Diary of a Newlywed...car maintenance

Welcome 2010...wow, I don't know if I remember how to blog but I'll give it a go! To usher in 2010 I'll begin with a conversation that took place this morning between Nick and myself.

Setting: Nick's car, white 2007 BMW

Where: On the way to drop me off at work because my car was left there last week when I got a ride to the airport.

Time: 7:15am

Me: "Wow look at the fluffy, pretty snow coming down, they said it will only accumulate to 1 inch but it looks like it will be more"

Nick: "Ugh, why couldn't we have gotten your car last night, I'll never make it by 7:30."

Me: "I was ready at 7 and you said that would give us plenty of time for you to get to work on time, I didn't know there would be this much snow"

Nick: "We should have gotten it last night!"

Me: "I couldn't get a hold of Kyle to find out if he left my keys inside work or locked in my car so I didn't want to risk going all the way up there and finding out they were locked inside work"

Nick: "Ugh"

3 minute annoyed silence

Me: "What's going on with your tire? The maintenance screen here says you have really low tire pressure and that you shouldn't go more then 50mph because it's going flat"

Nick: "Oh that, it's fine, it's not losing air, this thing is always wrong, I've checked it and filled it up with air a few times and it's fine."

Me: "Well that's weird...I know they're really sensitive but remember a few months ago when my tire kept losing air and I thought nothing was wrong and turns out there was a nail in it?"

Nick: "I've checked it and filled it, the computer must be wrong"

Me: "Ok, well it's just weird that it keeps telling you that every time you fill it up if it's wrong..."

2 minute silence

Me: "So you actually checked the air pressure with a gauge?"

Nick: "Well I filled it up and it looks fine."

Me: "So you didn't actually check the air pressure?"

Nick: "No, it looks fine and I've just filled it up a couple times"

Me: "So it looks fine but you've had to fill it up several times and the computer is wrong?"

Pause when he says nothing

Me: "So I don't wanna be mean but do you really think you're qualified to look at a tire and know whether it has a leak because I work for a tire and wheel company and I was wrong about my own tire so I'm just saying that it's tough to make a visual call by sight alone and maybe you should get it checked out..."

1 minute silence

Nick: "I guess I can call and make an appointment with BMW..."

Me: "Well why don't you just take it over to Wearmaster in Canton where I know the owner and he fixed my tire and he'll help you out."

Nick: "No I have lifetime service with BMW"

Me: "But it's 30 miles away and this will likely cost you only $10"

Nick: "No, I'll call BMW."

Me: "Okay, well if you still don't believe something is wrong we only have about 50 tire air gauges laying around at work, do you want me to check it when we get there just to be sure?"

Nick: No I don't have time.

Me: "It will only take a minute."

Nick: "No, there's not time"

Me: "Okay"

I get dropped off at work, give a quick kiss goodbye, and head into the office. I'm making my oatmeal, brewing coffee and checking my email for the next 15 minutes when I realize I have a voicemail from Nick. Without checking the voicemail I call him right back and he picks right up.

Me: "Hey is everything okay?"

Nick: "No, my tire's flat, I had to fill it up with air, I don't know how long it will last and I have to be in South Lyon for basketball practice at 4."

Me: ".....................Hmmm, well why don't you drive it over to my office on your lunch break so we can switch cars and I'll take it to Wearmaster."

Nick: "Yeah ok, thanks.

Just a day in the life folks, hope you had a great holiday and fabulous NYE!!

The People have spoken

I was called out of my months long blog hibernation this morning by a monumental event that only happens once a year. Yes, People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive competition. This is the Oscars of magazine stories and it deserves my full attention. This year's choice, which seems so obvious, is actually fairly controversial in my well-crafted opinion. They have yet again chosen Johnny Depp. I'm a bit perplexed by this, not because Johnny isn't sexy or isn't worthy of being nominated - that he is. But seriously, have we come so far only to revert back to what we know? Maybe I'm still upset at last year's Hugh Jackman fiasco, but I really feel that People Magazine needs to dig a bit deeper in their bag of sexy men and pull out something new, something exciting, something like Robert Downey Jr.!

