Bite Guards and Remote Controls

So I had to go to the Orthodontist this morning. I think I've mentioned this in a previous post somewhere along the way. Anyway, basically I have never-ending dental woes. Seriously. Last year around this time I had to have a tissue graft, I have cavities each time I go to the dentist, and now it seems that I have some teeth grinding/mobility issues. Which means a retainer. And a bite guard. I know that's hot, but backoff men ... me and my bite guard are married!

I felt like the biggest loser when I walked into the Ortho's office because I was the only one in the waiting room who was old enough to drive a car. Do old people still have braces and retainers and stuff? Or do they just move on to dentures? I guess I should just be grateful that I'm wasn't at the denture-maker's office.

Enough about that. I'm sure you're already making fun of me as it is so I'm not giving you any more material.

On a positive note, my remote control problems are all solved (thanks, RTR). So no more fighting with the neighbors! Don't be decieved though because that doesn't necessarily mean that my DVR problems are resolved.

Soooooooooooooooo. Those are my only major updates. This post would have been way better this morning when I had it in my head.

Oh! Wait! One more thing -- I'm watching Regis and Kelly right now (I DVR it every day) and she just made the comment that she only washes her hair every other day. How is this possible? There is no way on earth I could get away with that.

I'll be back ....

tonight. i actually have something to talk about too!

but for now, check out our new blog The Closet. this is where becky and i will post all of our polyvore challenges several times each week. we even recruited a new player!!

ROAR .... I am so annoyed

Currently our cable is through Dish Network. I say currently, because I'm about thisclose to switching cable companies if things don't change. (Yeah I know ... that will really show them, won't it?)

** oops ... accidentally hit publish

Okay, so here is the deal. I am annoyed with Dish because I've been having problems for about the last 3 months. One afternoon I came home from work prepared to watch Regis and Kelly or something equally important and discovered that everything on my DVR had been deleted. EVERYTHING. DELETED. I was livid but I also knew that it was probably a random system malfunction and that nothing could really be done about it. I assumed it was a random occurrence and that it wouldn't happen again. Apparently that is where I went wrong.

After this incident things were normal for a few weeks. Then we started noticing that our bedroom TV would mysteriously change channels while we were watching. At first, this didn't happen often so we didn't really do anything about it. Once it became more frequent, it was obvious to us that someone else in our building was able to control our TV. Evidentley our remotes are on the same frequency or something. Pretty creepy, actually.

At first, I could usually outsmart this neighbor of mine. I figured out quickly that if I try to record something that I am watching, they cannot change the channel very easily. Still it is a pain in the ass because I have to watch with my finger always on the cancel button.

Side note: By now, I have totally profiled this person based on what they like to watch. There are actually two different viewers that I fight with ... I think a mother and her young son. When my channel starts changing, I can pretty quickly figure out whether it is Mom or Kid and try to think of a which channel I can change it to that will annoy them the most. I like to win.

At first this was just a nuisance, and I prided myself on always being able to outsmart them and watch whatever I wanted. Now, this just isn't the case ... they've wised up and I am not always victorious. (Actually, I can beat out Kid nine times out of 10 but Momma is obviously a little smarter)

So the latest? Well, on Tuesday afternoon I came home to find my WHOLE DVR DELETED. AGAIN. I was furious so I immediately called Dish. The lady claimed that my receiver must be faulty so they sent me a new one. She seems to think that will solve my remote control AND my DVR problems. Last night, the icing on the cake was when we got in bed and wanted to watch The Office. I tried to turn it on and Momma was watching something. We fought for a little bit and then it happened ....

SHE DELETED MY SHOW.

I'm supposed to be getting a new receiver from Dish and they claim this will fix things. (I'm doubtful). Until then ... It is on like Donkey Kong with Momma and Kid. After she deleted my Office recording, I punished her for a while by forcing her to watch Alton Brown. I'll show her! And Dish too, if they don't get this fixed ASAP!

Polyvore Updates

To update you on yesterday's Miami Challenge:

I challenged Becky (and myself) to create two outfits for a weekend in Miami. The first is for a night out in South Beach and the second is for an afternoon of shopping/lunch. You can only spend $200 on your clothes and accessories and you can only repeat 2 items!

Here are the results. Becky's is the one pictured below, and you have to click HERE for mine because I can't get the image to embed.



Miami Night and Day - by fatbecky on Polyvore.com

Polyvore Challenge

First of all, sorry I have been absent for the last few days. My internet has been out at home so I really haven't been able to. Internet is still out, so I'm blogging from work. (Hope you aren't reading this dad :) If you are though, I promise not to spend toooo much time on this!

Does everyone know what the website Polyvore is? If you don't, you really need to check it out. It is a fun place to play and create outfits. I think you can even do interior design and artsy stuff as well. Anyway, back to the point. Becky created a new game using Polyvore. Each day, we give each other a scenario and rules and we have to create outfits accordingly.

