Guess What I Did?

What She Wore: Blue jeans; navy blue, pin-tucked shirt with a mandarin collar; black, patent-leather stilleto sling-backs with a cork heel.


What She Ate: Went to this Junior League thing at the convention center and it was catered. Grits, pulled BBQ pork, cheddar cheese, and green onions. There was some seafood pasta as well, but I didn't have any of that.


So, I paid a LOT of money to get my hair dyed recently and the day I got home I had these horrible roots. I'm not kidding--the day I got home. Finally, I'd had enough, so I went to the drug store, bought a fifteen dollar box of color+highlights and viola! I'm a redhead now. I documented the process:

The roots:

The dye:

After washing out the dye:

Adding the highlights:

The new roots:

All gussied-up for the Junior League ladies:

I like it!

Six Month Review

What She Wore: blue jeans; gray, long-sleeve, LSU t-shirt; tennis shoes.

What She Ate: For lunch, baked potato soup and I topped it with some shredded cheddar and sliced green onions. For dinner I visited my parents and my dad made me a toasted sandwich with ham, salami, and mozzarella on this divine, airy bread.

Warning: This is going to be a long update on Charlie's therapies. Feel free to come back tomorrow if it's not your thing.

Today was Charlie's six month review with our parish's Early Intervention Program, Early Steps. He's been in the program just a tad more than five months, but we're eager to add Physical Therapy, so we moved it up as far as we could.

First, we did a questionnaire based on age to see where the deficits are. In a word, everywhere, but that's no surprise. I'll break it all down for you and tell you our plan of attack.

First, gross motor. Before, we were very, very behind. We didn't even show up on the chart. Now, we are barely behind. We are behind, but we've gained serious ground. It's taken a lot of hard work, though, and now we're going to be getting a physical therapist once a week! I am SO excited. I think the plan is to work on sitting with a toy in hand, rolling more, and holding the crawl position.

Next, fine motor. This is mostly feeding and we are very far behind in this. This is no surprise since I hate solid food and have made very little effort. Guess what? Time to get moving. Our OT is going to be focusing on finger foods, chewing, and drinking from a cup. The only strength we have in this area is that he attempts to hold the bottle and is occasionally successful. Within the next six months our OT would like us to work on solids, drinking from a cup, and eating some table foods. Yikes. I guess I can't keep my baby a baby forever.

We didn't do very well on social/personal, but this is largely due to his inability to touch his toes. I think that if his hamstrings weren't so tight then he would be trying to grab them. His OT said that she thinks social is one of his strengths. I couldn't agree more. (My brother called with a question, so let me clear it up: Personal mean awareness of self. Charlie is fine with social. He may be aware of himself, but he should be showing an interest in his feet and he's not--it could just be a tone thing or it could mean that he hasn't noticed yet that he has feet).

He doing great in "problem solving." Like my husband said, he's not doing any differential Calculus, but he's completely normal in this area ( I'm not doing differential Calculus either).

As I've been saying, we'd like him to play with his toys more with his hands. For this, we're getting a Special Instructor who will come once a week to work on this and other pre-academic skills. I don't remember what area this correlates to--I'll have to look at the paperwork when they send it to me.

Lastly, we talked about speech. As I suspected, he has fallen behind in speech. I think it probably has a lot to do with the fact that I haven't been pushing the feeding thing too much--same muscles and all. Anyway, we're going to have a speech therapist twice a month for that. I am extremely interested to see what she recommends.

So, we've got OT, PT, and a Special Instructor once a week. We've got Speech twice a month, and we've got Vision therapy once a month. The kid's got five teachers and he's only eight months old.

I'm excited, though. Call me a dork but I can't wait to work on all these new things.

Rethink?

What She Wore: Blue jeans, purple and gold rugby-style shirt; tennis shoes.

What She Ate: For lunch I had a chicken caesar pita. It was good. For dinner, I tried this new recipe, Turkey and Blue Cheese Salad with a Tarragon Mustard Vinagrette. I didn't like it at all. I liked all the ingredients, but they didn't come together very well. All I could really taste was the blue cheese and there's only so much of that I can take. Even the Hub didn't want any.

