Movie Challenge

Now that there is nothing* on TV, I have had to come up with alternative distractions in the evenings. You know, when I am not planning our wedding. And I thought of something! We have been Netflix subscribers since moving to DC in 2004. In case you are unaware, the thing about Netflix is you pay monthly and can rent as many movies as you want. There are no late fees, so if you receive a movie on March 1 and don't watch it until April 30, that's OK. I mean, you're paying for unlimited movies and you've only watched one. But if you're fine with that, so are they. Spring was rough for Netflix watching. We were just busy, doing various stuff. We had visitors, house stuff, wedding stuff, etc. Oh, and don't forget about May television, which included season finales of Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters, LOST (best show ever) and American Idol. We really don't watch much TV-- those are our only shows-- but you can't miss the last ones till the fall! Then the Cavs were in the playoffs and like any idiotic Cleveland fans, we tuned in to each game. Once the Cavs lost, I decided we needed to do something productive (and less heart-wrenching) in the evenings. This brings me back to Netflix. I decided we should try to watch a Netflix movie every day. We can have 2 DVDs at home at a time, but we also have 'instant watch' movies, which will keep us busy while the actual discs are in the mail. We have recently watched Cactus Flower, Get Smart, and Silkwood. Quite a motley assortment, no? Tonight we have no discs at home, and will venture into the instant watch category. We also have HBO with our cable- somehow it does not cost extra- so we have been searching for movies currently in our Netflix queue to record on HBO, thus adding more 'instant watch' movies to our list. Between the DVDs, Netflix Instant Watch, and HBO movies that we DVR, we should be in good shape! I'll let you know how we do later this month.

*unless you count reality summer TV or NBA finals w/o the Cavs as quality television

Marissa was here, too!

Marissa visited us over Memorial Day weekend. I was going to write about her visit, but she already has done a much better job than I ever could in capturing the weekend's fun.
So this post is two-fold:
1) I post without having to think
2) I introduce the very few readers I actually have to Marissa's blog

Here is a photo.

Pannie was here!

I promised to write about Pannie's visit earlier this month and never did. I also have been meaning to post something and have been quite lazy. So... here's a summary

Pannie arrived late on May 8 but that didn't stop us from enjoying birthday cake at 11 PM. This was my 2nd piece of cake. I am not ashamed.

Saturday was a record high temperature so what did we do? We went to the Magic Kingdom... America's most visited (aka most crowded) theme park. Despite the heat, we had a lovely time on classic rides such as it's a small word, Peter Pan, Pirates of the Caribbean,and Cinderella's Carousel. We also introduced Pannie to the Haunted Mansion, Carousel of Progress, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Sunday we did have a rare occurrence... Michael and I were not ready to go on time! Luckily we arrived at EPCOT 6 minutes after opening and our schedule was not ruined. Then again, when you spend 12 hours in a theme park you often have time to see a lot! As with the previous day, we revisted a favorite (Spaceship Earth) but since Pannie had not been to EPCOT much as a tyke, we also went on lots of new things. One of the highlights was 'finding' Nemo outside the Seas pavilion. Yes, we are crazy. But the other highlight was watching Off Kilter, the kilt-wearing band that plays in the Canadian pavilion. The other spectators were, literally, insane. One man, who was probably on drugs or severely mentally ill, was dancing around and hopping and flailing his arms about to the music. (But not in time, of course) And a child in the audience was wearing a space helmet that obstructed much of her face. Between the 'dancer' and space ranger, we nearly peed our pants laughing. Sadly, Pannie returned to DC Monday afternoon. We managed to squeeze in a bit of time at Reunion's waterpark and lazy river and thankfully there was no sunburn to be found.

Auditory annoyance

Me: "Why did you tell me to go to Pizza Hut?"
Michael: "I didn't"
Me: "On my way out the door I said 'I'm going to Pizza Hut?' and you said Yup."
Michael: "Oh, I thought you said "I'm picking the pizza up"

The background story:
Last week we ordered pizza for dinner. Michael orders online from both Pizza Hut and Papa John's so I did not hear a phone call to a pizza place. He asked me to pick up the pizza because he was studying. Since I did not know where he ordered from, on my way out the door I asked "I'm going to Pizza Hut?" and he said "Yup" and off I went (without my cell phone).

