Looking forward to Christmas!

Well Thanksgiving has come and gone and I have no news to report. I don’t even have pictures.  We had a great Thanksgiving here in VA with Joey’s side of the family.  The mashed potatoes were simply ah-maze-ing.  They were garlic and sour cream and OMG… I was still craving them 2 days later after all the leftovers were gone…

We had an early meal so Joey’s grandparents could attend in the daylight hours, and then we headed home and busted out the Christmas decorations.  I’m still reluctant to put anything on my freshly painted walls, but I finally gave in and started hanging pictures because we can’t really decorate for Christmas when there is nothing to decorate…

I took advantage of Black Friday weekend to buy things for the house, and we have spent the last week or so really ramping up for the holidays. Becaauuusseeee… my family is coming for Christmas!  I am so excited to host Christmas this year!  Even though it means I have to cook (EEK) and deal with Joey’s dreams of Turducken…

This past weekend we worked on finishing the guest bathroom. It’s now 95% ready for use- it’s missing a towel rack and desperately needs a new shower head.  We’ve put up blinds on the windows (finally) and started putting rugs on the wood floors.  Things are sllooowwwlllyyy coming together.  By Christmas, we will have another guest room furnished as well. 

Now that tomorrow is December, I can get excited about Christmas and the fun ways we are going to celebrate during this month:

~Jingle Bell Run for Arthritis (5k)

~Volunteering at Kmart Shopping Spree (event for needy families that my MIL does every year)

~Seeing The Nutcracker (for the first time since I danced it 12 years ago)

~ICE at the Gaylord National Hotel

~Gish Family Christmas Party (always a shenanigan)

~Davis Family Christmas weekend visit!!

~Hopefully a holiday party I can wear my dress to… (bought a dress… need a party)

~Ringing in Hope 10k on New Year’s Eve

I also realize I owe an explanation of the sudden interest in running. I’m planning a post for that, although I’m almost afraid to write about it because I’m afraid I will jinx it since I’ve been doing a good job with training…

Hooray for December!

Hooray for 3 paychecks this month!

Hooray for Skinny Peppermint Mochas!

~SG

It was a dark and stormy night...

No, really. It was.  It was last night. I was driving home from dance class late last night in a thick, eerie fog.  As I pulled into the driveway, I believe that I entered...

(doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo)

I walked in the house and everything seemed normal, until Joey told me that Doc had been acting really strange.  He was running around licking everything.  To include the walls, floor, tile, etc. And he kept wanting to go outside and eat grass and leaves.  I figured his stomach was just upset, but he was acting totally normal now.  Eating his kibble, drinking water, chewing on his bone, etc.

Of course this put me into panic mode and I started googling all the things that could be wrong with him. But he was happy as a clam (?), and acting completely normal.  So we all went upstairs to go to sleep.

In the middle of the night, I awoke to a torrential downpour outside. We have a huge window in our  bedroom that sits on the side of the house, so the rain was hitting it directly. It was a little spooky.  I laid there for a while listening to it, then listening to make sure Doc was breathing (he was), and finally fell back to sleep.

This morning I awoke to the sound of voices.

I woke up around 6 to get ready for a quick run before work (more on this later). Doc and Joey were still snoozing and didn't seem to hear them. But I did. I told myself I was being silly and got up to get dressed.  Once in the bathroom, I heard them more clearly.  They were coming from *gulp* downstairs.

I cracked open the door and listened. 

Something about........ golf???

I realized the TV was on... which would be a relief except I know for a fact it was off when we went upstairs last night. I know this because Doc and I were outside for one last potty break, and we were surprised to come back in to find the TV off and Joey upstairs reading. 

I crept down the stairs, peeked around the corner, and saw that the TV was OFF.... but talking.

The reciever had turned itself on, as well as all of its' lights.  I went over and switched it all off, and proceeded to cautiously turn on all the lights in the kitchen and living room. 

I checked over my shoulder a few times but the TV and reciever remained off for the rest of the morning.  And Doc is totally fine.  The weather is beautiful with no fog in sight.

So you tell me.  Do you think we briefly entered the Twilight Zone last night?? Was there a power surge that cause the reciever to turn on in the rain storm?  Do we have a ghost that finally decided to make itself known? Is our house trying to tell us something?Is our dog just really bored?

What do you think??

Tis the season... to make fun of Humanity.