Day 1
Becky's challenge to me: You are to create an outfit that you would wear on the Vegas strip at 9pm. The weather is nice ... about 75 degrees or so and at least one article or accessory must be silver.



Silver Challenge - by katielady on Polyvore.com

My challenge to Becky: You are going to a Tennessee football game and want to wear orange, but you want to also look cute and not like an obnoxious TN fan.


Untitled - by fatbecky on Polyvore.com

Day 2
Becky's challenge to me: You have an interview with a law firm in Chicago. It is the middle of winter and freezing cold, and your interview is taking place over drinks at a martini bar. (Second interview)


Chicago Challenge - by katielady on Polyvore.com

My challenge to Becky: You are on a romantic vacation in Venice with Wes (her husband). It is the middle of summer there and ridiculously hot ... high 80's. You have a day jam packed with activities and want to dress cute but in something that will keep you cool. The catch is that you are going to see St. Mark's Basilica so your knees and shoulders must be covered.

Click here for the link.... I'm having trouble embedding the image for some reason.

Day 3
We changed the rules slightly on Day 3. There will only be one challenge/day and we will each create an outfit. Today was Becky's day to select the challenge.

Challenge: Your mother in law gave you this sweater for Christmas. (No offense to MILs out there .... this is just a game!) She then requested that you wear it to church with her the next day but you know that you will see many of your friends there. You have to wear the sweater but you try to look as cute as possible.


MIL Sweater - by katielady on Polyvore.com


Mother-In-Law Sweater - by fatbecky on Polyvore.com

Today's challenge: You are going to Miami for a short trip. You will fly down there on a Friday and go straight from the airport to dinner and clubs in South Beach. The next day you will be shopping, lunching, and relaxing before your flight home. Create TWO outfits for this trip and you cannot spend more than $200. You also cannot repeat more than 2 items.

Stay tuned for results! And if you want to play, let me know!

Adventures with Ellie

This past Saturday night was an exciting one at the Longmire household! Dave bought tickets back in October for he and Kimmie to go see Kooza at Atlantic Station for their first date night after becoming parents. Before he even bought the tickets, they contracted with Ben and I to babyisit little Ellie. You better believe that date was inked onto our calendar in permanent marker ... we were really excitied for an evening with Ellie Belly!

Kimmie and Dave dropped her off about 5:00 and didn't pick her back up until 12! She was asleep when they first dropped her off and we made sure to keep her in her carseat until she woke up so as not to throw her off schedule. (She wasn't supposed to eat until 6 but when she wakes up she thinks she needs to eat immediatley) Once she woke up, we gave her a bottle and she sucked it right down! She was happy for a FEW short minutes after she ate and allowed Ben and I to inhale our pizza. Then she started crying.

Ellie tends to get fussy in the evenings and she really is tough to console -- she wasn't hungry, dirty, or cold so she was basically pitching a fit for no reason. Kimmie discovered that the hair dryer calms her down for some reason, so I tried that for a little while. I was worried about my hair dryer blowing up, so I found her a new friend.
I kid you not, once you turn on the dirt devil she stopped crying almost instantly! It is crazy ... you would think that loud, harsh noise would scare her but for whatever reason it seemed to soothe her. We would get her calmed down and halfway asleep and then she'd start right back with the crying. At one point, I think we let the dirt devil run for like 30 minutes in order to get her to sleep!

It was a fun night with her, but we were both exhausted when she left!

Ben trying to get Ellie to sleep

SUCCESS!

OH! And there is one more thing that I wanted to share with yall last week, but never did. I went up to visit Ellie last weekend and spent some time at their house. Now just look at this sweet little face ....

Does that look like the face of a baby who would poop all over her Aunt Katie?


Well it is ... shit happens, I guess!

No, I'm not Goth. Or Depressed. Just a Realist

I realize that last post may have been a little rough. Sorry! I was only venting. That is the thing with this blog, sometimes when I haven't written in a while and something just hits me so I decide to write a post about it. I don't put tons of thought into the things I write here .... usually they are just things that pop into my mind.

Soooooo .... just to prove I'm not all "dark and twisty" (Grey's Anatomy reference), let's have some fun!! I have just discovered polyvore and it is GREAT! So, I put together a few outfits on a whim. These are the types of outfits that I would normally throw together for work.


yum! by katielady

I love this dress -- it is so me. And yellow is one of my favorite colors so that bag is a no-brainer. I probably wouldn't necessarily spend the money on Alexander McQueen shoes, but I do love them.


fun by katielady

Okay, I have tights this color and I ALWAYS struggle to wear them. I'm just not sure how to do it. I personally think this is a cute look, but I'm not quite sure about the bag. I mean I love it, but I'm just not sure it flows well with the ensemble. I didn't spend a lot of time looking for one, but I really think it best to use a non-black bag here. What are your thoughts?

