Today's study strategy.

Read one paragraph from the New Grove.

Watch one segment of Bridezillas.

Read one paragraph from the New Grove.

Watch one segment of Bridezillas.

Read one paragraph from the New Grove.

Watch one segment of Bridezillas.

Eat Cheetos.

(Did you know that Cheetos are ALSO gluten free? Hot diggity damn!)

End note: Both animals are asleep on the couch with me. One of them has been emitting the most noxious silent sleep farts for the past hour and it is seriously distracting. I can't study like this. Halp.

Bridezilla Watch

I had a "Say Yes to the Dress" viewing marathon the other day. These women are talking about having a budget of $2,000 for their dress. I mean... WTF. For a dress they're going to wear once?! And then their parents chip in another 2k so the bride-to-be can have her "dream dress." Like, you could almost buy a reliable used Toyota for that money. Or a couple of first class tickets to the Barbados or something. Or like hundreds of flourless chocolate cakes.

Have I mentioned I'm PMS-ing?

ps. Do you know what is gluten free? Potato chips. Lots and lots of potato chips. CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP.

Updates.

1. Still on the non-delicious and unfulfilling gluten free train. Like, 99%. I had some ranch dressing with my carrot sticks yesterday. AND IT WAS GLORIOUS.

2. The studying for my Common Exams continues ever dilligently. My study group - friends Scot, Matt, and Brandon - have discovered the beauty of Google Hangouts and have done near-daily study sessions thanks to the power of the Interwebs. Today's lasted for over two hours. All on Shostakovich. That's a lot of Sovietiness to talk about.

3. Schmoobs is working (and some playing with old friends) up in Seattle until Tuesday. Gah! What am I supposed to do with myself until then? Study even more?! Wallow in greater lonely misery in my gluten free dining?? Ugh.

4. I find myself peeking around at wedding blogs and websites (AND PINTEREST BOARDS UGH OMG) with greater fervor each passing day. And by "peeking around" I mean "I mean to just look around for a few minutes and then poof it's been three hours." Yikes. I really hope I don't end up being one of those crazy psychotic obsessive engaged people. They are insufferable. I hope I don't become insufferable...

Pics of today.

The frigid temperatures (POLAR VORTEX ATTAAACK ARR ARR ARRR!) mean that today has been a fire-all-day kind of day. We've recently been doing a healthy bit of home office organizing, during which a lot of housecleaning - and furniture purchasing...- has occurred. Amongst the many bags and boxes of trash that has been sorted were a box of Schmoobs' old checkbooks for an account that is now cancelled. He was set to just put it in the trash, but then I was like, "Are you sure you just want to toss them? Wouldn't it be safer to burn them?" Look at me, looking out for his identity and financial security. Also: I like to burn things. Anyone, we burned one today. I snapped a pic because it seemed almost poetic regarding the amount of money we have spent recently on the new home office furnishings. Oy.

This afternoon, I found Tre sitting on the couch directly in the path of a sunbeam shining in through the glass pane of our door, which refracted and created a rainbow. It was really pretty. I couldn't get Tre to sit still in one position long enough to get just one damned focused shot. Blargh.

I cooked this tonight. It was experimental and tasty. Also, it was a conglomeration of things we still had in our fridge/pantry after being housebound due to the POLAR VORTEX ARRRR!! of the past couple days. I think it is very similar to a traditional Middle Eastern dish. Also, in its traditional form, it is supposed to be eaten with grilled bread. Which I could not do because we only have illegal gluten-full bread in the house. AAAH I WANT BREAD YOU GUYS. NOWWW. So, that's going well.

And I made oven barbecue chicken. Barbecue sauce, sriracha, and honey make a delightful marinade/glaze, fyi. 385 oven for about an hour and these drumsticks come out poifect, I'm telling you.

I still want bread. The end.

Dialogos.

Ys: "Hey hon? Can I tell you something?"
Schmoobs: "Yep."
Ys: "I'm going to be PMS-ing for the next week."
Schmoobs: "..."
Ys: "And I can already feel myself getting cranky..."
Schmoobs: "..."
Ys: "I'm just telling you as a warning. It probably won't be you. It's me. ...Try not to make it you."

Also, this is completely unacceptable:

What the hell freezing over.

Remind me not to leave the house tomorrow. 

The actual news from New Years Day.

Bling a ding ding!

I'm typing this up on my phone so I am going to cut straight to the chase.

I suspected that something could be up when Schmoobs was more insistent than customary that we go to a nice dinner on New Years Day. He even took the initiative to call every nice restaurant we knew of in town to make reservations. Unfortunately, as we found, lots of places like to close on January 1. Hindsight doy. Eventually, we were able to find a place that was open. It wasn't super fancy, but had a nice atmosphere. We ate dinner, had a drink. Nothing happened, so I forgot about my earlier suspicions. Then Schmooblebons took my hands from across the table and asked me nonchalantly what I did last Friday, while we were both in California for the holidays. It then went something like this:

Ys: "Oh! Last Friday?... Hm. I think I... Wait. Did I...? Wait when was Christmas? Wednesday, right? Okay, so we went to Fairfield on Wednesday... And when did we go to Oakland?"

Scott: "Sunday."

