Blankety, Blank, Blank, Blank

Sorry I've been a little MIA this week. I have no good reason, but I'm trying to do better - I swear!

I'm loving the randomness of today's FITBs.

1.   My biggest accomplishment in life thus far is      Funny - I was just talking to PapaBear the other day about "biggest accomplishments" and I was saying that I didn't think that I had many. He corrected me and said that being a staff member on a successful presidential campaign was pretty great - and even more so, being a part of the team that delivered New Mexico (a state that had not been won four years prior) was a pretty great accomplishment. So there you have it folks  .

2.  My favorite place to sit in my house is    probably either the couch or chair in the living room. Although I don't think there is a lot of "sitting room" in my house, so this would really be the only logical place. Though I may be sitting outside on the back porch these next couple of weeks admiring my garden and willing the veggies to grow   .

3.  My fashion philosophy is    wear what looks good on you and makes you feel good. Trends are trendy, but that doesn't mean they look good on you. And Diddy told me once to accentuate my small parts...     .

4.  Something every girl should have is     a sister  .

5.  If you looked in my purse right now you'd find....     A lot of business cards, my wallet, a clutch, a pack of gum, lip gloss, cuticle cream, coins, and much, much more .

6.  My favorite music right now is       Miranda Lambert - I read the article about her in Cowboys & Indians and now I can't stop listening to her music. Such a wide range of music   .

7.  My favorite part of my body is       my legs. Which is why I wear lots of dresses and skirts. Remember - Diddy said accentuate your small parts...    .

Now - head on over to Lauren's blog and fill in your own blanks!!

And have a great weekend!

Wednesday Wisdom

In 2004, I was working on the Bush/Cheney '04 campaign.

As you can imagine, work on a Presidential campaign is stressful. Really - work on any campaign is stressful.

Either way, as we got closer to Election Day in 2004, the stress became unbearable. One day I was talking to one of my friends back at HQ in Arlington, VA - relaying my stresses about whatever was going on at that moment. What he said to me that day has stuck with me.

I wrote it on a note card and it sits on my desk at home now.

"The risks are great, but the rewards infinite."

What a great message.

As it often happens, when the risks are at the highest, the rewards are probably higher. 

They have to be to make it worth it.

When the rewards are infinite - take the risks - I think you'll be happy you did.

Miscellany Monday

one.

Whiskey Tango

SuperFan, Lynsky, JP and I went to a concert on Friday night. Trent Tomlinson did an acoustic show in Flagstaff. It was a small show and we had a blast! 

We had decided to get a hotel room next to the bar where the show was for safety reasons. After checking in, I'm not so sure staying the night at the HoJo was safer than someone driving after drinking.

two.

How Does Your Garden Grow

The garden is planted!

How awesome is it going to be when we have fresh vegetables?

Yes - very awesome!

three.

Technological Age

XouXou won a Kindle at a work conference recently. However, a couple of years ago she got a Sony e-reader for Christmas. Since no one needs two electronic readers, she let me have the Kindle. 

I will admit that I've only tried to use it for about 45 minutes, but I am having a hard time with not having an actual book in my hand. I am sure that I am going to enjoy the convenience of the e-reader and the ability to buy books virtually anywhere, but I'm not done with books forever.

four.

Good Thoughts

I have kind of a big day on Thursday of this week, so if it occurs to you at 11:30 am Mountain time on Thursday, could you please take a moment to think good thoughts for me?

Thanks in advance!

Filling In...

1.   The phrase or punctuation I overuse most is       "in other news" I know there is another one, but since I sit in my office alone most days, I can no longer remember what it is  .

2.  Today I am thankful for    coffee with cream and weekends   .

3.  My best friend is    wonderful! Hilarious! Always there when I need! Nearly a saint for putting up with me     .

4.  A quirky thing about me is     everything. I would say I'm generally pretty quirky. Probably the thing that people comment on the most is my crazy need for a schedule and a color-coded calendar  .

5.  This weekend I     am going to decompress! Head up north for a concert with "The Littles" and then go for a training run with Glinda and Cribs .

6.  Something that worries me is        losing my sanity in this job. I wish I was kidding   .

7.  On my night stand you would find       my cell phone charger, a stack of books, a lamp, probably a remote control, and a lot of hair bands    .


Head over to Lauren's for more FITB fun!

Silence is Golden...

...And a little lonely...

Sissy and BIL went to Napa with some friends for the weekend so the nephews went to Match and Papa's house.

That means that I'm alone at their house for the remainder of the week.

When I got home last night, it was eerily quiet in there.

For all of the crazy that they are, I sure do miss those little guys when they aren't around!

Luckily I took these pictures of them a couple of days ago to keep me company.