Yes, my nomination for Sexiest Man Alive 2009 is Robert Downey Jr. I know there are trendier options like Bradley Cooper or Robert Pattinson, all very very sexy, but I believe that RDJ has proven himself to be a consistent sexy man. Think about it: he was up, he was down, he was in and out of rehab more times than Scott Weiland (also sexy), and now he's made a complete career comeback, not to mention has packed on some serious muscles. He is a man who just gets better with age. While you may also say the same for Johnny Depp, I would argue that RDJ doesn't hide behind outlandish facial hair or Keith Richards style hair braids to mask his inherent sexiness. RDJ likely doesn't even know he is sexy while Johnny has been fighting against it since 21 Jump Street.

I'd also like to point out that I might be slightly influenced by his upcoming performance in Sherlock Holmes. If you were my therapist, I'd probably tell you that my fascination with British things, including dudes, likely originated from my childhood love of all things Sherlock Holmes. Toss Robert Downey Jr. into the mix and give him a British accent and I'm on board.

Maybe next year People Magazine will go out on a limb, or maybe they'll give it to George Clooney...who knows. I, for one, would appreciate the off beat option for once.

Diary of a newlywed...bed snobs

Before my co-diva sleeps off all the jet lag and digs all the sand out of her undies from her north African adventure I thought I'd bore you with a far less exciting story about my last two weeks. For any of you that are my friends on Facebook it will come as no surprise that Nick and I are moving. About 2 months ago we entertained the idea of putting our house up for sale and trying to upgrade in a down market. After seeing the pitful short sale comps in our neighborhood we took our realtor's advice and listed Brentwood for rent. Within a week we had renters who wanted a 2 year lease starting October 1 and just like that we were off hunting for our new pad. After a daunting 3 weeks of viewing house after house, we finally found a home well within our price range with everything on our "must have" list and we put in an offer. We received the good news of offer acceptance on September 17 and quickly realized that we had to be out of our house in less then two weeks and couldn't move into our new house until November 1. After much consideration we decided to put everything in storage and bunk with Nick's parents for the one month gap. Now most people would think we're rotten to complain about the amenities in our temporary digs, a hot tub, a mini-gym, a theater for watching Dexter every Sunday, and most importantly our own half of the house to sleep in, all great things except for one...QUEEN SIZE BEDS. Now here's where I'm going to sound really spoiled. I think I've written about the bed we bought soon after we got married and how big a deal it was for me. I picked out a king sized bed that was pretty pricey compared to the rest of our furnishings and splurged on a Visco foam memory topper and luxurious sheets because, well, we spend a lot of time in bed, reading, watching TV, Facebook chatting with each other on our laptops, etc... and I figure if you're gonna spend that much time in something you better make it the way you want it. Well I succeeded and we both sleep like babies the minute we snuggle in. The only negative in all this is that we've become bed snobs. Nothing compares to our bed and we have a hard time sleeping in other beds, let alone in smaller beds.

Have you ever wondered why your Grandparent's or maybe even your parent's started sleeping in separate rooms? The whole time I was alive Mika and Cha (Croation names for Gma and Gpa) slept in separate rooms and I would often ask why when my parents still shared a bed. I don't remember what answers I got but I think I'm quickly learning how it happens. The first night at the in-laws started out with us sleeping separately because Nick didn't know if he was going to get a 5am subbing job wake up call. At Brentwood the bathroom wasn't attached to our bedroom so he'd get up and get ready out of the room allowing me to keep sleeping for another hour and a half but here the bathroom and closets are right there and it would totally have woken me up and kept me up. The next day the housekeeper asked if we were getting divorced when she went to make the beds and noticed that two beds were ruffled and unmade. "Of course not!" we laughed and went on to explain the temporary situation but when it came time to go to bed that night we found ourselves hardly thinking twice about the separate beds. Now don't get me wrong, we still have cuddle times but even in our king size bed we'd do the 10-20 minute snuggle then separate to our sides of the bed and hope not to disturb one another with a elbow or kick. 9 days later and we've spent 2 nights together, one when the other rooms were full with siblings over the weekend and one two nights ago as an "experiment" after I started feeling insecure about out set-up and people making fun of us. The results of the experiment kicked all thoughts of insecurity out of my mind after we tossed and turned and I had to elbow and nudge Nick to stop snoring! Sleeping separately on weeknights is AWESOME! I still like waking up together on weekends when we get to sleep in but I have to ask...were we really designed and meant to share a bed with someone for optimum sleep?!? I'll leave that one our readers!

