NYC here I come!

This weekend I'm going to NYC!! My B-I-L is turning 30 (ok, he already did last week) but he and a few of his friends are all turning 30 the end of January/ beginning of February and decided to rent out a bar and throw a big shindig.

Me, the hubby and KVeg are heading down for the festivities. I'm so excited!!! I was going to just get a new top but was sternly advised by KV that I CANNOT wear jeans. Apparently my EddieBauer/ LL Bean look just won't do at a NYC party... (so said KV)

Whatever...

I have spent countless hours SHOPPING... which y'all know I hate... looking for the "right" outfit. KV has drug me to just about every frickin' store our lovely mall has to offer on TWO separate weekends. After all this I won't be shopping for two more years... I can't stand to even look at clothing stores.

The goal was something sexy. Something that I wouldn't normally wear.

Well folks - goal accomplished. I bought a skirt, a top and shoes that will knock your socks off.

A friend affectionately nicknamed my skirt my "mullet skirt" - all business in the front, party in the back!! See why??














Yep - I'm actually going to wear this. (not with that top - this is just the pic off their website).

I would show you the shoes but I can't find them... plus they're a surprise for the hubby...
*wink*wink*

I will tell you that normally I'm about 5'6" - 5'7" with the shoes I'm easily 5'11". Maybe even pushing 6'. Not kidding.

And yes - I can walk in them...

I'm bringin' sexy to NYC.

meow!

Insigtful questions... or not??

So I have questions from Wandering Girl to answer...

hmmmm... lemme think...

1) What's your favorite thing in the new Jeep?
Since it's been a bazillion below zero lately I have to admit the seat warmers make my buns quite toasty!! And we all know there's plenty to warm up!

2) What would you be willing to do to get your dream job?
I wouldn't do anything.... Maybe hop on one foot and screech like a monkey while juggling flaming batons... but not just anything.... I do have standards ya know.

3) Under what circumstances do you believe yourself to be capable of murder?
What kind of question is this? I would say if an animal is in extreme physical duress... but that's not true. I couldn't bring myself to kill an animal either. While contemplating this question I thought about being part of assisted suicide (I would imagine some consider that murder) but the conditions would have to be exceptionally dire. (but of course they would if someone were considering such actions.) So there. That's my "sort-of" answer. I would never do such a thing out of malice, though, only compassion. (did I just set myself up for a lawsuit at some point in the future... do I need lawdog now??!! He better come pro bono since you set me up!!!)

4) What was your favorite birthday? What happened? Who was there?
hmmm. I don't know if I would consider it my favorite per se, but it was probably my most memorable. Seeing as my b-day is the day after yours, you'll understand... (I have a January b-day for those of you that aren't in the know...) I had a pool party one year at the Betsy Mills Club. Don't worry - it was an inside pool. I don't polar bear. I was in second grade and it was neat because I never thought I would ever have a cool pool party- you know - having a winter birthday and all. My whole second grade class was there. Kirk McCutchin gave me a little stuffed duck I named Quackles. I still have it. really, I do. And my babysitter, Chrissy was our lifeguard (don't worry - she was qualified) and had to save someone who almost drowned - it was Ben McCurddy - the severely ADD kid. Of course we didn't know he was severely ADD at the time - no one knew what that was back then...

5) If you could be at home for 3 months, do you think your house would be cleaner than mine is?
Nope. My house is never clean. I pay people to clean it and I never clean it in the interim. Ok, maybe David vacuums or something- but I don't. I have so much going on that when I have a "slow spell" I just sit my lazy ass on the sofa and do nuthin'. I keep saying I'm going to organize the basement, finish decorating our bedroom or something heroic like that. But I don't. I have good intentions... High aspirations.... but nope.

Hope over Fear

I watched the inauguration today. I feel very hopeful for our future.

I won't get all politco on y'all - but I'll say this:

I was moved.

...probably to tears if I'd been at home by myself. (I'm a sap like that) But I wasn't. And I wasn't going to start cryin' at work because they probably think I'm unstable enough as it is. You might agree that Obama's speech warranted a tear or two but you don't know my office.

And even though Bush isn't my kind of politics I do have to say that I did feel sorry for him when he got such a weak applause during the ceremony. I mean really - from the station I was watching it sounded as though, of the 2 million people present, only 200 gave a sorry golf clap. Even 200 of 2 million isn't 27% .... (approval rating, that is...)

But I digress....

A new chapter in history. Let's hope with it comes the change and hope we all need right now.

Hoof, I mean, foot in mouth

Friday the hubby and I went to a vegan restaurant with my girl KVeg (aka Crazy Pet Lady). It was great - we were there there for vegan pizza nite. Ever had vegan cheese? Actually it was fabulous! I would have never had guessed!

