Yappy Dogs, Loud Music and Hooligans

Ah, the suburbs. So we actually haven't had any recent problems with out neighbors across the ally yelling and screaming at each other, but we have been getting new problems. Three of them.

Our next door neighbor has 3 little dogs. When we got here, they just yapped their little heads off the second they smelt Hendrix through the fence and like the good dog he was, Hendrix just sniffed at the fence and didn't feel they were worth wasting his time on. Now if had been a cat or squirrel he would have barked his head off. So in the past 2 months, the owners have been letting their dogs out about midnight ,(I guess that's about the time they go to bed so are letting the doggies out one last time) which is fine, but these dogs can't be outside without yapping nonstop, so of course, wakes me up, thankfully I always fall right back to sleep, but its still annoying. Michael usually can sleep right through it. Stupid yappy dogs.

Problem 2, all of a sudden, we have been hearing loud bass from music going on somewhere, not sure where its coming from but we can hear it while we are inside. It usually happens a couple times a week and around 8:00ish. At least its not at midnight.

Problem 3, hooligans! (When did I get old enough to call Jr. High kids hooligans?? *sigh*) About three weeks ago I had our kitchen windows open and heard some kids out there. They never saw me but I watched them turn on our neighbors (not the yappy dog neighbors, the other ones) outdoor faucet on full blast and run away really fast. I was getting ready to leave anyway, so went ahead and went outside and turned off their faucet. That's just not cool. What if they had been out of town and their water stayed on all weekend? Or what If I hadn't seen it happen? I probably would never have noticed that it was on. Then last week, I was going through our closet putting stuff in our pile of stuff to get rid of and the doorbell rang. So I went and looked out but no one was there. I thought maybe it had been UPS or something and had left a package, but nothing. So of course, I think probably "hooligans" rang it and ran off. I shut the door and went to the guest room and looked through the blinds and sure enough, within about 1 minute about 5 kids were gathered from the house across the street and what I think is their neighbors. I hope this isn't a thing I have to put up with much as the weather warms up and these kids are all playing outside.

It's quite funny to me because our neighborhood here is SOOOO much nicer, better, more safe and filled with a whole different type of family here. Most people around here are young families. A few high school kids, some jr. high aged kids, but mostly elementry kids and younger. The adults all seem to be in their 30s. So its a great neigborhood, but there is so much more "drama" that goes on here as compared to our little house in Lubbock that was located in far from the best part of town, the neigborhood was kinda run down, and we even had a house full of college kids across he street, but there were never any problems...ever. Our biggest problem was the cats, but they kept Hendrix entertained and never really bothered us and secretely it was fun to watch them mess with Hendrix. :o) Anyways, I think that is strange.

Rollerblading

Some of you may remember that we use to do a lot of roller blading while we were living in Denmark. When we came back we tried to go blading a few times at Tech with a little luck, but the roads were so terrible it was hard to get around. So today, for the first time in a couple years, we headed down to a huge park just down the road, strapped on our blades that have been collecting dust and had at it and we had a BLAST! It was just like riding a bike, we picked it up pretty quick. I think we are going to try to head down there at least once during the weekends (weather permitting) and get our legs back in the habit of blading again so we are great at it again when we get back. Yea for rollerblading. It was about 60 degrees and sunny and just a lovely day out. There were tons of people at the park with their kids and dogs doing everything from biking, running, playing Frisbee, playing fetch and so much more. We have driven by this park on many occasions but this was the first time we actually stopped at it. I'll have to take some pictures because this places is awesome. Its 102 acres apparently with 15 soccer fields, a nice big playground, a spray park ( a big area that is all fancy and in the summer water sprays up from it), and there are a few HUGE covers that look like sails from a pirate ship. It is a cool place. Anyways, back to the rollerblading, its fun and we hope to start doing more of it again. :o) Another thing we are starting to look into is bikes so we can start practicing riding so we are decent at it when we get back to Denmark so we don't look like complete idiots!! :o)

My New Eye's

I had an eye doctor's appointment last week. My powers in my eyes went from -4.00 and -.425 to -4.25 and -4.75. Today I had a follow up appointment. For the week I haven't been so happy with this new prescription. My eyes, didnt feel like they were working together and I was having a hard time getting my eyes to focus. Today I told him all of this and he did a little more on my eyes, and put my right eye, back to what it was originally at -4.00. I hope this works a little bit better. I have to call on Monday to tell him if i like it or not and he will then order my contacts.

Nothing exciting going on over here. It's cold and we are trying to stay warm and we've been watching the olympics everynight. This year we actually got sucked into ice dancing. It has always been a silly sport to me and not worth watching so we never ever watch it but it was on, and all the ice dancers started falling, and one guy practically through this Itallian girl, it was quite entertaining and full of drama, so we were hooked and actually sat and watched the finals after the dramatic semifinals. The finals weren't as dramatic, but there was an Itallian couple that kept the drama going and it was worth watching. Good Stuff!

