Friday, June 19, 2009

Tornadoes, Hairy Spiders & an iPhone in a Pear Tree

Another week bites the dust - happy Friday peeps!

Real Men are from OK
Last weekend was pretty crazy! We came home Friday after work just in time to experience a straight-line wind storm that uprooted several big trees in our neighborhood & knocked out our electricity for about 24 hrs. We weren’t sure what to do with ourselves, so we ended up playing Scrabble by candlelight. It’s amazing how many things use electricity - I don’t know how many times I thought, “Oh, the A/C won’t work so we’ll just have to use fans.” (which ALSO use electricity). I cleaned everything out of the hallway closet when the tornado sirens were on & the sky was green as Ben mocked me (apparently OK boys aren’t allowed to take shelter from tornadoes if you’re a REAL man).

Why did God create spiders?
Fast forward to Sat morning…we’re in the car on our way home from breakfast @ Three Little Pigs. Ben is driving & sees a black, hairy spider fall from a web from the visor into his lap to which he responds, “I think there’s a spider on me. Yep, there it is on my pants.” I attempt to not pass out & start hysterically screaming, “Stop the car, stop the car!!,” as I cringe in my seat with my hand securely on the door handle about to jump out of a moving car. Once the car is stopped, instead of frantically jumping out of the car & screaming like a little girl like I was (even though the spider wasn’t even on me), Ben opts to simply open his door & brush the spider off with a napkin. The end.

“Ben The Tool Man” Thompson
After our electricity came back on, we discovered that our washer agitator (which has been on the fritz) had completely stopped agitating & I assumed that we would call a washer repairman. You know what they say about assuming…I must have forgotten that I married a Thompson. Ben researched what was wrong on the internet, ordered the part that we needed with 2-day shipping (which cost almost as much as the part itself) & wala, the washer was ready just in time to wash all of our clothes before a week of camp. I am incredibly impressed with my husband’s mad handyman skills!

A Little Bit of OK
I surprised Ben yesterday afternoon with a cinnamon crunch bagel with raspberry cream cheese (his favorite) from our BRAND NEW Panera (insert happy dance)! We have REALLY missed Panera since we moved to TN almost 5 yrs. ago.

I ♥ Plato’s Closet
We’re off to Ben’s 10 yr. HS reunion this weekend. I found a fabulous $6 dress & Ben made the comment, “I think it’s cool that I married a girl that gets excited about only spending $6 on a dress.” What can I say…I’m not like most girls. After that, we’ll be spending the next week in the great outdoors (i.e. church camp) with my family. 90º temperatures, no A/C, no computers, no cell phones, no TV, campfires, games & spending time with God = good times!

Speaking of cell phones…Ben is at the AT&T store as we speak getting me a new 3G iPhone for my early birthday present - yay! Next week’s Friday post will be delayed, but tune back in for Benica’s adventures @ camp!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Brief Thought on Bible Reading

I was thinking today how much of my life I have read the Bible in order to inform me whether or not I can do this or that. I then thought how different it would be if I read the Bible in order to show me how to live my life. I am frustrated when I read a passage and the only question I ask myself is, “Am I doing this right?”; which isn’t a bad question necessarily. But I think there is a better question to ask—“How can my life look like this?”

Friday, June 12, 2009

Fred Savage, Up & Chiggers

This has been a craaazy week for Benica - I think we’ve been out every single night doing something, yet somehow I managed to clean the house & do laundry (-1 load) so that I can enjoy our weekend!

Look-A-Like?
Ben has had several clients recently tell him that he looks like Fred Savage. I tried finding out if they meant “young The Wonder Years” Fred Savage or “older Austin Powers” Fred Savage & he wasn’t sure. Do you see the resemblance?

Resume Builders
Things I can add to my resume from my current job: Professional Staple Removerer. At my company we are in the process of backing up all of our old files, since apparently you are required by law to keep all documentation for 30 yrs. if you manufacture a spinal implant that goes into someone’s body. In order to scan these documents, the staples must be removed - you get the picture. Side note: Ben made a comment to a friend this week that coming to lunch with me is like visiting someone in prison…it’s a VERY important thing to do.

2 Thumbs Up
This past week we forked out the dough to see the Disney-Pixar movie Up in 3D & it was well worth it! When we were buying our tickets they had all these signs posted saying that you could NOT take the 3D glasses out of the theater. Ben non-nonchalantly said to the ticket guy, “We get to keep these 3D glasses, right?,” to which he responded in an angry theater guy voice, “Only if you want to pay the $50 that they cost!” It was great.

Blog Etiquette
So here’s a question for you fellow bloggers: what is your criteria for linking blogs from your blog? I like to do what I call “blog spring cleaning” several times a year where I delete blog links IF the blogger hasn’t posted anything for awhile (6 months, a year). It’s not that I don’t like these fellow bloggers, it’s just that they don’t seem to have what it takes & the commitment level that I require in order to be linked from my blog. I think with the FB craze that blogs have really suffered, but we will keep our blog flag waving!

