Life in the slow lane

We're back and to put it succintly, our vacation was great. We just chilled, doing tons of reading, eating and going to the beach. As I feared, snorkeling didn't work so well for me. Too complicated. Proving once again anything beyond walking is too much hand-eye-foot coordination for the Doctor. But the Guitar Hero got snorkeling time in and even learned to scuba dive. Yay, Guitar Hero! Next time we need a week or two to re-coup, we know Fuerteventura's the place.
Some things we learned while there:
- I only rock at Yahtzee every other night
- Check the map listing the gas stations BEFORE setting off on a road trip across the island.
- Salted butter and baguette make a great breakfast.
- And bread and aioli and papas arrugadas with mojo sauce make a great dinner.
- Read the label when buying orange beverages. Orange drink is NOT orange juice.
- My high school Spanish is still good enough for me to understand the Spanish InStyle. Marie Claire, on the other hand, is somewhat more difficult.

And the best lesson:
- We can spend 10 days without internet or tv and not kill each other.

Hello? Is this thing on?

Has it really been two months since I posted? Jeesus...
Here's the short version of what's been going on:
- Trip to the States was great. Bit stressful cause it wasn't all for fun, but got to see a lot of the country which was nice. A number of burritos were eaten. Got a great dress at Old Navy and summer shoes at Target. My hardware handbag rocked the conference in D.C. Thanks, Allie, for the shopping tip.
- My older niece graduated from high school and leaves for college in a month. That makes me old. Guess what makes me even older? Realizing I have no idea what kids take to college these days. I'm guessing quarters for the pay phone are obsolete. As are floppy disks.
- Spent June working my butt off. As in the number of hours of overtime were double the number of hours I get paid for. Finally cried uncle, which turned out to be a good thing. Should have someone assisting me soon.
- Bought a new laptop that's just the cutest thing in the world because it's so little (but has a normal keyboard - yay!).
- The Guitar Hero got a Wii so I might, just might, start working out with the Wii Fit. Because seriously, I'm getting the body of a flabby old lady. And that's just sad.
- And we're going on vacation in two weeks. 10 days of sunshine, just reading, relaxing and snorkeling (if I can figure out how!).

Bought a bag!

Thanks to some advice from Ms. Allie and a discount, I ordered this little gem. It should come in handy come May when the Guitar Hero and I are traipsing around the States on my business trip. Yes, grown-up me is being sent to visit some American partners and go to a big conference in DC. Cool, weird and nerve-wracking, all at the same time.

The Guitar Hero's on a mission, too, and that's to travel with one bag only. We've been checking out innovative ways of space-saving packing, and I think about how far we've come in the past seven years. This is the man who carried a portable chess computer and tupperware full of snacks on our first overseas trip together because 'you never know'; actually, he carried that chess computer and snacks with him just about everywhere. The latter can be blamed on his German-ness, the former's just weird.

In other news, we discovered that Friskie might just be more clever than any of us thought. Last Saturday morning, we awoke at 7:30 to the sound of our neighbor knocking on our OPEN apartment door. The cat, of course, was nowhere in the apartment - the Guitar Hero found her in the stairwell, down several flights. That damn cat had apparently decided she'd had enough of our weekend late-sleeping shenanigans and decided to go an adventure, probably to find food. Needless to say, we're being more careful about double-locking the door. I tried to tell the Guitar Hero that a dog, say a beagle, would have warned us, but he's not buying it. Damn.

I'm so boring

I've been lazier than lazier on posting lately. I've been swamped at work and by the time I get home, I just need to zone out. I haven't been particularly creative and feel rather boring at the moment. Poor lil me!

