Russian Man Hands on my Delicate Body

As a last minute suprise, Cynthia picked me up at work yesterday to whisk me off to the Russian Banya to have massages. I have been here twice (to rave reviews), but DG and I had given Cynthia and her husband a gift certificate 2 years ago to go. She found herself with child not so long after, and the certificate was expiring this Saturday, so it needed to be used immediately. I was tricked into going but I will never EVER be the girl that says NO to heavy Russian Man Hands.

First things first, when you get to the Banya, you strip down (or as I like to refer to it, git bucket neked) and lay face down in a Sauna. *Yes* Cyn and I were in there together. During the 15 mintues in there, they pour different essential oils on the hot coals such as lavendar and eucalyptus. Then they take oak leaves that have been soaking in milk and beat you with them. Not lightly brush, or itch my back with that branch, but BEAT. Next they slather your entire back-side in honey. Real, pure, honey. Finally, for their finale, they dump and entire bucket of cold water on you. Cynthia screamed like a little girl, it was awesome. After getting out and showering the rest of the honey off, you lay down for a 60 minute massage.

My tight shoulders feel better today than they have in years. Ahhhh. Thanks Cyn for sharing your gift with me!

Hitting the Open Road

Early in our relationship, on roughly our 7th date, DG asked me to take a road trip with him to Omaha, NE to attend a wedding. I was skeptical at first because 1) Omaha, NE had once stolen 2 weeks of my life that I am still bitter about, 2) there was going to be a sleepover involved *gulp*, and 3) 9 hours in a car with a guy I barely knew was either going to be really good or really bad.

Well, we all know the ending to this story, but let's just say that I love a good road trip (remember Dollywood?) and 9 hours in a car alone with DG and his Ipod is enough to make any girl weak in her bees knees.

A month later, we hit the open road again to travel to Burt Lake in upstate Michigan to vacation with Cynthia and her family. Along the way we stopped at Devil's Tower in WY, Mount Rushmore, Corn Palace, the Badlands...etc. My travel journal is here, and pics of the trip are here. On the way home, we stopped in DGs hometown of Yankton, SD.

Now prior to this trip, South Dakota was one of the 11 states that I had never visited. If you had told me, as a young girl growing up in CT that I would be marrying a man from South Dakota, I would have stared at you incredulously, tilted my head, fluttered my blue tinted eyelashes and said "You mean the state with the capital of Pierre?" Because that was in sum all I knew about that state. This probably would have followed by a princess like tirade on how I was never going to date a corn fed midwesterner, but that's another story.

So Yankton is located in the far South East corner of the state, and I have now been there no less than 2 times, going on 3 as we are gearing up to pack the dogs in the car and take the 9 hour drive to go to DGs 20th high school reunion. More than the event, I am looking forward to being in the car with DG, stopping at the one Dunkin' Donuts located in the middle of nowhere Nebraska, buying sparklers and other tame fireworks on the side of the road, listening to MY Ipod, and eating egg salad sandwiches that I've packed for us in the cooler.

The Rapture of So and So

One of my favorite things to do every summer is to go down to Larimer Square in downtown Denver to their La Piazza 'dell Arte Festival. For 2 days, artists sit out in the scorching heat, on their hands and knees creating some beautiful masterpieces (pronounced MAAAAHH-sta-peeeces). They must be done by 6pm on Sunday evening because by 6:10pm the super soaker comes out and WASHES them all away.


This one was DG's favorite for obvious reasons. Naked guy + naked girl + hot tub = well, you know where this is going. The cheetah is going to bite the man's head off, turn into a prince and sweep naked girl off her feet, Duh. I knew being an Art History major would pay off some day.

Back Off Ladies He's Mine

Hey you! Yeah, YOU the one over there checking out my guy. No not him, the other one. Yeah that one, the one with the boobs on his face. He's taken. He's about to enter eternity with me so keep your mitts off.

That's my man and I don't care who knows it.