Our most recent stated goal for Charlie was that he start using his hands more during play. We would manipulate his little arms and we kept putting things in his hands.

I think we've been pretty successful. He's started holding his own teethers, he's working on holding the bottle (it's a little heavy), and he's really enjoying playing with raddles and other hand-held things that make noise.



He's also started whapping us in the face. First thing in the morning, when you lean in for an Eskimo kiss, WHAP!



I guess we should start working on that now. . .

My Humps

What She Wore: Baggy blue jeans; orange shirt that reads, "Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler" (Let the good times roll); brown, slip-on tennis shoes.

What She Ate: Curried chicken salad on wheat bread. Delicious.

Butt
Booty
Humps
Badonkadonk
Hiney
Tush

Whatever you call it, mine hurts.

Last night I decided to drop my Netflix movie in the mailbox because I often miss the pick-up first thing in the morning. It was a little after eleven and Charlie was showing no signs of being sleepy, so I decided to take him with me. Movie in one hand, Charlie in another, I walked out the front door and slipped on the dewy stairs. I basically just fell onto my butt on the next step, but I used both arms to hug Charlie to me, which meant no breaking my fall. Charlie was scared, but fine. The Netflix movie landed in the garden. My butt, however, is currently hosting a baseball-sized bruise and it hasn't even been twenty-four hours yet. I'd include picture, but I wouldn't want to give anyone nightmares.


My internet is acting up right now, so if I'm a little absentee that's why. I'm pleading with my Hub to check it out, but it probably won't happen 'til the weekend. I'm also trying to keep up with updating my Flickr daily, but that's really hard with my current snail-paced connection.

Edited: I've got a lot of my computer problems fixed, but I'm still having issues signing into Spaces. It might be something with my anti-virus software. I'm working on it.

Ummm. . . Wha?

What She Wore: Jeans; red, ribbed henley; shiny red patent heels with a picnic basket heel.

What She Ate: Enchiladas!!! So pleased to be eating something that wasn't soup or a Lean Cuisine. Life is good.

Do you think there are some rules for shopping? 'Cause I do. There are just some things that you don't do. Today, while at my Mecca, otherwise known as TJ Maxx, I encountered a woman who has clearly not attended the same shopping etiquette class as I.

You see, when I'm shopping, I don't reach out and grab something that someone else is looking at. I may lurk nearby pretending to admire some heinous handbag, but I don't actually reach out and grab something from under someone else's nose. To me, that is rude.

So today, I was a little perturbed when this woman snuck her hand in front of me to finger some towels I was looking at. She actually had to snake her little mitt over there because I was standing very close to them. I mean, come on, do you really need some hand towels so bad that you can't wait five seconds for me to move on? Sheesh.

Dearest Max

What She Wore: Red capris; white t-shirt; tennis shoes. I tried to look a little nicer today.

What She Ate: Ick. Stouffer's Chinese beef and peppers over rice. I CANNOT wait til the weekend, so I can eat some real food.

I had every intention of writing this post as a letter to my cat. It was cute--I reminisced about the day I brought him home, the tiny apartment we lived in, and his cute, fluffy self.


Somewhere around paragraph two, however, it got a little forced. So I'll just tell you about my cat's latest shenangians and not force you to participate in what was rapidly becoming either a Freshman creative writing assignment or a bad country song.

Adding to his repetoire of knocking over water glasses, opening closed doors, and toe biting, Max pulled an all new stunt.
After using the--ahem--facilities, he then proceeded to kick his--er--deposit onto the carpet. Then, he walked through it leaving footprints all over the house. The Hub was on his hands and knees for about half an hour cleaning up and muttering something about "sit prints."

All my kids are talented--even the furry ones.

Shunt-tastic

What She Wore: You know--running pants, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes. I did exercise today, though, and that's the whole point. Now, I'm just hanging out in my jammies.

