A Backyard Improvement

This past Saturday, I joined my good bud, Lauren and the lovely Rhoda, along with some other thrifty ladies for a day of treasure hunting. It was awesome and I'm getting ready to share the fun the items I scored but in the mean time, I thought I should share a little sneak peek of what was happening at the house while I was out thrifting.

You got a tiny peek at what our yard was looking like in this post but here's a better shot:

Talk about a dreary, ugly fence.  The backyard is where we need to make the most improvements. Our deck is falling apart, we've got zero privacy and there's not a single spot to escape from the sun once mid-day hits. It's going to be quite the undertaking to fix ALL of those issues but after this weekend's events, we at least got it brightened up a little bit:

I'm actually shocked at how much of a difference the stain makes. I was a little nervous about how orange it was when I first saw it but it's growing on me. It's Behr's Solid Stain in Cedar Tone in case anyone's wondering (no, it is not called Oompa Loompa, they don't offer that shade - it's the lighting, I swear.) and we needed a lot of it, like a lot a lot. Apparently our fence was a little thirsty. Oh and by the way, we totally hired someone for this. Do you think I would really stain my own fence in the middle of a hot Atlanta summer? Two words: hell no.

Is This Real Life?

Woah... where am I? Is this real life? Oh look, it's my blog. It's been a while since I've seen this place. 

WARNING: Here's the part where I make excuses for letting this rot by the wayside.

So, you know, work's been really busy and stuff. This is true actually, I've been in the middle of a mega project since last August and I'm just now beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's my job though so who am I kidding? I'll be back working on something all consuming again very soon. But it pays the bills and I like it so I really can't complain. However some aspects of my job can affect my mood and, I guess the best way to put is, get in my head a little bit. 

My job involves a bit of writing... oh and bosses of course. And every once in a while that means bosses who don't always like my writing. Sometimes when that happens, I have no motivation to go home and write about things that amuse me, the projects I've attempted or the stupid outfit I've dressed my dog in. That makes me feel discouraged/annoyed/sad (remember Feelings Statements everyone? Or was I the only one that needed to have one-on-one time with my guidance counselor?) but it IS real life and I need to get the hell over it. So on that note, I'm going to try harder... for me. Because I like it here and I think that there are three of you out there that like me here too. So maybe let's just talk about what's happened since my last post where I bitched about someone not liking the Christmas card I made. I don't handle criticism well at all, do I?

So now back to irregularly scheduled programming. Here's a little update about the last year and it involves a lot of beer.

JANUARY

We Drank Beer... In Charleston

At Coast Brewing Company

And at Westbrook Brewing Company

We Painted... A Lot

I'm not sure what you call this color... but it was gross and I wasn't happy about it.

Feeling better already. Except Josh looks like he's about to be eaten by the shadow monster.

FEBRUARY

We Drank Beer... In Atlanta.

At Sweetwater's Birthday Party!

Happy 15th Birthday, Sweetwater!

We Had A Roommate... And We Dressed Like Ninja Turtles

For a charity kickball game of course.

MARCH

We Drank Beer... In Atlanta... Again

At Sweetwater's Brew Your Cask Off

Olive Was A Pirate.

Olive Was A Leprechaun.

We March Madnessed.

You could see the unibrow from the nosebleeds

This guy REALLY March Madnessed

We Errr... Did This.

APRIL

We Watched The Brewers Lose Four In A Row.

We Got Crazy In Jamaica And Taught The Entire Resort 7-11-Doubles.

Oh and crashed someone's wedding reception on the beach

MAY

We Drank Beer... In Atlanta... Again Again.

At Brickstore's Beer & Pancake Breakfast

And at the East Atlanta Beer Fest where I knelt in broken glass and needed medical assistance

We Saw DMB.

We Got Another Roommate... He's A Little Derpy.

He's also my brother, the summer intern

JUNE

We Joined A Bocce League.

Started off strong, have resorted to blaming the heat for our losses

I Walked The Red Carpet.

We Hung Out With A Bunch Of Parrotheads.

Fins to the left, fins to the right

We Got Gut Rot At World Of Coke.

Where my brother molested the Coca Cola Bear

And this is why I feel like I've accomplished nothing around here.  But I can't say it hasn't been fun.  

Somebody Didn't Like My Christmas Card

Have you ever snorted Crystal Light? Not like doing lines of it or anything crazy like that, you know, on accident. Good lord, that could be a substitute for waterboarding. It might be worse than inhaling powdered sugar. Oh the agony.

So I'm making my Crystal Light pink lemonade last night as Josh and I are about to sit down and finally watch The King's Speech (I've been hoarding that Netflix dvd since July). I tear open my single serve packet and there's a pink powder explosion straight up my nose. I cough, I gag, I wheeze... I'm practically dying but apparently the king is giving a really good speech and my near-death experience goes completely unnoticed.

Once I compose myself, I make my way back to the couch and explain how I've just snorted Crystal Light and Josh replies, "On purpose?" Yes, on purpose. I figured why take the time to mix it... I'll just snort it real quick and then gargle this water... you know, save a step or two. Then the movie ends and he says, "It's over?" And I guess it wasn't that great of a speech after all.

In other news, remember this year's Christmas card?

Well, it just so happens SOMEBODY didn't like it. As in, disliked it so much, they complained to several of my family members about it. I won't name names since it's very possible I'm related to this person (I am) and I definitely don't need to make the holidays any more awkward (or do I?)

Do you know why this somebody didn't like it? Could it be the fact that I put my goofy pet's faces on a card meant to commemorate the birth of baby Jesus? Or the fact that it's terribly photoshopped? Nope. Apparently, it's because my cat's head is too big. And this mystery person was incredibly put off by this. Seriously... that's the reason you're gonna knock my card? Because my cat's head is disproportionately large? That's your ONLY complaint about it? How about "you mangled his whiskers" or "come on, cat's don't wear bow ties, that's totally unrealistic."

Perhaps this somebody will be happier with a professionally made card next year. Actually, I think I've got one in mind. It's from one of my favorite places ever: bluntcard.com

Found here

Hopefully that man's head is the right size for his body because I'd really like to make sure next year's card is less offensive.

New Year's Resolution

I finally figured out my New Year's Resolution... It was easy, all I had to do was go through this year's New Year's Eve photos and OH LORD HE TOOK VIDEO TOO...

Next year, I resolve not to be caught on video singing "Moves Like Jagger" in a chef's hat. That is all.