One eyed bandit

I had a very busy weekend! On Friday I knew TheCount wouldn't be home (he had to work some events at church) so I took my sweet time getting home. I stopped at TJMaxx, Target, Home Goods, Shoppers, Giant, Food Lion, and CVS. When TheCount checked the bank stuff online he whipped his head around at me and asked what the heck I was smoking on Friday, lol. Man shut up, you weren't complaining when you saw that nice and full fridge :) When I finally got in the house around 8:30, I started whipping up my home made lasagna! Very, very, yummy! I'm having some for lunch today too. I also got into my hmmmmm, what to do since I'm home alone? I decided I should have a fondue party and make chocolate covered strawberries. I had a platter of strawberries made then I sat on the couch clearing out my tivo whilst dipping pineapples in chocolate. I got a new shampoo and conditioner so I also decided to wash my hair too. A perfect evening!

 

    Saturday I woke up with my eyes swollen shut. Not a good look. Then, while I was deciding what to do with my hair, some women came knocking on my door asking for a Portuguese speaking family. I stood there and looked at them like they were stupid. They asked if I knew any Portuguese families in the neighborhood. My swollen eyes and I stood there holding my hair into a ponytail staring at them like they were stupid again... knocking on my door before noon for this foolishness. They then changed their request for any family that looks Brazilian. I pointed up the stairs and shut the door. Do they think I sit at home and stare out the window playing spot the Brazilian? GO AWAY. I had a meeting at church for the childcare ministry. When I walked in the church TheCount was standing their talking to his momma (they both had to serve at a funeral) and he peeped my new hairstyle. It's called the "you got what you asked for." Every single time I go to the hairdresser or say I'm going to do my hair, TheCount asks what I'm going to do. Every single time, it's the same answer. I am a simple girl, with simple tastes, and I cannot sleep with curls, so I get a wrap. Now, I've decided that aside from leave in conditioner and some and Cantu moisturizer, I aint doing nothing to my hair. I let it air dry and I tied on a headband. How's that for different baby? You got what you asked for, a free woman! It doesn't look bad, though, so it's not like I'm trying to be evil. I just need a break from rollers, dryers, and flat/curling irons.

    During the meeting with the childcare folks, the lady kept looking at me telling me she had special plans for me. It made me nervous. I thought she was going to do something evil like take me from my babies and put me with 11 and 12 year olds (oh the horror!) but not so. They are starting a special needs class and she wants me to teach that one. Perfect! A special teacher for the special kiddies :)  I've always worked with special kids, even back in elementary school I got to go on all the field trips with the special class and help them out. The best one was the swimming pool trip, but I digress...I can't wait to help the kiddies.

   After that I went over my cousins house for a seafood dinner in celebration of his birthday. We had crablegs, the biggest shrimp I've ever seen, corn, fried oysters, and a cool salad. We stayed for a couple of hours, but after eating all the corn (their were 7 people, I ate 6 pieces of corn) my momma told me I had to go home, so I left. By the time I got home I was mad at TheCount so I shut myself in the room while he had some people over. My anger quickly subsided when he walked in with 2 new games for my DS. Ohhh yeahhhh, and there was a gas leak in the complex across from us. There were so many firetrucks and people outside it was crazy! I told my momma somebody had been murded and set on fire, my story is much more cool.

 

TheCount was sick and miserable and couldn't sleep. I finally convinced him to take some nighttime medicine at 5am. Needless to say, we didn't make it to church on Sunday because he was passed out on the couch. We didn't even leave the house. He moped around, played video games, and ate. I rearranged the bedroom and read blogs. He watched the Oscars with me and we both enjoyed them. I expected to be bored out of my mind, but I was pleasantly surprised. Now, I'm sitting at work with one contact in because my left eye wanted to act all crazy this morning. 

 

One eyed bandit-signing out.

Today is gonna be a great day!

