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our first baby Benjamin James 11 lbs 7 oz Born: 12/15 |
| carrieann on twitter |
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for those fans of da ali g show on hbo... borat the movie is showing out here tonight at the georgetown loews cinema :) borat was out here yesterday and spoke in front of the embassy... crazy :) gotta love this city :)
| posted at 10:05 AM ~ comments (0) |
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well, we made it :) we're moved into our spacious two bedroom, two bathroom apartment. i love the layout, and we have so much room that we actually have OPEN storage space! i'm sure we'll find ways to fill it, but for now, it's nice to have room to move around. getting here however, was quite the trip. this was the longest move ever. we thought it would save money by not renting a truck, since our places were so close to eachother... and we figured we could reuse the same 3 boxes for the whole move. yeah... let me tell you how long THAT took. two whole days of packing, lifting, unpacking. my feet were screaming by the end of sunday.
the place does have its downsides... the tile in one of the upstairs bathrooms is yellow, and the whole room smells like a smoker lived there, or lives next door. it's gross. and the floor tiles are so bad in that room, i can actually remove pieces of them. it definitely needs to be redone. we also have ANTS in our kitchen. i'm trying to get them under control... we're keeping all dishes and food off the counters and put away until we are ant free. we may have to get someone to come spray, but so far, i've been pretty successful at keeping them at bay. they are the little black ants, not the big ones, but man, there's a lot of them. and it grosses me out when they are on the counter... even on the freakin stove. *sigh*
and then there's the washer drama. we have an over/under washer and dryer... the dryer is on top of the washer, and it's all one unit. back when joe bought it three years ago, sears came out and installed it in our old place. well, this time, we thought we could hook everything up ourselves. but the space where the unit fits is a long narrow closet. and the hoses are too short... we can't pull out the machine, hook everything up, and push it back. so our friends will and jared came over saturday, and attempted to help us tilt it out, and connect everything. what a mess that turned out to be. we wound up with lake erie in our kitchen, and now i have about 10 beach towels that need to be washed, with no washing machine. oy. so today someone is coming over to help us install it... hopefully we can get it working!
but despite those setbacks, our place rocks. we have brand new carpeting, and fresh paint, so other than the upstairs bathroom tile, it looks like a brand new place :) out cats have been going bananas running around. lily loves staring out the windows to the street below... the sills are low enough that she can see out of them from the floor. we have two beautiful bay windows, and a big tree for privacy right in front. plus we still have a back patio to decorate.. we hijacked the red stones joe laid at the old place, and are still trying to figure out the best way to arrange them. i think that's going to be a project for next month.
i still have no internet at home. verizon dsl is having connectivity issues with our phone line... so we may have to get a service person to come out. it's either that, or we get comcast cable modem service. i may just sign up with comcast, and get a discount for being a new customer. cheaper than paying to have someone come out and look at our phone line that we'll never use. i get sporadic connectivity through unsecured wireless networks in our building... but it's frustrating to keep getting the connection dropped. so my internet use is mainly during work hours, when i get a free minute.
so all in all, our apartment is going well. we have to get all of our things out of our storage unit by saturday at 5pm... so that's a whole nother project. i kept taking little trips there to drop stuff off, so now our space is overflowing. i'm scared to go back there... i have a feeling joe is going to flip out when he sees how much crap is still there. but our kitchen table is there... i can't WAIT to have a real table to eat at :) plus i can sell my extra furniture items for some extra cash. we have to get blinds for our place (the old tenants took them with them), so selling my coffee table and tv stand could help offset the cost for them.