"Authorities believe there are other victims who may be too embarrassed to come forward."

Umm.. I'd be embarassed to admit it too if I let someone inject cement into my bum...

Headline of the Day

So about the Cat...

So my father-in-law was at the Property last week.  Hunting. By himself.  And one night he saw a cat on the porch.  Now, this is completely normal as feral cats are common to this area of Virginia and seem to like the shelter of the porch and the leftovers that sometimes get put out there.  But this cat was different.  It was small, and white and black, not tabby or shabby.  And when he opened the door, it ran in the house. 

He noticed she was quite skinny (he assumed she was a “she” because she didn’t have a umm…dangle) and so he put out a bowl of water and some leftover stale cat food that has been kept down there for the feral felines.  After he fed her, he opened the door so she could leave.  But she was not interested.

Fast forward about 5 days, and Joey and I arrived for a long weekend.  We found a happy cat, snuggled warmly on a blanket on the couch, a litterbox made out of a Natural Light case, and my FIL, who had decided the cat was coming back to Woodbridge with him. 

I should have started out by saying that I am not a cat person.  Well, I’m not.  I lived with a cat my senior year in college and he was terribly mean. (Although it could have been the abuse of living with 4 college girls, but I digress…) But this cat was so sweet.  She was snuggly, cute, let you rub her belly, and kept her claws in while she batted your hand around.  When the boys were off hunting, I fashioned her a toy out of a shoe string and some tin foil (TELL me I am not resourceful!) and we chilled on the couch together watching college football.  Joey liked her too, and we decided she could come live with us if my MIL didn’t want her. 

After a nice weekend, we successfully got the cat home in one piece- thanks to a little carrier we bought at the local Maxway.  Wow…. Talk about a small town… here is some info I learned about Chase City, VA:

Males: 1,020    (44.5%)

Females: 1,274   (55.5%)

Estimated median household income in 2009: $24,909 (it was $22,193 in 2000)

*also, I looked for a link to the Maxway website. There wasn't one.

Anyway… Monday morning Joey was still off work, so he took the cat to the vet to make sure she didn’t have any diseases that would kill Doc if we decided they should meet.  She returned from the vet with a clear bill of health. And a penis.

Yup… “She” turned out to be a “he”. 

So now we are struggling with remembering to say “he” vs. “she”, and to figure out a name for the poor thing.  We were thinking Oreo (for obvious reasons) or Natty (because of the litter box) but nothing really seems to fit… does anybody have any suggestions??

Also, we did end up introducing Doc to the “Mow mow” (as you will hear me say in the video).  Please excuse my horrible outfit, lack of makeup, and over-all grossness.  The other guy in the video is my brother-in-law, Jason.

If you turn up the volume, you’ll hear the cat make a really low, growling sound right at the end of the video, which is why I make that face……… enjoy!!!!

Suburbangate 2011

**I wrote this last week but at the time I didn't really feel like laughing about it yet. I think I am ready now... My comments from this week are in red*

What. A. Disaster.

Sometimes I just wonder why and how these things happen to me. It can't be the blonde hair. I mean, I was born with blonde hair but it fell out and turned brown pretty quickly. And you can't tell me the highlights are seeping into my brain... cause that's just ridiculous. (sometimes I wonder.)

Joey drives a really old suburban. It has 200k+ miles on it.  It gets him from home to work, which thankfully for him, is not very far.  It's had a slew of issues but we just keep fixing them and put off buying a new truck with hopes to refinance our home and save a few hundred dollars a month (which could totally be a new car payment) (but probably not).  But one of the current issues is the overdrive doesn't work. Don't ask me what that means, because all I know is that you can't drive it over 55mph. 

Which brings us to today (last wednesday). It's hunting season and he's off work the next few days with plans to go to his family's property to bring home the bear rug that I've been just dying to have (sarcasm).  We decided to switch cars for a few days, because my car is in better shape (note that I did not say GREAT shape) and will make it the 3 hours to the property.  I was to drive the suburban to work today and tomorrow, and all weekend. 