I love TheCount! He picked out my clothes last night ( I have a really hard time matching shirts and shoes with brown pants), ironed them this morning, and put together my breakfast. Made me happy :)

 

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I really like to listen to Raphael Saadiq, but why when I try to pull him up in Napster, I can only think of the name Raheem DeVaughn? I actually listened to the whole Raheem CD before I realized that wasn't what I wanted to hear, lol. I have to hunt and hunt because when I see his name I recognize it, but I can't remember it on my own.

 

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I am making homemade lasagna for TheCount this weekend. It's his favorite food. If anybody has a good recipe, email it to me!

 

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If I'm doing you a favor, I think you should minimize the amount of work I have to do. Playing phone tag on my daytime minutes is not cool. Me leaving back out my house to drive down the street to meet you so you can hand me an envelope is also not cool. Come to my house, to my door, knock, and leave it there. I'll get up when I'm good and ready, lol.

 

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I'm expecting 3 packages in the mail (of course all to my momma's house so she can call me and yell about me using her address and never buying her anything). I'm getting a TJMaxx gift card because I cashed in my visa extras on my bank account because I'm closing it. I'm getting a purple cashmere glove and headband set (the sale was calling me, I think I ordered it while typing my last random post), and all of India.Arie's cd's that I won over at What Women Want (great blog, check it out!) this week! I love mail and packages...and things, I love things!

 

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I'm looking for good Christian dating/courtship books to help a fellow blogger train up her children in the way they should go (hey, I'm getting good at throwing Bible verses all up in stuff). All the books I have are for teenagers, she needs something for a younger crowd. I will be perusing the net today to see if the authors I like have put out a set of books for preteens ( I didn't link you cuz I don't know if you want your business in the streets, lol, but I can if you want)

 

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I snitched again, lol. Watching my 300plus pound office mate eat McDonald's for lunch, dinner, then breakfast all while on a weight loss challenge makes me mad. But it also helps keep me focused on my weight goal. Everybody that walked past with their free muffins/donuts/bagels and coffee this morning saw my water, pineapples, and pear and were like "oohhhh you all healthy and stuff", lol

 

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Y'all wanna know a secret? I kinda wanna have a baby. But I don't think TheCount and I are ready to raise a baby. I also think he would be so stressed out since he wants a more high paying job before we have kids. That all being said, I'll continue taking my birth control so we don't have no babies. Anybody have one I can borrow for a weekend? No, seriously. I may have to call and see if my favorite 3 year old in the world can stay with me one of these weekends. I'm going through baby withdrawal. When I lived with my parents we were always keeping somebodies kids.

 

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Kelly decided to be more active in her church (she's an usher, I can't do that at my church, the ushers have to hug people. All people, you know, cuz the Bible says to love all people. I don't think I can be that friendly, lol) and so did I. I finally turned in my paperwork to be a nursery worker ( I love the kiddies). I have a meeting tomorrow at 1.

 

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Yesterday 7 of us in our department went to a Japanese steakhouse for a coworkers birthday. We had a lot of fun. It was more fun watching the little girl at the other table who was.not.feeling.it. The chef kept messing with her and she was mean mugging him and pushed all the way back from the table. When he lit the big fire, the look on her face was priceless! She was looking around at her family like "y'all gonna act like this dude aint tryin' to kill us? Let's go!" I felt bad for her, but it was sooooo funny.

 

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I just got the call that my boss is working from home today! I finally have time to go run my errands :) I think I'll get myself a pretzel today. It's going to be a great day and a great weekend! Enjoy it peoples :)

 

