Her Ladyship

Notes from the gutter.

Saturday, December 31, 2011

I spy with my little eye

Today, when walking Che home from a "dog park" (okay, it was a park where I illegally let my dog play. Happy?), I saw a cherry blossom tree in bloom. THREE MONTHS EARLY. This has been a crazy warm winter. At least it will make doing the walk of shame tomorrow easy: one year it was a balmy NYE and the next day it sleeted. The girls in their strappy sandals and party dresses on the metro clearly did not leave their houses that day in those outfits. :)

Anyways, not an issue for me as The Texan and I are staying home. We got some prosecco, cheese that we loved when we were in Paris this spring (reblochon - LOVE), and sausage, and will reenact some of our favorite meals while we were in Paris. I even managed to record "Amelie" off of some channel earlier this week so we can do the whole homage to Paris. Bonne Annee tout le monde!

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Under siege

Yesterday, when I was being a responsible pet-owner and playing with our dog Che at a local dog park*, I heard a plane rumble overhead. While technically DC is a no-fly zone, there are often planes going overhead, but that's not what made me look up. What caught my attention was how deep and sonorous this plane was - you could almost feel it in your chest. Sure as shit, I looked up to see a B-2 verrrrrry slowly passing over me. I'm not a plane geek but even I know that the big flying bat wing is not something that the Pentagon trots out without reason, so I was a little nervous. I've been on vacation this week - did things heat up with Iran and I just missed it? I took some pictures just in case....you know, in case of what, I'm not exactly sure. Evidence, I guess. I came home all excited about it (it didn't help that I was het up about yet another chicken bone that Che managed to get to when I was walking him**) and it turned out that The Texan had heard it inside our house.

This morning I searched the news for other eye witness reports of it. Turned out that the Pentagon apparently DOES take the B2 out for little reason: the Military Bowl was held yesterday at RFK Stadium in DC and they did a flyover. Okay then. Glad to see our tax dollars at work.

* Unlike today, when I am being an irresponsible pet owner and assiduously avoiding even the hint of a W-A-L-K with the dog. You know how some nights you can have a few drinks and be on top of the world, and other nights you have a few and are knocked completely flat? Guess which one was me last night? I managed to get dressed around 3pm today but that's about the extent of my accomplishments today, and frankly, considering how I feel, I'm impressed I managed to get that much done.

** Seriously, WTF people of Petworth: why do you feel the need to randomly toss chicken bones on the ground? Every time I walk our dog, he picks up at least one that an idiot has decided to leave on the sidewalk rather than a proper trash receptacle. I don't blame the dog for wanting at the bones - I mean, he IS a dog - and I try to keep an eye out for them, but there's only so much you can see before the dog does. I don't get it. I can maybe understand throwing apple cores or something that can break down in some bushes, but chicken bones flat scattered across the sidewalk? Come on now.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

It's all a matter of perspective

Last week, I was on the phone with Papa Ladyship and he asked me about the weather.* I told him that it was going to be a pretty warm day so we had opened up the house, as they thought that it might get as high as 60 degrees out. Then my dad told me that LA had been undergoing a dip in their temps and that they had the heater on, as it might get as cold as 60 degrees there.

Well, neither of those things are true today. My family said that xmas day itself it was about 80 degrees but it has since cooled off. And we've been staying inside to avoid the nasty cold rain that's been coming down all day (54 degrees my ass, it feels a lot colder than that). The thing that really sucks when it's this crappy out is that the pets have to burn up their energy indoors. There is a lot of barking and hissing going on in our neck of the woods. Apologies to our neighbors!

* The Ladyship family has been into the weather well before there was even an inkling in the eye of cable TV for the Weather Channel. Any kind of gadget that gives you an idea of the weather is a welcome gift in the Ladyship household. Hint for next year!

Monday, December 26, 2011

You know you are in love...

...when the way you show it is by giving your spouse food treats you DON'T want to eat. The Texan, that peach marmalade is ALL YOU, baby! Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

I will use my power only for good

Yesterday afternoon, I was sitting at my desk, plowing through all the assorted sundries that need to be taken care of before I head out for the holidays, when the doorbell rang. It was about 3 or 3:30, the time when lunch has worn off and you're just starting to think that an afternoon snack would hit the spot (or if you're like me and sadly trying to space out your eating, beginning the count of how many hours are left until dinner).

My co-worker got the door and I half-listened as she greeted someone and then closed the door. I was thinking as she walked down the hallway, god, wouldn't it be nice if that was someone dropping off food for us?

WELL.

It was a Godiva gift basket from our building management company. And because everyone else is gone for the holidays, we got to divvy it up between the two of us. I managed to hold off on opening up the dark chocolate bar until I got home but there was no way I was waiting to bust into the truffles.

I brought home the excess and am now sitting in a completely empty office, crossing my fingers that another gift basket will show up. It won't, but a girl can dream.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Is it time yet?

Three days, and one of them I'll be working from home. THREE MORE DAYS OF WORK and then nearly two weeks off. I can't wait.

This has been a tiring fall and holiday season in particular. I'm making stupid mistakes, like renting a Zipcar for us to go buy a xmas tree yesterday (Saturday) and then realizing yesterday morning as we were gearing up for the trip that I'd actually rented the Zipcar for the day before (Friday). That was money well spent. We are trying again tomorrow during my lunch break and I have double- and triple-checked to see that I've got the car rented for the right date. Meanwhile, I just need to get through the next couple of days and try not to make any irreversible mistakes. I've saved some research to do during this time, which perhaps counterintuitively doesn't require a lot of thinking, just a lot of searching about on Lexis-Nexis. Cross your fingers for me.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Just call me MacGyver

Yesterday was my bellydance performance, and I was really excited to have an excuse to bust out my chandelier rhinestone earrings.* The last time I wore them was at Z-Ditty's wedding in Boston, and I danced so much there I - sorry, this is kinda gross - sweated one out of my ears and lost the backing. Warned you. Anyways, I got a new backing for it from one of my other earrings and thought it would be all systems go.

However, I hadn't really thought through how much the weight of the earrings would affect their ability to stay in the backing. Which is to say, one kept falling out off my ear. I thought, hey, it's a short song that I'll be dancing to (I think it's under 3 minutes) so if I can just keep it on....except I couldn't. During the dress rehearsal it fell into my cleavage about half-way through, and because I had candles in my hands, I couldn't really do anything about it. After we were done, I looked around for the backing but couldn't find it.

We had a cast meeting and some other stuff right after we had our tech rehearsal and it was during some down-time, when I was trying to think through different options, that I happened to glance down. Nestled in the ruffles on my top was the backing. A bellydance miracle! Except I still needed to figure out how to make the earrings stick in the backing.

I finally decided that nail polish poured down into the backing might make it viscous enough that the earring would stay where it was supposed to. Lo and behold, it worked! Once I got it in, though, I was afraid to take off the earrings until after the show because I didn't want to rub off the nail polish that was gluing it in. I am planning on wearing those earrings to our office holiday party this week so I've got to figure out a more permanent solution. Or just be ready to carry around nail polish with me when I want to wear those earrings.

* A good chunk of the fun of performing is having an excuse to sparkle the hell out of yourself. I call it my drag queen look. For example, this time I bought what I called demure sparkly fake eyelashes. Nothing but the best!

Friday, December 02, 2011

Well that was unexpected

I opened up my defense contractor swag chapstick and found out that it is bubble gum flavored. Would not have called that.
 
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