champagne thursday: toast #14

so this one's pretty late since i just got back from tucson about an hour ago, but i'd like to give a big thank you to the golf villas at oro valley. holy crap, what a fabulous place to stay for the bar exam or any other reason.

i reserved a one-bedroom villa, which measures 809 square feet = bigger than several of my past apartments. they ended up giving me a two-bedroom, two-bath villa, which totally knocked my proverbial socks off. i didn't even realize it until i was using the restroom and noticed that the tub was not the whirlpool tub i was promised was in every unit. then i walked around the place and found the master bedroom with its attached bath, which did, indeed, include said tub.

master bedroom had walk-out to the patio, as did the living room. full kitchen included all the plates, coffee mugs and silverware you could hope for, in addition to pots and pans and a dishwasher, which my lovely housekeeper ran for me every damn day. ridiculous, i know.

dvd player in the living room was perfect for my gilmore girls marathon while i drank copiously and pretended i was not there to take the bar exam. pool and hot tub included entertainment provided by two ladies from new jersey talking about their crazy aunt, and thousands of frogs, in both giant and miniature varieties.

in all, i couldn't have asked for more if i'd paid a few hundred dollars a night, and i only paid $89/night. and if my dogs and my kitten keep annoying the crap out of me, i just might move there for good.

things i love wednesday: being done with bar exam

i'm not sure there is a feeling anywhere in the world that is better than the feeling you get when you push past the double doors to make the trek back to your car after your final session of the bar exam...passing probably feels pretty good, but i wouldn't know anything about that. for now, i am just loving being done with the damn thing.

and also, these bags from trader joe's:and also, these beers from trader joe's:and also, the fact that the first picture of the beers from trader joe's turned out like this:
and also, trader joe's. must. get. one. in. my. town.

seriously, last post until after stupid exam

while i may not have gotten the whole "passing" part down, i've certainly nailed the part about packing for the damn bar exam. below is a list of some bare essentials.

kitchen supplies:

1 12-pack of newcastle, which will likely be replenished by tuesday

1 1/2 gallon of skim milk that your husband won't let you keep in the house

1 quart half and half for coffee

1 canister coffee with built-in filters

1 box splenda sweetener

2 12-packs of soda

1 gallon of orange juice, so you can pretend to be healthy

2 gallons of water

3 hot pockets

2 chicken pot pies

2 frozen panini sandwiches

1 box frozen mac & cheese

1 box pop-tarts, brown sugar & cinnamon

4 cups of yogurt

1 box of wheat thins, reduced fat (read: lots of newcastle to balance out)

2 cans of chef boyardee

1 box of cinnamon toast crunch, for the kid in ya

1 box of those ridiculously delicious frozen mini eclairs

bathroom supplies:

1 pack of toilet paper, b/c 5 days with hotel toilet paper = no thanks, mister

1 box puffs, b/c 5 days with hotel tissues + me = red, peeling nose

1 tube foot scrub

1 new pumice stone

2 fancy shower gels from lush

1 set of fructis shampoo and conditioner, b/c you can't figure out how to bring your lush bars

1 shower puff, b/c washcloths = for old people and men

1 box bath salts, b/c dude, i got me a hotel with a whirlpool tub

at least 3 kinds of face wash, b/c apparently i am still recovering from camping skin

1 hair straightener, b/c sometimes you feel like you're smarter when you're prettier

technology supplies:

1 brick of a windows vista laptop, b/c bar exam is not mac-compatible

1 macbook, b/c hello? you need to stick with your true love

1 phone charger

1 ipod plus usb cord for computer

miscellaneous supplies:

4 seasons of gilmore girls dvds

1 candle

1 ridiculously large stack of bar review materials

heads up

i'll be in tucson beginning sunday to once again take part in self-flagellation the bar exam process self-flagellation, which means i will likely be incommunicado, particularly since i will be using a crappy windows vista machine instead of my lovely macbook (do shout outs to apple garner me free schwag? because that would be fantastic).

in the meantime, stay entertained by reading truly great blogs, such as dooce, bossy and this mcdowell guy i know who apparently has so much time on his hands while waiting for baby that he continues to upgrade his already fabulously designed site.

