it's that time again

the time when i ignore blogging because my apartment looks like this, i'm officially unemployed, and we are leaving thursday to move ~1200 miles to houston, tx.  bert is already traumatized.

we're baaaaack

phew!  nothing like a month off, some warmer weather, and a whole hell of a lot going on to get things back in gear around here!  i say warmer, but we're still waking up to sub-40 degree mornings.  still, the sun is frequently out and we have almost accumulated an entire week of days over 70 degrees if we put together the sporadic ones we've had here and there.  small victories.  in a few months i know we'll by dying for cooler air.

you may notice the blog has gotten a face-lift.  when i started this blog it was my intention to keep it pretty impersonal.  though obviously we'll still keep parts of our fascinatingly esoteric lives to ourselves, don't be shocked if there's some unfamiliar subject matter that starts to wander in to the blog here and there.

steve and i finally have a new home!  and while we're not quite ready to shout it out to the rooftops yet and let word spread like the contents of an upworthy ted talk, it's definitely going to entail new levels of keeping in touch.  accordingly, posts might get a bit more candid, as we'll probably be using this blog to keep family and friends updated on our experiences, and i may actually dive into the realm of sharing thoughts opinions etc.  i have another blog to which i tended to keep my more opinionated ideas restricted, but i'm growing a little tired of managing all the bazillion different portals of my internet-self.  hopefully loosefromthezoo can become the go-to for internet-beckyness.  and of course whatever steve feels like suggesting i throw in here too (maybe someday he'll write a post... this is not a guarantee).

the photo above was one i snapped while we were at a rest stop in the upper peninsula this last weekend.  we hit the UP (that's U. P. "yoo-pee" for the less than michigan-savy readers) for my dear love, former roommate, and future bridesmaid paige's wedding in iron mountain.  it. was. a. blast.

and let me tell you it's not every place in the world where you can stop at a highway bathroom and also immediately check out a deserted beach on lack michigan.  the great white north is a pretty amazing place.

i'll post more details and a couple photos (sadly too few, as i was on bridesmaid duties and couldn't snap away with a camera) of paige's wedding in a post or two here.  but for now i'm announcing our return to blogland and happy to say we've got quite a ride ahead.

wittle babiez

circa 1994 / circa 1992

still having fun editing and picking photos for steve's and my wedding slideshow.  look at those cute little mugs!

blogging ahead

despite the fact that we bought this cake to celebrate bill knapps day, which was january 18th when we decided to eat bill knapps cake and nap, i'll post this picture in honor of national chocolate day today.

perhaps it was one of my mentally unarticulated goals for the new year to put a bit more priority back onto my blog.  i'm not sure.  but lately i've been feeling a real urge to get this place back on track.  my free time comes in sporadic bursts these days, and to be honest, we don't have a whole lot going on at the immediate moment.  i'm too chicken to head out for cute photos in the snow (in all fairness this is like super ultra mega cold snow).

if you wanted an accurate run down of our day to day activities you'd hear things like "doing a lot of laundry, but leaving it unfolded."  Or "watching netflix and cracking a beer."  Or "simultaneously doing dishes while cooking chili."  Or "petting the cat and talking to steve."

we're just not all that fascinating at the moment i suppose.  but that's ok, it means i finally have a chance to get my tush back here and blog!

but on that note, you may not see my word count sign offs as it will be impractical to reconcile with scheduled posts.  no worries, however, i'll be sure to keep you updated on my writerly exploits.

so now what?  i just told you how boring we are.  so let's look ahead!  tally ho!  i'm going to start pre-writing blog posts to keep this place fresh when i get busy again!  make ahead meals so to speak.  and to compound on the forward thinking most of these posts will be varieties of future plans!  we do have a wedding after all, and a lot more than that on the horizon as well!

well it's winter now

steve apparently got fed up with the black garbage bags of dirty laundry that have been sitting in our bedroom since we moved (what gives bebay?  don't you like that living-in-a-landfill look?)

so the big news is:  we're officially completely moved in!  (well, unless you count the contents of my plastic drawers and the bike basket full of odds and ends... i'm not a great unpacker.  sue me.)

our weekend was, as usual, packed (we went to see our old high school's musical in honor of my former teacher's retirement.  those auditorium seats were pretty surreal, let me tell you).  we also humiliated ourselves at football (by "we" i mean brady hoke and devin gardner mostly), played with my parent's dog, and reunited with some more college friends (they keep showing back up here like we live in a tourist town or something... wait we totally live in a tourist town).

we're busy in a good way right now, while we get ourselves settled in for winter (and while work keeps me going like a mad lady).  i'm looking forward to premiering my hopefully attractive christmas stockings, which i am knitting for me steve and bert.  we're also gearing up for the thanksgiving/steve's birthday/anniversary madness that rolls around this time of year.  on the whole, great things around here.  just not a lot of time to talk about them on the blog unfortunately.

oh and also, it snowed.  i'm not that into it.

word count: 33,709

the weekend when we dressed up the cat and i forgot to take pictures of my sister

yes, as predicted we've hit the time of year when my independent productivity goes out the window.  maybe it's the time change, maybe it's steve and i's complete cabin fever with this weather.  maybe it's the limited computer access we have away from our jobs, maybe it's this wedding planning thing.  maybe it's the fact that work has woken up a little and i finally have deadlines again.

actually it is.  it's all those things.  and those things are all legitimate, valid, and real, which means i'm not feeling guilty that my blog is quiet, my draft is dusty, and this script i'm writing is still unfinished.  the script is easy, the draft is like my child, and here i am breathing a little life back into the blog.  we're still good.  we'll still get there.

ANYWAY HERE'S A SEGUE NOW.

last weekend steve and i were hosting my sister, who was in town from san diego, visiting friends and making wedding plans (for her wedding, not ours).  we had a fantastic time, failing to document any of it (well, unless you count an awkward selfie i took with a halloween decoration at the bar).  when we weren't hosting sarah we were hosting friends, and, retrospectively, we had an alarmingly and uncommonly social weekend.  one of steve's groomsmen from the other side of the state was in town, as was a good friend of ours who was back on a visit from law school.

we suffered to watch a sporting event that ought ne'er be spoken of again.  fortunately, as obnoxious as it sounds, when people weren't turning up at our door with champagne, we were racing to brunch, making dip, and staying up late.  it's taken a few days to get ourselves and our kitchen put back together (and we've been going to bed so early you'd think we remember world war two), but as we head toward the second half of this week, we might just have a few consecutive hours to get back in a groove before we face our next couple days off.

and, as the title and image suggest, we put clothes on bert this weekend.  apparently he is a success-vacuuming cheerleader, but he's almost cute enough to help us forget our shame.

word count: 33,365

happy national sibling day!