Prince Caspian brings you good music

We went to see Prince Caspian today. (That's two movies within a week of each other; we must be crazy.) The movie was okay, not as good as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe...but the music was good. Regina Spektor provided some good fade to black with "The Call."

Arboretum is a good time

Here's a slideshow I put together of all the pictures I took at the arboretum. I can't wait to go back—and it's free! Just watch out for the rattlesnakes and cooperheads...and the various other snakes native to the area.

Nana Banana back in business

My iPod, Nana Banana, is charging. Ever since our old computer died, poor Nana hasn't been charged. I haven't enjoyed the music gems I had stored on her for several months. Now she's hooked up to MacDaddy to become restored and returned to her rightful position. Can't wait to get some new music on her. Please feel free to send all music suggestions.

Monday-like pickup song

Today was a Monday-like day, so here's a song to cheer you up a bit from those beginning of the week blues.

Update on the ants

Chance had done some research and found out that ants will not go anywhere near baby powder. So we bought some baby powder, lined our window—it now looks like fake snow—and waited. I'm glad to say we haven't seen an ant in one and half days. Got ants? Get baby powder and put it at the place they seem to be getting in at. Thanks Chance!

Three snakes, two lizards, and a turtle

We finally made it to the arboretum. The weather was so perfect, with a light breeze. The highlight was seeing three snakes, one which happened to slither across the path in front of us. Very cool. We also saw one sunning on a rock and the other going for swim with the tiniest turtle right behind him (her?). There was also some great artwork around, but my camera battery died before I could get a picture of the best sculpture—a helicopter frog. I guess that means a return trip to get pictures of all the thing I couldn't snap before the battery went dead. Here's a few pictures. I'll post more later.

Another one bites the dust

I just put another issue of Urban Times to bed. Thirty-four long hours went into this issue, along with a bit of my sanity and patience. Right now, I'm doing a little jig. Tomorrow, we will venture to the arboretum I have talked about, with promises of pictures. Until then, good night. Have a happy Memorial Day!

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If you're wondering about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the ending took me by complete surprise, and probably not a good surprise. One word: aliens, nuf said. But that ol' Harrison was HOT!

Your bed should look good

We haven't ever bought a duvet for our down comforter because I never found one I liked. They were either too plain, too flowery, or just too much. We have these gorgeous robin-egg blue sheets, which pair nicely with the brown curtains I have hanging on thw window, but it's hard to find something to match. I came across DwellStudio bedding today in my weekly Target ad, and if I had the money, I'd totally buy the Baroque set for my bedroom and the Perch set for my guest room.

When work takes over, have a picnic

We didn't get anywhere near our plans of going to the arboretum yesterday. I was stuck on the computer much of the day proofing PDFs of the latest issue of Urban Times. But by the end of the day, I was needing to get out. Must. get. out.

It was too late to go to the movies, unless we wanted to go to the really late one, where teeny boppers rule the roost and annoy the heck out of you. It was also too late to go to the bookstore and browse if we wanted to go grocery shopping as well. So after I put together our menu for the week, looking over cookbooks and checking out the Chicken Chicken Mole and Mexican Red Rice (we watched Simply Delicioso's Ingrid Hoffman earlier that day) for our Memorial Day feast, we headed to Super Target to get our weekly shopping done and grant me a little get-out-of-the-house sanity and give my eyes a rest.

We also decided that this weekend should be really fun when I wasn't working. And one of the things we wanted to do was a wine, fancy cheese, strawberries, grapes, bread, pound cake, and melted chocolate for dipping smorgasbord. After returning from our shopping trip, I laid out a blanket on our living room floor and we had an indoor picnic. It was so fun! We talked about work (bleh, I know!) and what kind parents we would be. It was great just to have that time with the TV off, the computer powered down, and just enjoy each other's company—and yum yum food.

Here's what made up our indoor picnic:

Havarti cheese (This is a wonderful soft cheese to eat with fruit. It's really rich, so I recommend a lighter fare cheese to go with it.)

Gouda cheese (This one paired nicely with the Havarti, but I'm sure there's a better match out there.)

A French baguette (Crusty bread cut into .5in-thick slices—perfect size for the cheese slices.)

