July 28th, 2010 / 2 Comments » / by Wendy
We’re in the beginning phases of a lot of things right now when it comes to our future, but the main thing right now is looking at moving from the duplex we’re in now to a single family home. The reasons are endless.
We have a list of “demands”, as we’re calling it:
- Two bedrooms.
- Shower (our current place only has a tub)
- Washer/dryer onsite
Yeah, we’re not picky. Personally, I’d like to demand three bedrooms, but I haven’t convinced The General that’s a must have right now. Give me time.
Now our “dang, that’d be nice list”:
- Central air or efficient air conditioning units of some kind
- Fenced in yard
- Storage (basement, garage, whatever
See? Not all that picky at all.
In a perfect world, when I get a 200% raise, we’re going to be living in a 3 bedroom house (complete with finished basement), two car garage, a Butler named Jeeves, In-Ground Swimming Pool, Stainless Steel Kitchen Sink, Stoves, ‘Fridge, you name it. Everything that can shine will shine and Jeeves will make sure it happens. Or else.
I might get carried away. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t tell the difference between Stainless Steel Kitchen Sinks and the kind we have now, which is probably something fashioned out of spare car parts that were found on the side of the road, if I know our landlord well enough.
So basically, I’m down for a landlord that’s version of a basement is one that doesn’t smell like mold and consistently have a quarter inch of water standing in at all times, 2-3 bedrooms that are the size we’re currently accustomed to (quite large!), and a backyard that doesn’t look like patches of dirt the second we move in. I’d also prefer a roof. And electrical wiring that allows The General to use a blow dryer.
Posted in: Apartment Life
July 28th, 2010 / 3 Comments » / by Wendy
We sat up in the cheap seats during the Lynx game tonight, where we found that the fans up there? They’re something else.
Fan #1: Male. Somewhere in his late 30s, or early 50s if you look at the wrinkles he had around his eyes. Dirty orange, halfway-dreadlocked hair down to the middle of his back. Wearing a tie-dyed dashiki and short black swim trunks. Dirty white socks and dirty sneakers. Enough junk underneath his fingernails to probably fashion a small shelter. Very loudly yelled TWO POINTS anytime the Lynx held the ball above their heads; sometimes yelled THREE POINTS even when it wasn’t a 3-pointer. My favorite part of this guy? His testicles. Every time he put his feet up on the chair in front of him, I got to see a little peak where his tighty whiteys didn’t quite fit.
Fan #2: Male. Probably in his 60s. Walked in carrying a bible and a black plastic megaphone. Pretty sure he didn’t blink the entire time he was there. Anytime one of the Lynx got up to the free throw line, he would yell through his megaphone “Nothing but the bottom of the net. Net only. Swish”. Every time. Since the Lynx were playing like a one armed blind man riding a donkey, it was incredibly quiet in Target Center meaning everybody, likely including the players, could hear him, too.
Fan #3: Female. Angry lesbian who was there with her partner, but they kept a seat between them. Her partner kept nodding off. Meanwhile, the angry lesbian fan would yell things like “PUT IN THE BASKET” and “TAKE A SHOT” repeatedly, even at times when it didn’t make sense. The ball just getting over the center court line? Probably not the most opportune time to take a shot. In the game’s final few minutes, she would yell encouraging things like “C’MON, REALLY?” and “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” And the thing that made me want to roundhouse kick her right in her stupid neck was when the game was over and she got up to head to her rusted out Subaru. She yelled “BOO” and waved her hand in a dismissive fashion at the court. I love that she paid money to make herself that angry.
Posted in: Sports
July 27th, 2010 / No Comments » / by Wendy
We were supposed to get a new foster puppy tonight. He was a 3 month old pit bull hanging out in “pit row” at animal control. You know what happens to any single animal back in “pit row”? Euthanasia. No exception. Unless a rescue organization (like the one we volunteer for) saves them. Luckily, there were multiple orgs just waiting to get this guy out, so he went to another home, which I have no doubt will take fantastic care of him. And it leaves us foster dog free for a while!
The General and I were just talking the other day about some of the different ideas we have for various photo albums we want to put together, including one photo album just for all of the foster dogs we’ve had.
Oh, yeah. It’s nerd. And we’re so okay with that it’s not even funny. We’ve had 24 different foster animals and we’re starting to lose track of when we had them, and how long we had them. Want me to top off the nerdiness? No problem. I even started a Google Calendar, so we could remember when exactly they started living with us and when they moved along to their forever home.
It’d probably be a good idea to start one for our family, too. You know, in case it grows or something.