in the meantime, i'm gearing up for some trips back to michigan in october. i have two free weekends (although my mom may be coming to visit for one of them), then laura's wedding shower. then the next two saturdays we have "marriage class" 9-5pm. then two more free weekends (one of them is my birthday weekend), and then holiday hell begins. all in a row, i have thanksgiving (in michigan), then laura's bachelorette party (back in michigan again), one free weekend (we have tickets for a show in DC), then her wedding (back to MI again), then christmas (in new york), and then new year's (back to new york). good lord. so i will have ZERO free time after november to work on wedding stuff... and the invitations will be going out at the end of january! aaahhh!! time is slipping away... so i'm trying to get stuff done NOW before the craziness begins. which is why my mom may be visiting out here shortly :)
but for now, i'm concentrating on our apartment, and getting things in order. once our storage unit is cleared out, we can start finding homes for everything. i'm not taking photos yet, since it's chaos and looks insane. so bear with me until next week, and i'll post some photos of the finished product.
oh... and i'm also having difficulty with my external hard drive. which scares the piss out of me, since that's where ALL my files are :( i've tried another usb cable, and even tried hooking it up to joe's computer, but nada. the power comes on for the hard drive, but when i hook it up via usb, nothing happens. xp does nothing, and no lights flash on the hard drive. my next step is to break the thing open and physically hook it up inside the machine. if that works, i can probably just get a new external cover for it... but if it doesn't work, i'm SOL. please please PLEASE cross your fingers for me. it was working when i unplugged it, and i made sure i was very careful in carrying it over to our new place. it wasn't shaken or dropped or anything... so i have no idea why it suddenly decided to quit :( oy...
ok, this wins for world's longest post... so i'll catch up on the rest of my life later ;)
the place does have its downsides... the tile in one of the upstairs bathrooms is yellow, and the whole room smells like a smoker lived there, or lives next door. it's gross. and the floor tiles are so bad in that room, i can actually remove pieces of them. it definitely needs to be redone. we also have ANTS in our kitchen. i'm trying to get them under control... we're keeping all dishes and food off the counters and put away until we are ant free. we may have to get someone to come spray, but so far, i've been pretty successful at keeping them at bay. they are the little black ants, not the big ones, but man, there's a lot of them. and it grosses me out when they are on the counter... even on the freakin stove. *sigh*
and then there's the washer drama. we have an over/under washer and dryer... the dryer is on top of the washer, and it's all one unit. back when joe bought it three years ago, sears came out and installed it in our old place. well, this time, we thought we could hook everything up ourselves. but the space where the unit fits is a long narrow closet. and the hoses are too short... we can't pull out the machine, hook everything up, and push it back. so our friends will and jared came over saturday, and attempted to help us tilt it out, and connect everything. what a mess that turned out to be. we wound up with lake erie in our kitchen, and now i have about 10 beach towels that need to be washed, with no washing machine. oy. so today someone is coming over to help us install it... hopefully we can get it working!
but despite those setbacks, our place rocks. we have brand new carpeting, and fresh paint, so other than the upstairs bathroom tile, it looks like a brand new place :) out cats have been going bananas running around. lily loves staring out the windows to the street below... the sills are low enough that she can see out of them from the floor. we have two beautiful bay windows, and a big tree for privacy right in front. plus we still have a back patio to decorate.. we hijacked the red stones joe laid at the old place, and are still trying to figure out the best way to arrange them. i think that's going to be a project for next month.
i still have no internet at home. verizon dsl is having connectivity issues with our phone line... so we may have to get a service person to come out. it's either that, or we get comcast cable modem service. i may just sign up with comcast, and get a discount for being a new customer. cheaper than paying to have someone come out and look at our phone line that we'll never use. i get sporadic connectivity through unsecured wireless networks in our building... but it's frustrating to keep getting the connection dropped. so my internet use is mainly during work hours, when i get a free minute.
so all in all, our apartment is going well. we have to get all of our things out of our storage unit by saturday at 5pm... so that's a whole nother project. i kept taking little trips there to drop stuff off, so now our space is overflowing. i'm scared to go back there... i have a feeling joe is going to flip out when he sees how much crap is still there. but our kitchen table is there... i can't WAIT to have a real table to eat at :) plus i can sell my extra furniture items for some extra cash. we have to get blinds for our place (the old tenants took them with them), so selling my coffee table and tv stand could help offset the cost for them.