1 bottle of tequila down

Thursday evening, DGs best man, Marcus came into town for a Bachelor week-end. After having dinner at Lola's new location in the highlands (replete with a visit from the guacamole cart where they make it to taste at your table), I made my new favorite Margarita's in the back yard. Needless to say, the next morning as we were scrambling to get out of the house to go to work, I noticed that we had gone through an entire bottle of tequila and half a bottle of cointreau. *oi my aching head*

Erica and Jeff came over for the last batch, and someone apparently had a real shaky hand.


I believe the exact phrase uttered by Marcus was, "Those were the best margarita's that I have ever had". Go Martha Stewart:
1 1/4C lime juice (fresh)
1C tequila
1/3C cointreau
1/2C+ sugar (I always taste and add a little more sugar)

Fill the blender with ice, add all the ingredients, and mix to a frothy goodness. And yes, rub a slice of lime on the glass rim and dip in a chunky salt such as Kosher.

Friday night, DG hit downtown for Part I of his bachelor week-end by going out with Marcus and a few co-workers. As far as I know, there were stickers, a marker, lots of ladies writing on him, and boobs in his face. All good bachelor activities. Check out DGs site and click on his Flickr account for a full photo log of the weekend.

Salad Week

If you are anything like me, a night time meal is rarely thought out and planned. I usually just keep the staples on hand and whip up something quick when I get home from work. Last week-end I picked all of the lettuce and spinach in the garden and washed it all so it would be ready to eat this week. On Monday, I told DG on the way home that it was salad night and he groaned. Taco salad night? he whimpered hopefully. No, Tofu salad night I exclaimed! But it will be so good, you'll clean your plate, I promise.

Then when I was in the kitchen, looking to see what was in the refrigerator to put in the salad, I decided to experiment and make him a fresh and healthy salad with a mexican flare.

Several cups of mixed lettuce and spinach from the garden
3 green onions from the farmer's market
1/2 yellow pepper from the farmer's market
10 grape tomatoes from the farmer's market
1 lb tofu (with the water pressed out, pan fried in olive oil with garlic salt and a dash of cumin)
1/2 can black beans
1/2 can corn

Dressing
zest of 1 lime
juice of 1 lime
2 capfuls of cider vinegar
1tsp+ dijon
2 cloves garlic minced
handful of cilantro from the garden minced
1-2 tsp honey
1/4C olive oil
salt to taste

Toss the hot tofu with the ingredients so the greens wilt slightly and add less than 1/2 of the dressing. I crushed stale blue tortilla chips on top as croutons and voila, a lovely summer salad. And yes we both cleaned our plates.

Picnic in the Park

Picnic: In contemporary usage, picnic can be defined simply as a pleasure excursion at which a meal is eaten outdoors, ideally, taking place in a beautiful landscape.


Last Sunday, DG and I packed a picnic, got on our bikes, and went to City Park to see Hazel Miller do a free jazz concert. These free concerts are held every Sunday all summer long. As you can see, it was so very crowded.


I love the pic of DG on his bike, wearing his helmet (safety first!) and chatting on the cell phone.


After our meal of Perrier (water with gas, ooh aren't we urban?), fried chicken (gettin' down in the hood), and fresh veggies and watermelon from the Farmer's market (support your local growers!), we pedalled our tushies home.

Twice this week we've been able to use our picnic backpack. It contains plates, silverware, napkins, wine cups, cork screw, cutting board, and even an attachment for a bottle of wine. We used it again on Tuesday night when we went to the Botanic Gardens to see Aimee Mann. She was amazing and did all of my favorite songs from Magnolia. We even got some video of "Save Me", her song that got her an Oscar nomination. But DG beat me to the punch and blogged about it first. You can go to his site here to see cute pics of her and a clip of the above mentioned song. As you can see from the picture of her, she is so pretty,(though she could use a few milkshakes and turkey dinners) and didn't look at day over 25, yet she is 46! Holy cow.

