A Few Things

I've been waiting for something really exciting to happen. I've made some good food lately, but I don't really want this to turn into a food blog. I guess the one thing I can say is that I've decided that my newly-chosen profession (as of 2005) isn't really working out that well for me. It's one of those things that I keep thinking will get better if I just stick with it. Then it does, but the really successful times are short-lived. Despite my best efforts to stick with it, it just doesn't seem to be cutting it. I've got the skills, but they're not paying the bills. Lame. On that note, I gave notice at my second job at a nearby salon, not only because it hasn'tbeen terribly busy, but also because I don't feel like I'm really a fit there. I'm the only esthetician there and the oldest employee, and, well...yeah. I'll just leave it at that. So I tell them Saturday that I'm ready to quit on the spot, but I that I will honor whatever appointments are already scheduled as to not leave them in a bind. As luck would have it, I am suddenly getting more appointments in one day than I usually do in a week. I'd like to think that this is the way it will stay, but I can't count on it. I'm babbling. Anyway, new developments are happening on that end and I will just have to update when I've got something solid.

Married life is still great. We're learning to compromise and I'm learning to be appreciative and not complain when he unloads the dishwasher before running it. We have interesting neighbors. Since we moved into this place at the end of September, they have not taken their trash cans to the curb ONCE. We quit doing it 4 weeks ago and they still have not taken it out. I don't understand this. They also don't seem to have considered that it's necessary to shovel and or salt the driveway and sidewalk that we share when it snows. We're in a duplex so to solve the garbage problem, we finally took a giant magic marker to two of the cans (there are four: two for recyclables and two regular ones) and wrote #1 on them, because we're awesome and to distinguish between our cans and theirs. They seem to have caught onto this system, and are only using their cans for their garbage, but they have yet to grasp the concept of taking them out to the curb on Thursday morning. They're starting to overflow. This should get interesting. But it's not our problem anymore.

Here's a picture I took today:

Pretty freaking awesome.

I think that's all for now. I'll try not to be so neglectful next time.

One more thing, I read in a magazine today an article about making a short (one or two items) Not To Do list for 2009 instead of a giant list of resolutions. This is a great idea. I'm going to think it over and write about it next time. I'm thinking of something along the lines of I'm Not Going to Be Poor Anymore.

It's not a Toomer.

Friday night, we went out. Here are some pictures of what we look like when we go out.

I'm watching football today. Well, it's on tv. I'm not really watching it. I just have it on hoping the Redskins will lose. Because I lived in DC when I was little and all I learned in that four years was that the Redskins were EVIL (not the red-skinned people, mind you, but the team. I was a child, but I know the difference. People underestimate children sometimes.) So, yeah, there's a guy on one of the teams, I think the Giants (I know they're not really Giant - where does that name come from, anyway? Are they trying to psyche out the other team? "We're HUGE! You can't beat US, midgets!") and there's a guy named Toomer. I hope that when he and his wife have a baby, they announce it by telling their friends and family that the doctor told them that his wife's got a Toomer growing inside her. I think that would be funny.

P.S. I odered a soft taco supreme last night. I think they thought I said soft taco WITH BEANS because they put beans on it and charged me $1.40 in stead of $.89 or whatever it normally costs. If there were any doubt, wouldn't you go with what people NORMALLY order? grrr...

My Husband, the Cook

The other night, Chouaib invited some friends over at the last minute (surprise!) for dinner. Fortunately, he was the one making dinner. Usually I cook, but I wish he would more often, because he's Moroccan. And Moroccan food is really yummy. I don't have a lot to say about the evening, except that it was a nice time with his friends and the food was incredible.



Azedin and Lisa got engaged and married about the same time we did.



Chouaib's friend Moustapha and a little glimpse of our bookshelves. (I realize that's a sentence fragment).



Tagine rhymes with a female body part in French. It's fun to interchange the words.



A yummy yummy labor of love (ok, homesickness).



I'm almost used to my husband eating with his hands.



Relaxing after all the guests were gone. I told him that next time we're inviting my friends over.

