My Wedding Friend

 
Sandra – She’s crazy, cool, and fun, and half Asian, just like me, and whenever we get together (which is usually at a wedding), we are two peas in a pod. I love this girl.

Come Knock on My Door

 
The longer that I’m with Matt, the more I keep finding little similarities that he has with my dad. It’s not the obvious things like how they watch sports, drink a lot of soda, smoke cigarettes and watch Law and Order that make them alike. It’s the strange little things.

For instance, the other day, I came home to see the Book of Mormon on the end table. We probably have six copies around the house, and we aren’t Mormon. Usually when those door-to-door religious people ring the doorbell, I sit quietly and pretend that I’m not home. If Matt’s home, he will greet the missionaries with open arms. He will listen as they promote their religion, and then he will ask them 1 million questions. In return, they give him the Book of Mormon, and that explains why we have so many copies. When I was growing up, my dad would do the same thing, but his choice was the Jehovah Witnesses. He would give them money for their pamphlet and talk to them, and because he didn’t slam the door on their face, they would come back every couple of months or so.

It’s a very odd comparison, yet I think that’s why I love Matt so much. He has a lot of the qualities and quirks that I find in my dad.

The Office

 Last week, I bought season 1 and season 2 of The Office. For the last 2 seasons, Matt has been ranting and raving about how great the show was. He could probably watch the show on mute and still laugh hysterically. Over the summer, I caught a few episodes and realized what I had been missing, so now I have to catch up. The season premiere is tonight. I can't wait to see what will happen with Jim and Pam.

Junior’s Last Day

Junior will be leaving us today. He is probably one of the most interesting people that I have ever worked with, and I’ve had the pleasure of sitting next to him for the last couple of years. Here are some things that I have observed throughout the years.

• He has an immense love for Canada. For instance, he listens to a Canadian radio station on his computer, visits the country at least once a year, drinks Canadian beer, and wears at least one item of Canadian sports apparel each day.
• He is the only non-Canadian that I know that celebrates Canada Day. You always know that it’s this day because he wears red Canada garb, and he changes his e-mail signature logo to a red image instead of blue.
• You always know when it is hockey season or baseball season by what he is wearing. During hockey season, he wears Toronto Maple Leafs apparel, and during baseball season, he wears Toronto Blue Jays apparel.
• He likes diet sodas and often eats microwavable meals for lunch.
• He often wears a baseball cap to work, and he wears shorts even when it is freezing out.
• When writing his name, do not forget to put the Jr. after his last name. He will correct you. Besides, he would rather be called Junior instead of his first name anyway.

In a few weeks, we will probably have someone new. Hopefully, the new person will be obsessed with baking rather than a country because I love cookies especially homemade ones.

Dear Nancy

I received a postcard in the mail a few days ago. It was addressed to a Nancy with my maiden name. Since it seems like most people with my name have been in retirement for some time, I often get calls from people looking for their old friend.

Here's what was written:

Nancy:

I hope you are the Nancy who loved the Greek Garden's food, who lost her mother and dad ten years ago. I apologize for not being a better friend then and wish you well now.

DG.

How sad. I'm kind of glad that there wasn't a return address though because I think the person would have been sad not knowing it didn't get to the correct recipient. Then again, maybe the sender will be sad if they don't get a reply. Either way, I wish I knew who this really belonged to.

Tool - 10,000 Days Tour

The show was absolutely amazing, and although I'm not a huge TOOL fan like my husband, it was probably the best show that I have ever gone to. Sorry Tori. You're a close second.

Saturday Night Warnings

I was supposed to go out to Clancy's tonight and meet my brother, but after a series of events, I decided that I better go home.

On my way to the bar, I had to make a stop at Target. I was driving about 55 in a 35 when I looked in my rearview mirror and noticed that I had a cop riding my ass. I slowed down to 35, and I kept looking in the mirror to see if the officer was going to pull me over. I get to a red light, and the cop switches lanes. I look over, and he rolls down the window and says, “Miss, do you realize that you were going 55 in a 35?” I looked over, smiled, and said, “Yes.” He said, "I appreciate your honesty. Consider this a warning.” Then he did an illegal U-turn at the red light, to pull over a guy in a truck.

Then, at Target, I was halfway done with my shopping when the sirens went off. We were under a tornado warning. A pimple-faced teenager approached me and told me that I could either go home or go to the dressing rooms to take shelter. I would have liked to go home, but then I had a visual of a tornado coming, me getting out of my car quickly and then scooting my ass into the nearest ditch to take cover. I decided to go to the dressing rooms.

When I finally got out of Target, I was ready to go home. I had enough warnings for one night.

Saving Money and Getting Rich

Usually I’m the one in the house that is always saying ridiculous things. For instance, until Matt informed me, I thought that the song “Dude Looks Like a Lady” was really “Do the Funky Lady.” Don’t ask where that came from, but until then, I had been singing the song wrong for years.

