Ten Random Things About Me

My mom wanted to know when I was going to post another blog entry. Dude! I've been busy wrapping presents and making presents and shopping for presents and walking and doing DVD workouts and chasing after a crawling baby and surfing the internets and NOW I have to make a grocery list and go shopping today because the Weather Channel FORECAST OF DOOM says that Baltimore and DC are going to get hammered with snow. And when we get hammered with snow here, the whole world shuts down. Like for days on end. HOWEVER, I am guessing we'll be in better shape than, say, my cute friends in Blacksburg, or my cute friends in Sweet Briar. They, too, are supposed to get hammered with snow, and they are even more woefully unprepared for snow in the state of Virginia than we are here in Maryland.

Anyway - I digress. There's not much going on here baby-wise, unless you count Dexter figuring out how to slide down the stairs on his belly, and how to push the sound button on his soft book that makes sounds, that Aunt Jeanne gave him, oh, way back in August. So. You get a list of things you maybe never knew about me. And maybe you don't care. Too bad. And I suppose, somewhere, I'd better toss in a picture of a baby. That's really the only reason Mom reads, anyway - she wants to see cute baby pictures.

Cute baby picture for Grandma. What? Not cute enough? Guess you'll just have to keep reading...

1) My favorite drink is Bailey's on the rocks. In fact, Bailey's is currently on the "oh, shit, we'd better get this before it snows and we can't go anywhere for a week" list. It's important stuff. The only thing better is the rum cream that John got me for Christmas last year, shipped in from Jamaica. No, really. From Jamaica. Should have seen the package. It had about 76 trillion stamps on it. It was wild.

2) The best thing that's ever happened to me, before I met John and had a baby and all that, was this little brown fuzzy dog. She was given to me by a woman in Blacksburg who could no longer keep her. My boss decided I needed her. And then, a year later, the woman who gave her to me wanted her back. No, thanks. I think I'll keep the best thing that ever happened to me, thankyouverymuch.

The best dog in the world, participating in the best wedding in the world.

3) I have a ridiculously black thumb. Not because I don't love pretty flowers, or plants. But really because I always forget to water the damn things. And feed them. And thus they end up looking like this (this, by the way, is a plant I grew from scratch in my "Indoor Plants" class at Tech. Yep, it was actually a class! For credit, even!):

4) The most terrified I remember being in the recent past? Not right before going to the hospital to be induced. Not deciding to have a child. No, no. It was sitting on my horse, outside a horse show ring at the Cecil County Fair a couple years ago. Looking at the fences that I was supposed to go in and jump. And thinking "Christ Almighty, those fences are HUGE!" I told John, multiple times, that I was going to puke. The knot in my stomach lasted til after the first jump. And then Fraz was in a rhythm, and I was in a zone, and I forgot all about how huge the jumps were. And, hey - don't you laugh at this photo and say "that chick is CRAZY. Those jumps are tiny." Have YOU ever jumped a three foot course on the back of a horse before?

How I miss my Frazier boy. He took such good care of me.

5) I love driving my truck. I love being able to see over people. And the best thing? I LOVE the damn side mirrors on the truck. You can see FOREVER in them! Do they make kick-ass big side mirrors for Altimas?

My truck after a weekend of endurance ride managing at Fair Hill. Where it always rains.

6) I am a planner. I don't do "fly by the seat of your pants" very well. I like to know what's coming. And when. The baby is on a schedule - I know when he eats, and I know when he sleeps. I like it that way, and I don't like to mess with it. My friends with kids Dexter's age think I am a bit crazy, or inflexible, or both. ;-) It does make things a bit interesting in this house, though, as I usually get to plan any vacations, date nights, holiday gatherings, etc. Which is all fine and good. But, sometimes a girl just wants to be whisked away and not have to worry about planning anything, you know? (Hint, hint, cute husband...)

7) Along those same lines, I am prompt. I hate late. I hate being late. I hate waiting for late people. This whole baby thing is challenging my ability to be prompt. But I think I'm actually doing a pretty damn good job. The secret? PLANNING.

8) I love photos. I love taking good ones. I love looking at good ones. I get jealous looking at good ones because I want to be able to do the same. For me, a perfect photo doesn't need cropping or light editing. It just stands on its own. John has put a ban on picture frames in this house, because I have a zillion, all filled with photos. No worries now, though, that I have a digital picture frame!

One of my favorite photos I've taken. Grand Teton National Park.

9) I have a very limited comfort zone, as far as heat and cold go. My perfect temperature is about what our house is at now - 70. Warm enough that you're ok in a tee shirt. Chilly enough that when you sleep on the couch you want a blanket. Warm enough to not be freezing in bed. Chilly enough to not have to take your socks off during the middle of the night. So I'm good all winter in this house. But in the summer? I die. It was better this past summer - I could talk John in to 75 degrees. You know, for the sake of the baby...

Hmmm. I'm out of ideas. Maybe this will only be nine things about me. Hold on. I'll think of something. I hate cats? I'm hoping Santa will bring me a pony for Christmas? My hands are constantly dry, because I do dishes about 17 times a day? Oh, I've got one. Here you go:

10) When I make a fist, my thumb is inside my fist. It means two things. A) If I ever punch someone I am sure to break my thumb and B) John laughs at me every time I make a fist.

Note the thumb...

OK! So that's way more than you ever needed to know about me, right? Next post will, I'm sure, be back to our regularly scheduled Dexter news. Or maybe it'll actually snow, and I'll toss the baby in it and see how he does. Oooh, and the dog, too. She hates snow.

From our last big storm a few years ago. The dog? NOT PLEASED.

Cute baby picture for Grandma. Who needs Christmas presents when you can play with dog collars and paper towel rolls?