Useful election links

Here at the Jones household, we are closely following the election and constantly debating where people stand on the issues, here are some links that I have found to be useful as I try to determine whom will get my oh-so-important vote:

Both of these focus on where candidates stand on the issues...I trust no media so I always have to read the same thing in two places ;-)
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/chi-071218candidates-htmlpage-css,0,3171367.htmlpage

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21116732/

This article offers an interesting perspective:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120067436785100873.html

The best laid plans...

Let me start off by saying that I had the most ambitious plans for this weekend. I was going to clean (my turn this weekend), go to the gym, knock out some thank-you cards, research dryers and finish painting the entry way. It all started so well; I got home after work on friday and cleaned the entire house while DH and Ed watched the game and ate pizza (3 boxes all by themselves, I hate men and their metabolism!). Saturday morning I woke up at 9:30 am to freshly made coffee that Ed left on his way out (aparently hot date that night so he had to get ready).

I get out by 11am and head to the gym and I run into the worst traffic ever on route 22. After spending 1.5 hours on the phone with Fuquita, discussing the economy and why I cannot afford to have children until I am 42, I get pulled over by five-o. Apparently our registration has been expired since September! So now I am trying to call the DMV to get the car registered but nobody is there (why would any service agency care to work when most of us are available?) so I call Todd so that we can switch cars because I am not trying to get one more ticket today. By the time I made it to the Gym and home, it was 5pm and I only had time to cook dinner(meat loaf, mac n' cheese, sweet potatoes and green beans) and watch a movie with DH...sigh! I did not do anything today either, I went to church, took a nap and watched rush hour...better luck next week.

In the mean time, does anybody know anything about buying appliances? There are too many choices...I just want my clothes to dry in less than 1 hour.

1 down, 99 to go!

I just wrote my first thank you card for the wedding you guys. You have no idea how difficult it is to do these...especially since my handwriting sucks! The thing is that I want to be truly able to convey to people who grateful I am for their time and generousity and it is pretty difficult to gauge whether or not a note sounds grateful enough. I know that people work hard for their money because I most certainly do so I take it seriously. Leave it up to me to get stressed out about showing the proper level of gratitude!

I know that some people live for this stuff but getting married has led me to realize how much of a behind the scenes person I am. It was really far more attention than I have ever had in life. I am extremely grateful and it will take me a long time to fully thank everyone so I would like to take this opportunity to renounce any further festivities in my name until my 70th Birthday. By then I ought to have gotten the last celebration out of my system. Yes, that includes baby showers should I decide to have children; I grew up in Costa Rica so I know that all a kid really needs is some diapers, a bottle and some onesies which I will pick up at Target en route to the hospital...ok, maybe a car seat since its ilegal to ride around with them in someone's lap...hehe.

Home Improvement

Yesterday I met with my first contractor to get a price quote on doing the stairs and laying down hardwood floors in the living/dinning area. After our first quote from home depot, Mr. Sylvesters quote doesn't seem all that bad. He lifted up the carpet on my stairs and it looks like I have hardwood stairs but they have paint on them because the house was apparently spray painted when they built it (lazy bastards!). So if I can convince DH that we should spend his bonus on getting wood floors downstairs, I am going to undertake the task of sanding the paint off the stairs myself. I know that it is really going to suck but at this point I have way more free time than money so you gotta use what you got ;-)

I am going to go to home depot again tomorrow to see what other colors I can use for the entry way and the powder room. I also talked to him about redoing the master bath which would cost about $2k plus materials...it is not bad but I think that I can live with an ugly shower for another year, is just not that serious!

My busy weekend...

I can't believe it is Monday yet again but then again I am never prepared to go back to work...in my next lifetime, I wish to come back as a socialite (with the caveat that I will remember what this life was like and I would appreciate the benefits of having money in the bank...hehe!).

Since this was not my weekend to clean, I took full advantage of my free time starting with an Indian food and an evening with Wynton Marsalis at the New York Times Center with my cousin. Wynton still looks good ;-) But aside from that, I really appreciated his perspective on contemporary music as well as preserving Jazz as an all-American art form. I am going to make it my business to go to Jazz at the Lincoln center to show some more support...lord knows I need more culture in my life.