Posted in: Foster Pets
July 26th, 2010 / 1 Comment » / by Wendy
‘Twas good. And I even have some pictures, except my memory card reader is broken and therefore every type of photographic evidence of my awesome weekend is stuck on my cute little camera. Someone’s going to have to go to the store this week to get one.
I’m pretty sure we did some things once I got off work, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was. I just know it was about 8pm and we realized we were hungry. We headed up to the intersection of Main Street and Coon Creek Boulevard (I can’t stop saying that) to have dinner at Texas Roadhouse. I know it’s a chain, but my boss said it was awesome so we gave it a while. It was decidedly awesome even though we ate so much bread and so many cheesey bacon fries that we ended up taking half of our entrees home.
The servers dance to Cotton Eyed Joe. You can’t go wrong with that.
Our server was incredibly nice and awesome. The manager on duty came over and talked to us for a while. When he found out it was the first time we’d been there and that we drove “all the way from Minneapolis” (it was maybe a 25 minute drive), he gave us a coupon for a free appetizer. Our loyalty can easily been swayed by free appetizers, other restaurant managers.
This is the third time I’ve decided I was going to write a nice letter to the general manager about someone’s awesome service, but I keep putting it off. I’m never going to send out all five that I’ve relegated myself to doing in my 101 things in 1001 days list.
Posted in: 101 Things
July 26th, 2010 / No Comments » / by Wendy
Do you know someone walking in the Twin Cities 3-Day? (YES, YES, YOU DO. ME!)
Send them a letter in camp at:
3-Day for the Cure
ATTN: Wendy Berry
P.O. Box 25617
Woodbury, MN 55125
Letters must be postmarked August 10th. Go here for more details
http://www.the3day.org/site/PageServer?pagename=TC_Spectator
I like letters! You can still donate at http://www.the3day.org/goto/wendyberry, but if you don’t have any cash, I’d be very happy with a letter, too!
Posted in: The 3 Day '10
July 23rd, 2010 / No Comments » / by Wendy
Last year, The Kid did his science fair project on what types of insulation would work best in a house. He froze some ice in a paper cup and then went to Home Depot to pick out a few samples to prove his theory or hypothesis or whatever it is 6th grade scientists do. It’s weird to think that a kid who doesn’t even have arm pit hair yet (is that too personal?) knows stuff about Foil insulation, Bubble insulation, and Radiant floor insulation. Listening to a kid tell to a science fair judge that he wants a particular type of insulation when he buys a house is kind of hilarious. But that’s The Kid, you know? He can’t tell you what kind of Hamburger Helper he likes, but he knows the tools he wants to use when he builds/buys a house.
Posted in: The Boy
July 22nd, 2010 / No Comments » / by Wendy
Tomorrow, the Boston 3 Day starts. The Boston 3 Day was the first one I did and it’s the one that inspired me so much to keep doing this every single year.
That year, I flew out to Boston the night before The 3 Day with my friend/former co-worker Suzanne and met up with her friend Bonnie who was flying in from New York. We contemplated having beer at Logan Airport, but instead took a shuttle that we were certain was going to crash to our hotel in Nashua, New Hampshire.
The next morning we met up with Erika (and Sammy in utero!) and Erika’s way awesome mom, Marie, to start walking 60 miles. There were blisters, thunderstorms, a complete camp relocation, tents blowing away, tornado sirens, sunburn, and, of course, a snake or two on the trail we were walking.
Between Erika’s Boston accent, Marie’s Long Island accent and Bonnie’s New York accent, I’m pretty sure I developed some sort of hybrid strain of accent that I can’t ever duplicate.
Everyone said it was emotional and I didn’t really get it until I’d walked 60 miles. SIXTY FREAKIN’ MILES. And I cried. Quite a bit.
It made me realize that I had to keep doing this same walk in some capacity until it’s not even necessary. That was in 2005.
It’s 2010 now and I haven’t missed a year of participating in this fantastic event. While I would love for you all to physically participate in The 3 Day in some capacity, I know it really isn’t feasible. And that’s why I’m asking for your donation. $5. $50. $500. I will greatly appreciate it.
http://www.the3day.org/goto/wendyberry
The Sweep Team has already won an ice cream social, which we’re incredibly excited about, and right now, we’re in the lead to receive a catered in dinner at camp. This doesn’t sound like much, but if you’ve ever been a part of this event, you’ll understand just how big of a deal that is.
I’m co-captaining the Sweep Team this year with Jenni. Cindi will be assisting Jenni as the Stationary Road Coach and Regina (all the way from New Jersey) will be in my van as we cruise the mean streets of the Twin Cities looking for distressed 3 Day walkers. Jumi is heading up the team responsible for transporting people on buses to lunch and to camp every day. With some of the greatest friends of mine in the world participating this year, it’s sure to be the best 3 Day yet.