When you don't say cheese

DG thought he was taking fun random shots of us walking.



Little did he know he had a grouchy little suprise in store when he downloaded all of the pics on Monday morning.



In other news, my baby brother turns the big 31 today! Happy Birthday Bro. Though technically in his part of the world it is the day after his birthday already.

Planning His Attack

We moved our new bird feeder out of the tree and out of reach of the pesky squirrels. They are now plotting and scheming their next plan of attack. There were 8 birds on the fence, several in the feeder, and several on the ground as this was going on.



::Sigh:: I have officially become my father. I should have saved this for retirement along with learning how to golf.

My new Hat

Saturday afternoon, after working in the yard and walking the dogs, DG and I went to the Highlands Fair. This is one of my favorite summer festivals because the vendors are so great, carrying fun purses, unique jewelry, and all the shops in the area are totally hip. It's also in my old neck of the woods. Two years ago, DG and I met up there a week after having gone out on our first date. We ran into Lora that day and she gave me the "He's cute!" thumbs up. It still kind of makes me giddy to think about it. It was also the day that I met my true soul mate, Mr. Gibson. Little did he know when he was sniffing my leg that we were going to spend a long happy life together.

I'm not sure how hot it got this week-end, 95?, but the sun was out and it was blistering. Even with the 30 SPF lotion I was wearing, I still felt like I was roasting. Upon seeing that several of the vendors were selling hats, DG decided that I needed one. And then we found it, my new $5 garden hat.


Apparently I like things that are multi-purpose (and CHEAP), similary to the hat I got in NYC that doubles as a scarf. This one folds up and can be used as a fan as well.

Dog Days of Summer

I love DG for many reasons, one of which is that he designs me these beautiful new headers and just posts them for me, then sends me a quick IM saying something cryptic about going to look at the blog. So take a moment, breathe, and stare in awe at the beautiful new color scheme using the same brushes as our wedding invitations.

Quote of the Week-end

"If people spent as much time working on their marriages as they do planning a wedding, there would be a lot less divorce."

The details, the details, it's hard not to get bogged down in the little details that no one will remember. How true this is, but also if you only knew how bad it can really get. I feel we are having the most simplistic detail free wedding ever, but it is still a lot of planning.

On that note, DG and I just had our 2 year anniversary this week-end, but with everyone in town, we kind of forgot about it. Last night when I was pestering him in a fit of insecurity about whether or not he still wanted to marry me, I was scolded for forgetting the date. I guess this is something I will have to do better with. 8.12.06 just kind of rolls off the tongue, I'm sure I will remember it forever. I love you DG and can't wait for another 2 X eternity years. *gulp*

Shower games

We had a few fun shower games on Saturday. Jinnie, my future sister-in-law asked me a list of 20 Newlywed type questions and video taped my responses. Little did I know that she had recorded DG answering the same questions which she played back afterwards.

Beyond the 'where was our first date?', 'how much toothpaste does he use?', and 'what's my bra size?' type questions, the raunchiest one was 'Besides the bedroom, where was the last place we had nookie?' I was given one pass and thank goodness was able to pass on that question. I mean really with my mother (The Rev.), aunt, and DG's mother there, I was beginning to sweat like a whore in church under all the pressure. I was foiled however when DG answered the question in the video portion. *doh* He thinks I'm an A minus by the way. He also did a great rendition of me spritzing on perfume.

At the very end of the video, Jinnie asks him to give final words to me, and they cut to him sitting in a bubble bath. Needless to say, this brought a tear to my eye as it was not only funny, but the bubbles were starting to dissipate and I was worried about the shower seeing his man jewels.

When the bride is hungry, it's time to eat!

Here comes the wiener, all dressed in....

Friday afternoon, when my mom and I were running errands, we went into a cute shop called Macy Macy. It is a mix of handmade dog clothes and eclectic people stuff. The store was closing, but the owner who has a little Chihuahua was promoting a "Doggie Prom" as a benefit to a local Animal Hospital next week-end. I looked at my mom and asked her if she could whip up some outfits for the babies and I believe I got the eye roll.