I guess I did have a post

I just deleted the post I had typed up, I talk about people too much (it involved hot oil, obesity, and Pepsi, lol). Now I don't have a post. I could go random, but I really don't feel like it, I'm feeling a little down. Yesterday I was on a conference call at work. We are introducing 2 new people to our team. I got kind of upset while we were on the call because I felt very insignificant, very unnecessary. I'm just a contractor, I don't work for the company and I kind of feel that way. Whenever somebody has a question they ask everybody else even though, sometimes, I know I could have given a better answer. Whenever I do answer one of the guys on the team tries to make it seem like I don't know what I'm talking about (this is the power point dude from a few weeks ago). For example I was explaining a problem with one of the reports that I have to work on. He then butts in and tells me about MY report. I was actually in the room with my boss that time and I was shaking my head at her like, ummm no, he is wrong. I get the report and I do the report, so how are you going to tell ME what's on it? So it makes me just be quiet cuz I don't have time to be arguing with folks. Yesterday he sent an email to our  boss (I was cc'd on the email) asking if she wanted him to tell me to take something to somebody. I didn't realize I needed you to break it down for me. Her office is 2 steps from mine, yours is 45miles from ours, why would she need you to tell me something? In the same effort for her to tell you to tell me, she could have told me. We have the same title. I'm not stupid. I guess that's it, I feel dumb, like people think I can't do anything but deliver their messages or paperwork. I will never be the type of person to call somebody to the carpet or try and expose them cuz it's not that serious to me. Even though I really enjoy my job and coworkers, this is not what I was put on this earth to do, so I'm not going to trip off of it. I guess I'll just smile and "work as unto the Lord" and know that he'll take care of me. I'll do what I'm asked quickly and CORRECTLY and know that's all I can do. Whew, blogging really is Therapeutic. I feel better :)

taking it personally

I have a problem. I don't take criticism well at all. Well, most of the time it's not even criticism. I don't like to be challenged. I walk around like if I say it, then it is so. I don't know whats wrong with me! TheCount will just be like "you think you're always right don't you?" Honestly, yes! Even though I know it can't possibly be true, I just can't accept the fact that something may not be exactly how I want it. When we were at Be.st B.uy Saturday I already told you about the interaction between me and the manager. Well, I uhhhhhhhh, kinda didn't tell the part about when we were trying to leave the store, lol.

 

First, we had to go get the car so we wanted to leave it with them for a while. The dude said cool and that he would keep the receipt. That made no sense to me. How will I prove I bought the t.v.? I was like are you going to be here? He told me no, he would put it in the back room and he would tell the next person on duty. Negative, sir. What you gonna say? "OH yeah, dude, a black couple is gonna come in here and ask you for a t.v. give it to them?" I'm going back and forth with the dude and I was like let me take a picture of the receipt. By this time the man is rolling his eyes at me and then he just signs off on the receipt and lets us take it with us. He told us to just tell the dude at the front door when we came back to get it. What do you think the first thing the dude asked was? "Do you have your receipt?" I was like, yep! [I won't tell y'all what TheCount was doing during the whole encounter, let's just say he was a tad embarrassed]

 

Ok, so then we went to put the t.v. in the car. We had 2 people helping us and there was a bit of difficulty because the cloth seats made it hard to slide the t.v. across. Then this happened:

 

WorkerThatWasNotHelping: "What are you guys doing?"

HelpingWorkers: "Trying to put the t.v. in the car"

WorkerThatWasNotHelping: "Well you can't do that, if it doesn't go in easily we can't do it"

Me: "Mind your business, they know their job"

WorkerThatWasOutsideSmoking: "Well it's never going to work, if you ask me"

Me: "Nobody asked you either, go away" (i may or may not have uttered the words "die smoker", I honestly can't remember and if I did then I am wayyyyy to ashamed to put that in my dialog)

HelpingWorkers: "We got this"

TheCount: "TM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" followed by a very painful pluck to the ear, lol.

 

I don't know what's wrong with me! In my defense I don't think the people I was rude to heard me. It was like I meant to say it in my head, but I kind of blurted it out, but not too loud. I know they weren't attacking me personally, but I took it that way. I'm trying to work on it, I have gotten much better with TheCount. He would ask me a simple question and I would be so rude in response. Now, I pause to check myself. Last night I was making dinner

 

Me: "Babe, can you hand me the baking sheet"

TheCount: "For what?"

Me: "Because I need it."

TheCount: "But I thought you were making meatloaf?"

Me: " I am. Just hand me the pan please."

Few minutes later

 

TheCount: "I never saw anybody make meatloaf like that before"

Me: turning around with the death glare

TheCount: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, you want me to shut up and leave you alone?

