Because I love my husband and I enjoy aggravating my ulcer, I decided to throw a surprise birthday party for my hubby. If party planning isn't bad enough, I'm doing this hush hush and all by myself. I'm a bit stressed as is and yet I get a call from my pop-in-law to tell me: 1) Did you know that you scheduled it in September? Yes, your son's birthday is in september. 2) Why did you write to rsvp to your email address? Won't hubby read it? No, we have private emails. BTW, pop...

It's been awhile. My apologies. Life has been hectic. After months of nagging, my hubby and I finally started hanging pictures on the walls. Now, it's not like it's hard. We have picture rails everywhere. It was unpacking the boxes which seemed the most daunting. We also took a four day vacation together. It was much needed. We didn't go anywhere but spent alot of time together. We did chores together. We visited family. We reconnected. Work has been pulling us and it was...

My hubby went grocery shopping with me this weekend. He couldn't understand how I can spend $100/week on groceries/household items/drugstore supplies. He spent about as much on fruits. He apparently read in Men's Health that fruit is good for you. So he bought 3 of each apple possible, pears, grapefruits, raspberries, bananas as well as an assortment of nuts. I asked him how in the world he expected to eat all these fruits before they went bad. He just looked at me like spoiled fr...

It has been a while since I wrote. I placed a self imposed sabbatical last week. No PCs. No hours vegged out on the couch. I even left my cell phone at home, occasionaly. I spent the week focusing on my home life and my personal life. [Ok. My mother in law was supposed to come but she cancelled. Instead of going into to work, I decided I should take the time I was scheduled off and decompress.] I took the week off and started making my husband lunches to bring to work. We tried it...

I've tried to stop in a jot a little something daily but unfortunately the last two days have been quite hectic in the workfront. First, my colleague is on vaca and my other colleague was pulled into an emergency conference on Monday leaving me to man the fort. Then, I realized that my plans to have the software upgrade website up by the first week of June had to be pushed back to the second week on account of my brain not realizing this is the last week of May. But anyhow, I just got ...

We have an auditor here today. Although an audit is stressful, for the most part, we're all semi-calm. Responses include "Well, she can stuff it." and "She wants what?!" But all in all, everyone is giving her as much info as possible. They've put me in charge of directing her to what she needs. Essentially, it entails me running around making sure that we have what she needs by getting a team to run around like on a treasure hunt for supporting documentation. All the while, looking ca...

My husband and I agreed to do our own laundry. This has been a standing agreement since we moved to an apartment that does not allow washers and dryers. I do my laundry, the pet's laundry and any household laundry. He does his own. I'm quite happy with this arrangement. Why? My husband changes clothes more often than a supermodel changes clothes for a runway show. And his clothes are of the bulky variety, sweatpants, layers of shirts, etc. On Monday, I ran downstairs to do my laun...

Well the last load of dishes from Saturday's dinner has been put away. I have a two week rest period before my mother-in-law arrives so, I've decided to lay low on the supper parties. My uncle is coming into the city this week. If you recall, my mother wants us to drive to Queens to have dinner so that my cousin doesn't have to drive too far since he works there. I guess what I said to her sunk in because she told me during Mother's Day dinner that she's decided to have dinner at her ho...

Now all I have to say is, thank God for my cousin-in-law. She came first and let me tell you, seeing her was such a calming effect. Ok, the wine and seeing her were equally soothing. She helped me put out the appetizers and we spent a half hour in the kitchen talking about our husbands and how they have this annoying trait called the M trait. The M trait is a trait found in all men in our hubby's father's side of the family. When the M men set their mind on something, they fixate on it u...

So it happened. Dinner for my hubby's aunt, uncle, father, stepmom, stepsis, cousin and cousin-in-law happened last night. Well, yesterday afternoon. 11:45 1st beer: After I wrote last, I went back to my sabayon. Things in the kitchen didn't get any better. First my sabayon looked darker than I imagined. I should have known the merlot would darken it. Then as I was whipping the cream, the heat in the kitchen caused the cream to curdle. Plan B: Empty out freezer and place pan and...

My hubby told his family to arrive at 3pm. 3pm! The house is a mess. I just finished buying the groceries and my husband has turned all the power off so he can install a new light switch in all places, the kitchen. At the grocery store, my husband, who promised to help me shop for his family's dinner, leaves me for home depot. He conveniently returns just as I make my way to checkout. As I desperately reach over the cart to unload the goods onto the conveyor, my darling hubby stan...

I left my poor pooches in the most humid state imaginable. I feel terrible. I left all the windows wide open, even though a threat of thundershowers was forecast. I even boosted the fan to medium. My pooches have been spoiled. In our previous apartments, electricity was included in our maintenance. We left the apartment at a cool 65 degrees all day. The server was happy. The fish were happy. The dogs were in the lap of luxury. Now I imagine my two dogs sitting in our bathtub to ke...

We put up an air conditioner last night. The behemoth model in the living room will have to wait until my hubby's buddies can assist. We spent the night in the bedroom. We may be spending more summer nights in the bedroom. We haven't had an electric bill in over 5 years. At this new apartment, we almost had a heart attack looking at the electric bill for last month. Everything in our place has a dimmer. I turn everything off and leave the hallway light on the lowest dim setting possi...

So my frog died. I have a frog at work. He keeps me company. His name was Clyde. I received him during a time when I started feeling a bit bored at work. I'm still bored but that's another story. I called in sick yesterday and apparently he didn't take to that too well. I'll clean him out in a while. For now, I'm just staring at his bloated carcass. I wrote to my hubby to tell him the news. I also told him that one of his betta fish keeled over. He responded, "One of my fis...

Apparently the vegetarian/quadruple bypass/kid eats only carbs dinner is back on. It's scheduled for this Saturday. I'm not fretting over it. Very unlike me. I've decided it will be fish or meat. The vegetarian and carb eater can munch on the pasta with broccollini. I'm probably going to make a cake just for simplicity sake. This past weekend my mother came over for Mother's Day dinner. My brother and I couldn't agree on a steakhouse (mom loves steak) and decided that meetin...