in the meantime, i'm gearing up for some trips back to michigan in october. i have two free weekends (although my mom may be coming to visit for one of them), then laura's wedding shower. then the next two saturdays we have "marriage class" 9-5pm. then two more free weekends (one of them is my birthday weekend), and then holiday hell begins. all in a row, i have thanksgiving (in michigan), then laura's bachelorette party (back in michigan again), one free weekend (we have tickets for a show in DC), then her wedding (back to MI again), then christmas (in new york), and then new year's (back to new york). good lord. so i will have ZERO free time after november to work on wedding stuff... and the invitations will be going out at the end of january! aaahhh!! time is slipping away... so i'm trying to get stuff done NOW before the craziness begins. which is why my mom may be visiting out here shortly :)
but for now, i'm concentrating on our apartment, and getting things in order. once our storage unit is cleared out, we can start finding homes for everything. i'm not taking photos yet, since it's chaos and looks insane. so bear with me until next week, and i'll post some photos of the finished product.
oh... and i'm also having difficulty with my external hard drive. which scares the piss out of me, since that's where ALL my files are :( i've tried another usb cable, and even tried hooking it up to joe's computer, but nada. the power comes on for the hard drive, but when i hook it up via usb, nothing happens. xp does nothing, and no lights flash on the hard drive. my next step is to break the thing open and physically hook it up inside the machine. if that works, i can probably just get a new external cover for it... but if it doesn't work, i'm SOL. please please PLEASE cross your fingers for me. it was working when i unplugged it, and i made sure i was very careful in carrying it over to our new place. it wasn't shaken or dropped or anything... so i have no idea why it suddenly decided to quit :( oy...
ok, this wins for world's longest post... so i'll catch up on the rest of my life later ;)
| posted at 1:07 PM ~ comments (0) |
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i'm on a roll! i've made a few things recently, and they've come out pretty edible :) so much so, that i'd venture to make them again! the first was chicken parmigiana:
but to make it "lighter" you use egg whites, cornflakes, and low fat cheese :) it tasted awesome, and i could have easily eaten three. but i was good, and limited myself to just one :) the second was skillet stuffed peppers:
we all know how my first experience with stuffed peppers went... but these were FANTASTIC! it's basically just ground beef, peppers, mashed potatoes and cheese, and it was ready in 15 minutes! definitely the easiest thing i've ever made. i also ventured a "beef lo mein" recipe two weeks ago, and that came out really well, too! so i'm learning... using easy recipes to build up my confidence ;)
the day after tomorrow, and we get our keys! no more internet for me at home... it gets shut off today. so i only have work time to check emails now... so if i'm slow getting back to you, that's why. i'll have it restored on the 2nd, but i'll be pretty busy in the meantime with the new place. yay!
but to make it "lighter" you use egg whites, cornflakes, and low fat cheese :) it tasted awesome, and i could have easily eaten three. but i was good, and limited myself to just one :) the second was skillet stuffed peppers:
we all know how my first experience with stuffed peppers went... but these were FANTASTIC! it's basically just ground beef, peppers, mashed potatoes and cheese, and it was ready in 15 minutes! definitely the easiest thing i've ever made. i also ventured a "beef lo mein" recipe two weeks ago, and that came out really well, too! so i'm learning... using easy recipes to build up my confidence ;)
the day after tomorrow, and we get our keys! no more internet for me at home... it gets shut off today. so i only have work time to check emails now... so if i'm slow getting back to you, that's why. i'll have it restored on the 2nd, but i'll be pretty busy in the meantime with the new place. yay!