What She Ate: Stouffer's turkey and stuffing. In addition to exercising, I'm also working on portion control. Microwave meals really help with that because there's no pot to snack from once the meal is over. I'm going to be trying to eat them for a little bit to get an idea of how much I should be eating. I don't, however, put them in the microwave. They are so much better if you put them in the over and heat them up the old-fashioned way. I'm a freak, I know.

Right before Charlie went for his shunt surgery, I tried to find a picture on the internet to show me what it would look like. I couldn't find any. Today, I thought I'd post some pictures in case someone else's in ever in that position.

Here's what he looked like right after surgery with a little swelling and stitches:

Here is a picture of him taken today, which is about four months after surgery. Personally, I think it's pretty hard to see at this point. There's definitely a bump, but it's not the first thing you see when you look at him.

Adventures in Pop Culture

What She Wore: Uhhhhh. . . running pants, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes. AGAIN! I'm trying to exercise a little, so that's why I'm wearing grubbies so often.

What She Ate: Actually, not much. The Hub is bringing home fixins for turkey sandwiches, but there isn't much in the house.

I didn't realize I was being so controversial, but I've had two family members bring it up, so I thought I'd share it with the Internet.

The Hub and I have decided not to get cable. We've gone about three months without it, and we're not really missing it all that much. Instead, we've decided to get a Netflix account. That's about thirty dollars cheaper than basic cable, and about sixty dollars cheaper than the plan we had in Arkansas that had a couple of movie channels.

So far, I'm having a blast. I love to watch TV shows on DVD, so I decided to rent a show I had never seen before, but that I'd heard a lot about: Dawson's Creek. I know, I know, cheesey teen drama and all that, but I like cheesey teen drama. Plus, some pretty big-name actors and actresses came off of that show, so I thought I'd check it out. So far, I've watched the first season and it wasn't too bad. I didn't LOVE it the way I do Sex and the City or Friends, but it's a nice distraction and interesting enough. Now that I think of it, Friends best season was five (IMO), and SATC really got better each year, so maybe The Creek will get better.

The best part, however, is how I am completely corrupting my husband. My husband hates pop culture, listens to NPR, likes to read non-fiction and watch independent movies. He spends his spare time reading Libertarian political commentary. He can't stand it when I read celebrity gossip. But. . . the other day I came home and caught him watching an episode of Dawson's Creek. I'm not saying he enjoyed it, but it was the only thing in the house, so he started watching it. Hilarious. Next up, we're going to do a couple of Sundance movies, and then on to season two of The Creek.

So, are we crazy, because I'm fine with this, but my brother's girlfriend called it an abomination. Are we off our rockers?

Charles in Charge

What She Wore: Gray running pants; red t-shirt that a former student gave me; tennis shoes.


What She Ate: Pot roast and potatoes made by the Hub; macaroni and cheese from a Southern Living Cook Book; green beans with tomatoes and andouille--that recipe is also the Hub's. He should write a cookbook or something.





Well, I forgot to say anything, but we've started tapering off of Charlie's medicine. Yippee! We're still on house arrest, but the end is in sight. Truthfully, I'm not exactly sure what we're going for, but hopefully his next EEG will look "better." I don't know what "better" will look like (not being a nuerologist and all), but feel free to say a prayer if you're the type.





Charlie, on the other hand, is blissfully unaware that his nuero is concerned. He's just doing his thing. He WANTS to crawl so badly. Put him on his stomach and he's wiggling like he wants to commando crawl. He might even gain the tiniest amount of ground, but he's not really strong enough. He's also holding the table position briefly. Who knows how long it will be before he puts it all together, but it's fun watching him try.


They've found him a physical therapist as well. He'll probably start with her in March. Meanwhile, the OT has big plans for my little man. Here are some of the things she'd like to do:


She wants him to start in a stander once he begins PT.

She's also ordered a thumb splint to help hold out one of his thumbs--he keeps it tucked under.

She would like to order him something called hipsters which will keep his knees together. Hopefully, this will help keep his hamstrings less tight.