Tell me you don't want to squeeze those precious guys!

I am loving the AZ weather these last couple of days, though it makes it hard to stay inside and work...

Yesterday I used my lunch hour to get a pedicure and paint my toenails for the spring...

Now if I could only make it to a baseball game, I'd be set!

DIY My A-S-S

Last year Dirty and I got a tomato plant and a basil plant and did alright in harvesting them.

Then we went out of town and forgot to have someone water them and they died. 

Sad day.

This year, we are committed to doing better.

With the cost of produce rising, and taking into consideration the amount of produce that we consume, we decided that we would plant our own garden this year.

This weekend was the beginning of that project.

We decided to build our own raised vegetable bed.

I consulted Match and she said that she remembered PW having a tutorial on building one, so I looked it up and thought we could do it.

First of all, please notice that PW has a man (who I am figuring is a professional carpenter) actually building hers.

This process was far from easy.

First, we borrowed PapaBear's cordless power drill. Then we headed to Lowe's to buy our supplies. 

The Lowe's trip was pretty uneventful - though I'm pretty sure the people there were a little concerned about the supplies we were buying. This was confirmed when we were at the check-out and we put our small sledge hammer on the counter and one of the guys said, "I think there needs to be a 7-day waiting period for that weapon."

Either way, we got home, unloaded all of our materials and got to work.

Right about this time we also quit taking pictures. Oh well.

More importantly - I LOVED the power drill! I need one - I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I bet I'll find something.

So, we drilled our pilot holes and then started putting it all together. The first screw - stripped. The second screw - stripped. WTF is going on?

We called Papa to ask if our zinc screws were wrong, because we couldn't understand why we were eating up screws.

He thought that it didn't matter, so we tried again - this time, I gave the drill a little less power.

Success!

So we get the base of the box put together, level and square it off and add the corner stakes.

Then we broke for lunch. We went to Match and Papa's to eat and then ran a few more errands before heading home to finish our project.

Finally back home, we get everything unloaded from the truck again, head to the back yard and fire up the drill. Much to our dismay, the battery is dead. Seeing as how the battery that was in it when we got it from Papa was dead, we now had to dead batteries and no charger.

So we head next door to see if our neighbor can help us out. He has a drill that you plug in to use so we get that and an extension cord and get back to work.

Only his drill has too much power and eats up a couple more screws.

After a couple of minutes of discussion we decide that we will load up Papa's drill with the two dead batteries and take it back to him to charge until the following day.

We get everything pretty much put away and loaded in the truck and make our way back to Match and Papa's for the third time that day.

We get out of the truck, walk through the garage, and realize that we left the drill and the batteries sitting on the floor in our kitchen.

I wish I was joking.

At this point, I let loose a string of profanities that would have made a sailor blush.

Then we got the battery charger and headed home.

After charging the batteries all night, we finally finished our raised vegetable bed on Sunday night around dark.

Now we just have to fill it with soil, plant some seeds, and watch it grow.

Lord, help us!

Bridal Shower Fun

As I've mentioned, Cribs is getting married and this past weekend I attended her bridal shower.

This was the greatest bridal shower eva' for a few reasons:

1. It was an interactive cooking class/shower.

2. There was an open bar. (Yes, with hard alcohol.)

2a. There was a SMOKIN' hot bartender!

2b. There were a lot of drunk women in the 40-60 age range.

3. Everything at the shower had my name on it (because they misspelled Cribs' name).

Seriously, let's start from the beginning:

A couple of weeks ago a large white envelope came in the mail for me.

When I opened it up, this is what I found:

(once again, please forgive my picture taking skills)

Seriously, though - how adorable is that?  A full-sized wooden spoon with each invite!?!?

Fast forward to Sunday afternoon...

Glinda and I showed up about ten minutes early and walked in together. We were greeted at the door by a nice gentleman who said to us, "Our signature drink today is a Raspberry Fizz - would you like me to get you one?"

We didn't want to be rude, so we accepted. While he had the hot bartender fix those up, we were greeted by the hostesses of the event - they got our names and then came back to us with this:

(my actual apron has my real name on it, and clearly my MSPaint skills aren't awesome, but you get the idea)

Adorable, right?!?

Once everyone arrived, and had drinks in hand, we split up into teams and headed to the kitchen.

Before we did that, we all had to transfer our drinks into little plastic cups with lids and straws so we didn't spill our drinks in the food.

Long story, short - once we arrived in the kitchen, each "team" learned how to make a portion of the meal and they got to work preparing that.

During the time, our adorable waiter (who loved me!) came around and got everyone drink refills!

After a lot of drinking and cooking, we headed back into our little room and waited for our food to be plated and served.

Both Glinda and I forgot to take a picture of the food, but it was good!