Obsession of the Week

I've always loved video games. I love me some Super Mario, Donkey Kong, Kirby and Zelda, and I always try to beat every game I can. I'm not really into the shooter type games like Halo, mainly because I find the controls far too confusing and I just end up spinning in a circle.

My newest game obsession just came out on XBox Live on Wednesday and I've already beaten one round of adventure mode:



The basic idea is this:
You own a house. It is being attacked by waves of killer zombies who want to eat your brain. How do you protect your house and brain? Why, you have seed packets that grow plants equipped with defensive maneuvers that kill off the zombies. You collect little suns that fall from the sky to trade in for these seed packets, and then you plant them strategically on the lawn.

Some examples:
Peashooters shoot out peas to hurt the zombies



Corn throws pats of butter to hit the zombies, which causes them to stand still for a few seconds:



Walnuts distract the zombies and are very tough. The zombies can spend awhile standing still eating on the Walnuts, allowing other plants to attack accordingly.



Here's you neighbor, Crazy Dave:



All in all, it is a really fun, addicting game. I'm looking forward to getting home and playing it all weekend (when I'm not at work).

Labor Day - Metaphorically and Literally

So this weekend was Labor Day weekend, so T and I decided to get the heck out of Houston and go see the S'port girls (and husbands). Can I just say again I love these peeps? I am so glad we have kept in touch and have been so great about getting together as often as we can.

When we arrived Saturday morning at Lil' Brudder's house, she first gave me a tour of her awesome new house (seriously J, it is super cute!) and then she shoves a book in my hands. It took me a minute to realize what the title was: 1,000 Baby Names. It all sunk in and I squealed for two minutes and did what I like to call the "pee dance" (if I had a video camera I'd show you, but I've been asking for two gift giving holidays now and no camera has appeared). Then Lil' Brudder calmed me down to say they weren't preggers yet, just decided to try. So then I said "oh...but that's still AMAZING EEEEEEEEEE" and did the pee dance some more.

So the rest of the weekend the topic at hand was all things baby. I'm not going to lie, I've felt the itch lately. I guess I'm settled now and I just know that's the next step. Plus I have the house and dog now...I need a new project. All of my S'port girls are feeling the baby itch, and it is really exciting to all be in the same place at the same time life-wise. We all declared what names were "ours" and then spent an hour at Barnes & Noble flipping through pregnancy books (FYI What to Expect when You Are Expecting is INTENSE). I'm excited that we are for real-reals grown ups now.

So this Labor Day weekend kind of felt like the metaphorical beginning of all our "labor days" to be. See what I did there?

What'd yall do on your Labor Day weekend?

Obsession of the Week

So I'm gonna start a new weekly thing called Obsession of the Week. I think it is pretty self explanatory.

My obsession this week is Suddenly Salad. I'm loving this stuff right now. It is getting me away from eating noodles bathed in tomato sauce anytime I need a quick easy meal, like tonight, when my husband decides to take a "quick nap" at 5:45 and leaves me stranded for dinner since he's still asleep at 8:15. (wow, passive aggressive much? I should work on that...) Anyway, Suddenly Salad is super tasty and really easy to whip up. I'd like to thank S'port Girl J for introducing it to me.

Runner-up obsession of the week is my dog. He sleeps with us in our bed cause he wouldn't stop crying at night in his crate and it broke my heart. I think it has bonded us cause I love our little cuddle sessions in the morning once T has left for work. Sly will come in handy when T has to work nights in a few weeks.

What are you obsessed with this week? Let me know in the comments section so I can jump on your bandwagon.

A Question

Can one be modest and full of themselves at the same time? Cause, I think I am.

Let me back up. I think I'm good at my job. I love what I do, and I work really hard to kick ass at it. But at the same time, I like that I only have one annual performance review because it embarrasses me to hear that I kick ass at my job from other people. I'm pretty sure my boss thinks I'm one of the greatest things since sliced bread (the reason I believe this to be true is he was harder on himself during my evaluation than he was on me, and kept saying he could be better about x, y, or z.), but I hate hearing it because honestly, I feel like the expectation should be that I kick ass BECAUSE its my job and I shouldn't hear about how awesome I am. Honestly I think it makes me a little lazy to hear because then I get comfortable and quit trying for a few days.

A good example of this predicament coming to light recently is with this huge education project I've been slaving over for months now. We are down to the wire and I am mere hours of work away from completion. We were developing the credits page for the project disc, and both my boss and a colleague of mine wanted to put my name at the top of the list as the Project Manager. This embarrassed the crap out of me. 1. I should never, ever be listed higher on a credit list than my own boss and other people who far outrank me and 2. I don't necessarily need a title change. I did what I was asked to do. I don't feel that I deserve any credit above and beyond anyone else.

