Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween!



One of the perks of having a pug, besides all of the unconditional love and kisses and company, is that pugs in costume are hilarious. Let's face it: With those smashed faces and loads of wrinkles, they are always funny looking. But throw a costume on and it's like pure cuteness overload.

Alan and I came across several worthy costumes at Target awhile back. We debated over the lady bug...or the dinosaur...or the bumblebee. But how could we resist the moose?



Unsure of what size to get her, we opted for the small on our first attempt. It was so tight on her that she couldn't move, which only added to the hilarity. But she also couldn't really breathe, so we opted to return for a larger size. Now, the moose head is slightly too big, but at least she's not miserable in it. I don't think she LOVES it or anything, but she'll put up with it for awhile.



I think she figures, "If this is the price I pay to go to the dog park daily and not have to hunt my own food, it's worth it."

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday was the big 2-7. I officially feel old now. I'm not just mid-20s, I'm upper-mid-20s. Whoa. My brother reminded me that by the time he was my age he had a 2-year-old. Ha! But I'm not feeling too panicked yet. Every time I go to the doctor they ask me my age and they say, "Oh, you've got PLENTY of time to have kids," with the emphasis on PLENTY. That's always a relief, especially because we're in no rush (sorry to the grandparents out there. But not really).

Also, everyone out here in Cali seems to think that Alan and I are super young. We get carded all the time and people express shock at our age. We were purchasing our new bed recently for our anniversary—which is really such an adult purchase—and the salesmen were like "Anniversary of what? You're not married!?" Then, I was recently dropping off a bedspread to be cleaned and the cleaning lady fell in love with it. She was asking about it and I told her it was a wedding gift. Her attention quickly turned from the bedspread to the fact that I was married. "You not MARRIED!? You look like student at university! You going to be 27?! NO!!" She was Asian. And fantastic. I love her.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Crazy cranes...and pilots

Because I work for a crane and lifting equipment magazine, I get daily Google alerts about cranes. Usually the alerts include links to news about endangered whooping cranes rather than anything that relates to my job. However, I still click on these articles now and then to see what's going on with the cranes. This article in particular struck me as funny.

To save you the read if you're short on time but in need of a laugh, this AP report talks about an ultralight plane being used to lead cranes on their migration from Wisconsin to Florida. The article then states that 17 cranes were raised in captivity by researchers in "crane-like" costumes to keep the birds from becoming familiar with humans. The funniest part of all: The ultralight pilot wears the same costumes when leading the cranes in flight on their journey.

No wonder these suckers are almost extinct. They're not the brightest "cranes" in the box.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Third time's a charm

Have you ever seen the movie Signs? Besides having two extremely terrifying scenes in it, it also featured the adorable Abigail Breslin, prior to her Little Miss Sunshine fame. In Signs, her character is always drinking water and leaving half-filled glasses all over the house. I, too, have been drinking water and habitually leaving glasses of water all over the place, making me think of the movie every time I go around picking up after myself.

In her case, the water she leaves everywhere saves the world when it turns out to be the downfall of the invading aliens. When the water is thrown on them, it burns through their flesh and kills them. In my case, my water didn't end up killing aliens or saving the world. It ended up burning through and killing my alarm clock.

I woke up one morning, for whatever reason, very flustered. I turned to hit snooze and knocked over my glass of water, which dumped right into the top of our alarm clock. I unplugged it immediately and turned it over, hoping to salvage it. After drying upside down for a few hours, it was clear the alarm clock was a loss. It would turn on and keep time, but wouldn't let me set the alarm, possibly the most important feature of the whole device.

I went to Target to pick up a new alarm clock. I bought a cool one that let you change the colors of the numbers and even turn off the light for total darkness. The catch: It only let you snooze three times. Well, after a few days of Alan cussing at the alarm clock for not going off continually, I took it back and traded it in for a new model. Ah! The frustration! On attempt two, I bought a battery-operated alarm clock. And not just battery as a backup, but battery ONLY. Needless to say, that was not going to work for us. So after a third trip to Target, I have now purchased a corded, repeating snooze, non-waterlogged alarm clock. It even has two alarms, so that I can set one for myself and one for Alan. Turns out that the third time was a charm with the alarm.