Anyway, as the hubby was paying for all the food at the counter KV and I were at the table commenting on the great decorating of the vegan cafe. There was this great articulating lamp perched over our table that I loved!

KV: isn't this lamp awesome?
me: yeah! that would look great by our leather chair!!

deafening silence.

I think I heard crickets chirping. I swear I think everyone in the cafe was staring at me. I was in the middle of PETA-types and I just yelled out that I have a leather chair.

Not my proudest moment.

Here's a word of wisdom to anyone heading out to a vegan restaurant who's not vegan- keep your comments about your leather furniture to yourself.

He's got a "tooma"

Poor Liam. He's the most gentle, laid back dog ever.

I mean, EVER.

Big guy has, rather, had a tumor on his rear left leg that our vet was worried was pushing, or worse, wrapped around his sciatic nerve. It needed to be removed - and soon.

We got an estimate for the surgery from our vet at the end of November. (Gasp!! Let's just say it was pushing 4 digits and leave it at that.) Due to our work travel schedules we decided to schedule the surgery for the first week in January so we'd be there for his recuperation.

Well, two weeks later our vet (or at least the vet in our animal hospital that does all the surgery) injured the ligaments in her hand, had surgery on her own hand and is unable to perform surgery for AT LEAST 6 weeks. Due to the possible seriousness of Liam's tumor she didn't want us to wait that long to get it removed.

Enter in "the specialist".

We ended up having to take him to a surgery specialist to get the tumor removed.
The good news - we got it removed on schedule. The bad news - it cost us twice as much.

What we won't do for our "kids"...

Ok - I have a picture to post but blogger is being a pain. I'll have to post it later, I guess...

Thanks Dad

When I was 15 and learning how to drive (you can drive at 15 in SC...) my dad let me take the family minivan for a spin around the circle once. Then he told me "you can drive this again after you learn how to drive that" and pointed to his truck. His manual, stick shift truck.

Ugh.

Really??!! Do I have to??

So the next few weeks were filled with dad and me going out and around the neighborhoods in the truck. And me whining about having to learn in the truck... me trying to figure out to in the hell to go from "stop" into first... smoothly.... Anyone who knows how to drive a stick knows getting from first into the other gears is easy. It's going from "stop" to "moving" that's tricky (when you're first learning...)

The best was when dad and I headed out, again, for practice. Dad climbed into the passenger seat with his tall 64oz plastic cup of ice water. (it was SC in summer....). As I was driving down the street dad decided to set his cup on the dashboard. As I came to the stop sign he forgot about his cup.... that is until I started back up again. I was stuttering in first gear, trying to get it going. All that back and forth sent his ice water tumbling into his lap. I heard words from him that I don't think I had ever heard before... That was the last time he brought water with him in the truck.... ; )

But alas... many years later I've been grateful on many occasions that my dad taught his daughter how to drive a stick. Like today.

David dropped my Jeep off at the dealer to get a few things fixed on it that we didn't see when we bought it. I drove David's manual Dodge Neon to work. In a snowstorm. On top of the ice we had from yesterday.

Great fun.

Since I wasn't thrilled about diving the Neon home David said he'd swing by my office and swap out his car from the loaner (a minivan, I should add.... I haven't driven a minivan since I first learned to drive... ugh!!)

Well, because of the ice and snow and the angle at which I had parked the Neon David could only spin the wheels of the Neon in our parking lot. I had to come down and we had to do the famous "Julie in the car, driving in reverse while David pushing from the front" routine.

We got it out. But let me tell you. If I didn't know how to drive a stick we'd been stuck.

Ok, not really cuz I wouldn't have driven the car to work this morning... but you get my drift.

The point of the story is - I bitched and complained to no end when I was 15 and "forced" to learn to drive a manual transmission. But I'm very grateful I know how and have great memories of learning too. Every kid should have to learn - even if it's just to spend quality time with a parent or close adult.

Thanks dad.

New Year's Resolution

Can you still make a New Year's Resolution on the 6th??

I wasn't going to make one. I usually don't stick to them very well.
Last year it was to cuss less. That didn't f**ckin' work.

But just today, at work, I decided I should resolve to not get so worked up while at work.

This job is MUCH less stressful than my last one. But every once in a while something comes along and really gets my panties in a wad. Now I shouldn't react the way I do because it's still a cake walk relative to what I used to have to put up with. But I think I do it just to get the good ol' blood flowin' again.

But it's never worth it.

So today, even though it's been a shitfest (relatively speaking, of course) I'm not getting all worked up over it.

I'm just not.

Finally - Disney pictures!!

Ok - so our Christmas present to each other was to go on a mini-vacation to Disneyland in California. It worked because I happened to be in California for work the second week of December... So David flew out to join me and we hooked up with great friends of ours who live in LA and headed out to Disney.

It was me, David, Christy and Ann.

Fun was had by all.

