Dog Days of Summer Weekend

So I had kind of a lame (and short) weekend, but it was just what I needed.
I watched 2 horrendous movies on Lifetime- Forever 16 (a vampire helps solve a murder at a high school) and The Haunting of Molly Hartley (1 star on rotten tomatoes- I agree!).

Sunday was slightly eventful. E and I trekked to Baltimore to try Blue Moon Cafe, a restaurant featured in Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives. I knew when I saw their Capt'n Crunch encrusted french toast, I would love it!
And I did, except the wait was over 2 hours to get in.
I forced E to go to a dog adoption show afterwards (it was all part of my master plan- Blue Moon Cafe was the lure for E). My dog dream will all be coming true soon. Except most of the rescues want to chase kitties!

Also, E has put some of the final touches on his "man cave" which includes the original Star Wars movie posters.

Tatiana at Sears

Yesterday, you learned the "Genesis of Tatiana", my alter ego.
Fast forward to present day, last Thursday in fact, at Sears. The stupid lawn mower crapped out, so we had to get a new one to get rid of the strange patch that wasn't mowed.

7:00pm
E picked me up after work and we went right on down to Sears (5 min. from our house). The sales guy was nice, helped us, and we got the nicest one we were thinking of (of course, why would you ask a salesperson which one is better, the cheaper one or more expensive one). After he starting ringing us up, he says "oh this is out of stock, but there's one in Glen Burnie."
I tried to look up the store on my phone, but of course Verizon doesn't have service in the tool department of Sears in Bowie.
I asked how far that was since I was still in my work clothes and tired and we didn't want to wait a week for it to ship to us (also see crazy patch plus completely unmowed front yard).
He says"only 10 miles up the road."
I look at E and we're like, OK, let's just get this done. (I had a ton of stuff planned for my Friday off and this weekend). The salesperson called the store to make sure they had one there and finished ringing us up.

8:00pm
Leave Sears. E drives me through Chick-fil-A for a small mocha cookies and cream milkshake, my dinner.

8:30pm
Arrive at Glen Burnie Sears, it is definitely NOT 10 miles up the road.
The clerk tells us "oh yea, I've been looking for that. We don't have it, there's only a refurbished one in the back."
Apparently, the guy that answered the phone only looked in their computer and didn't actually check in the back.

8:45pm
Talking with the manager. We tell him we don't want a refurbished one, so he says he can give us a free upgrade, which is very nice. We pick one out that is $40 more.

8:50pm
Start to get rung up so they can make the upgrade & give us the mower (we had already paid for the one in the previous store).
I begin to search Petfinder.com, even though our "fun money"  for the month was going to "what a goat could do for free" (Yup, I suggested getting a goat instead of a lawnmower, E didn't agree).

9:00pm
Sears closes and lights start to go out, we're still at the cash wrap. We had redeemed our "Sears rewards points" and so the return wasn't working right. The clerk suggested he return it, put the money back on our card and then we could re-buy. We didn't want to do that because it takes 3 days for the return to go back into your balance, but hey, the money you spend comes right on out!
He then suggested we pay $25 more (the Sears points we redeemed). I said no we didn't really want the points, nor spend more than what we had already had.

9:30pm
Still at the cash wrap and now the transaction is frozen in the computer (I think someone in the back turned the computer system down). Salesclerk calls the manager back up to look at it. The guy then asks "can you come back tomorrow?"
I put my handbag down on the cash wrap. Men take off their shirts, and women put down their purses. In case you didn't know, I am a perfectionist and a detailed planner.  I had already planned out my Friday & do not like my perfect plans to be messed with.

Tatiana, the alter ego, takes over
"We drove 30 minutes to get here and we can't come back here tomorrow!"(I wasn't yelling, but voice is about an octave higher)
Register guy "You can go to the Sears back in Bowie (the first store), and they can finish the transaction there. We'll call them and they would give us the upgrade also and they have that one in stock"
Ethan kinda looks at me, and says, "there's nothing we can do, I wanna get outta here. Let's go."
Now, I freak.
"NO, I am NOT leaving here tonight without a lawn mower! We drove a half hour here, and we've been here (at the register) for over a half hour!"
I rip my list out of my purse and point to it, "we have to get a chair tomorrow, I have 2 doctors appointments, and I'm meeting Lisa, I DON'T have time to mess with this!"
Ethan walks away to look at tools. The guys' eyes at the register get bigger. (If the husband leaves, it's all over.)
My game plan when arguing with men, is talk and don't stop. It usually wears them down.
I continue "Sorry, we've been here over a half hour and I don't have any faith that the clerk in Bowie is going to be able to figure this out (the stupid Sears points). Continue talking about moved into new house, lots to do, run through the options they suggested and why those won't work, etc, etc. I was also on the verge of frustration tears.
I conclude with "why can't you just give us the lawn mower, take our info and email us the receipt tomorrow?"
Guess what- it worked. They probably just wanted me to shut up so they could go home too.

Tatiana- 1 Sears-0 (well, they still sold a lawnmower).
Oh, but we still don't have a receipt, so I guess Tatiana is 0 also.

Do you ever freak out in stores? Do you feel bad about it later?