But as I was taking back version one, I got to wondering. Although it was clear that we needed more than three snoozes, should we really need that many? Isn't that a little much? Are we a little lazy? Are we the only people in the world that have a history of sleeping through three snoozes and not even realizing it? So, to satisfy my curiosity, I thought I'd take a poll of your snooze practices to get a feel for what's going on out there in the general sleep world. Just click your answer and click Vote. You can also go to View Results to see what everyone is saying...and to see if you're a weirdo too, although you probably already know that you are.

  • None. I'm up and at 'em with the first alarm.
  • Once or twice. I like that extra snooze time.
  • On occasion, more than twice. Sometimes I just can't get out of bed.
  • Regularly more than twice. I'm lazy and/or don't have to be anywhere at a certain time.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Three words

In college, when I had some free time and wanted to procrastinate, I would fill out those "All About You"-type email surveys. I got this one as a bulletin on MySpace, and thought I'd fill it out for old times' sake. Plus, I thought it'd be fun to see how I do whittling it down to three words. See, I really am an editing nerd.

The rules: You have to use three words to answer each question. No more, no less. It’s harder than you think.*

1. Where is your cell phone?
In purse, maybe?

2. Your girlfriend/boyfriend/hubby?
Wonderful, hilarious Alan

3. Your hair?
A big mess

4. Where is your father?
In heaven above

5. Your favorite thing to do?
[Erin's explanatory note: many contenders here, all use three]
Travel with Alan
Hang with family
Play with Marti
Laugh with friends
Read a book
Watch The Bachelor

6. Your dream last night?
Don't remember one

7. Your favorite drink?
Right now, water

8. Your dream car?
Hybrid: Toyota Prius

9. The room you’re in?
Living room office

10. Your fears?
More vet bills

11. Who did you hang out with last night?
My dearest Alan

12. What aren’t you good at?
Fixing the toilet
Neither is Alan

13. Muffins?
Sometimes, if blueberry

14. One of your wish list items?
A new dresser

15. The last thing you did?
Answered question above

16. What are you wearing?
Nothing. Just kidding.

17. Your pet?
Loveable, snuggly Marti

18. Your computer?
Monitor needs enlarging

19. Your life?
Quite an adventure

20. Your mood?
Content and calm

21. Missing?
Family in Kansas

22. What are you thinking about right now?
See above question

23. Your car?
Needs oil change

24. Your work?
Super busy now

25. Your summer?
Gone, now fall

26. Your relationship status?
Married: Anniversary yesterday

27. Your favorite color(s)?
Shades of green

28. When is the last time you laughed?
Watching The Office

29. Last time you cried?
The other day

30. School?
I love crayons

*Erin's explanatory note: Not that hard. Quite enjoyable really. Ok, I'm done. Notice the threes. Ha ha ha.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Happy Anniversary!

On this, the most romantic of federal holidays, I would like to wish Alan a happy anniversary! Two years of wedded bliss and to many more!

Monday, October 1, 2007

The Rock

The next day, after a blister-inducing exploration of San Francisco, my mom, Kyle and I set out for a well-known landmark: Alcatraz. Alan didn't go because, after having swam 300 meters in Lake Shawnee one summer, he isn't that impressed with the one-and-a-quarter-mile swim it would take to escape from the prison in the freezing and very strong currents of the bay. I, however, was impressed with the prison. And by impressed I mean, "I would never want to serve time there."



When you got up to the prison, you were issued a headset that led you on a guided tour, giving first-hand accounts of escape attempts and tantrums over spaghetti. The standard cell:



If you were brave, you could get locked into one of the solitary confinement cells, in the dark, but we bypassed that option. Here the super cheerful recreation area:



The view of San Francisco from Alcatraz.



After the Alcatraz tour, my mom and I limped to Pier 39 to have lunch while Kyle called us wimps. Then, as I was going into the bathroom at the restaurant, I underestimated the heft of the door, didn't get it open all the way, and banged my knee into the corner of the door. Really, really hard. I was then seriously gimping around the rest of the day. We did some souvenir shopping, and while Kyle really wanted a souvenir "Alcatraz Psycho Ward Outpatient" shirt, he left with a pair of sunglasses instead. And because my mom and I were in such bad shape, we threw in the towel and passed up a trip to the top of Coit Tower and opted to head back home for a nap and ice packs instead.