Me and David at California Adventure (Ok, we didn't just go to Disney....)

David muggin' for the camera.

David and Ann strikin' a pose...

Christy, Ann and me. Notice it was a bit chilly??!!! I SWEAR we were in southern California!!! I want a refund!!!

Me and David - and David wearing the Matterhorn as a hat... ; )

Ann, Christy and me.. again!! : )

Now, one day we decided to have Mexican for lunch in "Downtown Disney". They had this great Tequila menu and since Christy and I don't know jack about tequila we decided to partake of the tequila flight - same thing as a wine flight - nice little sampler of three. Except I had to explain to Christy what to do with the lime.

Apparently I didn't give a good explanation....

So that's a quick summary of our Disney trip. And here is a final Christmas picture to top off things.

Getting used to it

You guys are great and funny! Thanks for the comments about Gertie.

Em - btw - David's response to your comment was "Oh God... it's not that big!"

Don't get me wrong - I'm not ungrateful for having a new car, esprecially one with so many bells and whistles. But you know - I was just attached to Gertie. But guys and your comments made me laugh.

But I do have the best husband in the world. And to help me settle into the Jeep he loaded a MILLION of my CD's onto my iPod and got me an adapter so I can utilize the auxilary jack in the car. That is the COOLEST feature EVER!!! I can rock out to my iPod now right through the car's sound system. I had one of those adapters before but it's just not the same... so I really didn't use it. (wow - all those years without a new car I'm realizing I've been missing out on a lot techno features....)

Now the problem is that I'm about out of space on my iPod and not all the important CDs aren't even loaded yet... maybe a new iPod for my bday?? *wink*wink*

(honey - if you're reading this my favorite nano colors are green and purple... ; )

Ok - now to get moving on getting some Disney and holiday pictures posted. You guys gotta see my brother-in-laws pornstache he came home with at Christmas... my MIL was not amused... I thought it was GREAT!!!

Bittersweet

Gertie, the Green Goddess. My 2001 Ford Explorer, V8, 5L with 135,000 miles. She was a great gal. Never gave me any problems. Bought her in Colorado when I was a single cowgirl looking for transportation for dogs that I longed to own one day. I slapped a hitch on her so she tow anything - although "anything" ended up being mostly a bike rack...

I drove her all over creation (did you see the mileage??) and back. She's been all over the Rockies, the Adirondacks, the Appalachians... ok, never out on the west coast... She's carried me through snowstorms, camping trips, NASCAR races, my own wedding, I've moved a few times (although I was good to her and had her transported form CO to OH... no need to add unnecessary miles.) And of course, she been the grand chariot for Liam and Nikki forever. When we moved here she was anointed with "K9 SUV" plates.

Gertie has been my girl. She was actually my dream car. I told people that and it was the truth. She was the right size, not too big, not too small. Just enough features but not too fancy.

Even though she's been running great it was time to look to trade her in. Sad day. It was time.

So the K9 SUV plates are now on a silver 2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee. It's got a bazillion features. Heated leather seats, sun roof, Sirius radio, iPod jack, all these controls in the steering wheel, and I'm sure a million more I can't think of right now and another million more I don't know even know about...

In theory it's a much better car than Gertie. But it's not. Not yet anyway.

So how do I explain to my husband why I was crying last night after we picked up the new car? Not shedding a tear.
Crying.
Like for an hour.
And I'm even tearing up as I write this.

How do you explain that your car was part of your identity?
That you had your car longer than you had your husband?
That your car was the last true remaining symbol of independence and freedom from when you were single?

Well, I hope I get used to this new one. If not I guess David will inherit it. Good thing he likes it - especially since he never drove it until after I bought it. (but then again - he did used to work for Jeep....)

RIP Gertie.

Made it!

Well, D and I made it back from Disneyland!! It was iffy because of the snow. Dad may or may not make it in to Syr. tonight...

I'm at work right now - have lots to catch up on. I'll try and post some pictures over the holidays. Dont' worry - D was a photo-takin' fool!

cheers!

Whew!

Well folks, my tradeshow is done. The website is launched (with a few minor tweaks when I get home). I hung around and packed up the remaining items from our booth last night - 5 boxes and 1 pallet-o-stuff to be sent back home.


Although I didn't eat lunch any day this week I won't divulge how well I've eaten for dinner each night... (I'll give you a hint - I ate at Morton's last night...) so I can't complain. Although I did have to pick up that bill (company expense, of course) and I had to do the math in my head twice for the tip. Let's say there were 7 of us and the tip was WAY into three digits (I'm not counting cents, folks...)


Thanks you guys for the kind words on the website! and in case you didn't get to see the old one here's a peek at the OLD homepage:















So I'm going to take a break and head off to Disney.

Website

It just occurred to me that I should have you guys look at our old/ current website (for work) and then have you look at the new one when we launch!!!

