Brightly Colored Salamanders

We moved into a new building at work this week and this new sign in our restroom had me scratching my head. Are we, the users of the toilets, the ones to properly decide if it's solid enough to be a solid? How solid does it have to be to be considered "solid"??? Is the same sign in the men's restroom as well?? These are the things that I ponder as I'm sitting at my desk. What if you have a situation where what's supposed to be a solid, isn't quite solid? Do you flush in the middle? No, because I had to see if that would work, and it doesn't. And to actually wrap your foot around the lever to pull it up for "liquid" waste is a feat in itself! Do they seriously expect us to TOUCH the lever on the toilet?? No.Way. So after almost falling over in the stall because I was trying to properly flush my liquid waste, I decided to treat it all as solid and save myself some embarassment by not having to explain why my sleeve was soaked from falling into the toilet or why I had a mild concussion from banging my head on the wall...

This is what our place looks like on a typical Saturday afternoon. Dog beds pushed and pulled until they find the comfy place. Mom's current yarn project, or two, laying out. Dog TOYS all over the place! A blanket on the floor that's been pilfered from the couch by a cold furbaby. Daddy napping. And at least one dog on the couch.



We actually folded and put our couch blankets away where they’re supposed to go and Miss Thang decided she wanted to lay in them anyway. This is Abbi curled up in our blanket basket.






Hayden, looking out the window, waiting for momma to come home.

...other than Abbi's front leg:












*My red "train bag." I'm dying without it!! It's the bag I would pack everything in for my commute to and from work and without it, I don't have a free hand to fend off the drunken homeless men that seem to gravitate towards me.

*Josh's twine. Even though I think he's a little batty because I've NEVER seen this supposed twine since we've been living together, this seems to have gone missing. He was diligently searching for this last weekend and getting so frustrated that he couldn't find it. Um, sweety, it's twine. It's cheap. Go buy some more!

*A new pair of Josh's jeans, but we're not quite sure we actually had them to begin with...

*A roll of dog poo bags. The importance of these cannot be expressed unless you've been without them.

I think that's it! We still have a few boxes in the garage to unpack but it's stuff that we don't need on an every day basis. I actually don't even know what's still in those boxes... We're still not completely settled though because we have an ever-expanding list of things that need to get done before we can move on to the next project. Here's a little sample:

*Buy curtain rod for master bedroom (we're changing in the bathroom or closet right now so the neighbors can't see us nekkid).
*Fix closet shelving in the second bedroom (it started pulling away from the wall) so we can unload the boxes that are sitting on the floor in there.
*Prime and paint wooden beam in living room.
*Prime and paint pink walls. WOOHOO!!!
*After painting walls, hang pictures, clock, and hook up surround sound.
*Buy, paint, and install baseboard throughout.
*Miraculously find replacement closet doors for master bedroom.

That's all I can think of right now, without having my 3/4 page-long list in front of me. We're entertaining the idea of pulling out the sink in the master bedroom and putting in a pedestal. Just so we can have more room!! We've already installed a medicine chest in the bathroom and that has given us much needed storage space.

Josh made the first fire of the season on Sunday. Since I like to have the windows open most of the time, the temperature in our house is almost North Pole-ish. I tried to get cozy pictures with the dogs in front of the fire, but they were having NOTHING to do with it. I'm sure they'll get used to it though and those cozy pics will come.

Yea for the changing of the seasons!!

Okay, I admit it, I'm a blog-stalker. There are a few blogs that I regularly follow without the blog owner's knowledge. One of them is my sister-in-law's sister's sister-in-law. Uh....what??

Anyway, she's got some great recipes on her blog and I saw one for calzones that looked easy enough for me to tackle. After a quick check in our cupboards and pantry, we amazingly had all of the major ingredients to make the dough and the filling. Josh got sent to the store for the filling while I was making, yes, MAKING, the dough and cooking the chicken breasts. Our filling was a small amount of tomato sauce, the baked chicken, reduced-fat mozzerella cheese, red and yellow bell peppers, and mushrooms. The general consensus was that there needed to be more cheese in there but I went in to food-Nazi mode and told Josh no!. This recipe is definitely a repeater. So thank you, Tami's sister's sister-in-law!! I may just try to tackle pizza next!

The piiiiiiiieeee is made with dough and then you throw it. Into the air... Into the air...


The finished product


And here's a little song that I'll be singing when I try to make homemade pizza.

We turned in our keys to the leasing office yesterday. So long, Stinktown!! We're bummed though because we're leaving behind friends that we recently made, but it'll just force us to make an effort to still get together. Now we can devote all of our time and attention to the duplex, and maybe get the garage cleared out so Josh can finally park the truck in there...

On the 20th of September, Josh and I went to Oakland for an A's vs. Mariners baseball game. It was so much fun and both of us really needed the distraction. The weather was gorgeous: just right for a short-sleeved shirt, but with a little breeze. Our seats kicked butt too!! We were right behind the net, which was a little distracting, but so cool!

Note to parents and potential parents: DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT take small children or toddlers to a sporting event unless you are 100% POSITIVE that they will not scream, cry, act out, misbehave, or incessantly kick the seat of the person in front of them. Having a child like that behind us really made points of the day unenjoyable. The dad ended up taking the kid home after the 6th inning, so he wasn't able to see the double play that the A's were able to make, the three runs that they were able to score off of one hit, and the last inning where the A's were able to win, which was an intense three up, three down. Reason #13595223 that we're not having kids: they ruin sporting events. We really should start making a list of these reasons...

Here are some pictures of the game. Lemme just say that I L-O-V-E my camera!!

Our seats. Ichiro and Ellis were sitting in the stands with us when they weren't out on the field.


Swing and a miss!!


Oakland fans across the field


Check that bat for cork!!


Uh oh....this is never good


The ever-classy picture of Josh with a huge dip in his mouth... The only things missing are a Natural Ice beer can in a coozy in his hand and me with a dirty baby naked, except for a diaper, on my hip. Nice.