| posted at 10:07 AM ~ comments (0) |
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oooo... i'm so excited! first off, last weekend was a blast. we drove up to long island for frank and erica's wedding... what a great time! their reception was GORGEOUS. i kept telling people not to expect something that extravagent at our wedding. the cocktail hour had full lobster tails, and 7 other stations, not including the servers walking around with trays of other things to sample. we were stuffed even before dinner began :) dinner was excellent... i had the chicken and joe had the filet mignon (if that's how you spell it) with lobster... both were terrific! they also had a live band that ROCKED. and just when i thought i couldn't eat anymore, a dessert room opened up (where the cocktail hour had been previously) and had 5 different stations of desserts: canoli's, ice cream, several different cakes, brownies, chocolate pieces, and some other things i didn't even get to :) soooooo good :) i think i gained five pounds from that course alone :)
anyway, we got back home in time to pick up the bean from doggy daycare. i snuck in to see her playing "chase me" with a couple of black labs... it was good to see her so happy and having a good time :) she was exhausted when we brought her home, so it was well worth the money to know she was taken care of!
now we are in the home stretch for moving day. three more days, and we get our new place! our dsl is getting shut off on wednesday, and then for whatever reason (i blame verizon's retardedness) we can't get new service until october 2nd. so for about 10 days (unless we can find an open network from our neighbors) we will have no internet. but that will give me the time to get everything unpacked and put away. we also have to go to our storage place, and drag everything out. i'm really dreading that... we have so much stuff. but it means i'll have a kitchen table! yay!
in other news, now that our cruise is set, i'm starting to look at shore excursions, to do while we're at the ports of call. for cozumel, i found a dolphin swim activity... and it looks awesome!
dolphin adventure swim
you meet the dolphins, grab their fins, and they pull you along super fast! then they swim deep down, and push you out of the water by your feet! fun fun! i'm not sure what we have planned for the other days yet. i think for grand caymen and haiti, we will take those as beach days, or shopping days. we have two days at sea to enjoy the ship, so i hope we can do some exploring on the days we're actually at destinations.
so that's about it. i'll post some photos from the wedding this weekend... we had such a ball with all of joe's friends. we talked about planning a trip for all of us to go on together... now THAT would be fantastic :)
anyway, we got back home in time to pick up the bean from doggy daycare. i snuck in to see her playing "chase me" with a couple of black labs... it was good to see her so happy and having a good time :) she was exhausted when we brought her home, so it was well worth the money to know she was taken care of!
now we are in the home stretch for moving day. three more days, and we get our new place! our dsl is getting shut off on wednesday, and then for whatever reason (i blame verizon's retardedness) we can't get new service until october 2nd. so for about 10 days (unless we can find an open network from our neighbors) we will have no internet. but that will give me the time to get everything unpacked and put away. we also have to go to our storage place, and drag everything out. i'm really dreading that... we have so much stuff. but it means i'll have a kitchen table! yay!
in other news, now that our cruise is set, i'm starting to look at shore excursions, to do while we're at the ports of call. for cozumel, i found a dolphin swim activity... and it looks awesome!
dolphin adventure swim
you meet the dolphins, grab their fins, and they pull you along super fast! then they swim deep down, and push you out of the water by your feet! fun fun! i'm not sure what we have planned for the other days yet. i think for grand caymen and haiti, we will take those as beach days, or shopping days. we have two days at sea to enjoy the ship, so i hope we can do some exploring on the days we're actually at destinations.
