Astronaut Katie

Friday afternoon I got to climb into the first article of the new space capsule that I'm working on.

Definitely the best day of work I've had at this company.

Design advice

Hey all-

I got a new little entry table for our house on craigslist last night. It's a little beat up and a bit more formal than the vibe we've got going on in the rest of the house so I was thinking of painting it some happy color. What do you think?







I suggested yellow or green to the ear doctor and he thinks bright colored furniture isn't great for anything but a kid's room. Do you agree?

Young girl

Did you see the Justin Bieber movie? Because I totally did.

I went because I am an unapologetic fan of pop culture AND the kid is kind of a phenomenon AND I was in a bad mood that nothing but a cheesy movie could correct. And I have a confession...it totally made me cry.

Not in that crazy Bieber-fever hysterical 10 year old girl way. Tears of adulation weren't rolling down my cheeks and at no time did I pledge my undying love for the teenager.


Here's what happened.


I guess the people on team Bieber wander around at the beginning of each show and find some fans in the nose-bleed section. Then they surprise them with front row seats and the little girl melts into a puddle of tears and thanks her lucky stars that Justin Bieber cares about her, personally.

Anyway, one person upon whom they selected to bestow front row seats was a middle aged, balding guy. At first I thought it was kind of strange for him to be attending that show...until I noticed that he was wearing a white T-shirt with BIEBER written across the front in rainbow puffy paint and covered in homemade music notes. The camera panned over to his little daughter dressed in a matching shirt and I just lost it.

Here was a dad who was dressed in a ridiculous shirt and was attending the concert of a teenage boy he probably would have never heard of but for the love he had for his daughter.




How could I not tear up?



20 years ago I WAS that little girl. My dad WAS that guy. He lovingly subjected his ears to the off-key, overproduced sounds of New Kids on the Block while my friend and I swayed in rapture to Please Don't Go Girl.


To be honest I don't even remember a single second of the show...other than my dad being there, loving me and buying me a blue bubblegum ice cream cone.

On this Valentines Day

To my wonderful husband,

Oh sweet darling, how do I love thee? Let me list the ways...

Thy care and love for our sweet precious canine doth warm my heart with an deep, fervent and persistent glow.

The way your eyes doth take on an eerily possessed quality when we, together, consume the sweet, cool goodness that is fresh homemade ice cream at our favorite local parlors.

The smirk that overtakes thine face when thou feign fatigue at my incessant photo-taking.

The way thou are always excited for a most auspicious occasion wherein we both may, perchance, consume some chocolate covered cheesecake on a stick.

The dueling battles in which we both engage to prove our mettle and establish our domination.

Your shapely form while clad in the garb of my ancestors.

The way thou dons thine cap in support of the weaker competitor to demonstrate your unflagging support of those to whom thou has dedicated thine ardor

The strength of thine arm, the tireless protection it affords, thine immovable dedication to moral uprightness and truth.

The blueness of thine eyes, the warmth of thine smile, the perfection of thine head for filling out a typical Englishman's cap.

blast from the past

On the way back to work from grabbing some Wendy's for lunch (GAH! Bad food choices!) I pulled up next to a truck with this load strapped to the flat bed...








...and if you didn't see that and immediately think of starting a bonfire then your undergraduate experience was a lot different than mine.




BTW did you notice that beautiful blue sky? Finally the weather is back to normal here in Colorado! Hooray!

On the John

When I was little one of my favorite things about my grandma's house is that she had a big book of jokes in a magazine holder bolted to the wall right next to the toilet. We never had any reading material in the bathroom and I thought it was SO COOL that she had this book in their for some entertainment.

But I never actually adopted the practice in my own bathroom until I married the ear doctor. He's always bringing stuff into the bathroom to pass the time. Lately the reading material is getting REALLY good...

Can you see what that is, sitting there on our wicker laundry hamper? No? Need a close up?

Exciting, huh?!?! Now you know what kind of wonders await you if you ever have the chance to swing by Colorado for a visit at our house.

SIDENOTE: This morning the ear doctor told me that the author of this article lives in Canada with a whole herd of deaf white cats that he studies auditory/brain development. Now, that'd be something to see, right?

Being a grown up

Another thing we did while my mom was here? She helped me pick out RED lipstick. And I mean RED.

When I wear it I either feel like a saucy minx...

...or like a kid who just finished her red Popsicle.

Workhorse

My parents always tease me that when they visit I always ask them to work on our house. They (somewhat loudly) state how they just can't seem to get a trip to Colorado without it entailing trips to a hardware store. They brag that they could drive to the closest Home Depot with their eyes closed.

So when I found out that my mom booked tickets to come to the Sound of Music sing-along with me I was thrilled. And determined. I was NOT going to ask her to work on our house in any way shape or form.

The show was awesome on Friday, seriously, SO fun. See? Really fun! The ear doctor totally missed out!

And on Saturday I had plans to relax and eat and chat but as the snow started to fall and an idle second was spent relaxing on the couch my mom looked around and saw the stack of framed pictures on the ground that I'd been too lazy to hang she started rooting around for a hammer and some nails. And hour later we had this.

And then we still had some time to kill so we ran to the fabric store and whipped together cushions for the chair my dad made me a two years ago!

So much for just sitting back and relaxing! I never want to be teased again for "MAKING" my parents work on projects when they come to visit. Because I'm pretty sure my mom wouldn't have it any other way!

frightening scenarios

Monday night I was attempting to clean our laundry room. It's in the basement of our 80 year old house and has a 2 foot deep cement shelf about 4 feet up the wall. I was gracefully attempting to climb down off the shelf and my stupid wet, slippery crocs skidded on the top of the slippery, wet step stool and sent me hurtling through space.

I prevented my early death by strategically placing my rear on the sharp corner of the dryer.

And now am seriously considering 3 very scary possibilities:

1) no one may ever read my blog again since I admitted that I own and wear a pair of crocs

2) I may be inclined to tell the story about how instead of being killed by a dryer 5 years ago I managed only to pee my pants in front of my super cute boyfriend

and/or

3) a picture of my very purple bruised butt cheek may find its way to the internet...

Impressive

There is no denying that the ear doctor and I are really, seriously nerdy. What? You want proof?

well, ok, here goes


The thing I got most excited about today? Buying a broom from a guy in Kentucky who is the third generation broom maker in his family.

Richard Henson





The thing the ear doctor got most excited about today? Well, its a tie really. Between trying to talk me into getting him this huge industrial sized dust pan for his garage and being a judge at a high school science fair at the end of the month.

whether channle

This morning it was -12 degrees F when I went out to scrape snow off my car.





-25 with the wind chill.





Today the high is supposed to be -4 deg F.







This is NOT normal Colorado weather. How to do you Northern Midwesterners do it?











My boogers froze into a solid plug in about 9 nano seconds!