I find it interesting that one of our departments throws themselves a party after completing this one annual task they are responsible for. Um, what? I don't see why one would think "Hey I did my job...let's throw a party to celebrate!" If we did that in our department for every performance we pulled off, then we would never get anything done. I like having the very occasional pat on the back, hey yall are doing great gathering for the whole company, but I find it disturbing that they feel the need to celebrate that they did what was expected of them...

Is this weird to feel this way? Am I the lone modest, big headed individual in the universe?

I Have a Tendency...

to change my mind. A lot. Constantly, really.

For example, you know how I was super depressed about Sly? Well, I changed my mind. I'm not giving him up. I love my little spastic dog and we've decided to just not have him around people at our house. If we have company he'll go straight upstairs and stay in the goth kid's room. He's absolutely fantastic with just Ted and I and well frankly that's what matters. We aren't going to have a kid anytime soon, but I think he'd do well with a baby constantly being around if and when that time comes.

I know why I'm indecisive - I'm a people pleaser through and through. I overanalyze and look at a situation from every imaginable angle and how my decision will effect the entire universe. I think I know that my decision to eat a turkey sandwich for lunch today won't impact anyone other than myself and the place I purchase it from. However I am also thinking about how I've had a sandwich twice this week and I don't want the custodian to label me "that sandwich and Dr Pepper girl" because of my trash. I know he labels me the Dr Pepper girl cause he told me so when I was at work late and he came in. It freaked me out a little.

Anyway, I drive everyone nuts with my indecision, especially T. Deciding what to do for dinner is always an adventure:
Me: So, what do you want to do for supper? I forgot to take meat out again.
T: I don't care...what do you want?
Me: Ummmmmmmmmmm I don't know what I'm in the mood for. Maybe Sonic?
T: Ok I can do Sonic
*Brief moment of silence*
Me: Nevermind...what about Whataburger? That sounds good, right?
T: Either would be fine.
Me: Ooo no we should have BBQ!
*Brief moment of silence*
T: Ok which one?
Me: I don't know...you pick.
T: I really don't care and I know that you do, so which do you really want?
*Brief moment of silence*
T: Well? BBQ?
Me: Nah, just go to Sonic.

We repeat this same conversation as T walks out the door to get the food. I don't understand how he hasn't murdered me yet.

So if I can't decide food options, how am I supposed to make a sound decision on whether I keep a dog or not. I've gone back and forth every minute of the last few days. Ultimately I love him too much to give him up and I don't want the guilt to kill me. Cause that's another thing I'm horrible about - Guilt. That's a blog for another day.

What are you indecisive about?

The Saddest Panda in all the Lands

So I love my dog. He's amazing...until other people come around. Then he becomes a demon dog apparently and decides he needs to try to bite them. We can't seem to make him stop nor do we have the expertise to figure out how to do that, even with training. So the logical and realistic thing to do is to give him back to the rescue group because we can't handle him. But I don't wanna cause he looks at me with his big brown eyes and I just know he loves his momma.

Meh...I guess I really have no choice because soon people are going to just not want to come over to our house and see us. Therefore I'm the saddest panda in all the lands today. Cheer me up somehow.

Oh and my car is broken...the AC fan or something is out and makes a horrible grinding noise when I try to have air, so I'm currently rolling with no AC. FML.

1st Anniversary Shenanigans

So our first anniversary was last Sunday. I went with tradition and got T a card cause it is officially our 'paper' anniversary (ok honestly I had forgotten until like four days before and I couldn't figure out what to get him...so I told him to buy himself some sort of electronic device he's been coveting lately). T originally intended to take me to S'port for some gambling and a good meal, but we woke up late and I didn't want to ride in a car for four hours just to get there. So he bought me a dog instead. I think I got a sweet deal.

So our little guy is a 14 month old mutt of sorts (we think part Finnish Spitz part Pomeranian part Shiba Inu) and he was really chill and lazy...until he warmed up to us. Now he's hyper all the time. I'm pretty sure T would give him back to the rescue group (they are a no kill group that fosters the dogs in people's homes, so don't think we are cruel horrible people, k?) in a heartbeat, but I already love the little guy. He looks just like a fox. He's currently curled up next to me on the couch on his Ikea pillow watching America's Next Top Model. Maybe he's a gay dog. That's cool with me. His given name is Buddy, but we want to change it to Sly. Here's a picture of my new furbaby:



We also went to Benihana's for dinner. It was soooo gooood. Worth. Every. Penny. We sat at a table with three other couples, and the dude closest to us let us try his wine out of his glass...he offered...it was random. It was good wine so now we know what to get next time we go (Plum wine).

I can't believe it has been a year since our trip down the aisle. We've settled into this nice little routine and some days it feels like we've been married for years and years. I'm a lucky girl.