Things of interest, perhaps, for you dear readers:

- Germany's Next Top Model: Which candidate amongst this year's group of crybabies is the most annoying and deserving of a massive ass-kicking? IMHO, Gisele, closely followed by Sarah and Boo-hoo-hoo-I-posed-for-Penthouse-girl (I think that's her real name).
- This pico de gallo fucking rocks.
- I'm in need of a big tote bag, and think this one or this one, which Wardrobe Oxygen gave a thumbs-up to, would suit the bill. What do you think?
- I haven't put up any new pictures on my flickr page because that would require me to actually upload them from my camera to the computer. By the time I get around to it, there are going to be something like 2 months of outfits for me to sort and date. Yeah, don't think that's going to happen anytime soon.
- I think I may have broken our new red coffee machine. The steam function doesn't work and it made unhealthy sounds the last time I used it. Thank god we got it on the cheap. Perhaps because it's no longer being manufactured.
- I taught the Guitar Hero the insult from my childhood "Up your nose with a rubber hose!" If I remember correctly, one retort was "Down your pants with a pound of ants!" Anyone remember that one or is my memory completely screwed up?

Yeah, as you can see, the creativity and interestingness* is just overflowing here.



* Should be a word.

Big in Berlin

Just got back from spending a few days in Berlin. Had to go up there (over there?) for a conference - I actually had to work, too, - and the Guitar Hero came up on Friday to join me once the working was over and done with. We had a great time; it was so nice to hide away in a hotel and be silly and serious and romantic. And have brilliant, life-expanding conversations over dinner and the middle of the night. Like about the awesomeness of Hart to Hart and which show rocked more, Automan or Manimal. Saturday we shopped, ate the best hummus sandwiches on the face of the planet (Skaterbol, you know what I'm talking about), met up with Mr. Highsteaks, watched Superbad (laughing our asses off) and did some midnight shopping.

I feel refreshed. I really needed two days with my favorite person.

Now I can return to regularly scheduled programming.

Back again

Estonia was wonderful - I fell in love with Tallinn and want to go back there soon with the Guitar Hero. The Old Town is a beautiful maze of narrow cobblestone streets. The perfect place to get lost in your thoughts while wandering. It was the first time in a long time I travelled by myself and, although I missed the Guitar Hero a lot, I enjoyed being on my own, talking to no one for hours on end.
Here's a picture of the beautiful Estonian goodness:


I'm back at home now with Friskie and the Guitar Hero having fun with the few beautiful days of fall we're having. And enjoying my better than ever pimped-up laptop - I go to Estonia and the Guitar Hero and his friends take my laptop from close to the garbage can to 2007. That rocks!

We've been cooking a lot, drinking red wine (yes, the Guitar Hero will finally drink wine - only took me 6 1/2 years to train him!) and being happy. It's a really good fall!

American Idol I am not

Last night the Guitar Hero and I had some friends over for a little karaoke. And guess what we discovered? I suck. Really. I had the worse score of all of us on the little singstar game. According to singstar, I can't carry a tune to save my life. For those who have had the (mis)fortune to hear me sing, this might not come as the biggest surprise. On the other hand, perhaps my sad, sad scores had to do with my choice in songs. I guess I really don't sound like Mick Jagger or OutKast. I was somewhat better at the rapping parts. Maybe there's a place in the music business for a mid-thirties middle-classe white female hip-hopper with no street cred?
At any rate, I guess we can add this to the list of things I'm not any good at. Here's a partial list:
1) physics
2) sports, particularly those involving running and catching/throwing/hitting balls
3) finding the 8 count in dancing
4) singing

To offset my suckiness and save my self-esteem, here are a few things I'm good at:
1) acting
2) cooking
3) shopping
4) Trivial Pursuit

Sitcom moment

Hilarious sitcom moment today in the rather staid lives of the Doctor and the Guitar Hero. We were walking to the supermarket and the Guitar Hero kept complaining about how hot he was. We stopped so he could take off the sweatshirt he had on under his jacket and over his t-shirt, which is when he realized that while getting dressed this morning he'd forgotten to take off his pajama top. The extra layer he had on might explain why he was so hot. I thought I was going to piss my pants laughing. Color me weird, but I tend to take one set of clothes off before putting another set on.