so that's about it. i'll post some photos from the wedding this weekend... we had such a ball with all of joe's friends. we talked about planning a trip for all of us to go on together... now THAT would be fantastic :)
| posted at 10:55 AM ~ comments (0) |
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last weekend was really productive! i spent friday night out in clarendon with a friend for happy hour at clarendon ballroom, and then followed it with dinner out at faccacia luna. YUM! such good food. so thanks michael, olivia, and tom, for a great time! we can do that again anytime ;) i then met up with joe and kevin out in dupont, at buffalo billiards. another great time, and we ended the night at trusty's, and i got home at 3am. late night, but so fun :) saturday i was up bright and early to clean the house... spent the whole day cleaning, organizing, and doing laundry. by 9pm, i was finished, and it felt GREAT to have a clean house again. joe and i had been dumping our stuff everywhere, and between the two thousand trips and our assumption that we were moving soon, it had gotten out of control. so that meant i could relax on sunday, and i went out to run some errands. made a stop out at paper-source in georgetown, and even got to the "moonlight madness" sale at a.c. moore (craft store out here). finished getting all the supplies to start making program templates, and to start on the wedding invitations. i also got through the list, and thanks to shawn, finally got joe's side of the "save the date" cards out :) phew! almost done! and we finally made a decision in regards to kids at the wedding. we're not having any. however, if our guests are having a tough time finding a sitter, we will be providing one for during the reception. so hopefully that helps... the feedback has been that most people would enjoy being without their kids anyway :)
this weekend we're off to new york for the last time until christmas. we're going to einstein's wedding, and we're stoked! joe's friends are so much fun, and weddings are fun anyway :) then it is MOVING time... 10 more days! joe is going to see if we can get the keys early... the more time we have to move, the better. i can't wait!!
i'll try and remember to take photos... my batteries died last weekend so no photos from meet the parents. when my parents get back from vacation, i'll have them send me their copies :)
this weekend we're off to new york for the last time until christmas. we're going to einstein's wedding, and we're stoked! joe's friends are so much fun, and weddings are fun anyway :) then it is MOVING time... 10 more days! joe is going to see if we can get the keys early... the more time we have to move, the better. i can't wait!!
i'll try and remember to take photos... my batteries died last weekend so no photos from meet the parents. when my parents get back from vacation, i'll have them send me their copies :)
| posted at 1:53 PM ~ comments (0) |
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lots of things going on. first, the weekend holiday was fantastic! our parents got along great... we even got a preview of what the wedding will look like at the neighbor's bbq friday night. they had a dj, who learned of our engagement and parents meeting, and called "the fockers and the burns" to the dance floor (if you've seen 'meet the parents', you'll understand). i saw joe's parents and my parents boogie down, and then joined in a chorus of "we are family" complete with the chicken dance. yeah. it was silly, but SO SO funny. we are very lucky that our parents are such great people :) i only wish everyone lived closer so that we could all get together more often :)
joe and i are still recovering from the weekend... lily had the time of her life at the lake, but must have ate something that upset her stomach, as she's not eating her dinner. and for her, that's HUGE. the only other time she's had a hard time eating was when she was super sick with a bladder infection :( but she was more like her normal self today, and her appetite is slowly returning :) this morning was her "orientation" to the new dog boarding place. i refuse to go back to dogs by day after her last visit (her wound on her leg is still healing)... and a friend of mine (thanks robyn!) recommended this place to me. it's called your dog's best friend, and is located in alexandria. i immediately fell in love with the place. they not only walked me through the facility, but i got to see lily's introductions, and they did a bunch of behavior testing on her, to make sure all the dogs would get along great. i talked with the main guy for a bit, and we discussed dog training. he mentioned a positive training technique that he first used on dolphins, and when i mentioned karen pryor and clicker training, his eyes lit up :) he was impressed that i had met her in person, and knew all about the history and methodology. so she's there for the rest of the day, having a ball, i'm sure. we needed a new place to board her, since her vet is no longer boarding, and next weekend we are attending a wedding in new york. so we needed one ASAP, and i'm so glad this looks like it will work out! we'll see how she is when i pick her up this afternoon.
other than that, we move two weeks from tomorrow. time is flying by, and i'm rearing up for this fall's activities. we have a new york wedding, moving, then joe's mom and grandmother are coming to visit in october. then my mom is visiting to help me with wedding details, we have two weekends for our marriage class, then laura's shower in michigan, thanksgiving, laura's bachelorette party, her wedding, and christmas. PHEW. so much to do, and lots to get done for our own wedding. we finally have our guest list finalized, and of course, now the nervousness begins. we have 253 on our list, and our venue is 180 people max for a buffet. oops. and that's not counting children. so joe and i are in a tough spot right now, and are trying to figure out how to make this work. we don't want our friends and family with children to not come, so most likely, if they can't or don't want to find a sitter, we are going to arrange for sitters to take care of the kids during dinner. it's my fault for getting anxious about the list, and not waiting until we had everything finalized to start making plans and telling people they were invited. we'll get it all figured out.