Seriously?
Today a male co-worker of mine asked me if I had any clear fingernail polish. I found this question both amusing & a little insulting that a guy would assume that girls carry around fingernail polish with them at all times. Apparently, he had some chigger bites & needed some relief. My dad prefers to use white shoe polish which not only stops the itch, but also doubles as a fashion statement.

Oh how I wish Tom Petty was going on tour again this summer OR that we had an anniversary trip to look forward to. Oh well, I’ll have to settle for our crazy life in Memphis with Elvis’ ghost & a staycation.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Gran Turino Impresses

We saw Gran Turino last night and I was really impressed! I highly recommend the movie to people who will like it. I don’t recommend it to people who don’t like it. It was amazing how old Clint Eastwood looked. Clint Eastwood is always unsettling to me because I feel like he could never be happy with me no matter how wonderful I was, and there was a scene in the movie that impacted me along those lines. It was refreshing to see a movie with so many levels where the main plot line did not revolve around two self-absorbed beautiful people finding each other.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Back by Popular Demand...

Happy Friday everyone - congratulations on making it through a grueling 5-day work week! We are heading for the GREAT OUTDOORS this weekend on a camping trip with some friends. There will be smores, hiking & hopefully NO bug bites because we both already got eaten alive after our hot tubbing adventure the other night at the Birds! Let this week’s randomness begin…

My Grandpa
In regards to Ben’s previous post (TV Show Idea) I just want everyone to know that my husband is a comical genius! He’s always coming up with TV show/movie/book ideas & I’m pretty sure that later in life he will end up going into marketing/advertising like Chandler on Friends. With that said, sometimes he comes up with what I call “grandpa ideas” in the midst of his brainstorming. Some other “grandpa” type things that Ben does are as follows: he puts pop-up shades in the car, he changes the oil in our cars himself because he refuses to pay someone else to do it, he tells grandpa jokes & he puts ice cream back in the refrigerator instead of the freezer after dipping it (completely on accident).

Preggers
So it seems like everyday when Ben asks me how my day was I reply with, “Guess who’s pregnant now?!” Also, I’m pretty sure that anybody we know that is NOT knocked up is on a tropical vacation. Enough already with the babies & vacations people! Ben says that I have baby & vacation envy & I agree, although I hear that vacations are a lot cheaper & require less life-long commitment.

Road Rage
Sometimes while I’m driving I like to have conversations with other drivers out loud to myself. This morning I overheard myself say, “So you think you’re too good to use your blinker Mr. BMW, eh?” Ben & I argue about blinker usage constantly. I think a person should use their blinker 100% of the time, regardless of whether anyone is behind you, whereas Ben is of the belief that you only have to use your blinker IF somebody is behind you & it’s ok if you forget. This should have been covered in our pre-martial counseling.

Gulp, Gulp, Gulp
We have found Cali twice this past week standing beside the bathtub in the dark waiting for one of us to turn the water on for her to drink. Both times her water dish has been bone dry & it makes us feel like horrible parents. To our defense, she has been drinking a lot more water than usual - I mean just because it’s 90º+ outside & she’s wearing a fur coat is no excuse for her to drink like a fish!

Who’s it Gonna Be?
I noticed today that I have 398 friends on FB…I’d like for #400 to be someone really cool or maybe even famous. Side note: I also noticed that Ben & I have exactly 100 FB friends in common - weird!

Alright peeps - only a few more hours of work left until the weekend! btw, the "Lovin' Life: 24/7"? movie quote was from Elizabethtown which was the motto for Chuck & Cindy’s wedding (shaking my head in disappointment that nobody knew it).

Thursday, June 4, 2009

TV Show Idea

I thought of a great idea for a new reality TV show. I decided to call it “Primp My Bride”. Basically, a lucky young lady who is engaged is chosen (after being nominated by friends and family) to have a complete makeover before her wedding. However, upon further thinking, I realized that it might be dangerous to do the show because the boost in confidence and self-esteem could lead the bride-to-be to look for someone better—like someone who would not nominate her for a show like this! Well, at least I came up with a good title.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

So What I Hear You Saying Is...

Isn’t Monica a good blogger? I think she is great at it and needs to do it more. It breaks the cycle of cynicism and ramblings from me.

So, she may not think that she has made the right thing to make me love her more, but that is wrong. I can’t tell you how amazing the things she has made lately are. She made this cinnamon chip and fruit dip concoction the other night for Life Group and it was marvelous (I say that last word in a my country club accent). It sounds vane to say this has increased the love I have for her, so vane I’ll sound. The whole making new dishes and being an awesome hostess is quite sexy, but not in a way that leads to dancing (this blog is on the OC server, you know).

I like her movie ratings as well. In an expression of true agape love, she rented and watched Bride Wars when I was out with the guys. I would give Personal Effects a B and Body of Lies a B-, even though I fell asleep during the latter. I despise The Bachelorette because I am embarrassed by the stupidity and fluffiness of those representing my gender on TV, but I am sure that contempt is in me for a reason.

Finally, the amount of sugar Monica puts in her drink is ridiculous. It’s like an entire sugar cane has to be chopped down just so her coffee does not taste like coffee. Of course, I know that for Monica to be that sweet, she has to be replenishing the sweetness often—at least, that is what a grandpa would say.