Problem is we're supposed to launch tomorrow... ("supposed to" being the catch phrase...)

So if you happen to read this today go check out http://www.monaghanmed.com/

and then check back in a few days.

You'll know it's the NEW site if it has a picture of a female clinician front and center with the tag line "Your partner for aerosol delivery solutions". If you don't see that then it's the old school one.... I'd like to think it's VERY apparent which one you're looking at....

Wish me luck!!!

baby shower update...

well folks....

I didn't get asked the inappropriate question I was dreading. Although I'm sure one lady was close but I did a quick "duck and dodge" before she could get it out.

But also I admit I didn't mingle extensively prior to the luncheon starting... Aunt Ginny, Lucy, MB and grandma were there, along with cousin Dana. We all sat at the last table on the far side of the room and had our own "party"... That sort of gave me license (ok, not really - but that's my excuse) to plop my ass down and not mingle lots with said friends of the Aunt throwing the shower - lest I get pestered with "the question".

Aunt G and I were discussing good comeback lines you guys all shared - she loved 'em!

Thanks for all the great ideas. I promise they will not go to waste as we all know I'll continue to get the question....

Although Ginny agreed that I should feel free to respond "None of your fuckin' business."

I *heart* her! She's the one that gave her daughters t-shirts that said "boys are dumb throw rocks at them". She's quite the contradiction... happily married to the same man (Uncle Gino.. my F-I-L's brother - big bald Italian guy, works in waste management... ; ) for decades.

On another note David and I met up with a good friend of his from college (K) and his wife (N) on Saturday since they were in the state visiting. David was excited because he hadn't seen them since their wedding almost 10 years before. I, of course, have never met them. A while back David had given them my blog address and I guess N had been reading my blog on occasion. While on one hand I find that very neat - I LOVE reading other people's blogs!! - now that I was meeting them for "real" I was thinking "oh shit - they probably think I'm a flake.. or worse..."

ok - I guess I am a flake... and worse...

but I digress....

I do a bad enough job on a first impression sometimes, I don't need the added pressure of what she's read on my blog!!!! (I mean really - I've nicked my nipple with a razor for god's sake!! and WRITTEN about it!!!!)

But it turned out great! (or at least I thought so... maybe she's just a really good actress... ; ) And the weird thing is I can see why D and K were such good friends in college... I noticed the two of them were even wearing the same thing!!! (plaid-ish button up shirt under a zip neck pullover sweater.... ) they were just wearing different color schemes.... must be a NY enigneering uniform... me being from SC, I wouldn't know....

So I had quite an eventful weekend to gear up for a busy week. You may not hear from me for a while. I'm going to be bogged down in work this week and then I leave for my trade show on Thursday to launch my website I've been working on for the past 7 or 8 months (or so....). and then I'm going to DISNEYLAND!!!

really... I'm not joking.
I'm going to Disneyland.

So you really might not hear from me until after the holidays. Maybe before - but probably not until after. So just in case:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

blurrrrrr

I'm having one of those weeks where I can't remember what day it is... Not because of my can't-remember-my-zip-code-bad-memory kind of can't remember... It's the I'm-so-stressed-the-days-are-flying-by-so-fast-I-can't-keep-them-straight kind of can't remember.

And to top of this fabulous week I have a baby shower to go to this weekend. Not just any baby shower... a family baby shower. D's cousin's wife is prego and my MIL and I are going. At first I was pleasantly looking forward to going. (excited is too strong a word...) And then it hit me.

Shit.

I bet I get bombarded with "So, when are you and David going to start a family???!!" or some such iteration of the question.

We've been married approximately three weeks longer than the aforementioned prego couple and are a few years older. Not a good mix when it comes to "baby" questions - assuming you don't yet have them - which, of course we don't.

I want to reply with "none of your damn business".

Because it's not. But I shouldn't be so rude. But then again, they are by even asking...

Maybe we don't want children.
Maybe we're not ready.
Maybe we've been desperately trying since the moment we said "I do" and by asking they keep opening an emotional wound.

Maybe we don't have a clue just yet.

Regardless of the answer - it's none of their business...

Now I have some friends of mine - probably some of you reading - that have asked me this very question. If I've not given you an answer then I'll admit I'm probably not comfortable talking about it with you. Sorry. If I have given you an answer, well then I've obviously known you long enough and well enough to share. But I don't go around discussing this with everyone. And honestly - not everyone gets the exact same answer.

And I'll tell you right now - there is no one at this shower with whom I feel comfortable discussing my reproduction plans.

So - between work and this shower I'm a bit stressed.

And how am I really going to answer if someone asks???
"Oh, ... why, that's quite a personal question. (insert coy smile here). I'd rather not discuss it."

...and I'm really going to try and be nice about it and hope my overactive eyebrows don't give me away...