P.S. We found out that signing up with T-Mobile will save us some money, so we did. They gave us free new phones and free plane tickets! All these pictures were taken with my new cell phone. I can also make music videos on it. Here is my first one. I call it Tired Cowboy. Watch carefully. There's a suprise ending!

Oh, and RIP, Cricket.

Vampire Pizza

I went to Costco today. I think it's physically impossible to leave that store without buying a slice of cheese pizza from the snack bar. It's my heroin (I just saw Twilight last night - otherwise I wouldn't be able to come up with a decent metaphor. I've recently discovered that I'm metaphorically challenged). It's a good idea to stay at the snack bar while eating Costco pizza, that way when you're done you can refill your drink. It's such a great deal, a slice of heroin-laced pizza as big as your head and 2 22 oz. drinks for less than $3. As I sat there this morning, I decided that when I am famous and touring the country with my entourage, we will make stops at the local Costco for pizza. Costco will love it so much that this super-cool famous woman makes regular stops at their stores with her entourage, that they'll give me a free lifetime membership. When they ask for my card, I'll frame my face with my hands and say "this is my card." Then the secretly annoyed cashier will be thinking "I can't SCAN your damn FACE, jerk." The irony of it all will be that I'm so insanely rich, I won't need a free Costco membership. Ain't that the way it goes?

Oh, and Twilight. I loved it. Although I'm not sure how much I would have loved it if I hadn't read the book. While reading the book, you get your own images of what the characters look like in your head. Then in the movie, when they don't look the same, it's like "who IS that person? Oh yeah, it's Charlie. He's not supposed to look like that." That's about the only think that bothered me about it. Well, except that I really wanted to be able to lust after Edward like all the women. I admit he's good -looking. But he looks too much like my brother (one of them has better hair). That would just be weird.

Top 10 things I am really excited about every day.

1) my awesome man
2) gas - watching it get cheaper and cheaper every day.

I actually wanted to post how excited I am every day when I see gas prices going as low as $1.85/gallon. It's probably cheaper than that now. But I didn't want to overshadow how great my husband is and how excited I am that he really wants to spend the rest of his life with me. I guess this really only a Top 2 list. Other things get me excited (not like that), but not every day (this is getting worse - I should just stop). Yay! Thanksgiving is a week from today!

"Hello, Suri?"

"It's me, Kristy. Yeah, I just want to tell you that your look is so 35 years ago."

One of the first things we did after announcing our engagement was register. I was so excited that after years of living with roommates and family, I'd have my own kitchen, with my own pots and pans, dishes and kitchen gadgets. I love to cook. I love to try to make recipes based on meals from my favorite restaurants. So, once we got into our new place, and got married, and got many many gifts of kitchen stuff, I began to cook. I've cooked a lot. It's only been a month, and I've cooked so much that Chouaib and I can't fit into our favorite jeans anymore (he his and I mine, we didn't share a favorite pair). Chouaib took a picture of me trying to get mine on.

The good news is that a new gym just opened up near the salon where I work. Saturday, I stopped in for their open house, filled out a form to win some stuff they were giving away, and walked out with the 'grand prize.' It included a giant canister of protein shake, two travel bottles for my protein shake, complete with little whisking balls inside (aren't you glad I didn't say whisker? gross) that mix it up really well, some tanning lotion and regular lotion as well as some free tans from a local tanning salon (I already called and asked, and yes, I can subsitute mist-on tans for the coffins), and some supplements. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention, that includes two weeks of free personal training. I don't think two weeks is long enough to take off what I've put on, but it's a start. I hope my husband realizes that me trying to lose weight = no more gourmet meals for him. It's peanut-butter jelly time! Maybe I could just buy him fish to eat. That means we're both happy. He gets to eat and I don't want to. WIN WIN! And the bonus? He won't end up with a wife who looks like this (except we don't - will never - have a cat and I don't smoke). Maybe I should just get pregnant, then I'll have an excuse. JUST KIDDING, MOM.