cheating god, wha???

so i'm reading my lovely crap magazine people magazine, and i come across what i think is a story about that little girl from party of five who went on to star in mean girls:
except that it's about alanis morissette:who, i might add, is not only not lacey chabert (p.s., how scared am i that i remember her name?), but is also nearly a decade older than the chabert girl. methinks somebody took a little trip to cher-town.

throw your kid in the drink

the kid from nirvana's nevermind album cover is 17 years old, and he is hilarious, as you can see here. my favorite quote? "quite a few people in the world have seen my penis. so that's kinda cool."

thank you, npr, for making my day.

champagne thursday: toast #13

last week we went to denver to catch two nights of a little band i like to call ween, because that is what they are called. if you do not listen to them, you are quite possibly a communist. 

anyway, never mind the fact that both shows rocked, the second night ended with drummer claude coleman (come on! who couldn't like a guy named claude??) taking about a 12-minute solo which he finished by not just breaking up his drum kit, but completely destroying it, throwing things at it, throwing pieces of it elsewhere and generally wreaking havoc with it, while ol' gener got involved as well. of the john hiatt "perfectly good guitar" school myself (it breaks my heart/to see those stars/smashing a perfectly good guitar), i didn't think i would find this as hilarious as i did. turned out to be a lovely and fitting end to a bizarre and fantastic two nights.

you can see a video of the breakage here, starting about 9 minutes in, although you can't really see the extent of the damage done. enjoy.

things i love wednesday: superb music links

recently i downloaded everything in the following two links, and my life feels more complete because of it. check them out and enjoy.

sweetney's mixes

langhorne slim megapost

29x365: #26 christopher

everyone thought i was crazy for my freshman crush on the senior guy. took three years to prove them wrong. just never lie to anyone about your number again.

make the list at x365.

29x365: #25 mcdowell

meeting you was like meeting a much older (ha!), male, more outdoorsy version of myself. you’re a great guy and i’m excited for you, mp and your growing family.

make the list at x365.

29x365: #24 mindy

i’m glad that i got to hang out with you so much during law school because you are an absolute freaking riot. almost makes me miss the regal beagle.

make the list at x365.

29x365: #23 shelley

i don’t think i have ever met a nicer person in my life. i’m sorry we didn’t hang out more, because you always managed to crack my shit up.

make the list at x365.

things i love wednesday: snarky bar review answers

while studying the other day with my online bar review course, i had to take a screenshot of an explanation that came up after answering one of the questions:

(for some reason, this hasn't been snapping up to let you read what's circled. it says "what a nightmare!" which, really, should probably be the first sentence of every answer, just because.)

how to spend several hundred dollars on a free cat

this weekend, we did a little splurging on cadence, basically only because a) i've never had a cat that actually liked things made for cats, rather than the boxes those things come in, and b) we're really tired of her waking us up at 3 in the morning to play. insert ridiculous cat condo here, and now life is beautiful:
please note: it did not come with the attached toys. we bought those things separately and staple-gunned them to the different levels = we can now flip the cat condo for way more than we spent on it and start our own side business in feline real estate.

29x365: #22 twisted troll

i introduced myself and said i used to work in a bar in your hometown. you asked if i was a stripper. that line helped me get you fired.

make the list at x365.

29x365: #21 slutty

the first day i met you, you described a sex act with your current husband in all its gory details. you were loud, brash and generally a horrible person.

make the list at x365.

