change your bookmarks!

i decided to make the switch over to blogger so you can now view my blog here.  i moved over my book reviews because i love those and will probably be moving more of my favorite posts over within the next few weeks.

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every once in a while i love living in the city for funny little moments like this one i’m about to share.  it’s disgustingly hot today.  i’ve mentioned that.  so on my second attempt to get my dogs to do their business we walked down the street past a building that apparently doesn’t have air conditioning because someone’s windows were open.  here’s the best part.  they were doing karaoke, or rock band, or american idol, whatever… i tell you there is nothing funnier than watching your dogs shit to a particularly stirring rendition of tainted love. on the way back we were serenaded with a quite horrible version of bon jovi’s always.  classic.

and my little tex learned how to get himself to cool off.  he figured out that if he tipped his water bowl, that water spills on the floor.  water is cool.  then he lays down in the puddle of water.  good for pug.  bad for hardwood floors.  clever / devious little pug.

the return of wtf guy

if you haven’t read my wtf? post below – definitely read it and then you’ll understand this post [and it's pretty f'ing hilarious]…

him: hi, how are you?

me: i’m ok, a bit tired from a good weekend, but just trying to stay in with the a/c cranked.

him: yeah, it’s pretty gross out today.

me: agreed.

him: does it make you want to smoke?

me: i have to go.

my apologies to chicago wine drinkers

last night i’m pretty sure i drank all of the wine in chicago.  and i’m paying for it today.  dearly.  had a lot of fun though and made out with a cute 25 year old.  but once again, i realized i’m too old to drink until 5 a.m.  and i definitely do not recover as quickly as i did in my early twenties.

essential living: epic fail

well, it lasted 19 days.  i’m pretty proud of that.  then i went shopping with k.  and it all went to hell.  i bought two pairs of pants, two shirts, a dress, a sweater, two pairs of shoes and some jewelry.  oh, and dinner which consisted of two chicken tacos and a big ass margarita.  so really, the title of this post should be essential living and weight watchers epic fail.

i justified my spending because i’ve lost twelve pounds as of today and my fat clothes don’t fit.  and my skinny clothes don’t fit.  and i’ve been wearing the same thing few things to work for the last few weeks and i am starting to feel frumpy and ridiculous.  i also think this essential living thing may have been doomed to fail because not being able to spend on little things along the way led up to massive spending in one day.  the odd thing is that i still don’t have anything i want to wear on my date tomorrow.  damn it.  i suck at life.

oh well, i’ll be good the rest of the month, and i think from here on out i’ll do “reasonable living” instead of censoring myself so much.  i did learn a lot in these 19 days, about how i don’t need that starbucks in the morning.  and i don’t need to buy every book i want to read…i should just read the ones that have been collecting dust and dog hair on my beautiful bookshelves before buying new ones.  and brown bagging it for lunch is a big money-saver.  so yeah, some lessons learned, and some lessons were failed miserably – but in the end…i got a cute new dress to wear to my party next week and some things to wear for work.  at least until i lose 10 more pounds and this shit doesn’t fit again.

[failure updates in comments section]

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v: what are we doing this weekend?

k: drinking and flirting.

v: beautiful.

cooking for the parents

for the first time in my life i cooked dinner for my parents in my home.  sounds weird considering i’m going to be 28 this fall, but yeah.  my parents have only been to my condo a handful of times, the last time being around christmas, but the few times they were here, we always went out to dinner.  i found this recipe for a new england pasta bake and thought it looked really good [again, hate rachael ray, love her recipes].  anyway, so it makes six servings and i thought to myself “hmm, might be nice if i invited my parents over for dinner.”  and they said yes.  i don’t see them much in the summer because they spend most weekends away in wisconsin – while i stay at their home a lot on my weekend get-the-fuck-out-of-the-city trips, i rarely see them.

anyway, dinner came out great, and they brought a nice riesling which went well with the clams in the pasta bake.  they just left and i think they were a little impressed, i’ve really never cooked for them.  they leave again for wisconsin on thursday and i’ll be back up at their place then because a friend of a friend is setting me up with a friend of her husband.  should be interesting!

also, the last two days have been crazy busy for work and i haven’t gotten much reading in.  i’m going to crawl into bed right now and get moving on it because i miss it!

book report: haunting bombay

tonight i finished haunting bombay by shilpa agarwal.  the story was intriguing, the cultural references, and the setting descriptions were all very well written.  i enjoyed this book and gave it 3 stars on goodreads.  the reason it doesn’t get 4 stars from me is because i thought the ending was a little abrupt.  the story is set in bombay in the 1960s and revolves around the mittal family.  it has a lot of different elements present that i look for in a good book – depth of characters, interesting time period, surprise plot twists, and more.  there were some typos and grammatical errors, but nothing that detracted from the story itself.