Me: "Yeah man! If you don't want it, don't eat it. Shut up before I break your spine with a hammer"

 

See, I'm getting better! Before, I would have been genuinely mad and irritated, now I can joke about it. The first 2 months we were married were really hard because we do/did things differently and if he questioned my method instead of just explaining why or what I was doing, I would snap at him and walk off in a huff. It took TheCount looking at me one day and asking why I had become an evil monster before I realized that I was acting like a witch. Now, we are sunshine and smiles...most of the time! And before y'all tell me I'm mean for trying to paralyze my husband, know that he threatened to hit me in the head with the shelf he was putting up. So we're even ;) and he also ate 2 of the 4 mini meat loaves I made ( I could only eat half of one before bursting at the seams).

 

{my spell check isn't working, anything you see misspelled ignore it, lol}

Long Weekend Wrap up

My Valentine's Weekend was wonderful! I have a lot of blogs to catch up on reading today (ummm, like over 200, I'm a huge lurker, lol) so I'll find out how yours went soon enough I guess. TheCount and I participated in the marriage get away with our church. It was in Reston, Va and we had such a good time! Of course we were the youngest couple there and everybody felt the need to point it out repeatedly. The view from our room was verrryyyyy interesting. One window overlooked the indoor pool, which I thought was very creepy cuz I was spying on a grandma and her granddaughter (helllooo pedophiles would love this room) and the other window looked out onto the parking garage. As in when we opened the curtain there was a person standing there, lol. On Saturday we hung out with our only other young married couple friends (they are 25, I think). We walked around shopping and looking for a good place to have a Valentine's lunch. We decided on Jackson's. It was really good! For dessert I had a chocolate waffle and ice cream. Oh myyyyyyyyyyy! I was dancing in my seat. After we went to lunch we decided to stop in Be.st B.uy. Last week TheCount and I ordered a t.v. online. It was a really good deal so we were like, hey, why not, let's do our part to stimulate the economy. Well the company tells us they need to verify our credit card. Sure, that's cool. What was not cool was what they wanted us to do. Their credit department (that is outsourced) sent us a forwarded message asking us to fax them a front and back copy of our credit card, our license, and a copy of the credit card bill. WHHHHATTTTT????????  Are you crazy? I started firing off emails to the company we ordered from as well as the company that handled their credit. We ended up cancelling the order because I thought that their request was absurd and I refused to do it. Now, back to Be.st B.uy on Saturday...TheCount and I were walking through the t.v. section and we both stop, turn or heads to the side, and look at each other and ask "is this real?" Y'all, it was a 46inch HD television for $250. We were in disbelief, so we called our friends over. They were like, well, that's what it says. We called over an employee. She was like yep! It doesn't come with a box or a remote though. The original price of the t.v. was $1,999.00. I don't think a box or a remote is worth $1749.00 so we got the t.v. When we got to the front to pay for it the cashier had to call a manager for a price override:

 

Cashier: "can you put in this override please"

Manager: looking at the price tag and the override amount "absolutely not. They cannot have this t.v. for $250. There must be something wrong"

Me: beginning to feel a bit rowdy so I turned away

TheCount: sensing my rowdiness so he begins to push me away

Manager: "Let me check with somebody else"

Somebodyelse: "yes this price is correct, put in the override"

Manager: "Why do they get the t.v. for this price. It doesn't make sense. That is too much of a discount blah, blah, blah"

Me: "Why are you hating on our blessing ma'am. You don't know what kind of God I serve"

Manager: "well, I uhhhh, I'm not hating, I'm just surprised, that uhhhhh, it's such a good deal, it's unbelievable"

Me: "I serve a God of surprises" and then I walk away while I'm still feeling spiritual so I don't embarrass my God by getting rowdy with folks.

 

I could not understand why that manager (she wasn't the manager of the entire store by the way) was so upset. Were they taking the $1749 out of her paycheck? My goodness, lol. Anyway, God really blessed us beyond what we could ask or think on Saturday.