29x365: #20 fatty

you begged to be promoted even while applying for workers comp for an ancient injury. maybe if you stopped clipping your nails at work, you would have gone farther.

make the list at x365.

new monsoon (but not the band)

in case you've never visited the desert, let's just take a look at what an incoming monsoon does to the sky.

this is the sky west of my house at about 6pm yesterday:and this is the sky east of my house at the same time:looks like the world is ending, no?

and this is what the world ending monsoon looked like about two minutes later:yeah, that would be a stock photo because ain't no freaking way i'm taking my ridiculously expensive camera out in a monsoon. even when the husband and i were standing in the far corner of our back porch, we were getting sprayed with rain to the point that i felt like we were on the bow of a ship.

champagne thursday: toast #12

okay, so last time i checked, the whole freaking country was in a bit of a recession, not to mention a little mortgage situation. this might lead one to think that the companies and self-employed folk that offer services such as building or maintaining or selling would make strides to provide ridiculously awesome customer service and go out of their way to win you over and get your business. 

today i salute all those who spit in the face of economic downturns and continue to offer only the shittiest of customer service, refuse to call you back when you try to hire them and try to make you jump through fiery hoops whenever you want to buy their products. enjoy bankruptcy, mothereffers.

things i love wednesday: super bonus edition

someone i follow on twitter posted about this, and i almost lost my shit. the husband used to think i was crazy when i called people mouth breathers, but he's recently become quite in touch with the idea.

things i love wednesday: no longer having any credit cards

this is the card that i had to beg the company to give me back when i was in law school, and then as i proved to them that i was not a deadbeat, they kept upping my limit until i finally called them and told them to stop tempting the fates. the other day, we paid this card off because the company - let's just call it schmank of schamerica - jacked my interest rate up to some usurious number. and now i have no credit cards to my name whatsoever. the husband still does, and that's why we call him a loser.

(and okay, so i still have the limited card, but it doesn't have a balance, and i don't have a store within 100 miles of me, so it barely counts.)

29x365: #19 ron

you took a chance on me, and i’ll always be grateful, even if i hated the line of work. i have never been so upset when quitting a job.

make the list at x365.

29x365: #18 eric b.

i never would have guessed that such an insanely cool person could live in such a tiny town. you were the one bright spot in an otherwise awful job.

make the list at x365.

29x365: #17 brenda

you were a great friend to me back in new jersey and even though we’ve mostly lost touch, it’s great to see things are going so well for you.

make the list at x365.

29x365: #16 sarah c.

i was fairly terrified of you when we first met. then i realized you’re exactly like me - ridiculously sarcastic and at least partially evil. i love that about you.

make the list at x365.

29x365: #15 nicole

when you started working with our tightly knit little group, i’m pretty sure we all really wanted to hate you, but dammit if you didn’t steal all our hearts.

make the list at x365.

29x365: #14 maricar

there aren’t many days that pass without me thinking, “i used to be a chubby four, but now i’m just a straight six.” always hilarious and i miss you!

make the list at x365.

champagne thursday: toast #11

this morning, i made my first cup of coffee with my new senseo machine, and it was fabulous. the best part? i got it through this program, which i totally thought was going to be some kind of scam, but it wasn't, and i got a nearly free coffee maker. it just doesn't get better than that.

things i love wednesday: furminating dogs we don't even own

my mom, husband and i volunteer at a local no-kill dog shelter, where i also serve on the board of directors (see how i tooted my own tiny little horn?). sometimes, we take dogs home and give them baths, because we are a) crazy and b) dying to find homes for these guys we love so much. the last time we did this, the dog got adopted a day later even though he'd been living at the center for months, so of course we took all the credit.

jackson is our personal favorite, and if we didn't already have an obscene number of animals, he would have come home with us months ago. he is honestly the sweetest dog i think i've ever met, and before we took him home, he was pink from the red rock at the center, and we just couldn't let him be humiliated that way anymore. so after a loooong bath and some drying time outside on our grass - to which jackson said, "grass? GRASS? you guys have GRASS?! i LOVE grass!" - we furminated the crap out of him, and he was so happy:of course, i found out yesterday that my evil fellow volunteers let him play in the dog pool at the center, and jackson looks pretty much like he did before we bathed him. but for one shining 24-hour period, jackson was a beautiful beast.

29x365: #13 mary pat

we got married on the same day, and it makes me kind of sad that we couldn’t see each other so happy. i miss your freakouts and everything else.

make the list at x365.

29x365: #12 nicolette

there were entire days at the paper that i spent just laughing my ass off - thank you for making that job much more enjoyable. you help me punch babies!

make the list at x365.