Later, during the shower, when I was opening my gifts from her, I became quite verclempt when suddenly before me, was a pearled white knit outfit. Upon closer inspection, I find that it is a wedding dress for Tica, with a matching Tux for Mr. Gibson that she had made. I almost started sobbing uncontrollably in front of everyone.


Tica is not really interested in wearing her veil, but I am thinking that they will be the hit of the prom.

Showered with Love

Saturday morning, we were at Cynthia's house by 11:00 a.m. for a lovely Wedding Shower brunch. It was more than I could have asked for. She had the tables set with green ribbon and beautiful flowers and she cooke all of my favorite dishes including a Spinach Strata and the best carrot cake ever. My friends also brought dishes, including Erin who made THE best Cardamon coffee cake I have ever had in my life! We will be requesting the recipe for that very soon.


Aunt Betty, me, my mom

I will be posting more pictures all week. I have the most wonderful, generous loving friends a girl could ask for who gave the most beautiful thoughtful gifts. Previews to come!

The Meet and Greet

The week-end has been a whirlwind of good times, great eating, and families meeting. Like any good mom would, mine is picking broccoli out of my teeth at the table in front of everyone. Now what would dinner be without conversation about dogs peeing, broccoli in your teeth, or discussions about other bodily functions?

I took the day off on Friday to hang out with my parents and Aunt Betty who came to town. In the afternoon, we toured the location that the wedding is going to take place and then headed back to our house for our big dinner. I gave my parents a few simple instructions: 1) BEHAVE and 2) absolutely NO talking about politics. I told them they may be lured into talking about politics, but to resist. I said, "Even if you are on the same side, RESIST!" I find that politics in general just make discussions tense.

We had a great time, good meeting, and made it through dinner without politics coming up once. It wasn't until I was cleaning up afterwards that Aunt Betty came in and told me that one of my rules was flying rapidly out the window. But even political talk did not dampen our evening. We still all had a really good time.



At the end of the evening, Jinnie let me open one of my shower gifts early that she and her mom Mary had gotten for me. I LOVE my new drink dispenser. Could it be more beautiful? How many bees knees will I need to make to fill this up?

The whole Famdamnly is coming

Well not exactly everyone, but my parents and my aunt are flying in tomorrow morning for my wedding shower on Saturday. I am so excited I could just pee my panties. DGs parents are coming too and we are having a big meet and greet this weekend. Can you believe they are 20 years apart in age?

So tonight is totally task oriented. Purchase food for the masses at Costco and clean the house. Not just pick up and dust the corners like we do for our other guests, like get out the q-tips and bleach and scour clean. Weed the whole garden clean. What is our obsession to still please our parents? Do we feel we are more respectable children for weeding the garden and having a clean home? At 35 why am I still trying to impress them? It is like grade school all over again. Back then it was look at my report card with straight A's, now it's see how cute my family is and have you checked out the immaculate toilet? Will I be 60 doing poop patrol in the back yard so my 80 year old mother can go sniff the rose garden?

I DO!

I purchased these letters on EBAY to decorate our cake table at the wedding. They are really fun and I would recommend them for anyone wanting to spell your kid's name on their bedroom wall! You just pick the font, color, size, click, and buy. They even send some double sided tape for you to stick them to the wall.

Is America Ready?

In 1984, my interest in politics began when my then liberal father drove me to Hartford to see Geraldine Ferraro vice presidential nominee to Walter Mondale speak at the Capital. I was 13 when on election night, I went to my room and shut the door to cry over their loss to that stupid actor turned Republican Ronald Reagan. But what did I know? I was only following my parents lead.