She wants to order some shoe inserts for when he starts practicing standing and walking. I guess that means I'll have to buy him some shoes too.

Finally, she wants to have a new swallow study done. She wants to see if he needs someone to help him work on eating solids, and she wants to know if he still needs to have his liquids thickened. I'm not getting my hopes up, but I feel like he's gotten a lot better with that, so who knows. . .


As far as my own goals for Charlie, we're still working on using his hands in play. Things are improving in this area as well. We've finally got him playing his little piano. He would still rather someone else do it for him, but even a little progress is progress.



We're keeping my boy busy, but like they say, "He writes his own book."

Mini Post--Elephants on Parade

What She Wore: Yellow polo with purple stripes; blue jeans; tennis shoes. You know, I need to make a little more effort. I just feel kind of blah these days.

What She Ate: House salad and lasagna from a place called Bosco's. They've only got eight tables in the place and it's always packed, so you know it's good. The servings are so big you could easily split something and be fine.

I made some small changes to the entryway. The secretary had a glass case that had nothing in it. It looked a bit empty and the Hub and I didn't really know what to put in it. I once collected elephants (a long time ago), and the Hub has a few of his own, so I put the best of our collections in the case. Here's a picture:

I'll tell you a little bit about the guys inside:

These two fellers were gifts from my grandmother who's now passed away. She was a pretty amazing woman--a blog in and of itself--and I keep them around strictly for sentimental reasons. I don't know where they came from or anything else. . .

The wooden one here is another of my husband's artifacts from Kenya. The little one peeking out is a souvenir I picked up in Mexico. To the right, out of the picture, is a glass elephant-shaped perfume bottle that my huband picked up in Qatar--in my favorite colors: red, yellow, and blue.

Finally, we have the little white guy in the corner. He is part of a set--salt and pepper shakers that I bought in a gas station while on a trip to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to see LSU play Bama. LSU won, someone drank BBQ sauce (accidentally), and someone else fell on their face. One of these guys didn't make it through college, but here's the survivor. Friends of mine might also report an incident where a certain someone was driving without her lights, but I would deny it strenuously.

Dine and Dash

What She Wore: red pajama pants, white USA tee. I'm just feeling off today--like I'm about to get sick or something. I just don't feel like doing anything.

What She Ate: Honestly, not much today. A ham and cheese po boy that the Hub brought by because I wasn't feeling well.

I already told you that last night we went to a Mexican restaurant, but I didn't get to tell you about my experience.

We like this place and I'm a Mexican-food fiend, so we're in there pretty often. We went in and there was seating by the bar immediately. We knew the deal--the bartender is your waiter, so the service is a little slower, but he only had one couple at the bar, so we figured it wouldn't be too bad.

The waiter came and we gave our full order--drinks and dinner. He brought us copious amounts of salsa and little carafes for our drinks, so we'd have enough of everything in case he got busy.

Well, boy did he get busy!

After we finished eating, we started waiting for the check.

And waiting.

And waiting.

I decided that it would be funny to count the pennies in my purse. I'm kind of ADD, so I thought it would pass the time, and I figured if they saw us counting change they might come over and give us the bill.

I was wrong. There were 92 pennies in my purse.

Finally, we wrote a check for a round number and left. They don't take personal checks, but we couldn't leave the baby with my MIL forever.

I left them the pennies too.

Was that wrong?

Mini Post One

What She Wore: faded Levis; navy blue and white, waffle-weave henley; brown, slip-on tennis shoes.

What She Ate: Enchiladas. Chicken, cheese, and beef from a local place that I like very much. It wasn't even that crowded considering it's Valentine's day and all.

Despite my chair quandry, I am making minute progress in other parts of the house. Let me show you some of my progress.

The last time you saw this room it looked like this:






Now, we have this done.








And before you ask, that painting in there is an original KM--I can't afford THAT much original art. We still have a ways to go. As I look at this picture I realize I've lost a candle somewhere.