Ys: "Oh. Ok, yeah, so we went to Oakland on Sunday."

Scott: "...okay..."

Ys:"Oh yeah! So Friday I went with Jaime and Alba to go shopping in Vacaville with Kristina and the girls! Hahaha. Duh!"

Scott: "OKAY. So...remember how I texted you and told you I was helping my brother move that day?"

Ys: "Yeah."

Scott: "I didn't do that. I went to Santa Rosa to talk to your parents..."

Ys: : "What? ...Ooohhhh..."

And then I got it.

Haha.

Schmoobs and my sister were in cahoots to get me out of my parents' house that day! What sneaky sneaks! And my parents totally gave NOTHING away when I got back! What?! I tip my hat to you guys in this round...

Anyway. We went ring shopping the next day in the frozen arctic tundra that is the east-midwest this winter. Seriously, you guys, it was SO COLD outside. I found the ring about five minutes into our first store, but, of course, felt obligated to spend the next three hours shopping at that and like five other stores to be sure. And then five minutes before closing, we took our sled dogs (kidding) back to the first store and made the purchase.

And then I had to wait three days while it was set and resized (I apparently have elfin fongers, you guys) before actually getting it today.

And then I proceeded to have a BB and Tre blingy photoshoot so that we could make The Facebook Announcement. Honestly, it was nice having those few days where nobody knew except for our immediate families and a select few close friends. Mainly because we knew that once Facebook knew, we would be bracing ourselves for the inevitable "Finally! It's about damn time!" comments. Har.

Anyway.

Happiness all around. Also, questions all around. Such as:

1. Am I supposed to wear this thing all the time? Like in the shower? Or when making meatballs?

2. How in the hell exactly does one plan a wedding? (Seriously.)

3. I saw a really pretty white dress on the interwebz for like $100. Is it possible to wear a $100 wedding dress that you bought online?

Stuff like that.

On a (gluten free...SOB) roll!

Third consecutive day of re-blogging, you guys!

Things I have done today:

1. Finished up reading the New Grove entry for Concerto in keeping up with my end-of-the-month Common Rxams study schedule. Yes, it turned into a two day project instead of one. My attention span and short term memory are basically non-existent at this point, so it takes me about an hour to get through each page of academ-- *refreshes Facebook*

See what I mean??

2. Used a Sharpie to color in the grays that are showing through where I part my hair. You guys. I am ridiculous.

3. Achieved my fourth consecutive bread-free meal. My awareness of the unfinished box of delicious buttery Ritz crackers sitting in our pantry is growing stronger by the day. Somebody tell me not to eat them. SOMEBODY QUICK.

4. That's pretty much it. Until more news tomorrow. Still winky smiley face.

This is why we call him "Trazy." About two seconds later he fell backwards and knocked off half the stuff on our television stand. 

Developments!

Things happened yesterday.

Such as:

We got some additional furniture for the house! Schmooblins has been in a manic Home Depot and Target frenzy and we finally got things like a lawnmower, a leaf blower, a rake or two, an office desk, a bookshelf, and this cute little window nook bench storage animal perch thing to fill up the empty space where our now-deconstructed Christmas tree once stood:

Isn't it cute? And by "it," I mean BB, Tre, Giggy the Giants beanie ball, and our new window nook bench storage animal perch thing.

Resolution update:

I have eaten two entire consecutive meals that have been free of gluten. Look! 

 

Vodka is gluten free, right? Also, omg look at my eyeball skin area. Damn this perpetually dry skin! Must amp up my skin lubrication regimen to level eleven! Also, hopefully this terrible gluten free thing will help. IT BETTER.

Resolution update number two:

Study goal for today: Read the New Grove entry for Concerto. Egads. Bring me ALL THE COFFEES!

Also, next Tuesday should be fun:

More updates to come. Winky smiley face.

2014: The Year of Re-Blogging! (Hopefully!) (Maybe!)

New Years Resolutions:

1. Study every day for my upcoming Common Exams. Luckily, these exams are at the end of January, so this resolution won't have to last for too long.

2. Cut gluten out for a month. 30 days of no bread, you guys. Agh. But my face skin has been so unbelievably dry and chapped and I want to see if maybe a wheat aversion is to blame. My recent bout of skin chapping and itchiness may have been spurred by a certain recent visit with a beer mega-sampler during my visit home. Whoopsie daisies. Also, I snacked on some brownies yesterday before running some errands with Schmooblebons, and I was basically comatose the whole time.

3. Blog more. Look, I'm already doing it!

ps. Besides the blogging, the resolutions will begin tomorrow.

Also, New Years Eve last night was fun. We celebrated with a small group of university faculty members at one of their houses last night. Long story short, I was the only pretty-sober person out of a roomful of very much non-sober senior faculty members. We ate delicious hors d'ouevres, played board games, and drank some kind of "punch" that had bourbon, honey, and prosecco. And then the group battled over whether to watch football or the New Years eve countdown. I stayed out of the fracas, like a good little unassuming graduate student. Schmoobs, on the other hand, kicked up his heels while sitting on the recliner and wailed like an angry toddler when the channel was turned away from the Chik-Fil-A Bowl. Good times. 

Also, please to enjoy my puffy, post-New Years Eve, pre-gluten free face:

Happy 2014!