The Power of Negative Thinking

I am not an optimist. If you know me, you know that well. I have always preferred to expect the negative and be happy if things work out to the contrary. I think I started taking this approach to life in middle school when I was trying out for the 9th grade cheerleading squad. I worked my butt off every single day and told all of my friends that there was no way on earth I would make the team. Then I did. While I was cheering my way through high school, I would constantly say "oh we won't win this game" and many times we would. When I told people that I had applied to Georgia Tech for college I made sure to qualify it with "but I'm sure I won't get accepted". Of course I did. Then once I was in college, I would go to class, pay attention, take notes, study and do all of the right things that most college students did not. Regardless, I would come out of every test stating that I had failed. Very rarely did I actually fail.

*** OOOPS! I didn't mean to hit publish just yet. If you're on reader ignore this and make sure you read the completed version ***


So you get the picture, right? I'm a Negative Nelly. A pessimist. Debbie Downer. Whatever you want to call me, you're probably correct. My friends and family will tell you that I take this to the extreme, and I will admit that there is some truth to this. However, my negative attitude has served me pretty well thus far and I have no plans to change it.


Now that you have that background, I'll get to the point of this post. Sometimes positive thinking just PISSES ME OFF. Like really, makes me madder than hell. While I am happy to admit that I am usually overly negative, there are times when I am not exaggerating. There are times when I need people to not be so damn positive. Because you know what I think when someone is positive all the time? I think they are liars. I think they are sheltered. I think they are clueless.


So, all you positive thinkers out there .... take a lesson from a pessimist. Sometimes things aren't all that great and it is okay to admit to that. Occasionally you need to complain and prepare for the worst. It can serve you well.


Hope I didn't offend anyone out there, but I'm sure I did!

Rabbit Food

Ugh! I'm so sick of it already ....

I haven't been working out. Since Thanksgiving. I just can't get motivated, so I figured that I'd watch what I ate this week in an effort not to feel so terrible for not working out. I should tell you that I also planned to work out this week but so far i'm 0 for 2. (Converting this to baseball statistics: that is a BAD batting average).

I put myself on a salad diet this week. I've actually done pretty well with that thus far. I do eat cereal for breakfast (multi-grain) and usually a skittle or two during the day, but for lunch and dinner its just salad. See, the problem here is that I'm ALREADY BORED with the damn salad.

All I can think about is spaghetti and meatballs, pizza, dessert, chicken biscuits, fried chicken, hamburgers, tacos, .... You get the picture?

I'm going to do the salad thing until Thursday night, but come Friday I'm a free woman!



P.S. Anyone watching 90210 right now? WTF is up with the Annie and Ethan having the fire on in Palm Springs? Was the whole episode not about being in the middle of a heat wave?

Ramblings

• I am so darn happy that today is Friday!
• It makes me laugh when I talk to some of our customers on the telephone and they have American music blaring. (Most of our customers are Indians)
• I think that an ideal first date would not take place at a chain restaurant. This is something that has been heavily debated this week amongst some of my friends.
  
• I am angry with the Braves for letting Smoltz go over a few million dollars. But the more I read arguments for the Braves, I can understand their rationale.
  
• I have this calendar in my office that makes me angry every time I look at it.
• I think I'll take it down and put my new one up.
• If you are actually reading this post, you must think I'm pretty lame.
• I have not worked out since before Christmas and doubt I'll start next week.
• Ben finally shaved off his beard today! Yaay!
• I love the shoes that I'm wearing today but I'm afraid they're going to cause a broken ankle.
• I did not watch the National Championship game last night but did thoroughly enjoy watching Grey's Anatomy!
• I'm bored with this so I know you have to be. Thanks for sticking with me.
  

What are your random thoughts today? I know I'm not the only weirdo who has them.

Fancy Pants

I have a confession to make. I guess it isn't a true confession given that I am posting it on the interwebs for anyone to find. But here goes ....

I have committed a major fashion faux pas. I am wearing the same pair of pants that I wore yesterday.

Is that horrible? I mean they're just black work pants. Aren't they all the same anyway?

I would like to try to defend myself for making this terrible decision but the reality is that it was done out of pure laziness. I did not re-hang my pants when I changed out of work clothes last night. I also failed to select an outfit last night. Therefore, when I got up this morning and saw that pair of pants laying in my closet I simply defaulted to the easiest thing.

Pretty much the only thing I have going for me today is that I did a good job of adding a pop of color with red shoes and a fun necklace. But then I read somewhere that red shoes are whorish. So I really don't know. I guess I'm just a lazy, fashion-challenged, whore.