I still have this pile of Goodwill stuff in the corner, but hey. . .Rome wasn't built in a day right?

Happy Valentine's Day

I'm working on a couple of mini-posts about the house right now. In the mean time. . .

Day Twenty-Five (three left!)

What She Wore: black running pants; purple, short-sleeve LSU t-shirt; tennis shoes.

What She Ate: My husband's father and step-mother brought over Picadilly. I had a piece of fried catfish, cucumber salad, corn, and macaroni and cheese.

Ok. Tell me which chair you like best.

The Queen Anne:

Or the cane back:

Both need their cushions recovered. The cane backs are a little more comfy. The Queen Annes belonged to my great-grandparents. The cane backs belonged to my grandparents. I could probably paint the cane backs a la Shabby Chic, but I don't think I could do that to the Queen Annes. My garage is starting to look like a chair warehouse with all the seats I have in there. Wichever set I don't use I'm going to take at least a couple and use them as occasional chairs around the rest of the house.

Let me know what you think! Oh, and here's Charlie's new chair. He's not crazy about it just yet.

Whaddaya Know? (Day 24)

What She Wore: Blue jeans (what else?); short-sleeve, navy blue tee; my red, pointy-toed keds with the striped bow. I put a picture up before. . . maybe I'll go find it.

What She Ate: Chicken caesar salad and peanut butter pie from my parent's favorite cafe--their treat!

I've never metioned it here, but I've always been attracted to smart people. I'm not just talking about my spouse. In general, I have always surrounded myself with people who are very smart. Let me give you some examples:

Of the girls I hung out with in college, all of them graduated on time.

Almost all of them now have professional degrees.

My bridesmaids include a PhD, a lawyer, the financial director of a major publisher, and a physcial therapist. Oh yeah, and one of them works for NASA.

Three people I e-mail regularly were the Valedictorians of their high school class.

Three of my closest friends were National Merit Finalists.

With a 3.4 gpa I was the slacker of my college friends.

When I moved back to Louisiana, I called a friend of mine who named four different people that I know who are doing their residency at the local Children's Hospital.


So why am I telling you all of this? I'm saying all of this because sometimes I just can't believe that it's my child's BRAIN that's the issue. Of all the things I worried about, it was never this.

I'm not looking for condolences; I just mean to say that you really have no idea what life has in store. I think the expression is, "If you want to hear God laugh tell him your plans."

It's a crazy thing.

Day Twenty-Two--The Hallway

What She Wore: Blue jeans; gray mary jane-type shoes; two-tone orange polo with three-quarter-length sleeves.

What She Ate: Half a roast beef sandwich and a caesar salad from this new local place that just opened up. It's in a restored old house and it's really cute.

I'm just going to come right out and say that hallways suck. They are the black holes of decorating. Next up on my house list is to attack that hallway--that means I have to figure out what I want to do to the thing. In college, I started decorating my hallway with plastic box frames with pictures inside. It was pretty freakin' classy. I got those babies at Walmart and they cost about $1.50 a frame. This carried me through until I moved to Arkanasas. In Arkansas, I got all fancy and I put pictures in black frames with white mats. I had some in singles and some in triple frames.

So, here I am in the new house. I have a long, narrow hallway. On the left I've got an ugly brown air conditioning vent and the AC control box. On the right I've got an ugly brown closet. I've also got some crap on the floor, but it will get picked up eventually (I hope). I think they make metal spray paint so I may have to investigate that for the air conditioning vent. Anybody ever used metal spray paint? The closet trim and door will eventually get painted, so I'm just going to have to wait on that.

I know I can't just put up the stuff I had an Arkansas on these walls--most of the pictures are kind of old, and some of them are a walk down memory lane that's not as happy as it once was. Plus, there are no pictures of Charlie. I bought a couple of different frames with the idea that I would do a colorful montage, but I couldn't really find enough that I liked. I like colorful, and my colors always end up being red, yellow and blue. I try new things, but I always end up back there. I bought new, larger black frames with white mats. I bought a million little copper frames that I thought I might arrange in a big rectangle. I have frames coming out of my hiney.

