to save myself from the pits of hell cheer myself up, I’d turn to these two blogs. Recently, I happened upon them once again and thought I’d share…

The Dairi Burger: As the About Page describes it, “My goal is to reread the entire series to relive my tween years, and also to get really angry at how SVH gave me a false and misguided view of high school life. And life in general. In fact, I blame all my insecurities, problems and worries on these books.”

What Claudia Wore: Ok, it’s not just about Claudia; the author of this blog dissects the hideous clothes sported by *all* the members of The Babysitters Club.

You’re welcome. And my apologies to your employers, families, and friends, as they will never see you again.

Wearing
I tried the mineral foundation route, but it just doesn’t seem to work for me. So, I bought Revlon’s PhotoReady Foundation on a whim and I’ve really liked it so far. It even manages to somewhat conceal my gigantore pores.

Obsessing
Things have calmed down somewhat work-wise (for now), so my brain has become quite occupied with making it look like we actually live in this house; in fact, I’d say I spend about 67% of my day thinking about it in some capacity. I have paint chips taped up on the wall. I scour the Internet for rugs and lamps and coffee tables. I recently bought a new bedspread AND throw pillows. This place will be civilized yet.

Guys! Food poisoning is horrible! But luckily, relatively short-lived!

(Apparently I also love exclamation points!)

On with the bullets…

• We have started watching The Pacific. I like it but I am not in love with it, as I was with Band of Brothers. The reason? No epic bromance as of yet.
• Alavert is my new best friend. This morning my allergies were trying to make my face fall off. One Alavert later and I’m sitting pretty (but tweaking out slightly — you take what you can get, kids).
• JR has learned to say “Shooter.” Now most dogs are “Shooter.” It’s pretty, pretty cute.
• He also is refusing to eat strawberries. I’m thinking of taking him in for a DNA test, because how can a child of mine not like strawberries. They are of the heavens.
• It’s like 90 degrees here, or something. This is distressing because pale girls like me need a couple weeks warning about weather like this so we can start applying self-tanner. Trust me, it’s for the good of society. Not much gets done if everyone is blind.
• I’m currently reading The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. You should be reading it, too.
• I got a new laptop a couple weeks ago, but I’m currently going back and forth between the old one and the new one. Because do you know what having a new laptop requires? Moving files and downloading applications. Do you know what moving files and downloading applications requires? Time? Do you know what I don’t have much of? That.
• I just scheduled JR’s 18-month checkup. HALP!

Ok, your turn. Fire away!

I wanted to write in detail about last weekend’s wonderful mini vacation to Blacksburg to see the Hokies play in their spring game, but yesterday afternoon I was flattened by a stunning case of food poisoning. So instead, I’m throwing pictures at you until I am myself again (my current energy level is less than or equal to that of a weak kitten).

Enjoy!