The 100th Post

I just realized this is my 100th blog post. Yay! I feel like I should write about something significant since it is the big 1-0-0, but I have rarely written anything terribly significant on here so why start now? hee hee. So instead let's do a year in review in the form of a top 10 list. Approximately one year and one month ago, I bought my first home. Approximately a year ago I moved into said home (as you may remember it needed some work before I could move in). Being a homeowner has taught me many things and I'm sure I have many more to learn. So in no significant order, here we go...

10. Paint is expensive--even if you have a coupon and know people.

9. Megan was right, contractors, electricians, plumbers, etc do not always show up when they are supposed to despite you rearranging your schedule for them (but don't you dare be late for them).

8. Roof rakes are a great invention.

7. When you live this close to the woods, like it or not, you're going to be visited by a few spiders, oh, and a few branches are going to fall on your roof and all around your home.

6. Knowing people who can fix things like electric baseboards, garbage disposals, and hot water heaters is amazing. Thank you!

5. I now know what kind of floors I do and do not want in my next home.

4. If you're going to have a leak, it's going to happen on a Sunday night when most plumbers are closed and charge extra to come out., oh, and I think plumbers make more in an hour than I make in a day.

3. Finally having a purple room is great. :)

2. Coming home on a cold day after working for 12 hours and finding you do not have heat is annoying (not to mention FREEZING). Waking up the next day and having no heat or electricity is worse.

1. Owning a home is certainly an expensive adventure, and though I could do without large bills, power outages, and broken things, having one's own space for peace and quiet, dinner parties, game nights, silly decorartions, etc is wonderful. Here's to the next year and the next 100 posts. :)

Words

Are there any words you don't like? The other day as I was getting ready to go in to work (yes, to work on a my day off, lovely huh?), I had "Regis and Kelly" on for a few minutes and Jimmy Fallon was on. He happened to mention that he does not like the word moist. Lightbulb goes on and...a blog idea! I don't necessarily have any strong feelings about the word moist, but there are some words I dislike.

Thorough--I think this stems from the fact that when I was a kid and it was my turn to clean the kitchen, my dad always said to do a thorough job cleaning it about 8000 times.

Potty-- I don't know why it irritates me, but it does, especially when adults say it in an annoying little voice.

caca--I knew an adult who regularly used this word around her child, really, can't you just say go the bathroom?

inflammable--I don't so much have a problem with the word as the definition, flammable and inflammable mean the same thing. Doesn't it sound like they should be opposites?

idear--it's IDEA, not idear, there is no r

ant--as in my Ant Lucy (and no I don't have an Ant Lucy). Ant is an insect, it's aunt (but yes, I get that if I lived elsehwere, I would probably say ant, however, since I live here it's aunt).

So what words annoy you?

It Isn't Broken so I'm Not Fixing It

Have you ever heard the (poorly worded) expression, "If it aint broken, don't fix it?" Well, that applies to me right now. I have a phone, an old phone mind you and many of my friends like to constantly make fun of me because the phone is old. Truth be told, I had phone even older than that, that worked just fine, but I finally gave in to peer pressure and upgraded. Here is my thinking, there is NOTHING wrong with my phone. Sure it's a few years old (which I guess makes it antique by phone standards) and perhaps having a real keyboard would be nice (okay, I confess I have considered upgrading to a phone with a keyboard), but otherwise, it works fine. It can make and receive calls and send and receive texts. It even has a calculator, calendar, alarm clock, and camera. It has other things too, but I don't use them. You see people, I am cheap. Okay, not so much cheap as lacking in money (and who isn't these days, well, aside from really rich people I guess). I can't justify getting an iphone and paying an extra $30 a month for internet access when I can get the internet at home and at work. (I would much rather spend my money on traveling). Sure, it would be nice to have it when I'm at a bar or something and everyone around me pulls out their phone and starts looking stuff up on-line or playing Words with Friends, but on the other hand, if I'm out with my friends, I'd like to think I'm there to see them, not play with my phone. I was once on a date and the guy was on his phone every 10 minutes. Seriously?! Am I that boring (okay, I am but that's beside the point)? The date wasn't bad, we even had another one, but really, put the phone down for an hour or two and talk to me while. So for now, I am sticking with my "antique" (and by "antique I mean 4-5 years old) phone.