My New "Bling"

Yup, that's right, I have a fancy new accessory and I LOVE it!!
Last week Michael bought it for me and it arrived this morning and I can't tear myself away from it! Actually it's a split last birthday/Christmas and valentines day gift. I got other stuff for all those, but this is the big gift! Ok, most normal woman would probably be describing a necklace, or ring or earrings or some other fancy jewelry. But not me, not geeky lil me. So what did I get??? A BRAND NEW LAPTOP!!!! I am usually partial to Dells, but recently the secret that Dells are such wonderful computers has gotten out and has made the price on them skyrocket. So we ordered a custom made Hewlett Packard. The processor is a AMD Turion which is suppose to just be awesome and top of the line. So with the Hewlett Packard we got more bang for the buck. My last actual computer that wasn't a laptop was a Hewlett Packard and I loved it so I hope this one does well too. My other laptop (which I have yet to introduce it to this fancy new one) we got about a week before we left for Denmark so it is ALMOST 4 years old now, so it was time for a new one. Michaels laptop he got in August from Texas Instruments our first year in Denmark so its creeping up on 4 years too. However, when we move over there, they have already told him they are going to give him a brand new one as well, so he will be getting one soon too. His will just be free. :)

The first thing I did (like a good girl) was install firefox on here. Sadly I had to open IE to do so. blah. This thing is so fast and so awesome! I'm gonna love it!!



(As a side note for Mary, for dinner last night we had sauteed mushrooms, grilled potatos and onions with rosemary, tyme, and oregano, and chicken :o) )

6 Months

I can't believe we made it 6 months!! Nor can I believe we have been here since months already! NOR can I believe, we just have to do what we have already done, one more time! We made it up the hill and we are standing at the top. Now we start our decent down and hopefully it won't slippery!! I have high hopes that the rest of the time is going to fly.

I will say, living here in North Texas isn't my favorite place to be. (Not that I had to say that because I know everyone already knows that) We have both found a way to tolerate it here for now, especially since we are slowly starting to see a dim light at the end of the tunnel. Of course the things that bug me the most are still the drivers (road rage, traffic, driving distances), and the weather is awful. I like seasons and so far I have pretty much seen 4 days of winter and a bunch of summer days. Ok it has gotten cool here, but I wouldn't consider it winter. (I know I know, it's been hot everywhere) I'm scared for the spring and summer. I don't do well with humidity and well, when it gets real hot here and the humidity is in full force, I think I am going to be miserable.

With our 6 months left we already have several visitors lined up, a few outta town escapes lined up, and a list of things we wanna do before we head out. I think (and hope) that the next 6 months pass quickly and much faster then the 1st 6 months pass. When I look back 6 months ago when we got here, it seems like it wasn't that long ago, but when I think of everything that has happened and the process of just getting to February 20th, it seems like the time just crawled by and there were times where weeks felt like months.

Please Please let the next 6 months pass quickly and painlessly!!! (and quickly!!) We are getting so incredibly excited about moving back to Denmark now that we are able to start tasting it and envisioning being back there!!!

Winter Blast

Thursdsay was in the mid 80's. It was sooo beautiful and I couldn't even find any cloths to wear because we have donated a lot of our summer stuff to different charities that pick up stuff from time to time around here and haven't gotten a change to get out to get new summer clothes. That night and all day Friday, yesterday and now today we are getting pounded with weather in the 20's that is causing a ton of bad ice on the roads. Though, that's Texas for you. Shorts to Snow in a matter of hours. I remember one time in Lubbock about 4 or 5 years ago it was 2:00 and we were walking around in shorts and tshirts and by 8:00 there were snowflakes falling from the sky! Weather is so weird! haha.

We tried to go out twice yesterday but didn't get very far. Both time Ice started building up on our windshield and we thought it was a good sign to just go back home. Today we are gonna keep it low key too here and stay snuggly warm at home. We like to go eat breakfast on Sunday Mornings usually at Panera Bread or Einsteins Bagels and then usually go shopping so it kinda sucks that we are gonna miss our Sunday outing today because its always fun. We are suppose to reach above freezing at about 2:00 but then its only suppose to get to 34 degrees so I imagine we will just stay put.

DFW has had over 250 wrecks overnight with weather (ice) related incidents. That doesn't include minor wrecks with no damage!

While I love the cold weather (but don't like being in it) , and LOVE wearing warm winter cloths, I usually don't like it when it's just ice, give me some snow!!! I haven't seen snow this winter yet, that's kinda sad especially since the news has been saying Lubbock is the only place in Texas seeing snow right now. Lucky Lubbock.

Happy Valentine's Day

Not much going on today for us. Michael slept in and went to work a little later the usual. He would have done it yesterday but he had a meeting at 9 so had to get up and moving. We don't have much planned for tonight. After I pick him up from the train station we will head to the gym for a quick workout and come home and cook dinner together. Which doesn't happen to often so It should be fun! And then of course, watch the olympics! I wonder how many times I will say, "watch the olympics" on here in the next couple weeks.

Hope everyone has a lovely Valentines Day! :)

Happy Birthday Michael!!!

I'm so glad Michael is finally 26. That means I have about 7 months where he isn't telling me how increadibly old I am and that is always nice!