I arrived at Pizza Hut and there was no record of an order. I pulled a mild Rachelle Bilz, saying I order from them all the time, how could they lose an order, Michael received e-mail confirmation, etc. They said they could put in the order right then and I could wait 15 minutes. I didn't even know the pizza Michael ordered, so they suggested I call him. When I told her I forgot my phone, she offered hers. (So nice!) So I explained the situation to Michael. "Jules, the pizza is at Papa John's" So I said oh that explains why it's not at pizza hut, proceded to Papa John's and got the pizza.

Upon returning home, I said "Why did you tell me to go to Pizza Hut?"
Michael: "I didn't"
Me: "On my way out the door I said 'I'm going to Pizza Hut?' and you said Yup."
Michael: "Oh, I thought you said "I'm picking the pizza up"

Happy Birthday to me

I had a lovely birthday on Friday. It started off with a 4 mile run, which was very nice. I don't know many people who would start their day off this way. What can I say? I am strange.
I enjoyed a bit of sun and pool time--a birthday first for me, living in Ohio a good part of my life. The day also involved free cinnamelts at McDonald's; I had a coupon and this had nothing to do with my birthday. It also negated all calories burned in the above-mentioned run. In addition to these highlights, I received many nice phone calls from family and friends, and many facebook wishes as well. Two bouquets of flowers were delivered (!) which is always a nice surprise. I learned of an amusing blog post in my honor, and that evening I enjoyed a delicious dinner at Celebration Town Tavern and a Cannoli cake in the dining room, which was amazing. But the best part was PANNIE CAME TO VISIT! I will discuss her visit in another post.

Fashionista!

I am not much of an accessorizer. Is that a word? My mother and grandmother are quite good at this. The right earrings or bracelet or necklace or scarf or whatever else can make a dress or a pair of pants and shirt look like 5 different outfits. I wear the same 3 pairs of earrings every day. It works. But yesterday I wore a plain gray shift to work and decided it was too boring. So I threw on a pair of coral earrings (bestowed upon me by my mother) and my coraly/pinkish wedge platforms. I decided I needed one more component, and reached for the variying shades of pink/coral beaded necklace, also from Mom. It just didn't look right. Truth be told, I am not a huge necklace fan. I have neck issues- it's not long or slender. Anyway.... in a moment of desperation? Creativity? Who knows what, I took the necklace, wrapped it around my wrist twice, and fashioned a bracelet. I was so proud. Then I was reading In Style magazine at lunch yesterday, and they showed a necklace as a bracelet! It looked just like mine. Who knew?!

Also- bad news on engagement ring. They didn't size the new band, so I have to send it back AGAIN for re-sizing. Damn.

Things are looking up

The weekend was not so fun. Saturday we spent more than 8 hours in pre-cana class. For you non-Catholics, it's a day of marriage prep. It was rather tedious. If you want the gory details, let me know. The good news is, we are done! Which means we are that much closer to getting married- YAY

All last week after work I dealt with our shower drain. Minerals in the FL water did a number on it, so I scraped and chipped and chiseled lime and calcium off the pipe. This involved 3 trips to Lowe's for heavy duty Drain-o, an auger, and a shop-vac. I didn't know the extent of my problem, and had to keep going back as I re-assessed. Sadly, I was ultimately unsuccessful. I called the 7-days a week plumber on Sunday morning and he came and fixed it. It was expensive.

But! This week will be lovely. I have already updated our wedding site to include our registry details, our invitations are in (must still be counted), my engagement ring is fixed - should arrive tomorrow.... and PANNIE IS COMING THIS WEEKEND! Oh yeah, and it's my birthday on Friday which means I can have as much cake as I want. This is actually the case every day of the year. I just feel more entitled on my birthday.