Do I even want to put up a bunch of pictures? I found this great picture of a wall of mirrors and I thought it looked pretty good--and different.

I also wondered about the walls. The wall on the right could be painted an accent color or I could add some faux molding. I just don't know what I want to do.

So, what are you doing in you hallway? Have any thoughts on the wall o'pictures that's a standard in many homes? Do you think a funky color or molding or both might be the way to go? Give me your thoughts--quite frankly, I don't have any (or maybe I have too many).

Crap

What She Wore: Blue jeans; black tee with three-quarter-length sleeves and a keyhole neckline; black and white houndshooth jacket; black and white houndshooth flats.

What She Ate: Had a most-amazing dinner at one of my favorite Mexican resaurants--Serrano's Salsa Company. It started as a hole in the wall off of LSU's campus, but luckily they opened a big location in the New Orleans metro area. They have probably my favorite salsa in the city, amazing marinated meat, and a green rice that is to die for. Yummy.

This is not that hallway post, although, interestingly enough, going online to find Serrano's web address might have helped me in that area--more on that later today.

I just wanted to take a minute to whine about the latest reports regarding Botox. While most of us know Botox as the injections stars use to prevent wrinkles and sweating (a la Nicole Kidman), Botox is also used off-label for kids with cerebral palsy. Usually, botox is injected into the spastic (tight) muscles while the child is under general anesthesia. This relaxes the muscle for up to six months and gives the child a chance at increased range of motion and to gain strength in other muscles. It many ways it is preferrable to whole-body muscle relaxers because you get to pick and choose which muscles you want to work with.

Now, reports are coming forward stating that some children have died after undergoing Botox treatment. Specifically, it seems that the toxin has been linked to aspiration, pneumonia, and sometimes death.

Now, many kids with CP are extremely medically fragile. Also, many have difficulties with swallowing that goes undiagnosed--remember, swallowing involves muscles too. Personally, I think every kid with CP should have a swallow study done as a precaution. Even though it was a tremendous pain in the ass, I am grateful that Charlie had a swallow study, reflux study,and an upper GI done while he was hospitalized. It answers a lot of questions, and I know that I am doing the right thing by him as far as feeding goes. Besides, we weren't really going to be happy unless we'd explored every inch of the radiology department--kidding!

But, of course, the question now is what to do about the Botox. Truthfully, Charlie looks like an excellent Botox candidate. He is tight in just a few places and has full range of motion in his whole body. His OT really thinks that will be a good option for him when he gets older. This new study will change things, though. I hope that the FDA does a good investigation on this one. I don't want to poison my child or put him at risk, but I also don't want the medication made unavailable because it proved unsuitable for children who are medically fragile.

Later, I'll get into that hallway discussion. Complete with pictures, of course.

Cerebral Palsy 101

What She Wore: Long-sleeve, gray LSU shirt; blue jeans; tennis shoes.

What She Ate: Red beans and rice made by yours truly!

I realize that I may have been a little simplistic when I discussed cerebral palsy earlier. I think I should try to explain it a little bit better. Basically, cerebral palsy is the physical manifestation of a brain injury. The brain injury usually occurs before, during, or right after birth. For this reason, it affects a child's achievement of normal developmental milestones. There are two basic effects--hypertonia, which means muscles are too tight, and hypotonia which means that muscles are too loose.

Now that I'm through with the lesson, I'll tell you about Charlie's issues more specifically. Charlie is tight all over. I never really noticed until I saw other babies. His hamstrings in particular are very tight, and this is pretty common. He also has a weak neck, which is also very common. He couldn't pick up his head at all until he four months old--man, did we celebrate that milestone!

Where I'm headed with all this is to say that Charlie is doing really wonderful. He's working hard at mastering the sit, we've begun working on crawling positions (long-term planning, you know?), and now we're really working on getting him to play more with his hands. So far, he only thinks that they're good for chewing on, but last night he had some good times with dad pressing this board that makes noise.

