I know, Sorry

I had the best intentions of keeping up with this blog and trying to post several times a week, if not more often. I failed.

We have been so busy. House, work, house, work.....

We're just wrapping up one of the biggest projects we've ever tackled on our home. We sanded and refinished our hardwood floors. What a mess. But the outcome is beautiful. And since we took all our furniture out to do the floors, we figured we should paint while the rooms were empty. We don't know when or how to stop. Or, Scott might say, I don't know when to stop.

As for the painting - our room looks awesome. We choose a nice chocolately malt color. Love it. However, we weren't so happy with the finished product in the spare bedroom. What was supposed to be "Smoke Screen," turned out to be baby blue. I feel like I should paint clouds on the wall. But we are so sick of painting and living in the basement that it's going to have to stay that way for a while.

Meanwhile, Scott was promoted and I am looking at some added responsibilites that could lead to a promotion. We'll keep you posted.

Welcome Abigail!

Gushing grandma Sheena called today to say the Napa Newbies (Liz, Luke and Ethan) welcome the newest addition to their family this morning.

Abigail Sarah Pestow was born Oct. 4, 2004. She was 6 lbs. 4 oz. at birth.

I can't wait to see pictures, which I post when I get some.

Congratulations!

the one where the season could be over

As many of, at least those of us in the Midwest, are relishing in the last few days of summer, it seems like the season is coming to a fast closure. Too fast. There's still lawn work to do, boat rides to take and golf courses to challenge.
But, just as the fading of summer makes some weary and ready for respite, it gets others thinking about their favorite fall past time.
Football.
I'm a huge football fan, just ask my co-workers who I am competing against for the fourth season of fantasy football. I love pro football, college football (nothing beats a game at the Big House of U of M or Spartan Stadium) and even high school football.
Especially since I have two brothers (Seth and Matt) who play high school ball in Illinois. I'm a proud sibling of two Reapers football players. Seth, the older of the two, is a captain of the Varsity sqaud again. The team has played three games thus far, has 2-1 record, with one of those wins being against cross-town rivals.
So on Friday, those boys were playing the game of their lives when Seth dug deep, as linemen do, stepped back off the line and felt his knee - is rubber-banding a verb? It is to him.
He thinks he blew his knee out and is out for the rest of the season - his senior year season. Today, he's going to see an orthopedic doctor and we should know more later.
Football is just beginning, and like summer, could be ending much too soon.

Update

Well, we finally got my ring back from the a-holes in NYC. We'll be taking it to a locally owned jewelry store to replace and repair the baguette diamond that fell out. Then, I probably should have my wedding band resized so I can actually wear that on the ring finger.

Wendi and I went to the Kenny Chesney concert a couple weekends ago, and again it was a blast. We found ourselves a life-sized cardboard cut out of singer. We made quite a scene with our cardboard Kenny.

For Labor Day weekend, we made it up to Silver Lake again to visit Donnie and Karri, and see our friends the (C)Rusts. It was a blast hanging out on the dunes all day, even if I was stung by a bee earlier in the day. Allergic, yes? But, not a bad reaction.

Scott has been working a lot, and is not too fond of the job. A couple months ago, things were going well, but since the new contractor, the place is a mess. No one knows what's going on.

My job? Well, work is work. I must admit anytime that there is an event that takes over national and local media, such as Hurricane Katrina, I feel this renewed interest in being a journalist.

God speed to the victims of Hurricane Katrina

Give A Little Bit
Supertramp

Give a little bit
Give a little bit of your love to me
Give a little bit
I'll give a little bit of my love to you
There's so much that we need to share
Send a smile and show you care

I'll give a little bit
I'll give a little bit of my life for you
So give a little bit
Give a little bit of your time to me

See the man with the lonely eyes
Take his hand, you'll be surprised

Give a little bit
Give a little bit of your love to me
I'll give a little bit
I'll give a little bit of my life for you

Now's the time that we need to share
So find yourself, we're on our way back home

Going home...
Don't you need to feel at home?
Oh yeah, we gotta sing

Damn denim

this week's column -

It's that bittersweet time of year again.

It's when the mornings are cool but the days still linger of summer. It's when you can almost smell the faint aroma of apples and pumpkins in the air. It's when you swap out the khaki shorts for a pair of denim instead.

There's something comforting about slipping back into your favorite pair of jeans.

That is, unless you dread trying to squeeze back into those jeans that have been hanging in the closet all summer. For some women, this is a dreaded moment.

Will they fit? Can I get them past my thighs? How does my butt look in these?

What was your favorite pair of jeans last year could easily become a donation to Goodwill this year.

All the recent fall advertisements are running rampant with specials on jeans in all the latest trends.

