notes from the weekend

last weekend my seester and future-brother-in-law came from san diego to play in ann arbor for sarah's bridal shower!!

we all had a tea-party and sarah got some house-swag and on sunday night we all watched the oscars.  i must admit, i love ellen degeneres, but i was pretty shocked by how boring the awards show became. maybe i'm not up to date enough?  i don't know... selfies and pizza weren't too riveting.

oh well, better luck next year.  at least we got to enjoy the show while sipping champagne from the prettiest glittered glasses sent to us by amy from cupcakes n couture!  merci beaucoup girl!  we're lucky ducks!

we also got to ride around in the back seat of dave's rental dodge charger.  and i won some yummy smelling bath and body works for one of the shower games!

mostly we've just been trying to catch up while the week has barreled forward!  could not be more ready for a relaxing weekend of chores and binge-watching dance moms.

happy weekend to all and to all a good night!

it's friday friday gotta get down on friday

why are you wondering which seat you can take?  just call shotgun like everyone else.

hello weekend!  i see you outside the window of my office there.  i can't wait to hang out with you in a few hours!

i am now residing in a preposterously humid basement with a broken ping pong table.  bert has come out of hiding twice so far, but i'm not optimistic for his psychological future.  that said, it's a really good feeling to have step one of the move complete.  steps 2 and 3 will be taking place this weekend with a uhaul for furniture and lots of cleaning products.

it is also worth noting that i am finally emotionally prepared to take the plunge and watch the third season of dowton abbey.  i caught on to the awesomeness of downton around the time PBS started airing season 2 here in the states.  naturally i binge watched the first season on netflix in 48 hours, and then immediately began scouring putlocker and sockshare for the second season.  however, when season 3 came out (in the UK that is, there was no way i was waiting until 2013), i watched the first episode and realized i could not deal with a week-long wait for the next piece of drama.  thus, i wrapped up my obsession in a neat little box, and saved it for later, allowing myself to gorge on nonstop marathons of merlin, shameless, and legend of the seeker.  

however, since i can't find easy access to deadwood on netflix or amazon prime, i think it may be time to dust off the box and find out what on earth happens before matthew crawley gets hit by a train.

yes i read spoilers.

i totally flipped to the end of every harry potter book before i finished them.

i live dangerously.

hope everyone has a spectacular weekend!

word count: 14,562

PS snape kills dumbledore.

iphonery and more

i promise one of these days i'll post something besides rehashed instagram (though one of the photos above isn't from instagram... if you follow me you might know which one).

so as you can probably tell life lately has been a lot about animals, weather, and highly nutritious food.  i've also fallen head over heels in love with those flip flops in the second row.  if you're still looking for a cute and comfy pair i would more than recommend them... they are available here.

one of the highlights of our week unfortunately had to go unphotographed because my camera is not waterproof.  on wednesday evening a group of our friends all took an inner-tube float down the huron river.  it is probably one of our new favorite things to do, and hopefully i can find some way to document it.  there are lots of little waterfalls to slide down, which leave nobody dry at the bottom.  perhaps my holga could survive in a plastic bag?

and on a less related note (hey i skipped blogging yesterday because i had work deadlines... brevity is not my skill) i'm going to ask my readers for a bit of advice.

long haired ladies:  how do you live?

one of the things many people don't know is that my hair is currently the longest it has ever been in my entire life.  historically i always kept it at more of a layered bob, but in february of 2010 i took the plunge and got a pixie.  it was quite fun and i really liked how it looked, but i perfer a bit of variety when styling my hair and found it very limiting... i haven't cut it since.  

i am planning on continuing to grow it out for probably one more year, but let me tell you it is driving me up the wall... it gets in your mouth when you eat... it gets in both your mouths when you kiss... it gets stuck underneath your own body when you lay down or sit back in a chair... it's maddening.

what do the rest of you long-haired ladies do?  what are the tricks of the trade?  do you swear by products or some perfect top knot for sleepy-time?  do you simply develop unfathomable amounts of patience?

let me know, if you have any tips to save what little is left of my sanity.  hope everyone is looking forward to as lovely a weekend as we are!

see you next week

it is remarkable how many things in life are simply power struggles in disguise.

like minded people don’t teach you much, but they are the best company to keep when you grow tired of censoring yourself.

there is a fine line between genuine social criticism and whining.

celebrity gossip is less interesting than normal people gossip.

that said, male beauty should probably be discussed on a scale of one to ewan mcgregor.  (amiright louis ck?  ps steve is most definitely an eleven on the e.m. scale.  ok, self, enough preposterous hyperlink references.)

very little free time again today, so here are just a few recent thoughts put into words for you.  stream of consciousness blogging is rather enjoyable.

xoxo happy weekend!!

milestones are getting thrown at us from all directions

who is looking forward to memorial day weekend?

hope you all are getting geared up for a relaxing extra day off too!

if you didn't get enough graduation fun from the pictures i posted a week or so ago, we have more!  steve's little bro graduated from high school last night and we swung back to the zoo to watch the festivities.  we arrived about 10 minutes after the start of the ceremony (and had to scoot in front of a bunch of different people cloaked in our tardy shame).

apparently the new grad trend is bedazzling the f&%! out of your mortarboard with the emblem of your future college.  holy sparkles huskies.  it was surreal listening to my 9th grade math teacher retell the same dreadful joke he did in advanced algebra and hearing familiar last names of the younger siblings of alumni i knew.  as the youngest child of 3 and a former member of the choir (they sing at every graduation) i thought the 8th husky graduation i attended would finally be the last, but i have to say it was fun getting to watch with the new eyes of a semi-grown up.  perhaps #9 is the charm?  congratulations paul!

but mother of god tell me we weren't so tone deaf in 2008...  cringe.

fixing the hippie hair.  p.s. is steve's tie the best or is steve's tie the best?

grandparents!  yay!

and in case you are wondering why steve and i would be so rude as to show up halfway through the first faculty member's speech (didn't know who she was... feeling old)....

we were busy signing the lease to our new home!  we will be spending yet another year in ann arbor!  and though i can't say i wouldn't have been up for another adventure in another place, we've got lots of time for that in the future!  right now we are both just completely stoked to be getting ready to move in together!  a walk in closet, washer drying in unit, and a fireplace?  we don't feel too shabby.  grown ups ahoy!  check out our cute little one bedroom floorplan!

hope everyone has a very happy friday and a very lovely long weekend!

TGIF

how is it only 2 o'clock?

today is totally one of those days.

super yuck.

crap at work, crap everywhere else.

i've never much been a fan of the "keep calm and carry on" thing, but vivien leigh is awesome and she can get me through this afternoon.

i hope.

photo recap

taking pictures of my bubble necklace is what got me through this long work week.

...ok... the sweets and coffee at work didn't hurt either.

i made bert a handsome bow tie collar.  he looks like a millionaire cat.

painting hearts for the valentine's day garland.

steve got a picture with the praying mantis at the kzoo nature center before paul's eagle court of honor.

my parents brought us their catering left overs from my dad's company party.  YUMYUMYUMYUMYUM

happy friday!