My Junior year in high school I wrote an essay that won me a 6 hour train ride to Washington D.C. to attend a week called Presidential Classroom. Students from all over the country attended daily meetings and lectures about the state of governmental affairs. I remember several things about this trip. First, for several hundred seemingly smart high school kids, few of them could pick out Connecticut (my home state) on a map. One girl from Texas didn't even know it was a state. Second, I got to meet with then State Representative, swarmy John Rowland, who went on to become Govenor of CT, who resigned and served two years in jail for something called corruption. Third, I watched heads of the Sandanista and Contra Government in Nicaragua give lectures about what their people were going through. All in all it was very educational week.

Beyond catching five minutes of news on NPR when driving, and perusing the political cartoons in Newsweek, I do not keep up with politics, and I don’t have the time or energy to be knowledgeable about all of the issues. I just want to vote for someone who does care about them. I am the worst kind of voter, I am complacent.

I also make it a point not to discuss politics or religion with anyone, as it always ends in bitter anger, no one thinks different, no one changes their mind, it’s just a bunch of arguing. That and I wouldn't hold up in a debate about politics. There'd be a lot of "oh yeah, well, he sucks" with nothing meaningful to back it up.

That being said, someone recently commented here on what I thought about Hillary Clintonrunning for president. If the democrats chose Hillary as their candidate, I would back her. I do not believe enough people in this country would vote for her, but I would back her if that is who they chose. As a matter of fact, I will back whomever they put in there to run against Cheney. But then I heard Al Gore on NPR the other day *sniff* and he was so eloquent and so caring about some amazing topics that we never even think about. And then I think, would Al Gore do better now than he did last time? I would back Al Gore too.

View from Space

DG was on the roof this week-end starting up our swamp cooler when he took a few aerials of the backyard. I managed to take the time to crop myself out of this pic, rather than let the entire world see me in full sloth mode, in my pjs as lazy as I am, on the phone, climbing up and down the ladder, in flip flops, an accident waiting to happen.

Our backyard has become our oasis in the city. We didn't want to leave it all weekend. We pretty much hung outside on the patio with the dogs, drinking coffee reading the paper every day. We are babysitting Holly and Bruce's dog Ali while they are on vacation. We think she is an australian cattle shepherd/blue healer mix? Though I don't know much about those dogs so we are not sure. She has a great temperment, tons of energy, can easily jump 5 feet in the air, outrun a car, and thinks Gibson, who is 1/4 her size is her new boyfriend. In the beginning Tica was having a little trouble sharing her lady of the house status and has had a few jealous throw downs, but nothing major. All day yesterday, they were partners in crime trying to chase the squirrels out of the bird feeders. Ali is also as needy as Gibson, and wants to be a lap dog with the rest of them. As seen below, Ali is trying to get the coveted position on the couch next to me. I can't imagine having 3 children. How do you give love enough to all of them?

Who is the master of the house?

When I mentioned that there were no pictures from last week-end, I meant no pictures of actual people or events. We hung out with a lot of great friends every day, meeting Mel and Seths new baby, Chloe (5 lbs with a full head of red red hair), having dinner with Erica and Jeff, and hanging out in the park for a picnic with Jay and Kim. I even managed to finish planting the front boxes and the back yard. But alas, no pictures of this, just the usual montage of the dogs.

We do not have children, but I swear these dogs try your patience as much as any 2 year old. Tica threw up 6 times on Thursday night, the first time right on the butter couch. This week-end the house needs an enema. And Gibson has been waking us up at 5:30 every morning demanding to be let out and fed. It makes me question who is the master of the domain?

Fun With Flickr

I have a bunch of pics posted on Flickr. It's a fun photo sharing site where all pictures are tagged, so you can do searches for things you want to look at. You can view my photos by clicking here and DG's here.

For all of those that think we are weiner dog crazy, we are not as crazy as this guy who got a weiner dog tattoo on his wrist. You will never see me with one of these...on my wrist. On the small of my back maybe, or inner thigh, but never on my wrist. And only if it could be an exact replica of Mr. Gibson.