Jill

So, I get home from the gym. Go 'round the house to get the mail as usual. Open the door and it hits me.

Something delicious is emanating from the kitchen.

My husband, who had to come in to work three hours early today to work a full twelve, somehow managed to find time to make a crockpot full of delicious soup - all different kinds of veggies and what looks like italian spicy sausage. Oh, it was so delicious.

Next to the crock pot was a big bouquet of lovely flowers, a sweet card that brought tears to my eyes, and a small, beautifully wrapped box.

My husband never wraps things. "gift bag" is his mode of choice.

In the box was a beautifully delicate necklace with a single pearl that will match the earring he got me for Christmas two years ago.

He really is quite wonderful.

hmmm

Nothing truly interesting going on around here. I had my first meeting with my new grad school advisor, Ben. He really cemented my reasonings for choosing this particular major. We picked out the first two classes I'll take next semester and I just have to find an old report card from SCSU from 4 years ago that might have my tech id and I can start registering for my classes.

The highlight of my day was after leaving Ben's office and I realized I had enough time to stop at home and maybe see Tim for 15 minutes or so. Damn, I love that man. He's on his new evening shift so I don't get to see him until he wakes me up around 1am and then I'm usually incoherent. Mornings I get to see him a little bit, too. I'm ready for Saturday, though!

You know you've worked too long in the printing industry when... So, this lady in customer service has been getting on my nerves more and more over the past month. She gives a maybe 65% effort most of the time and expects perfection from everybody else while she treats them like they don't do that much anyways. So, anyway, I wasn't sure exactly what to do with a request for a customer asking for a font to be increased on a coupon and brought back a screen shot so they could let me know if it was a big enough increase. The distance between the dollar amount and the words was decidedly smaller than before (because the font was bigger). I said it looked like it had about a tenth of an inch between. She said "I don't know what a tenth is. What's a tenth?" And then she proceeded to turn, look at a ruler and say, "Oh, a tenth is almost an eighth. Ok."

I kinda had to leave her cubicle for a while before bursting out laughing.

The printing industry uses eighths and sixteenths and thirty-seconds of inches as primary measuring units. Even though most of our machines are from Germany. But, still. "What's a tenth?" *just shakes her head*

Last night I went out with a bunch of co-workers as it was the end of their work-week (12-hour days like I used to be on). The end of the night was just me, my boss Rick and my co-worker Missy. Missy, having signed her divorce papers not even a month ago. Rick, on his second marriage which has been loveless for at least ten years. Me, who is going on her seventh month of wedded bliss. Just add beer and interesting conversation ensues.

Needless to say, I got home in a shaky state of mind, expecting the marriage to collapse at any second. Which is why I really appreciated the 15 minutes this afternoon of sitting on the stairs with my husband chatting and kissing and grinning at each other all goofy and googly eyed.

Rick, by the way, is very convinced that it isn't until your third marriage that you'll finally be happy. But it takes two years to get over a heartbreak. And two years to get over the infatuation. And, wait, he has to go pee again.

You should listen to this because I told you to.

Cary Brothers' Blue Eyes. (Hint: you have to click on the song to make it play)

RESPECT MAH AUTHORITAY!

I may or may not have chosen this song as the first to dance to with my husband. :)

Reasons why I believe I won the jackpot in the husband lottery:

1. This weekend, he got his motorcycle back and looked ever so dreamy and studly with the motorcycle jacket I bought him and slightly tousled helmet hair
2. Then he took me for a half-block bike ride and didn't make fun of me too much for panic-giggling in his ear and saying "I wasn't attached to anything!"
3. He had Monday and Tuesday off this week and painted the whole kitchen. He even tore down his beloved "wall of weed" wall paper and painted there, too. He even did a double coat!
4. Tuesday, he then bribed Gary and Bryan into helping he fetch our new stove from Menards and removed the old stove and installed the new one. And our new range hood.
5. Wednesday, he went with me to a co-worker's birthday party/boss's new promotion party and hung out with us.
6. Today, I get home to steak on the grill, corn on the cob on the grill, and roasted buttery garlic potatoes, carrots and onions on the grill.