other than that, things are great. we are really concentrating on our move at the moment, and i'm kicking up the workout routine a notch, to get ready for laura's wedding in december, and my first dress fitting in january. that's 3 months away, so it's the perfect time to really get things going! i'm working out a schedule for weight training, and trying to find a weekly class that i can join, to keep me motivated. wish me luck! we also just got tickets to the show "movin' out". it's coming to dc in december, and joe and i love billy joel, so i know we'll have a blast. fun fun!
but this weekend i'm spending it all indoors, cleaning up our place, organizing things for the move, and finishing the save the date cards. i don't have much time left, and next week i'm going to be swamped before our trip. two more weeks... two more weeks... my own closet in two more weeks... :)
joe and i are still recovering from the weekend... lily had the time of her life at the lake, but must have ate something that upset her stomach, as she's not eating her dinner. and for her, that's HUGE. the only other time she's had a hard time eating was when she was super sick with a bladder infection :( but she was more like her normal self today, and her appetite is slowly returning :) this morning was her "orientation" to the new dog boarding place. i refuse to go back to dogs by day after her last visit (her wound on her leg is still healing)... and a friend of mine (thanks robyn!) recommended this place to me. it's called your dog's best friend, and is located in alexandria. i immediately fell in love with the place. they not only walked me through the facility, but i got to see lily's introductions, and they did a bunch of behavior testing on her, to make sure all the dogs would get along great. i talked with the main guy for a bit, and we discussed dog training. he mentioned a positive training technique that he first used on dolphins, and when i mentioned karen pryor and clicker training, his eyes lit up :) he was impressed that i had met her in person, and knew all about the history and methodology. so she's there for the rest of the day, having a ball, i'm sure. we needed a new place to board her, since her vet is no longer boarding, and next weekend we are attending a wedding in new york. so we needed one ASAP, and i'm so glad this looks like it will work out! we'll see how she is when i pick her up this afternoon.
other than that, we move two weeks from tomorrow. time is flying by, and i'm rearing up for this fall's activities. we have a new york wedding, moving, then joe's mom and grandmother are coming to visit in october. then my mom is visiting to help me with wedding details, we have two weekends for our marriage class, then laura's shower in michigan, thanksgiving, laura's bachelorette party, her wedding, and christmas. PHEW. so much to do, and lots to get done for our own wedding. we finally have our guest list finalized, and of course, now the nervousness begins. we have 253 on our list, and our venue is 180 people max for a buffet. oops. and that's not counting children. so joe and i are in a tough spot right now, and are trying to figure out how to make this work. we don't want our friends and family with children to not come, so most likely, if they can't or don't want to find a sitter, we are going to arrange for sitters to take care of the kids during dinner. it's my fault for getting anxious about the list, and not waiting until we had everything finalized to start making plans and telling people they were invited. we'll get it all figured out.
other than that, things are great. we are really concentrating on our move at the moment, and i'm kicking up the workout routine a notch, to get ready for laura's wedding in december, and my first dress fitting in january. that's 3 months away, so it's the perfect time to really get things going! i'm working out a schedule for weight training, and trying to find a weekly class that i can join, to keep me motivated. wish me luck! we also just got tickets to the show "movin' out". it's coming to dc in december, and joe and i love billy joel, so i know we'll have a blast. fun fun!
but this weekend i'm spending it all indoors, cleaning up our place, organizing things for the move, and finishing the save the date cards. i don't have much time left, and next week i'm going to be swamped before our trip. two more weeks... two more weeks... my own closet in two more weeks... :)
| posted at 12:19 PM ~ comments (0) |