For his birthday I got him a new duffle bag for the gym filled with some workout cloths, new workout gloves, a new small towel for the gym, and some other little gym things. He seemed to enjoy it. I cooked him Salmon and carrots and zucchini (per his request) with a bottle of Chardonny and of course I got him a yummy cake that we enjoyed. Now we are sitting around watching the olympics :o) well I'm writting this post but after this, I'm back to the olympics!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL!?!?!?!?!?

Title is tooooo long

Ok, so the title wouldn't fit up there so I'll put it here:

The Problem with Marrying a Man 2 Weeks Before Christmas Who's Birthday is the Day Before Valentines Day.


I did really well this year for anniversary presents and Christmas presents for Michael. Really Really Really well!!! Oh and he had his graduation right smack in between there as well so he got something for that too. Ok, so my complaint? I got him all the good stuff already just about 1.5 months ago, now I have two more events to get him presents for and I am basically completly stumped. He has, in the past, always been very easy to buy for. For some reason, this year seems to be different, I can't come up with ANYTHING. Ok, well I got him a couple little things already that I saw that I thought he might like. I can't post what they are because he does read this from time to time. Hopefully I can find a little something more before Monday night for his birthday so he has something fun to unwrap!! If not, oh well, he will get over it! ;)

So moral of the story? Don't get married right before Christmas to someone who has a birthday right before Valentines Day. Spread the holidays out a bit. It will cause less stress. :o)

Yea!! Olympics!!!

Finally!! The winter Olympics are back and I am stoked about it!!
We watched the opening ceremony's tonight with some spaghetti, mozzarella/tomato and basil salad and a yummy bottle of Chianti. I'm excited to start watching the competitions. The opening ceremony was really good. I was impressed. :o) Anyways, that's all I had to say.... Bring on the Olympics!!!

We're Stuck!!

We got locked in TI yesterday. Well not really locked in, but couldn't get out! We were at the gym at the Texas Instruments that Michael works at (which we rarely go to, there is a Texas Instruments gym closer to us that we usually go to) So we are leaving, and we can't get out. All the exit/entrances have the gates closed and locked. We drove around aimlessly for a while till finally we found a way out. We thought it was funny. But reading it... it sounds silly.

This stuff going on with Denmark and the Muslim cartoon that was published back in September is crazy. I don't wanna get into my thoughts and feelings about it on here but wanted to say that the whole thing is really quite sad and I really feel bad about the whole situation. Denmark is such a passive and peaceful little nation and this kind of event is simply mindboggling to me. I'll just leave it at that.

Goodbye Sicky and Stitchy!

Michael feels all better, has for a while now too. I'm glad. As for me, I got my stitches out today. One of them didn't want to come out though. He had to work on it just a bit to get it to come out. I guess it didn't want to part with me. I don't blame it! I'm a pretty cool person to be stitched to! :o) Dr. Allen was very happy with they way they looked and said there probably won't even be much of a visible scar at all. There are several more I want to have taken off and he pointed out one that he wanted to take off. I figure I'll be stitchless for a month then do it all over again sometime in March.

Michael has an eye doctor appointment tomorrow, and I need to schedule one for the next week. We are just getting all our doctor stuff taken care of. It feels kinda nice to finally be getting caught up on doctor appointments of all kinds.

Well I just got a call from a long time friend to go with her to try on her wedding dress that just came in so I should go get ready to go do that. Should be fun, been a LOOONG time since I did anything wedding related!

Superbowl Shuperbowl

So, yeah, we totally didn't watch it. We didn't last year either. We use to watch for the commercials, but they seem to have gotten overrated and not as great as they once were. So we went to the gym, ate, and watched Family Guy and the Simpsons all night. Guess we just aren't much of sports people. Oh well, what can you do right?

Nothing exciting happened over the weekend, just took it easy and pretty much did NOTHING! It was great. Humm...well, thats all I have to report.

Where Did January Go???

Wow, February already. January felt like it just FLEW by!!! I have a feeling February will go by even faster because it always does, and it is 3 days shorter. We have lots going on this month. Michael has a dentist appointment, I have to get my stitches taken out in about a week, we both have eye check ups, we have Michaels birthday on the 13th and Valentines day on the 14th (Michael ALWAYS gets extra spoiled on these days. Its funny because Michael loves Valentines day more then I do because its like he gets a two day birthday and well, that's just cool!) Then the thing that will take up the majority of the month....THE OLYMPICS (in 9 days!!!) Michael and I have always been glued to our TV's during the Olympics. The past summer Olympics we accidentally scheduled to be in Costa Rica for a week. At least we were doing something cool and got to see the first week and the closing ceremonies so that's good. :o) Anyways from the 10th-24th we won't be doing much but Olympic watching (We are big ol dorks!)

I'm feeling much better. My throat hasn't bothered me once today..YEA! Michael is feeling much better too.

As a side note, I think Michael may kill me soon. I go through phases of listening to country music. I'll listen to it for about a year, then won't listen to it for several years and I go through cycles. Well I've gotten hooked again and Michael can't stand it. Oh well, he knew this about me when he signed up for me! He has been thankful I haven't been listening to is since we left for Denmark, so I guess I was bound to start listening to it again sometime soon. :o)