Favorites of the Month

I'll do my best to make this a recurring post. As I've mentioned before, I love shopping at the drugstore and even more than that I love discovering new products. Here are some of my most recent finds.

1) Extra Fruit Sensations Berry Pearadise gum. OMG this stuff is amazing! You can't find this just anywhere so be on the lookout for it at any drugstore, grocery store, gas station, or Target/Wal-Mart type store. This gum is fantastic -- it holds its flavor longer than most gums and stays soft as well. I had an open pack of this in my office a few weeks ago and every time I walked in, I could smell this gum. You must try it.

2) Organix Pomegranite Green Tea Shampoo -- I like to mix up my shampoos. I alternate between 3-4 different kinds each day. I'm a little neurotic about it, and Ben hates all the bottles in our shower but its something that I've always done. Because I alway alternate shampoos, I am always on the lookout for a new kind and stumbled across this one at Target a few weeks ago. Neither the shampoo or conditioner is too heavy, leaves no residue and keeps your hair smelling great all day!

3) Burt's Bees Hand Salve -- This stuff is fabulous. Especially in the winter when your hands tend to get dry and gross. I got some for Christmas and have been using it religiously every night. I don't really think it is meant to be used as a lotion, but really is meant to help smooth out and heal your hands.

4) Mucinex D -- Yeah, go ahead and call me gross if you want to. I put this on the list because I had a little cold/sinus issue last week and this stuff works wonders for masking the symptoms. I will admit that these make you a little grumpy and jittery, but they work wonders.

Changes, Changes

You like? If you read this through Google reader, make sure to go to my page and see if you like the new title/header/etc.

Thanks to everyone who voted in the "name my blog" poll. I know that Katie Blogmire won the popular vote but I wanted to use this picture and thought it just went better with "Longmired in Life".

If you like this header, Josh over at Don't be Rough did it for me! His prices are pretty reasonable so I suggest you contact him if you are interested in a little bloggy makeover.

New Year's Eve

When we found out that Tech was going to play in the Chick-fil-A bowl, our New Year's Eve plans were automatically decided. This was the easiest NYE decision in my life! (I usually hate NYE for this reason -- nobody knows what to do and it is hard to find something really exciting to do). So anyway, a group of us got tickets for the game.

We smartly hired transportation for the night since years past have proved to us that it is impossible to find a cab downtown on NYE. While we waited for our drivers to arrive a group of us met up at McCray's to have a few drinks before the tailgate.

We paid the little brother of one of our friends to stay sober and drive us to/from the game and we hired another driver off Craigslist. This other driver wasn't a taxi or anything, just someone who is a personal trainer and happened to have a van that could seat 6 people. I was convinced that the guy a) wouldn't show b) would show up and abduct us c) would take us to the game and then never pick us back up.

Imagine my surprise when

HE SHOWED UP! And even better he wasn't driving an abduction van, so I felt like our chances of surviving the ride were pretty good!

Sure enough, Concrete Fitness man got us down to the Dome without incident and we tailgated with some other friends at the Bud bus. Outside. In the COLD!!

Eventually it was time to go inside, get warm, and cheer the Jackets to victory.

Well, as evidenced by the photo below, the whole part about cheering the Jackets to victory didn't quite work out.

The game got so bad that Tech fans actually started flying paper airplanes down to the field from their seats. (Insert Tech dork joke here). We eventually decided that we were just going to make ourselves miserable sitting at the game and decided to call our drivers and go out to the bar instead of watching the rest of the game.

We waited outside the dome (in the cold) for a few minutes before our driver arrived. Some rent-a-cop didn't really like our pre-designated meeting place and tried to tell the driver not to stop there. Of course we ingored the rent-a-cop and got into the van as quickly as possible. She wasn't too happy and tried to stand in front of the van to stop us from driving away! Whatever. Don't question the authority of a rent-a-cop, I guess.

Our group grew a little during the game and about 15 of us ended up at Vintage Tavern after the game. We stayed there way too late, drank a few too many beers and had a great time in general.

I'm glossing over the stories from Vintage Tavern a little bit. Suffice it to say that by the end of the night a few people in our group were knee-walking drunk, one person was attacked in the bathroom, a few people left with the wrong coats, one had a coat stolen, and one person walked several miles home to their apartment.

It ended up that 6 people other than Ben and myself came back to my house to stay for the night. SIX PEOPLE!!! All beds, couches, air mattresses, and floor space was accounted for. Just so you can get a vague idea of what this looked like here is a picture from the next morning.

Of these 6 crashers, 3 of them threw up in my guest bathroom the next day. No names mentioned though :)

Happy New Year!!

Change is a comin'

I'm changing things up around here ... new title, new design, and much more! I'm also going to try very hard to post more regularly.

If you are on Google reader or a similar RSS be sure to click through to physically come to my page so that you can vote on my new blog title.

And stay tuned for a new post later this weekend!