On Saturday I had a fabulous lunch with the Divas. It is so much fun when we get together, I sure wish it could happen more than once per month but life is complicated so I am grateful for whatever time that can be made available. I also went shopping with the fashion diva herself but we had bad shopping Karma so no bags. On Sunday afternoon I went out for sushi with my favorite neighbors ever and I must say that my stomach has definitely shrunk this last week...i got dizzy after eating 4 pieces of sushi and two rolls! I love talking to Jamie because she keeps my travel bug alive...we are talking about Iceland for 2009! Sidebar, I haven't actually discussed this with DH and therefore cannot make a commitment but I need to come up with a plan to see the world because nobody is going to call me up and offer to make it happen. I really want to get a side-hustle to pay off my debt and finance my travels but I made a commitment to not do anything big for the first year of marriage...sigh

I returned home last night to a room full of testosterone as the Giants were playing. I made the mistake of offering Eric and Lorenzo some wine on cheese...they were dying laughing for like 10 minutes...ma bad son. The guys did take out the Christmas tree and clean up all the mess that it left so I was extremely please and I started to make fajitas for dinner. Unfortunately, the Giants won and DH was talking a lot of smack and they got mad and left so it was just me and DH eating fajitas and watching Mr. Bean's holiday which was hilarious!

I had already made up my mind about selling my wedding dress at a consignment shop because I can't wear it anymore...but Thalia has caused me to have second thoughts. Do I say peace to the dress?

Post Holiday Diet

It is that time of the year ladies, time for me to dispose of all the cookies and the eggnog and dive full speed ahead in my post holiday diet. I have pretty much resigned myself that this will happen every year for the rest of my life unless somebody comes up with a diet pill that doesn't kill or cause "oily discharge"...hehe! Also, because I am a newlywed, I am more subceptible to overeating because I have so many shiny new things in my kitchen.

I have replaced the raisin and potato bread with honey-flax seed bread, bought yogurt, bananas and cocoa pebbles...all my favorite diet foods. I am drinking 32 ounces of water a day, I need to get up to 64 but my its so hard! As you all know, I don't do starvation so my diets comprise of how much food I can eat and stay within the1500 calories that I am allowed per day ;-) I also have to confess to not having gone to the gym in like a month, which is great because when I go tomorrow (I had issues with my card) my "exercise-and-diet-resistant" body fat will be shocked. I am also going to sign up for swimming again (no laughing) and yoga if I can find $50 somewhere because relaxation is not something that I do well. BTW, I took down the Christmas tree last night...it was fun while it lasted! I leave you with scenes from Christmas 07.

the Tree....

Chillin at the cookie swap

Joshua's first visit

Thalia and me at Rolf's sipping on spiked eggnog...good times!

The bartender at Rolf's

Happy New Year!

I know that I have been quite negligent in posting but I assure you that it has been for good reason. First it was Christmas and all the fun that led up to the holiday with baking cookies and cakes and making tamales and socializing. Last week life took an unexpected turn and Omi who a few of you may remember at the wedding went home for good.

I also must mention that I started reading Harry Potter again and I have been thoroughly consumed by the last three books. I am currently on the last few chapters of book seven and I just can't put it down! Its so bad that I didn't even cook dinner last night and stayed up until 11 reading. DH doesn't seem to mind though because he was caught up watching the Iowa caucus.

As I look back on 2007, I must say that it was the best year of my life so far...and I in retrospect, have had my fair share of good years! As I get older I get better about not dwelling on the bad times or things that make me sad, I just learn from them and move on. I know how easy it can be to feel sorry for yourself and get caugh up in what did not go your way. So I made a conscious decision some time ago to be an optimist and it has worked out quite well thus far. To me being an optimist doesn't mean that bad things don't happen or that you live in an imaginary bubble, it just means that you can get over them because you know something good will always be around the corner. So 2008 will be my year of gratitude for what has been and excitment for all the new possibilities.