Note: This list is not entire. It is only the most recent awesomeness that has occurred in the past five days.

Last night I dropped off the 23 FunSaver cameras from the reception at Coborns. It'll be interesting to see if I can tell the difference between the photos of the most avid photographers that night: the 2 year old ring bearer Jack or the 9 year old nephew Craig. Neither of whom really got the concept of setting the flash. :)

( Ruminations of being an Aunt )

The wedding day was really golden. ( Read more... )

I just got finished planting some flowers around the mailbox and digging up our tulip bulbs in the back garden. Just as I was digging up my last tulip, it started to sprinkle, so I think I timed it pretty well. I'm off to the gym now, as it's been over two weeks and I feel the flab coming on!


( footnote )

Bachellorette party was yesterday. It was fun.

First I had to have a sobbing reunion with the hair stylist and now my hair is no longer purple. Yay.

Then, the glorious Miss Jody Mae picked me up and we had some tasty soup and fancy tea with steamed milk (I believe they called her fancy tea Xocatlatl) at Serendipity. We did not see the ghost, but we also stayed downstairs. We chatted about busy life, crappy dad's who don't pay child support and give her many many health insurance issues, and how she generally needed a vacation a year ago and it still hasn't happened yet. And, of course, how she needs a conjugal visit by either The Rock or a close look-a-like.

Next, we stopped at the DayLily Spa for many hours of pampering, champagne drinking and peanutbutter cookie chomping, gossiping, laughing, debating, and general good girly fun. All of the bridesmaids were there and it's just darn fun to hang out with them.

A side note: I smudged my nail polish less than twenty minutes out of the door there and I think the massage chair gave me a bruise!

Dinner at Ciatti's was good. The Salmon Orriechette was ordered by Dana and myself and we all agreed it needed something in the sauce. A little too flavorless. We were joined by Kelly, Amanda, and Ms. superna and had some good fun conversing as well. Karen, one of the bridesmiads, had to leave after that step as she's had strep throat for a month and anti-biotics and alcohol don't mix. Amanda also is on the anti-biotics, so she was kind enough to be our sober cab.

We trudged through the rain across the parking lot to the martini bar, where I was handed my bouquet of "suck for a buck" lolipops and garbed out in various dollar accessories from Target. (Including a blinking red lips pin which Karen surreptitiously helped me attach to my butt. I'd had a few drinks by then and was thoroughly amused! Wore it all night and I think Tim is planning on wearing it tonight on his crotch during his bachelor party. We be classy here in the Cloud.)

At the martini bar, I stumbled across a bachelor party and was propositioned by a groom-to-be to sit on his lap and suck cake frosting off his fingers in exchange for the lolipop. He, sadly, was turned down by a creeped out Jill. I was only slightly less creeped out when attempting to rid a loli on two older gentlemen, one of whom proclaimed he was getting divorced in two months and insisted I tell him why the hell I'd want to get married in the first place and what does this guy do for you anyway? Katie met up with us there and Dana had to take off -- she has my future nephew, the 17-yr-old, home alone that night and was eager to get back.

Our next stop was DB Searles across the street. I sold off the remaining suckers and also got a free shot and a few free drinks to boot. At one point while squeezing through the crowd, a man, upon seeing my outfit and big veil, wished me a happy birthday. We had a bit of a giggle over that. We rocked out to Kelly's high school alum and his band for quite a while, but the room was incredibly hot and we were quickly running out of layers to remove and still keep our modesty, so we headed off for The Press.