This morning I got in, got the seat situated, had a small issue with tuning the radio  had to call Joey to come down and show me how to tune the radio and headed off to work. I made it all the way into DC with no issues, until I got to a hard right turn by a daycare where the parents just aimlessly park their vehicles wherever they please.  I was focusing on turning the suburban without hitting those idiots, when the steering wheel completely locked (i failed to mention that I turned it ALL THE WAY to the right).  It wouldn't turn!!! I had a long line of cars behind and around me, people were everywhere, and the steering wheel was completely locked.  I was definitely panicking when a (really nice) man who worked at the daycare asked me what was up.  He handed me his notebook, I got out, he got in, and he muscled the steering wheel around and moved the car to the side of the road. We checked the power steering fluid- it was fine, and I thanked him profusely and pointed at the parking lot around the block that I was heading to.  I said I thought I could make it there alright (I was wrong).

I pulled the sub around the corner, which was REALLY hard with no power steering. Folks, we really take it for granted. My arms are SORE.  I managed to get into the parking lot but I couldn't make the sharp turn in the direction they wanted me to go.  After a lot of confusion, yelling, tears, and finally ANOTHER stranger driving my car, we got it parked in a spot (and I'm pretty sure the guy behind me thought I was the dumbest girl ever).  Oh, and at this point I was definitely late to work.  I was embarrassed and completely flustered, and I thanked the guy that helped me and assured me the car wouldn't stay there forever.  And I hurried away.

You can bet Joey wasn't too pleased when I called with this news.  He was about to hit the road for a 5 day hunting trip.  And now he had to drive (in rush hour traffic) to the Navy Yard to deal with "whatever I did to his car".  Right. Cause I did it on purpose......

Upon our arrival to the scene of the crime, the first thing Joey notices is that the back passenger window is completely down (way to go!). Which wouldn't be AS big of a problem if the sub wasn't full of our personal belongings Joey's expensive lacrosse gear from our last load of stuff from Mama Gishes house last weekend (yep. We're slackers).  So of course I get an earful about leaving the window down (cause again, I did it on purpose).  And THEN the sub just wouldn't turn on. The battery was completely dead.

Why? I left the lights on (freaking.idiot.).  I was striking out left and right! I had been so upset over the entire ordeal that I didn't even notice the lights were on and the window was down.  Whoops.  Good thing I carry jumper cables in MY car.  I had to drive through/into a bush to get the car situated and after needing Joey's help to remove it, he decided to revoke my driver's license. (Ok most likely a joke. I hope.) (definitely not a joke).

FINALLY, we got the sub running, he checked the belts and what not, and he backed out of the spot with great difficulty.  I felt better seeing him realize how jacked up and HEAVY the steering is.  And he was off, back home.  He even managed to get some well deserved Popeyes on the way. (and go through the bank drive through. and basically didn't have any trouble driving it.)

While I guess I'm pretty bitter (and Joey's extremely bitter) at the situation but there's nothing either of us could have done to prevent it (that I am aware of).  I really do have to say how thankful I am that he constantly remains calm and is able to fix every ridiculous completely stupid- how the hell does this stuff happen!? situation I get myself into.  I'm pretty lucky.

 **Yep, definitely funnier a week later. I am SUCH an idiot!!!!! I hope you had fun laughing at me, cause I sure did!**

 

 

Santa? Is that you?

Since everyone else seems to have skipped right over poor Thanksgiving and straight to Christmas, I felt that this article was a seasonably appropriate Headline of the Day. 

Teen rescued after 10 hours in chimney of Ga. home

Fun with Photography

This weekend I was dragged against my will on Joey's hunting trip to The Property. OK I'm kidding- I went willingly, but I knew I was going to be BORED.  See, hunting camp is not fun because you can't do anything loud (read: no dogs allowed), you can't go for a ride to the back field because it might scare away all the deer, and you can't have a big bonfire for the same reason.  So I brought a bunch of magazines, movies, and my camera.  It's a good thing I really love Fall, because this season at The Property is my absolute favorite.  The colors are beautiful and the Virginia countryside provides a gorgeous backdrop.  Here are a few select sights from this past weekend. I hope you enjoy them!

Happy Fall, Y'all!

~SG

Friday Fotos!

Sorry that was a really lame title...

Here is a completely pointless dump of photos taken on my blackberry (yeah... I still have one of those archaic things) throughout the past few weeks.  They have nothing to do with anything.

Driving into Disney World on our Port Canaveral cruise excursion. AKA we rented a car and drove the 45 miles to Orlando. It was surprisingly easy.  Like, really easy.  Believe me, if anybody can screw up renting a car and making it back to their cruise ship on time, that would be me.  And I managed not to.  Win.