Despite the amazing amount of work that it takes, Charlie is a living, breathing testament to the human spirit. This is a child that they told me was "most likely brain dead." Now, the Hub and I have real faith that he may walk. There is simply no telling what a person will do--we are all an untold story and it would serve us well not to forget that.

If you're around during the weekend, please stop by--I'm stressing over the ole hallway and will be looking for opinions/advice.

The Politics of Alcohol (otherwise known as day eighteen)

What She Wore: Blue jeans; yellow polo shirt with purple stripes; strappy, leopard-print wedges.

What She Ate: I scored today; dad made beef fajitas for lunch and my MIL served us stewed ham, green beans and potatoes over rice-- nice, cajun dish. Gotta love those holidays where everyone wants to feed you.

Well, for those of you who don't know, today is Mardi Gras. On Friday I went to my first and only real parade of the season. When I was a teenager I'd go to about a ten a season--old age slows you down.

Anyway, at the parade I experienced an interesting little incident. Was it rude? I'm not sure, so I'm letting you guys be the judge. If you're a non-drinker than I'm not sure this will make sense, but I'll do my best.

For a parade, you need a place to pee. For this reason, people usually congregate at a friend's house that is either on or near the parade route. A friend invited us over for Friday's parade and the Hub and I happily accepted. His house was about six houses off the route--a good spot. Parades are generally like block parties. Everyone is welcome, but you need need to bring your own refreshments. The Hub brought a couple of beers and I bought a very small bottle of Barcardi. I'm not a beer drinker. I also brought some Diet Coke. We all sat around the parade route talking, waiting for the parade to show up, and occasionally heading back to the house to pee. At some point, this guy who was with us asked me if his girlfriend could have some of my Bacardi. "Sure" I responded. I mean, it's not like I was going to drink a whole bottle. He went and got her and I offered her some. She thanked me and then proceeded to tell me this whole story about how she was allergic to beer, and how she had diarreah for three years because of it. I didn't ask for her medical history, but apparently she felt she needed to share it.

She took a hefty pour, walked off, and never spoke to me again for the rest of the night. This did not bother me. What did bother me a tad was when I saw her drinking a beer later. What's up with that? Was she lying about the diarreah? If so, weirdo. If not, then why the beer?

So tell me--party foul? Yay or nay?

Day Fifteen (of Twenty-Eight)

What She Wore: White and red baseball shirt; blue jeans (dark wash); grey herringbone print mary-jane-type shoes.

What She Ate: Fettuccini Alfredo. My dad's recipe with artichokes and sun-dried tomatoes tossed in.

Here's that light fixture post I was talking about.

Our new light fixture is a big hit and everyone who comes over seems to like it. Despite not really having a budget at this time, I am plotting for the day when I get to replace the "nipple light" in the entryway. For whatever reason, I am drawn to what I'll call granny lights for this area--basically, lights that your grandma would love. Frilly, full of crystals and what have you. I'd love something huge and ridiculous, but I think 28 inches is probably a maximum height and anything wider than 20 inches would just take over the place.

I also have to consider the fact that there is a second "nipple light" further down the hall. I've never been into match-matchy (just look at the rest of my house), but I do think that two light fixtures in the same area should at least coordinate.

Here's a set that the Hub and I both agreed on. The first one would be for the entryway and the second one would be the hall light.

Then, the Hub says that he thinks the entryway looks "Art Deco." He thinks we should consider an Art Deco fixture. So, I start looking at Art Deco fixtures. I'm not sure if I'm that kind of girl, but we're a team here--I always consider his input. I found this one that I liked a lot, but there's no complimentary fixture for the hallway--I'd have to figure something out on my own.

Then I found Rejuvenation Lighting. They create reproductions of period pieces. I found their lighting beautiful and the prices were within the range of other places. They had this light. I think it's pretty freakin' cool and it has a small round version that would coordinate nicely. Good thing I'm still in the planning phase because this would be a seriously tough decision at this point.

I'm still without Spellcheck. Please forgive me!