 

Oh yeah, while we were in the store we went into the music section. They had a piano and mic set up. I embarrassed TheCount so bad! Since it was Valentine's day I wanted to sing him a love song. I sat down started jamming on the keyboard (I cannot play at all) and started singing "If I aint got you" at the top of my lungs. I had a small crowd staring in amazement at the girl making a fool of herself by the time I finished. But I had so much fun, I tried to get a little girl to do a duet with me, but she politely declined.

 

 

On Sunday, Momma, Sister, and Niece Count all came over to the apartment. Words to live by, never ever ever watch a movie with MommaCount, lol. She will work a nerve with the questions. I politely answered her dumb questions while her children looked at her and shook their heads in disappointment. Even her 7 year old niece was like "grandma, are you watching the movie?"  I remember when PapaCount was still living he would always look at her and ask "Honey, are you even paying attention? Sit down somewhere and pay attention and you'll know what's going on." I always cracked up because every time you watch a movie with her she has a barrage of questions and comments that are so unnecessary. Although I had to threaten niececount a ridiculous amount of times, we had a good time. Parent's, when you take your children into another persons home, please keep them together. I shouldn't have to threaten to put your child out on the patio or tie her up in the bathtub before you realize she has snot hanging from her nose above my carpet laughing. Or she has juice up on my couch dripping it onto my cream colored blanket, or that she is trying to open playdough on my cream carpet. Or she is rolling around on my exercise ball with her face by a sharp wooden corner. I'm all for running around and playing, we do it all the time, but you must be safe, and you MUST be clean.

 

Yesterday I ran errands with my mom all day. We had a lot of fun. I went to the grocery store afterward and when I left out I realized the cashier didn't ring something up (they take the stuff out of the basket for you). I was like, oh well and left. Then I started feeling bad. Then I got lost going home, lol. So I turned around and went back to pay for it. They let me have it for free anyway, but at least this time I had a clear conscience and I could remember my way home!

I gotta remember to pick up my prescription today!

(random title for a random post)

 

I have to draft up 2 complaint letters today about some unsavory business practices TheCount and I encountered this week. All we were trying to do is do our part and help stimulate the economy by buying a new television  and then these people got on some extra whack stuff. I'll give y'all the details next week. I need to save my rage for my letters, lol.

 

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TheCount does not listen to me! It is absolutely ridiculous the amount of times I have to tell the same story. I would think he was joking but he is dead serious each time. Every single time I tell him about my arthritic big toe he acts like he never knew about it. I'm going to make him start taking notes during our conversations.

 

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Yesterday I was soooo tired because we were up late. Why were we up? You'll never guess, lol. We were jumping. No, that's not a cool slang word for something, he was literally teaching me how to jump. I walked in the bedroom and he was running across the room and jumping over the storage bench onto the bed. I started playing too and he kept laughing because he said I was diving, not jumping. Then we had to have a jump off competition followed by lessons when it was discovered that I cannot jump. I wonder what the upstairs neighbor was thinking hearing all of the commotion?

 

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We are going to a marriage getaway tonight and tomorrow for Valentine's day. I want to go ice skating tomorrow, but my toe is swollen and hurting and I need to make it go down first. If it's still hurting, I'll have to shop the pain away!

 

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I'm doing our taxes myself, TheCount is nervous. I don't think he trusts me. I was like "babe, they have pictures! They tell you step by step, I don't even have to do math!" I think it made him even more scared.

 

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You know what? I'm a snitch. I'm proud of it. Now if we do something together, I'm not going to rat you out. Or if you ask me to keep quiet, I will. But when you do stuff and act like you dare somebody to tell. I will. I snitched on my officemate who is supposed to be participating in our office's version of The Big.gest Los.er. I was coaching her and she just fell off the wagon so hard and I'm tired of the excuses. She hasn't worked out in 3 weeks, she's back to eating pizza, mcdonalds, other fried things, and drinking multiple pepsi's a day. Yesterday the 2 pepsi's and cake did me in. I went to her teammate and was told her "look, you better stop in our office and check on her eating, she is killing y'all. She's going to start gaining weight again." Then I made plans to begin to work out with her since it was clear that my old workout buddy no longer cares about my plan to get my Beyonce body.