Hershey's Bliss chocolate pieces melted fondue-style. I normally use Dove chocolates, but they're hard to find when it's not a holiday. These were just the same. Good find. (We didn't break out the big fondue pot just for a few pieces of chocolate, instead we used our little Fondue au chocolat pot that heats with a tea light. Thanks Sis for getting that for us. You're right, it's very useful.)

Strawberries and green grapes

Blackberry Mead from the Pirtle Winery in Weston, Mo.

One blanket

Candles (make it romantic!)

The ants go marching

one by one. Hurrah! Hurrah!

You may wonder why I have this song in my head, and that's because the ants are literally marching one by one into our kitchen. A couple of weeks ago we told out apartment manager, who said they would spray. Spray they did. But did it help get rid of these pests? Nope. We bought some ant things with poison for them to crawl into, grab some food (poison), and carry it back to their queen. So far it doesn't seem to have worked. The ants continue to march in all kinds of numbers into our kitchen via our kitchen window. This means that I'm on constant dish-washing duty, where I keep the Windex bottle at the ready—my weapon of choice for the ants are too far away from the traps to reap the poison. There's some satisfaction being able to watch those little suckers die and get swept into the trash.

I really don't understand why the "Ants Go Marching On" is so upbeat. Not "hurrah!" It's more like, "Dammit! Dammit!" But the song is catchy anyhow. Both Jonathan and I have taken to singing it to keep ourselves from being driven mad.

Side note: I'm not sure why my posts this week have been violent; first the key fob, and now the Windex. I'll try to start writing about fuzzy stuff. Jonathan and I are going to try to make it to an arboretum and go see the new Indy flick this weekend. I'll try to take pictures of the trees and write an upbeat post so as not to drag done the mood of this blog.

Security is a big pain

This week my work just implemented a policy that you have to have your key card to ride the elevator now that we are sharing the building with other tenants on the first floor. It's such a pain.

I had always prided myself on not having to wear some hideous badge everywhere like Jonathan does working for the state. Now, my key card is hooked to my clothing with a killer fob where ever I go. I say killer because I think if needed, I could strangle somebody with it because it's only this tiny little rope, like a miniature retractable dog leash. In an age where everyone is security paranoid, it's going a little overboard in my book to make the elevators accessible only by key card. What are the tenants going to do? Rob of us of our crappy computers. I welcome the opportunity for them to do that. I think if anyone tried to rob us, they'd take one look around and think they were transported back in time. Maybe they could make some money—off our antiques!

All I can say is: don't meet me in the parking lot. I'm armed.

Discover Barclay Martin

in Kansas City. This music makes all the stress drain out of my body.

I know to how to procrastinate

Ugh. Must work. Want to procrastinate. It's 8 o'clock and there's several things I should be doing right now instead of writing here. But I have fans. Fans who lovingly check this blog everyday for new posts. So here I sit at my kitchen table chowing down the chocolate chip cookies J.L. bought be as a surprise (he knows the way to my heart).

Things I must get done:
Edit PDFs for Urban Times
Edit copy for Urban Times
Transcribe interview for an article I'm writing for my day job
Write said article

Here's the timeline of my procrastination:
5-Drive home from work
5:45-Get on treadmill (This can't count as procrastination because technically exercise is one of my goals; it just necessarily shouldn't be at the top of my priority list when I have a list of Things I must get done)
6:21-Call sister, proceed to talk for more than an hour
7:32-Call another sister, proceed to talk for 45 minutes
8:08-Eat chocolate chip cookies and wonder how I can waste some more time
8:09-Write this blog entry

Amazing how you can find something to do when you should really be doing something else, but then you can't find anything to do when you're bored.

My favorite things

Got the idea from Chance. I'm not as much of a shopper and packer as she is, so my favorite things list is rather shorter.

Down goes the folic acid

Before you ask, no, I'm not pregnant. No where close. Even the tiniest bit. But maybe next year or the year after or the year after (no, I'm not a procrastinator), with any luck—if everything falls into place with finding a home, work load getting lighter, and all the necessities that a baby requires. I read recently that women of childbearing age should take folic acid before getting pregnant. So I figured I would start now and make it part of my routine. The other part of my preparing for Jessaca to be a mommy (crazy, I know; I must have lost my mind): changing my medication to a once daily shot (ugh!). The current shot I take to maintain my MS is a three-times a week shot, but it's not rated safe by the FDA to take while trying to conceive/early pregnancy. So, just because I can only imagine conception as a pretty stressful time (heh!), and then add to the fact that I would need to change to a more frequent shot, I decided to just do all the ugly stuff now. I'm all about being prepared. The downfall is that my poor skin where I give my shots currently is so sore, that I can only image what doing a shot once a day is going to do to it. Woe is me. Really, I'm lucky. At least there is a medication I can take that is safe. And really, doing a once-daily shot doesn't scare me as much as being a mommy. Me? A mom? Hahahahahahahaha.