Yesterday, Matt came inside from talking to the neighbor. We have had an ongoing problem with our backyards. There is a bunch of water going along the fence and part of it looks like a small moat. We have called the city, the plumber, the sprinkler guy, and everyone says that it is spring water. Our neighbor has an idea on how to fix the problem. Matt told the neighbor that he would like to find out how much water is running underneath our yard because he would like to put in a well to pump it out and run it to our house. That way we wouldn’t have a water bill. He is totally serious. Our neighbor probably thinks that he is weird. I’ve already come to the decision that we are not going to do that.

Then, when we were eating a dinner, he told me that I should make him a web site that takes $1 donations. At first, I thought that it was for his fantasy football league, but then, he said that it would be just for him. He said that he would just have his picture on there, and a link to make a donation. He thinks that will make him a bunch of money. He’s very strange, but again, he was totally serious.

I think that I’m starting to rub off on him.

One last thing... I just remembered this. Matt and Michael have decided to have a goatee growing contest. Maybe they are planning on going as ZZ Top for Halloween, and they are using the goatee contest as a cover up.

Meet Mia

 
I always thought that I wanted a small dog until Mia came over to visit. She is so small and quick, that I was scared that I would accidentally wheel her over. Matt said that holding Mia was like holding an infant. She is super cute, but not the dog for me.


Mia is a Papillon, and she belongs to my good friend Tom and his girlfriend Emily. We tried to get Reese to play with Mia, but it didn't work out. Reese didn't know if she was playing with a dog or a squirrel, and Mia was overwhelmed by Reese's height that she would start nipping at Reese like a parana. That caused Reese to start barking and Mia to nip even more. After about an hour, we had to separate the two.

It will probably never work out... them being friends. I think they come from totally different dog worlds.

Are We There Yet?

This weekend, Matt and I are going to take a short trip to Kansas City to see his favorite band, Tool. We are notorious for getting lost every time we go on vacation when driving is involved. We have all of our venues mapquested and our trip timed out to give us enough leeway if we get lost.

The first time that we went to Kansas City, we had been dating for a good month. When we were driving home, we thought that we were making really good time. We had been too busy talking, that we didn’t realize that we were driving the wrong way. Matt decided to stop at a rest area to look at the map to see how close we were to Omaha. He came running out to the car and asked me if I wanted to go to Adventureland. I was a bit confused, but when I got out of the car, I realized that we were in the middle of freaking Iowa. This marked the very beginning of our getting lost adventures.

The other day, Matt said that we would leave Kansas City really early the next morning. He said, “Nancy, don’t worry. I’ll wake you up, and you can sleep in the car. When you wake up though, don’t be surprised if we are in Illinois.” It sounds very funny, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened.

Hiatus

College football has started. Fantasy football drafts are complete, and tonight Pro football has begun. It's officially time for Matt to lock himself in the basement until February. This happens every year. At first, I just couldn't understand how someone could sit in front of the TV and watch the sport from Saturday until Monday, but as the years go by, I have slowly started to understand that he simply loves the sport.

Putt-Putt Champion

 
He may be sick, but my dad kicked all of our asses at Putt-Putt Golf this afternoon. He was on Jane's and my team, and he got either a hole in one or a 2 on every hole! He made us look bad.


On the other hand, Bradley got last place, but out of all of us, he probably had the most fun.

Fashionably Fun

 
When I pulled up to my Grandma's house, I saw my 14-year-old cousin standing there with a bunch of graffiti all over her pants. She had written all over a pair of old jeans with Sharpies. At first I looked at her and said, "Please tell me that you do not wear those to school!" When she said no, I was glad because I didn't want her going to high school with the words "Marching Band!" going into her butt. When she asked me if I wanted to help decorate them, I didn't back down. It took me back to the days when I used to wear a white t-shirt on the last day of school for everyone to sign.

Congrats Emily!

My cousin Emily ran for the Student Council, and her class voted her in! I'm so proud! The picture above is her reading the speech that she gave to her class. It was impressive and much better than anything I ever wrote in elementary school.

Top 3 Reasons that I Hate Rain

1. Whenever it rains, my left leg tends to hurt badly. I have shooting pains that don’t seem to quit. If you ever see me looking like Michael J Fox or doing a ridiculous dance, don't worry. That's just me trying to control the pain.
2. Rain causes the worms to come out. They are all over the sidewalk, parking lot, etc. Smashed worm guts on my wheels is not fun. Smashed worm guts on my hands is absolutely disgusting.
3. I can’t hold an umbrella. If I held an umbrella with one hand and wheeled with the other, I would be wheeling in circles. There are a ton of sites on the Internet that have solutions for my umbrella issue. Just do a search on wheelchair rain gear. Below are a few of my options. I just can’t see myself making a purchase anytime soon. What do you think? : ) If you had to pick, which one of the options would you pick below? Jimmy, you don't have to answer. We already know that you'd pick the cape!

The Wheelchair Canopy:



The Wheelchair Cape:



The Wheelchair Poncho:



The Wheelchair Umbrella: