Teacup Full of Cherries

…one product at a time!

So what three things have made my life easier as of late?

1. An espresso machine. I can’t even think back to when we didn’t have this (less than 1 month ago). Before it, I was waking up at 5:45am & leaving the house at 6:55am to drive 5 miles out of the way (equalling 10 extra miles daily and usually adding about 45 extra minutes to my 10 minute commute to work) because of the death grip Dutch Bros. coffee had on me. It cost me $4.75 +gas every day. Now I wake up about an hour later than I did, leave about 40 minutes later than I did, and some days I still wake up early….but then Bobby & I go to the gym, thus freeing up that time after work usually slated for gym times. It’s been a dream come true!

2. Restaurant style cheese grater. So many more dishes now have grated cheese on them. And my equation goes a little something like this: Tena’s happiness is directly proportional to the amount of cheese she eats.

3. Body pillow! Now Bobby hears much less of me whining about how he should come to bed with me and rub my back until I fall asleep. It’s a pillow….for your entire body! It’s like sleeping on a cloud. And another equation of mine goes like this: Tena’s happiness is directly proportionally to falling asleep with body pillow &/or Bobby.

I should be cleaning. I’ve had the last 3 days off, plus tomorrow is Thanksgiving and Friday is the day after Thanksgiving. That equals up to a whole week off. Which equals waking up at 9:30-ish, working out, taking a shower, getting coffee, and cleaning. FUNFUNFUN! I should back up, though.

WE GOT NEW BIKES! They are safely stowed away in our spare bedroom (take that dirty bike thieves), and they are awesome. My new one is WAAAAAY better than my old Target bike and it was a present from Bobby, thus making it the best ever. It is blue & white and has little birdies painted all over it. Also came with a matching bell. (see: example) In return, we went hunting for a vintage fixer-upper for Bobby, since that is what he wanted. We finally found an old 10-speed that had fully inflated tires so we could ride that night.

We even took them on the light rail and rode around Tempe. We grabbed coffee at Cartel, had some lunch and Pumpkin Porter at Four Peaks, and also found some FROYOYO!

It has become something we LOVE.

I also dumped T-Mobile. It was not a quiet or happy break-up, but Bobby intervened and we came to a compromise. I actually called them to confirm that my contract was over and asked how much I would owe if I cancelled that day. They said it would be prorated and I would owe about half my regular bill since I was half-way though the billing cycle. Cue me & Bobby at the Apple store 10 minutes later picking out my new iPhone.

Ah, it is so nice, fast, doesn’t close applications randomly, and I can actually update it regularly without Bobby needing to jailbreak it! After the purchase, I called T-mobile to cancel my service where they decided to tell me that my bill would NOT be prorated and I would owe the entire bill amount despite me canceling in the middle of the cycle and the lady I had talked to 30 minutes earlier telling me otherwise. So Bobby had to take the phone from me before I started to curse and cry at the guy at the other end & got it fixed for me. Yeah Bobby! For all his hard work, I got him a iTouch! (Well, I gave him my old iPhone, hehe.)

In some sad news, I lost one of my oldest best friends a few weeks back.

Bustykins. Granted she was about a month away from turning 16, was blind & deaf, and barked non-stop, but I thought she would be there for one more holiday season. Alas, she could no longer walk.

Also, I’m currently sitting next to a bald-butted Lil. She had surgery on a lump on her butt Monday morning, we are still awaiting the biopsy results, but she has been in such good spirits lately and still exhibits her lovey-dovey-puppy-like behavior she is known for, so we have faith it will be nothing serious. She had a great vet who is known for doing all the butt surgeries, hehe. Here we are recovering from a long Monday.

In wedding news….well, not much. We are getting “engagement” pictures taken in a few weeks (our photographer: Kym Ventola) and we are going to the bakery this Saturday for cake tasting (or rather, cupcake testing). We still need to get our rings, and I have some simple ideas for flowers. I’m still awaiting the invitation design (courtesy of my in-house designer, Bobby), and also Bobby needs a tux! Geez, what a slacker! I also have the entire Christmas week off, so maybe i will head to Michael’s and start making some decorations. Maybe, maybe not…

It’s getting colder! Make sure not to leave home without your scarf!

(this is her usual look, she is not being tortured!)

…or fall asleep head first in your scarf.

I just remembered that Bobby & I took Lil to the dog park on Saturday. It was nighttime, and, as Bobby put it, a total sausage fest. I was literally one of two females there. And I was the only female there that LOOKED female. (teeheehee.) Anyway, we were walking around the park, watching Lil stop every 30 seconds to phantom poop and watching all the cute doggies. Oh there was a cute Australian Shepard and a dog that kept putting his tennis ball in front of his owner, then he would run a little ways away and crouch on the ground waiting for his owner to make a move towards the ball. Once the owner got close to the ball, the dog would get up and run and take the ball, move it, run a little ways, then crouch on the ground and wait for the owner to make a move towards it AGAIN. And AGAIN. That’s all this dog did. Hilarious!

But I digress. The reason this was no ordinary trip to the dogpark is because this dog was there:

Well, not that dog EXACTLY, but the same breed. A CORGI!!! A rare sight. Oh man, my heart just melted. They are SO CUTE. I just wanted to vomit with the cuteness. And watching him run was a hoot! They are so low to the ground, too, just like wiener dogs. I guess that is why I like them. Oh garsh. And this is what they look like as puppies:

BARF! SO cute! Now I’m just torturing myself.

All right, all right…..Lil is super cute as well, I’ll give her that street cred! She’s our little sea otter.

And Bobby is the cutest of them all

It’s Friday night & the mood is right. Well, actually, I’m at home waiting for Bobby to get off work. He is burning the midnight (or 7′o’clock?) oil. I’m not gonna lie: I’m pretty hungry. All I had today was yogurt, a bowl o’ Cheerios, coffee, and a handful of Raisinets. And on top of that, I worked out! It was a successful workout, for once this week. I slacked the entire week, but I suppose I deserved it. My body just shut down. However, I dodged the sick bullet that Bobby caught. My immune system be BUMPIN!

Wednesday night was super neato. We RSVP’ed to a tasting at the Farm so we could try some food from the caterer they use at the Farm weddings (Santa Barbara Catering). Not only was it delicious beyond belief, we got like a 4 course meal with a glass of wine for FREE. This made the food even better! Then we made it to the Rose & Crown with seconds to spare for trivia night. Yeah, we won 1st place. VICTORY AT LAST.

We also picked out our photographer. We met with her a couple weeks ago, thinking we wouldn’t go with her because when she first called me she stated her packages start at $3000. ERRR, hells no. But we still met with her anyway not expecting anything. We ended up creating our own little package & also getting a Sunday wedding discount. It is a most excellent deal. I will show her off once we give her the down payment. (Hey, I don’t want anyone stealing her from us on the same day!!)

We ALSO picked out our wedding rings. Also, AWESOME. You can check out some of their stuff here, but I can’t find any examples similar to ours. And, yet again, a discount!

Phew, that’s a lot of wedding talk.

We also decided it would be smart to stay where we are rather than quickly dive into buying a house. We are missing that $8,000 credit, but I think this will turn out better in the long run. Now that we have seen we are, in fact, capable of saving, we may be able to continue to after the wedding. This means paying off our debts quicker than we have been (aka not much :P) & saving more on an actual down payment. Which means we can probably get better rates & a better house. I’m totally excited for the prospect of less debt for the both of us.

Oh, and Beyonce’s lyrics are totally AWFUL! But I still listen to her crap.

OK, I’m starving! I’m not gonna lie again: this post was simply to pass the time so I can get closer to eating food.

Oh, Sunday night. Beirut is sleeping next to me on the couch. Lil is sleeping on the floor next to the couch. Socrates is unaccounted for. And Bobby, well, he is asleep on the floor in front of the TV. It is officially 9PM on a Sunday!

To catch this blog up, it’s been a month since our vacation to Chicago.

There we are on top of the Sears Tower (or Willis Tower for all you heathens). It was a beautiful, awesome, life-changing trip. The weather can only be described as PERFECT EVERY DAY. Never humid, and the one time it did rain, we were indoors and once we ventured out, it stopped just for us. We did all the touristy things and ate a lot of pizza. Caught a Cubs game for free. Spent a lot of money solely on cab fare. Lived the good life in a sweet hotel across the street from a Trader Joe’s. Of course found a pub that hosted Trivia Night. Ate at the most expensive (I’m assuming) restaurant along Michigan Avenue that came with our own drink waiter, food waiter, bread waiter, and napkin folder. Oh, yeah, we also got engaged.So I wear a ring now, and it’s got a heart in it so it’s perfect. The proposal happened at the top of the Hancock Observatory. Long story short, we paid full price to get in (our Go Chicago cards did not work after 5PM) and saw no actual fireworks (despite what all the people working there thought we would see). Yeah, it was the one Saturday night in the summer they did NOT have fireworks. I was upset, ready to go, and he popped the question. Haha, it was perfect too!

So now we are getting married. We have this general pencil outline of every detail, but the worst part is we don’t have a date set, and that pretty much puts a halt on going forward. So hopefully within the next week or two we will have a set date! Depends on the site, because I found the perfect place and I will work around their availability. Once that is done, everything will fall into place. It’s gonna be PERFECT!

At the end of every three months, there is an event that takes place that I have been working diligently for: time to use my Safeway PowerPump rewards that I have been earning! It’s really an exciting event because I end up getting atleast $1.20 off each gallon of gasoline. And that to me, my friends, it the BOMB. What also is the bomb is there are probably only 2 Safeway fueling stations in the valley, and I work a block away from one of them.

In other news, today is relatively boring because I have no scheduled patients today, but I AIN’T COMPLANIN’. It is also payday, so I decided WHAT THE HECK! I’ll buy myself and also my significant other a $5 tee shirt from Threadless.com! I always get emails from them, and tend to ignore them because I hate clothes ever since I gained some weight. But I looked at the email today, stating they are selling some shirts for $5. I needed a nice pick-me-up, so I splurged on a $5 shirt. I hope Bobby likes his, too!

In other news, my nephew was born last Wednesday and hes pretty cute ‘n junk. Just sayin’!

Only a couple more days until my midweek holiday (Tuesday). Exciting stuff.