long time off

Wow, I can't believe we let an entire month go by without one single blog post! We are so horrible we shouldn't even be allowed to call ourselves bloggers! We need to get back in the saddle. Well I'll attempt to start us off by writing about a very common problem I've become quite familiar with over the last year and that is shower registries. For a very few special occasions in a woman's life most of us are delighted with the opportunity to hit up our favorite stores and use a magical computerized gun to scan anything and everything we might want onto a magical gift wish list. Now some people would debate the whole idea of the registry, in fact there are those, (Nick), who believe that asking people for specific gifts is quite rude but what he doesn't realize is that failing to specify some ideas or products can lead to utter chaos and potential gift receiving disaster.

The two most common reasons someone would create a gift registry are obviously a wedding or baby shower, both of which are two momentous events in a couples life which often ushers in a completely new phase or lifestyle which many people are materially unequipped to handle. Therein lies the necessity of the gift registry. Now I'm not saying that every couple needs a registry if they're engaged; some people who have lived independently for many years will have most everything they would register for but a lot of couples today still hope to make a home together with stuff that is "theirs" and what new mom has a supply of everything a baby needs before actually getting pregnant? And if they do, that's super weird. That's the whole point of the registry, to get stuff you actually want and need! Now does a new bride really "need" an alligator shaped oven mit? No, but I liked it okay!

I just can't understand why some people feel the need to make it about themselves and buy the bride or pregger's mama some random thing off the registry that they are soooo sure the recepient will love! Just because you love macrame plant hangers or a stained glass platter with a cartoon turkey on it and "Our First Thanksgiving" doesn't mean your friend will! I mean it's true that in most cases you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth but my friend really actually NEEDED a breast pump, and no its not as cute or fun to shop for as baby clothes but come on people, its not about you! Now I have no problem with another mom buying something that she found super helpful with a new baby that wasn't on the registry or adding a personal gift to go along with something on the registry but its there for a reason people so just stick to it and honestly it will make the recipient so much happier then the embroidered Snuggie you were planning to buy them...although as awful as they look, I kind of secretly want one...

Diary of a newlywed...Draft Picks Part 1

Its that time of year again, and one that people either live for or despise, football season. I've never understood the whole Fantasy Football thing and never really cared to. I just thank my lucky stars that Nick isn't obsessed with it because lord knows I already get an earfull about the upcoming season. It was during a conversation when I was questioning the purpose of the fantasy football draft that I found myself asking a bigger question, "why do guys love drafting stuff so much?" They televise the professional sports drafts for entire days, there are the fantasy leagues for fake drafting and even draft parties, I just don't get it! But then I realized it's all just a form of competition and guys can pretty much get themselves revved up to do just about anything when there's competition involved. That's when I had an idea, "what if I incorporated competition and drafting into other unexpected areas of our life?" And here's the first place that idea lead me...

Nick and I have a real love for our bed, maybe even an obsession. We spend as much time as possible in bed doing an array of things from The Nasty, Facebook stalking, solving world hunger, watching Diner's, Drive-In's and Dives, passing out after drinking too much, watching Gwar on Red Eye, to of course sleeping.