Rhinestones on the pockets. Faded washes. Tethered hems as to look like you've been dragging them on cement.

So, do you spend the extra money for the brand that makes your back side look best, or stick with the traditional, never-out-of-style pair?

I'm pretty sure men and women will answer this differently.

A friend asked me to go to a denim customizing event near Detroit this weekend and I agreed. Then I read the fine print. A group of celebrity stylists and fashion designers will help you make your jeans unique with any $75 denim purchase.

So, I have to pay that much for a new pair of jeans only to proceed to tearing them up, distressing them and otherwise making them look old?

The things we'll do for the perfect pair of jeans. These better last more than one season.

Then & Now

Because we have a bunch'o lame asses in our class, Lakeview High class of '95 was not able to hold a 10-year reunion. Instead, we just had a small, informal gathering at Ball Joint Sports Bar on Friday. They're usually called mixers, but really the most mixing going on was at the bar.

Of those who showed up, mostly everyone hung out with their same friends and grouped up with the same people they hung around during school.

But, it was fun. I wish more classmates would have shown up. I'm still surprised that we had such a low turnout, and I know there's lot of people still in the area.

Oh, well. Kim and I had a good time hanging out and chatting it up with some old friends.

Hopefully, we can have a 20-year reunion. Kim told me she nominates moi for organizing a 15-year get together with dinner and everything. It would be nice, but I don't even think people will want to do it then.

CONSUMER ALERT

Perhaps it's the journalistic instinct in me, or the fact that I'd hate to see another couple go through the shit we've encountered with this place.
I mentioned in a previous entry that the jeweler that we got my engagement ring said they'd fix my ring for free.

Off the ring went, encased in a jewelry box, surrounded by a well insulated envelope and shipped in a box. We got confirmation that it arrived in New York, but we wanted to hear from the jeweler that they got it.

Here's what we got:

"Hi.
Yes we got it.
You said: "Today, a small baguette diamond fell out of its setting and cannot be found" well - Even it it fell out just like that - after all this time it is the Insurance responsibility not ours but we wanted to show you good faith and therefore agreed to repair it for free. However - The ring you sent us is so badly bent that it looks like a truck went over it. This was totally untruthful and disrespectful. Where is your shame people?? where is your fear of god and honesty?
You need to send us a check for $200.00: $50.00 for shipping and insurance and $150.00 for the stone or we send it back (but you still need to send the $50) while filing a fraud complaint against you.
Shame on you! How low can you go? When you buy a car and you hit a wall becase you are drunk - do you send the car back to Ford and blame them?"

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? DON'T EVER PURCHASE FROM ROMANCING THE STONE, OR RTS, INC., IN NEW YORK.

If fire could shoot my nostrils and ears right now, I swear. The ring was never bent. It was on my friggin finger until the day I noticed the stone missing. If this place was here and not in NY, I would be in their faces all day.

Don't mess with a woman and her diamonds.

What a wicked game to play

Our neighbor invited me to golf with her a couple week's ago up at Riverside Country Club for ladies' night. I rushed home from work to change into a sleeveless collared shirt and shorts. It was so damn hot and muggy that day that we were uncertain if we'd even get past the first hole.
So, off we go in our putzy little electric cart. We head down a steep hill to the first tee box and I'm ready to play.
Mind you, I've only golfed twice this summer prior to this night. Once with Scott at Cedar Creek, where I shot a 61 on the front 9, and once with my dad at Cedar Farms, coming in with 49 on the first 9. Scott was scoring very generously considering I might have lost two balls in the water on the third hole. I call No. 3 at Cedar Creek my nemesis. And, I'll take the good score at Cedar Farms, but it's also an extrememly easy course - wide open, no water. That's my style.
But, as Jayna and I get ready for what turned into the longest, hardest and most aggravating 9 holes of my life, I'm staring down a fairway that I've never played. I have no idea where I'm going and how to get there as I tee up my first ball. I've never played this course and it's about to play me.
As if a course has a life of its own, that damn big, green monster swallowed us alive that night. If I hit left, Jayna hit right. If I got in the rough, which happened a lot especially on No. 7, I stayed in the rough. There was no hope for us.
We teed off shortly after 6 p.m. and ventured into the clubhouse at almost 9. It really shouldn't take 3 hours to play 9, but we managed it.
Inside, we sat down for dinner and a few drinks and our husbands joined only to humor us as we told them how terribly we played. I quickly became tired, and it's no wonder considering I probably swang the club about 100 times that day.
I left the course that night knowing a few things. I hate this game, I love this game, I hate this game. I can play better, I have played better. I will play better.

Now announcing

Our wedding announcement was in the BCE paper last week.