 

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I just took a break from typing this post to order some cashmere gloves and a headband, lol. The sales be calling me man!

 

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I don't know what TheCount is getting me for Valentine's day. I asked for some face cream, a vacuum cleaner, a trench coat, and some food (if he sent went online and ordered me some Domino's pizza and had it sent to my job, I'd probably scream with glee. Forget flowers, I need food!) but I don't think he got any of it, because I know he wasn't paying attention when I was talking. I do think I got some earrings (he forgot we had a joint account when he swiped his card at the jewelry store), not the ones he wanted to get me, because he's mad at me for losing my diamond studs. But I know he is tired of me wearing my pearl earrings everyday in my second hole so they don't close up. Every week he asks if I'm going to change my earrings and every week I respond, I will when you buy me some [more].

 

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I finally got my car out the shop yesterday (it's only been in a week and I only took it in because I failed emissions, lol). The fact that my check engine light had been on for 2 years didn't matter to me! After they plugged the hole from the nail in my tire, cleaned my breaks, put in a new roter(?) thing, fixed the oil leak, replaced the gas cap valve, and something else I'm forgetting, it was only about $500. I can deal with that, it's the first time I've put it in the shop in the 4 years I've had it. Not a bad average.

 

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It is now time for me to paint my nails. I sure hope my boss doesn't come in today, I need to leave early!

 

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What y'all doing for V-day? I think for our V-day dinner we are going to order a meat lovers pizza from somewhere and watch movies. For a special, treat, maybe he'll let me cut the heat on!

In the area: Eyebrow Threading

I get my eyebrows threaded because I got too lazy to keep plucking them (and sometimes I got a little too tweezer happy) and I can't get down with the wax. Soooooo, here are the places I've been in the area (DC-MD-VA) to get them done. I don't have thick eyebrows at all, when I say I'm going to go get them done TheCount normally looks and asks, "what eyebrows," lol!

 

 

Dupont Threading

 

This is probably the best one for you Pink, it's right off the Dupont Circle Metro stop (walk around the corner, she'll have a sign on the sidewalk). If you are going in the evening, make an appointment, it gets crowded. If you can go during your lunch break :) you'll have no problem. I will say this...do not DO NOT DO NOT let anybody but Natasha, the owner, touch your eyebrows. Let me repeat that DON'T LET ANYBODY BUT NATASHA DO YOUR EYEBROWS! Call my sister that had a scab underneath her brow because some janky assistant was trying to do too much and ask her why, lol. Natasha ended up correcting the sloppy job the assistant did but my sister was in so much pain when the other woman was doing it because she was pinching her skin. Only Natasha, and it's $12.

 

Random kiosk in Arundel Mills Mall

 

As embarrassed as I am, I had to get my eyebrows done in the middle of the mall, lol. I had a Christmas party to go that evening to and I looked a busy mess. Y'all my eyebrows looked FABULOUS after, even if I had to deal with the crowd staring at me making comments. However, this was the most painful experience because she gripped a lot of hair at one time. I was visibly wincing. It was worth it when I got up and everybody oooohhhhed and aaahhhhhhed over me :) I think it was $12, TheCount paid as I entertained the crowd.

 

Salon Diva

 

It's in Gaithersburg. I was googling random places and since it was right around the corner from my job I decided to go check it out. I went hoping to see somebody else in there getting done so I could make a decision. Unfortunately there was only 1 person in the shop and she worked there. Knowing V-day was coming up this weekend and I, once again, looked a bushy mess, I decided to take the risk. It was the least painful, like barely any pain at all! She used a very thin thread, I think that's why. If you can pull out a strand of hair without, you can get her to do your brows.  I look lovely and it only took a few minutes. Downside was she costs $15, but since she is much closer and more private than the other places I went, she will be my new go to woman. I didn't catch her name, I think it started with an S. She was the first person on the left side behind the couch.

 

Hope this helps! If anybody knows any other places in the area, let me know!