Posted in: Misc.
July 21st, 2010 / No Comments » / by Wendy
This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of USC. All opinions are 100% mine.
I don’t have a degree in anything but Being Awesome, which is not something that’s just obtained overnight and also requires much more continuing education than any other degree you could have. Take that, doctors and lawyers.
But it’s no secret that I really want to get a degree. (Remember how it’s on my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days?) I’m not picky really and would be happy with an Associates for now. I’m just finding it super hard to navigate my schedule, balancing my freelance work, family and friends time and all that good stuff. I have a pretty good feeling any of my further education is going to have to primarily be online and I’m okay with that. It’s where I met most of my closest friends, wound up with The General, rented my current duplex and sold a camcorder. Why not use it for school, too?
I figure doing it online is going to help me not fall asleep in class (done that), not want to throw things at the back of the head of the person in front of me because they’re a moron (done that), or skip class because I really want to go to a baseball/basketball game (done that, too).
I love that anymore, you pretty much have your choice of places to take online classes. It’s not just restricted to these nationwide badboys. The idea that a place as large and USC has their program information available online? I could take classes from the same place as Will Ferrell, John Ritter and O.J. Simpson. If only I could get a group picture of with all of them!
Posted in: Links
July 21st, 2010 / No Comments » / by Wendy
When we tell people we foster dogs for Pet Project Rescue, everyone always asks how we do it. Don’t you get attached? Isn’t it hard? How do you not want to keep them all?
1. Sure, we get attached.
2. Yeah, it’s a little bit hard, but so is remembering to drink 8 glasses of water every day.
3. We already have 2 80+ pound boxers and live in the second story of a duplex. Anymore legs in that amount of space and we’d straight up kill each other slowly.
Here’s the thing. When you agree to foster animals, you know it’s just going to be something you do temporarily. You’re just sort of a long term babysitter. You spend a few weeks or a few months teaching this puppy or dog how he or she can function in a family with other dogs or sometimes even function living indoors.
Blanche is going to a new home this afternoon/evening and, to be honest, she’s the one I think we’re both going to miss quite a bit.
I mean, how could you not miss that face??
Her new family, though, is what makes it all worth it. They’re a younger couple that just bought a new house, specifically because it has a big backyard. They already have a 1.5 year old Pembroke Corgi who is sweet as can be and it’s just obvious the both love him. She wanted a Daschsund, he wanted a Pit Bull and they ran across Blanche on Petfinder. They thought she was perfect. And then the idea of having Blanche move on just got a whole lot easier.
Riley also agreed this morning when she was chewing on his elbow skin.
If fostering dogs doesn’t happen to be your thing, I’d highly suggest kittens. There are constantly litters of kittens just sitting at animal control, having been found in a box or running under someone’s porch, just waiting to be adopted. If nobody adopts them and we don’t have enough foster homes to rescue them, I don’t really know what happens to them. And I don’t want to think about it, because those little guys are freakin’ cute.
Just think about fostering. That’s my point. I’m wordy. Check out Pet Project Rescue’s website for more details to find out how you can help.
Posted in: Foster Pets
July 20th, 2010 / No Comments » / by Wendy
I believe I’m in the midst of recovering from a concussion.
Sunday afternoon, I went to take the dogs out and there just happened to be a rabbit in the backyard. We’ve warned this rabbit several times about hanging out in our postage stamp sized backyard, because our dogs REALLY want to catch a rabbit. Neither one of them would know what to do with it, but man, they really want to catch one.
They both saw the rabbit at the same time, which happened to be the exact moment I opened the back door to take them out. Riley went bounding out after the rabbit and his brother, Kentucky, followed him just as quickly. The only problem was that Kentucky is on a leash because he has the tendency to get a little nervous when people come by on bikes or strollers or anything with wheels that’s not a car.
All 90 pounds of Kentucky went flying out the door, pulling me (much more than 90 pounds!) along with him. The door frame was in the way, but my face apparently didn’t see that. The left side of my head slammed into the wood and I pretty much fell onto the ground. The General came running out, and all I could say was, “Get the dogs”. I figured them running down the alley after a rabbit, one of them dragging along a leash probably wasn’t the best thing to be happening.
Sunday, I was fine. Just some bruising on my face.
Monday, midway through the morning, I turned my head to the left and all of a sudden, a headache kicked in. Within hours, all of the other symptoms kicked in, too, including blurry vision, dizziness, confusion, and my personal favorite — my pupils were different sizes.
I’m feeling better this morning. Much better. I slept, even though every one said not to go to sleep, and I woke up just fine. There’s just a bruise on the side of my face, but that’s only because The General beats me.
Posted in: Me