My Alter Ego

My alter ego came about in college. Back in 2001, some of my sorority sisters and I traveled to Alabama to stay with one girl's high school friend (a guy) and watch the UT game.
The night after the game, we went to the friend's fraternity house's band party. While there, meandering alone in the halls, a tiny, tan blond asked me where I was from. I said, "oh, Tennessee, we're here with Bubba*." (*Names have obviously been changed not to protect the innocent, but because I can no longer remember them).  Tiny, tan says "oh", then turns around to her Polo-clad boyfriend and loudly says (I'm still there) "that's sooo wierd, she looks so exotic, like she's from South America or something."
I actually have a picture from that night:

Back in the day, all I wanted was to be tiny, tan, and blond (very Southern), so I went to the tanning beds and bleached my hair. I didn't look like "tan mom" and obviously didn't have proper foundation garments judging from the picture above (eeks), but I certainly don't think I look "exotic" (then or now). Maybe in Alabama I am, and that I am OK with that.

Anyhoo, I go back to the room where my friends are and was all WTF over this. Thankfully, my friends laughed and laughed. They obvs didn't think I was exotic either. They nicknamed me "Tatiana" and we told people for the rest of the night that I was their foreign exchange student.

Tatiana is still around, but I just blame my bad behavior on her. She is a spice Latina after all. Since this story is getting long as shi* and short on pictures, I'll continue tomorrow. 

Weekend Recap

This weekend, I still worked on the house. Now that we have the house warming, I want to finish up all my little projects.

1. I major OD'ed on the Chick-fil-A mocha cookies n' cream milkshakes. They are fabulous and I'm obsessed. Yes, I am kissing it in the pic.
2. I am finished with my family picture wall. This was the last
3. Pintersest WIN- I made this burlap wreath. I plan on adding little holiday touches a few times a year  (berries, fall leaves, erc)
4. The Brown book club met and went to an awesome Vietnamese restaurant. The food was wonderful and I'd highly reccomend it to anyone in the area. Plus the place was so beutifuly decorated- I loved these fresh flowers everywhere. it's all in the details.
5. Another Pintesrt win. I built another headboard with my faux suade.
6. I also went to some garage sales Saturday morning and picked up this cool table. I just need to add something, like a candle or platter or something.

Not pictured- I met a friend and we decided to walk in the park with her kids instead of meeting for lunch, drinks, dinner like we usually do. It was so much nicer to do something healthy- I'm going to start thinking of alternative (i.e. healthier) things to do with peeps instead of just going out all the time.

Sorry I'm so boring lately, but I LOVE having a house and lots of fun projects, I just don't want to do anything else! Every weekend, I am smelly, covered in bruises, and loving it!
Do you like weekend home projects?
What's your favorite Pinterest creation?

It's Been Awhile!

Let me catch y'all up on the happs:
The in-laws were in town last weekend. They got us the Squirrel Buster Plus, and while I was reluctant to this gift at first, it has now given me hours of entertainment watching those squirrels try to get the seed. They are persistent little guys.

 

Don't mind the pool house in the back. 

I finished my super-intense Brown book club book- Matterhorn (E and I are reading the same book as an excuse to go try out a Vietnamese restaurant we've been wanting to go for forever). Now I moved on to much lighter reading material to recover- Everything is Perfect When You're a Liar. I'd recommend both of these books!

I was *thisclose* to getting a dog. I'm literally stalking Petfinder daily. The lawnmower broke,so we splurged on a good one (not to mention all the stuff for the house we're getting still) soooo I guess maybe if I'm good, next month for my birthday.

Work has been evil and has turned me into a nasty, bitter, crab-apple and is also forcing me to stress eat a bag of dark chocolate M&Ms daily. That's all I have to say about that.

After 3 mo, we'll finally have a housewarming party- whoo hoo! So I'll be plugging away with E on the weekends to get everything just so. (Maybe I'll finally get around to posting pics of the whole place). 

Have a fab weekend!

Volunteer Too Much?

I'm always the one helping cut cakes or planning parties at work. Why is it when you help with something once, it's your task forever? I guess I don't mind, but sometimes, I want to just sit back and eat damnit!
I am in every.single.office.party.picture. like this:

 I am actually a terrible cake cutter, I am horrified because I am about to flip this cake onto my boss.

I know horrifying. How can I get out of it?! How can I say "no"? Does anyone else have these issues?

I'm Famous!!!

I'm staring in a little movie called The To Do List.

J/K, my boss saw this in the paper, and thought it was me. I googled this actress and disregarding this one picture, we look nothing alike.

 

 via

Also, isn't is so funny that a girl 3 years younger than me is playing a high school senior?! Let's just say my 10 year high school reunion has come and gone.

Weekend Update

Sorry I haven't been posting/ commenting lately. Work and the new house have occupied all my time. I wouldn't expect much until after October :)
With that, here's what we were up to this weekend:

1. I made this using an old frame I got at a garage sale for $2 and some postcards my brother got me in Japan.
2. I added nailheads to my homemade headboard and hung my 2 set of drapes.
3. Cleaned up my dresser (heron pic was also a garage sale find for $2). My jewelry is now all in my closet hanging off on of E's tie hangers.
4. E was hard at work landscaping. he cleaned a ton of weeds out of the terraced garden in the back and out of the bed on the side of the house.
5. He also planted beautiful azaleas in the front and a tree we thought was just a plain old tree, bloomed. It's a big Crepe Myrtle!
6. E and I decided to be in our own book club together :). We both wanted to read this, so it's our first selection. It will probably be only selection since we really agree on reading topics.

Deuces