I've been all excited about taking pictures of our dinners lately. Not that I've really contributed to them OR made anything from scratch or anything cool that most people do when they try new recipes (what's a recipe?)... but I thought it looked delicious.  It's pork tenderloin made with mushrooms and onions plus rice and green beans.

This is a good example of the chaos at our house.  Yes, it's a picture of a steak, mashed potatoes/gravy, and Broccoli Au Gratin (google it.), but it's also a pre-kitchen table photo, with the hungry dog lurking below, with dog toys strewn around the living room accompanied by shoes and halloween crap that I can't bear to put out anywhere cause it's from the dollar store and TACKY.

Small dog? No problem.

Typical "play with me" face.  And no, it's not a request. It's a demand.

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!!

~SG

Overdue House Pics

If you stalk me on Facebook you will have already seen most of these pictures.  But I did throw in a pic (at the end) of our brand new kitchen table that NOBODY has seen yet! 

The rest of the pictures were taken in the first couple weeks of October.  My parents were finally able to make it down to see the new house around that time (no hurricanes this time! yay!) and we offered to let them stay at Hotel Gish. Plus they wanted to bring Doc's Auntie Dakota, and most hotels don't welcome doggies.  PLUS we now had an excuse to buy ourselves a new mattress.  So we transferred the old one into this room, put up some curtains, set up the furniture, and Voila! We are now ready for overnight guests.

This is also an outdated photo of the kitchen.  But it's after we put up some curtains, moved in our kitchen stuff, and added some fall decor.  Someday we will get an actual microwave that goes over the stove, but for now we are using my little one from college.  I can't believe that thing still works...

Here's one of the entire house for good measure. Although as I was leaving for work this morning I made a mental note to take another one, because now BOTH trees have started losing leaves/changing colors, so it looks a little more fall-y and less "why-is-your-tree-losing-it's-leaves-in-september"-y.  And for the record, I have no idea.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for.  A picture of our new kitchen table, complete with lack of curtains on the kitchen windows.  As you can see, we are moving along slowly but we have yet to remedy the curtain shortage of 2011.  Maybe before Christmas?

Hope you all have a spectacular day!

~SG

Halloween Recap

Just wanted to share a quick recap:

Halloween was a success at the Gish household!  When the evening started, I was worried we wouldn't get too many trick or treaters.  But we ended up going through 3 bags of candy!  I didn't wear a "costume", per se, but I did wear the mouse ears I acquired in Disney World 2 weeks ago (quick cruise pit stop) and some other Halloweeny stuff.  Doc was a bumble bee.  I didn't necessarily plan for him to be a bumble bee but for 5 bucks at Walmart, it sounds like a plan.  Even though I'd LOVE to buy an elaborate costume for him, I'd get chewed out for it and really, I'd rather spend $50 on new shoes or something...

I did have to apologize for my barking bumble bee throughout the night ("he's all buzz and no sting!") but we also used it as a sort of training opportunity.  I would answer the door while Joey distracted him with treats (and made him do tricks!).  We also put up the baby gates because the first time the doorbell rang he went tearing off to the little windows on either side of the door and was visciously defending his home.  Lucky for us most of the kids wanted to know what kind of dog he was and/or tell me about their dog.  Kids are so funny.

In terms of decorations, we didn't have much.  I didn't really go out an get decorations for the house because we are still working on things like.... curtains.  So we don't really have any business buying Halloween crap.  So I just used what we already had.  Not spectacular, but we lit up the place like a Christmas tree so the kids would know it was a candy-giving house.

My astronaut.  Just another prop I bought for the cruise that didn't end up being worn.  So Joey wore it for ~5 minutes while he drank a beer and lit the pumpkin because I thought I was going to burn my fingers off.

Before we gave away all our candy, I'd say we had about 20-25 Trick-or-Treaters.  We decided to call it a night a little after 9 when a group of 6 middle school-age boys pulled up in their parents SUV.  They were clearly being driven all over town.  Majorly frowning upon that. I said on my Facebook that I don't have a problem with a parent driving their kid around due to health reasons or safety reasons. But when you are doing it because your greedy kid is trying to collect as much free stuff as possible/doesn't want to WALK to do it.... then I will judge you.

And now my rant is over. 

We checked left and right to make sure no more LEGIT Trick-or-Treaters were coming up the street, then we blew out the candles and turned off all the lights.  And watched the football game.

Happy Halloween to all and to all a good November!!

~SG