The road ahead is a bumpy one

Today, my youngest sis-in-law graduated high school. It was a bittersweet affair for the entire family. After knowing her for more than 9 years (yes, I know, 9 years), she's completely an independent person. I remembered when she would line up her Polly Pockets around the house, grasping her blanket, and asking me to play with her. It's a far cry from the person she has become, and the person she has yet to become. It's so fun to see her transform and grow. When I was her age, I thought I was on top of the world. Lordy (as M.O.M. would say). If only I knew then what I know today. Life is messy, brilliant, and I really need to start enjoying it more.

My goals for enjoying life more:
1. Take more pictures...of everything and everyone. I'm not that comfortable behind the camera, so I tend not to take pictures. Perhaps if I can talk Jonathan into a snazzy new camera, I'll be more inclined to taking pictures.

2. Get out of the house more often. This will be tricky. I'm a homebody and I am very frugal. And I equate getting out of the house with spending money.

3. Spruce up my patio. I need to get outside more often. I think if I put some pretty plants on my patio and my some patio furniture (there's that spending money thing again), I'd be outside everyday. Vitamin D is very healthy.

4. Exercise. This is probably the hardest goal because it means I need to get off this increasing-getting-larger behind. A yoga pass may be essential.

Time flies when you're having fun

The apartment is empty of our great guests. The only evidence that remains that Andy, Chance, and AJ were ever here is the water bottle they forgot. I miss AJ's little voice and giggle, and my listening to my sister's oh-so-exciting conversations in person.

The trip was fun, crazy, and at sometimes a little challenging. It rained everyday we were in Missouri. We drove, and drove, and drove, and drove. Poor AJ probably can't stand the site of his car seat anymore—or Black Beauty for that matter. We ate lots of food (including some evil fast food!), but I did manage to get in homemade chicken pot pie, asian lettuce wraps, and roast, Crock Pot mac 'n' cheese, and mashed potatoes. I've been declared a fabulous cook! I'd say the trip was a success just from that compliment alone.

Got to see M.O.M., who got to see AJ for the first time. It was such a sight to behold watching her take him in and snuggling him up. We also fed the rainbow trout at Bennett Springs State Park hatchery. It was too cute watching AJ throw in fish food pebble at a time. We would have been there all day if Chance and I hadn't throw in a few handfuls ourselves. The upside to the rain was everything was lush and green. My most favorite parts of the trip was holding AJ's hand (it's so tiny, it's almost hard to hold) and watching him give me a sleepy grin.

Apparently the trip is on for next year as well, only this time camping out at Bennett Springs. Bugs, mud, spiders#&151;I think I might have to be busy next year. But for that cute grin of AJ's, I'd get bit by spider. It's worth it.

MOLE!

Got a suspicious looking mole removed from my wrist yesterday. The whole process was quite traumatic. There's several ways a doctor can removed a mole: with a punch tool, burning/freezing it, or slicing it off with a scalpel. Guess what method doc used on me? Yup, a scalpel.

They numbed my wrist with a shot. Which wasn't too bad, except it's the kind of shot where they slowly inject the magical numbing medication. So it started to hurt after a few seconds. Like a never-ending shot. When the doc started cutting, it just felt like she was drawing on my arm. It was such a weird feeling. That's when I started feeling very quesy.

"Jessaca, you doing okay?"

"Yeah, I think it's just nerves."

"Well, we're stitching you now."

So after what I think was three stitches (I was too afraid to look), they let me lay there. And I passed the hurl stage. The whole process made me realize that as I've aged how sensitive I've become to blood and stuff. The wound is still under wraps because I'm too afraid to look at it.

Oh the joys of taking care of yourself. I did after all volunteer the information that I was concerned about the state of the mole. It had began to change shapes. So, if you really think about it, I did this to myself. I volunteered to get my skin sliced open.