We're not one of those couples who has been working 8-5 jobs so long that we automatically wake up at 7am to get yard work done on weekends, nosiree, you will still find us snoozing away until nearly noon on most Saturdays and Sundays when we get the opportunity to do so and I don't feel one single bit of guilt over it! One of the first things I did after we got married was to go out and spend way too much money on my dream bed, a king-size upholstered Hollywood Regency meets modern style bed from Crate and Barrel and some luxurious high thread-count sheets that were worth every penny! If you've ever seen our bed you'll immediately notice that it only looks about 4 feet long because the top 4 feet of it is taken up by a mountain of pillows. Seven to be exact. We're both pretty territorial about which pillows we prefer and which pillowcases go on them. Nick is always stealing my pillows and I hate one of the pillowcases that he insists on keeping on his favorite pillow, (he's named the pillow/case combination "Red Squishy", I know feel free to gag), because it's red and nothing else in our room or bedding is red so it just sticks out like a sore thumb. Well I was getting pretty tired of being the only one to change the sheets and putting my favorite pillowcases on my favorite pillows only to have them stolen for a night to get drooled on by my beloved husband. I'd had enough of the fighting over the best pillows and pillowcases and I came up with an idea to put an end to it. The Pillow Draft. Here's how I laid it out. My first rule was an effort to get some help with the bi-weekly changing of the sheets so I told Nick that whoever remade the bed with clean sheets got the first pick of both the pillow and pillowcase overall which is a very big deal. From there we each take turns drafting our pillowcases and pillows (all of which we have names for) or trading our picks for a certain pillowcase. We even have a whole ceremony to begin the draft process. Are we nerds? Yes, but its totally worked and now we don't haggle over whose pillow is whose, we pick our own and stick with them for the next two weeks!

Where's George?

I'm full of interesting Internet discoveries today! Today is another big lottery day here in Michigan. Our company plays the Mega Millions lottery pool so I had to come up with two dollar bills to win my mega millions. As I was handing off my dollars, I noticed a red stamp on one of the bills that read "Track me at www.wheresgeorge.com." Who is going to ignore a stamp like that? Not me. As far as I'm concerned this is my lucky dollar. So I visited http://www.wheresgeorge.com/ and found a very interesting site devoted to tracking the comings and goings of dollar bills. You enter the serial number and the year it was printed and shazaam! up comes the history of your jet-setting dollar bill.

My dollar bill wasn't as well-traveled as some as it had only been registered in Pennsylvania in 2006, but after today who knows where the road could lead. I've never felt so connected to a dollar before, and I really hope it has a safe and fruitful journey (and never ends up in a stripper's g-string).

After reading about the previous owner of my bill (you can create a full profile and expound upon the condition of the bill and how it arrived in your pocket), I read the histories of their Top 10 bills. It's fascinating stuff. One bill has traveled thousands of miles, through hundreds of fast food restaurants, used as dozens of tips, and was eventually found floating around in Times Square.

Clearly I'm a bit slow today at the office. If you'd like to read up on the adventures of our currency, visit http://www.wheresgeorge.com/. Next time you see a little red stamp on your George Washingtons, make sure you let someone know that it's safe and sound.

Squirrel-Bombing

This is the funniest thing I've seen in FOREVER. I was reading Gawker this morning and saw the headline "At Long Last, the Squirrelizer has Arrived!". I clicked on the link and saw this photo of a squirrel in the foreground of what appears to be a shot of a couple and some lovely scenery. And then read this:

Surely you've heard about the squirrel that photo-bombed a Minnesota couple's timed shot on a Canadian lake? The whole world's gone mad over it! Well now you can have your own photos squirrelized by "that squirrel" as well!

That squirrel photo-bombed their timed photo! This is either the most genius squirrel EVER or this couple just scored kodak moment gold.

Go to the link below to read the original article about how the photo-bombing went down. Crafty little squirrel!

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/travel/53158832.html?elr=KArks7PYDiaK7DUvDE7aL_V_BD77%3Cimg