Kelly's fiance Dewey had picked Tim up and brought him to The Press, to be met by Katie's fiance, and an usher, Scott, and Cyndy's husband Dennis. We also ran into a recently promoted co-worker who has an unenlightened view of women. Thankfully, I did not have to hear first-hand his account on whose boobs are what classification in his puny little brain. Tim bought me a shot to take in my nifty plastic shot ring and additional dancing ensued. The party was winding down, as most of us had mates present.

All in all, the party was great. I got to hang out with some of my best friends, eat good food, drink good drinks, I was hugged and congratulated by many a stranger and escorted to the "little girls room" by an amicably amused white-haired man. I'm not overly hung over, and I came home to a beautifully cleaned house. My man loves me. :) So much so that he was vehemently requesting that if he called me tonight during his bachelor party, that I would come join them.

It's rainy and cold outside now, so I think I'll make myself some tea and curl up on the futon to crochet a bit more. Perhaps the cat will be good enough to sit on my lap a bit. :)

A little over an hour before I should start to expect him to be home.

I wonder how many more games of solitaire on my computer I can play in a little over an hour...

I wonder how many games of solitaire I have already played today...

I know why he isn't home yet but that doesn't stop me from asking

Why isn't he home yet?

I could do laundry or clean the house or clean the car or pick up fallen branches from the yard or something.

But in the odd nervousness and anticipation, all I can bring myself to is playing more solitaire in an endless clicky-clicky-noblinky repetition.

GAH!

And....
they have a myspace acct now.

Sparring Rohman played an "interview" at the Salida last night in Becker. Ron was kind enough to drive Gary, Terryll and myself down there. (Tim had to work last night) The "OZ" dude in the comments was the sound guy who apparently really liked the guys. Hopefully, when St. Cloud empties out during the summer (college kids go home) they can get some regular weekend gigs at the Salida which is busy during the summer (volleyball courts and whatnot). Mike and Bryan are two of the guitarists playing at our wedding ceremony. Mike even wrote an original tune that they will play. *grin*

In other news, I sure missed Tim this week. We are celebrating our two year anniversary of dating today even though it is really tomorrow. But Mom will be flying in late tonight so we figured it'd be more fair for everyone if we celebrate today.

Tim had this neat blue Hawaiian-type shirt he really liked but it got a rip in it a few weeks ago (damn cheap Target clothes) so I got him two new loose Hawaiian-type shirts for our anniversary. One is a nice linen and the other is fine silk. I figure since he'll be in Vegas this weekend where it is hot, I'd get him shirts he'd be able wear and look nice in and not get too hot or sweaty. He hasn't tried them on yet, and since the silk shirt is so soft, he originally thought they were pajamas!

Mr. Wonderful got me an MP3 player and case. It is charging right now and I am excited to try it at the gym today. But the manual and documentation don't say how long you should charge it for the first time... :( Well, regardless, it looks like it works pretty well!

Well, I should probably get going to the gym as I was also planning on hitting work for a little while today...

this makes me miss him.

Today was the first day since we've lived together that we aren't on the same shift. He's working 7pm to 7am now and it's our 7-on this week and I didn't even take my second break (that I usually take with him) because I didn't know how. I didn't know what to do. It wasn't worth looking forward to.

I bought some drapes for our bedroom as our current curtains don't block a lot of light and summer will make it very bright in that room and it will be hard for him to sleep. I didn't put them up, yet, as I would like him to approve them first (I'm pretty sure he will...).

I didn't sleep very well last night as I kept waiting for him to come to bed even though I knew he wouldn't because he had to stay up late to conditioin himself to the nightlife again. The bed's lonely without him.

Oh yeah.

I walk in the door to a delicious smelling kitchen (and a grumpy Tim).

He made these delicious potato/carrot/onion thing wrapped in foil that I love, some green beans, and the whole room smelled of rosemary... He had made chicken in a sweet rosemary, currant jelly, and raspberry vinegar sauce and it was so moist and delicious and yummy and good. Jill is impressed. Seriously, you don't know how good this chicken was.

Jilly are spoiled. :)