i originally picked up this book because you all know i love a good ghost story, but one set in india seemed particularly interesting to me given my career.  i’m glad i read it and would recommend it to those looking for the elements i listed above.  like i mentioned, the epilogue should have been dragged out over a chapter or two with a bit more information than was summed up in a few paragraphs.

next up for me is memoirs of a geisha by arthur golden.  i have been wanting to read this book for a long long time and am excited to finally get to it.  the movie is also in my netflix queue, though i’m sure it won’t live up to the book.

v’s adventures in babysitting

last night i babysat for my little three-month old nephew.  it probably wouldn’t have been nearly as bad as it was if i didn’t have one hell of a hangover from saturday night.  but i’ll get to that a bit later.  k came over to help me babysit as she was also hungover.  we ate pizza, took turns trying to make the kid stop crying, changed diapers, took a walk [and probably looked like two very blonde lipstick lesbians with a baby], and i finally got the kid to sleep around 8 p.m.

all in all, it wasn’t too bad – at least he’s cute.  and does the cutest little lip quiver when he’s about to meltdown.

now, friday night turned out to be a blast.  i was planning on going over to my sister’s house for dinner and to learn the baby routine, then head over to k’s house for a party.  i’ve been talking to #4 from a while back, nothing going on there, but we’re friends and he’s in the suburbs, so we hangout occasionally.  so i invited him and his friend over to the party before we went to the bar.  it was a nice night so we went over to jesse oaks since they have a huge patio.  then it started raining.  anyway, it turned out to be a lot of fun, we danced, drank a lot, and i ended up getting home around 4 a.m.  i’m too old for this shit.

i slept most of saturday away until i was on baby duty.  my children were neglected most of the weekend, so i guess i was a good aunt, bad mother.  we just got back to the city and i’m catching up on some tivo and laundry.  i was planning on staying in the city this coming weekend, but one of k’s friends was talking about me meeting a friend of hers, so she’s arranging a get-together, so it looks like i’ll be back up north.

wtf?

a very awkward gmail chat to start my day.  this is with a guy i went out with this past october.  once.  and now i kind of know why.

9:03 AM him: hi, how it going?

me: need more coffee…just got off a three hour conference call! ughhhh

how are you?

9:04 AM him: Ouch! just waking up on the first day of summer vacation

me: oh so jealous

9:05 AM him: i am not, i did a tad too much celebrating last night

me: well, at least you get to relax today!

him: hopefully but its loos nice out

9:06 AM me: finally!

him: yes

9:07 AM did you really mean you think smoking is sexy?

me: sometimes

him: really? why

9:08 AM me: cigars can be sexy – like just chilling out having a drink outside with a cigar. i love the smell

him: wow, i thought i was the only one out there that thought this way

9:09 AM me: nah

him: wow crazy

me: brb

9:10 AM him: ok

9:12 AM me: i agreed to babysit my nephew tomorrow night and my sister is giving me instructions now.

9:13 AM him: instructions for what?

9:14 AM me: he’s only 3 months old, i dont know how to take care of a baby

him: oh gotcha

9:15 AM so how was the confrence call?

me: long and kind of obnoxious, but productive

9:16 AM him: thats good

9:17 AM so do you know others that have “fetishes” for smoking or am i the only one?

9:18 AM me: i wouldn’t call it a fetish, but i know some people that feel the same way. not sure there’s a support group or anything, but there’s some.

9:20 AM him: me either, just new to it. just thought i would ask you because i am sort of affraid to look it up on the internet

9:22 AM me: internet smoking porn? is this what you have in store for summer?

9:23 AM him: haha no. i didn’t even know there was such a thing

me: i’m surethere is

9:24 AM him: i wouldn’t doubt it

9:25 AM are you into that sort of thing

me: what sort of thing

him: smoking porn

9:26 AM me: not so much

him: wait so you are a little bit

9:27 AM me: no, i just think that some guys look hot relaxing and smoking a cigar.

him: so you get turned on and one thing could lead to another

9:28 AM me: I guess, but I wouldn’t say I would be looking up internet smoking porn or anything like that.

9:29 AM him: i know i wouldn’t

i am not a prev or sick like that

me: ha, good ot know

9:30 AM him: isn’t it

me: well, i suppose its time i get some work done

9:31 AM interesting conversation to start my day

him: hope you don’t think i am weird.

ok bye

me: no, dont think you’re weird. have a good day – enjoy the weather!

him: you too

and yes, i think you’re fucking weird, but am afraid of becoming a lampshade so I’ll tell you otherwise.

seriously, this all started purely because i mentioned that a guy, chilling out, relaxing on a summer night drinking a glass of wine, or having a beer and smoking a good cigar was hot.  i love the smell of cigars (good ones).  and this is what i get in return.