Do Tacos Cause Weird Dreams?

Do you ever have weird dreams? I imagine most people do, right? Well, the other night, I had quite a strange one. It was the first day of school and I was teaching, or at least, trying to. First, I couldn't teach because one of my students kept biting me. Then I was trying to meet my students, but none of them knew their names and the few that did had names that I couldn't spell or say so I couldn't write them down. Later on, I somehow settled them down and the head of the school district came to visit as I was getting my kids ready for a field trip to the casino. What kind of teacher takes her students to a casino for a field trip?! Especially since they were only in elementary school. What would the dream experts say about that? I didn't even eat anything that weird near bedtime. About 4 hours earlier I ate a chicken taco, maybe something weird was in the taco lol.

The Reality Is, It's Not Really Reality, Is it?

You guys, I have a confession. I don't like reality tv shows. I'm sure some of you may now think less of me, but I just can't get into them--though goodness knows I watch some weird things, but not reality shows. MC was over the other night and he wanted to watch "Jersey Shore. " I had to leave the room. I also regularly leave the room when he puts on "Parking Wars," which is ironic, since it's MY house. HE should be leaving the room, or perhaps coming to visit when these shows are NOT on. :-p (I confess I stayed in the room yesterday when he had "Judge Judy" on, oops.) But you guys, I can't watch them. If I want to hear a lot of yelling, there are various people I can go see. Mostly, I enjoy my peace and quiet. I mean not total quiet, I like to have music on or watch tv, but I cannot get into these shows where people just yell and scream at each other. I have enough problems in my life without watching all that. And the "problems" some of these people have. I'm sorry, but I am NOT sympathetic to the fact that you needed an extra suitcase to bring your 32 shoes to Italy and then had to buy 20+ more pairs. Seriously, there are people with incurable diseases, now that is a major problem. Or we dont' even have to go that far, people are jobless, short on cash, depressed, etc. Maybe you should pack fewer shoes?!?! And I really don't want to watch two men argue over building bikes or finding antiques. Now to each his/her own, watch what you want, but really, it makes me wonder. How realistic are these reality shows? Is life really like that? I guess I lead a sheltered life out here in my neck of the woods. Maybe I should start my own reality show and call it "The Boring Girl Who Blogs." And how much money do some of these people make to do yell at each other? In some professions, it's disrepectful to yell. Okay and then there's this weird show about people who give out parking tickets. OMG who knew giving out parking tickets could be so dramatic, I mean no one likes to get a ticket, but chill out people, you don't have to verbally abuse the person who gave you a ticket. And don't even get me started on those crazy shows where your cousin's aunt's uncle slept with his daughter's niece's frog. Honestly, I think I'd rather watch football. In the mean time I'm off to watch one of my silly non-reality shows or read a book (in another room) while the MC watches some guys yell at each other about cars. Good thing I have two tv's and a big stack of books.

Game Night

I'm into games lately. I've hosted/attended several games nights and I'm hosting another one this weekend. It's funny how life goes in phases. I liked games when I was a kid, then stopped playing for years, then in my pre-teens/teenage years would play a few games with my best friend and a couple of other friends. Then aside from the ocassional card game in college (we'll leave it at that lol) and a few competitve games of Trivia Pursuit at family parties, I didn't really play games for years. Now it's the in thing to do. I've recently discovered Apples to Apples and I love it. Scattegories, which I previously hadn't played in years in enjoyable as is Taboo (one of my favorites). Even Scrabble is cool again (as is the itouch version, Words With Friends). My friend also introduced me to Catchphrase, which is fun. Game Night is now a nice cheap FUN way to spend an evening. We always have a few laughs. Perhaps I'm getting old, but these days I'm all for staying in with some food and drinks and some good games with good friends. Anyone want to play Bananagrams? :)