Welcome Winston

As of Thursday, we are puppy owners. Here's our little guy (I can pretty much only get pictures of him when he's sleeping):

He's already been such a joy and such a pain. Everybody told me that puppies are a lot of work, but I knew that my puppy would be different. He would be so smart and so good and never wake us up at night or terrorize the cats or go potty on the carpet or chew on things he isn't supposed to or jump on people or smell bad. Because he is my dog. He would know better.

Nope. He's a lot of work. Worth it, of course, but a lot of work. We're starting slowly but surely to get the ground rules set. It's mostly just a game of patience, patience, patience.

Based on his appearance, we're guessing that Winston's father is at least part Bluetick Coonhound (we know his mother is a Free-Lance Bulldog, but we can only guess on the father). Winston's hound-looking features have upped the quoting of the "I'm a hound dog" line from "The Fox and the Hound" in our household by roughly 32845600%. Which is okay, because it's so cute:

Racial Land Post

Car ride home with coworkers today. As a note, I generally like these people. But wow, these are not who you want to talk politics with.

A: So I was telling my boyfriend "I know you don't like Obama because he's black and has a bunch of dumb ideas, but..."
M: Whoa whoa whoa, Obama being black should not have anything to do with it.
A: Oh I know that. My boyfriend just can't get past it, though. It shouldn't matter if someone's black, white, Mexican...
M: Oh no, I would never vote for a Mexican president.
Me: I love that you say that after calling A out for the black thing.
M: I'm just saying, if we had a Mexican president he'd have like fifteen f***ing famiily members living the White House with him, you know?

In my mind, we live Post-Racial Land. Sometimes real life destroys that illusion.

Accessory Acquisitions

So I've been pretty good about not buying clothes I don't need lately, but I've been making up for it by breaking the bank on accessory purchases. They add great touches of new to old outfits. This month's acquisitions:

Purse

Necklace

Heels

Necklace and shoes are from Charlotte Russe. Purse is from Fabric Mill on Provo Center St. They have a little boutique in one corner of the fabric shop that I highly recommend for bags and jewelry. I was looking for a purse for forever (my old one was falling to pieces) and couldn't find anything that fit my long list of specifications. But then, go figure, Fabric Mill had multiple bags that I really wanted.

I feel like I should post about fashion stuff more because I always like that on other people's blogs. Trevor might think it's dumb, but he has a penis and doesn't know any better.

Self Improvement

This week I have:

• Eaten only homemade meals (no eating out, no pre-made microwavables).
• Gotten up early and exercised for an hour before work on three different days.
• Spent at least half-an-hour/day on housework.
• Spent at least an hour/day reading non-fiction.

Hoping to maintain and add this week:

• More housework. We're in a better spot than we've been, but this place is still a bit of a dump.
• More writing. I've got a lot of ideas bouncing around for sketches and such, but they're worthless until I put them down in some sort of edited and share-able format.

Snippet of Tonight's Internetting

Okay, Hulu, I know we haven't seen much of each other during the horrible summer television months, but fall is coming and I'm ready to see what you've got for me. Hmm, nothing is particularly appealing about Guys with Kids, but Hulu wants me to watch and comedy pilots are always interesting as someone who likes to fantasize about writing one but never gets past two pages of script. Click play. "Guys with Kids was taped in front of a live studio audience." Uhoh. A live studio audience is laughing because three guys are (surprise!) wearing babies in baby carriers. In a show called Guys with Kids! That every single promotional image from has featured men carrying babies in baby carriers! Nope. Close tab. I guess it's back to fantasy real estate shopping.

Seriously. I get that multi-cam is cheaper to produce, but does it mean you have to have a laugh track?

Confessional

• I wear my hair wet to work pretty much every single day. Looking more professional will never be worth the extra 15 minutes of sleep it would cost to dry it in the morning.
• I have watched all 2.5 of the currently-released seasons of Pretty Little Liars this month. Yes, that averages out to about 85 minutes a day. Yes, the show is, technically, terrible. I love it.
• I can't think of a third confession at the moment and really don't care.

Puppy!

A couple weeks ago, my boss Cathi discovered that her dog is pregnant and expressed concerns about finding homes for the puppies once they're born and weaned. This was exactly the excuse I was looking for.

Trevor and I have talked a lot about getting a dog for the last couple years. There are many reasons not to, of course: we already have three cats which should be plenty of pets, dogs take a fair amount of time/money to take care of, it's much harder to find a place to rent if you have a dog, etc.

But seriously, we just needed an excuse to push us over the edge, because PUPPIES ARE SO CUTE. And dogs give you a different kind of love than cats do, and what's wrong with wanting more love? And they're still cheaper/easier than having a baby, right? So it's still a somewhat responsible decision, right? But yes, the biggest thing on the "pros" list is PUPPIES ARE SO CUTE. I feel it's an okay reason to do something, though. If it's worth some inconvenience to us, then it's worth it. So we're getting one. So excited.

Cathi's dog had her babies yesterday. She had two boys and two girls, but one of the girls died pretty soon after being born (sad). So there are two boy dogs and one girl dog for us to pick from. The mother is a bulldog and the father is a mystery (Cathi's dog escaped to the wild for a few days a while ago and came back knocked up). They are all black and white. They're too little to really tell what they'll look like yet (the pictures I've seen so far just consist of unintelligible blobs of black and white fur), but whatever they look like, I know we'll be completely in love with our new little guy/girl.

I've been looking at pictures of black and white puppies all day, trying to guess what our newest family member will look like. Did I mention I was excited?

We're kind of leaning toward getting a boy and naming him Winston. But part of me wants a girl one so that I can tie bows on her and tell her she's pretty. We'll see.

Bullet Post

• I took a Myers-Briggs personality test (inspired by Betty's post a while back) the other day and I'm apparently I'm an INTP. I think this means I need to lie on any personality test I may have to take in the future to get a job. We INTPs are not good for the kind of work I'm qualified for. We "work best alone", "dislike mundane details", "have no desire to lead or follow", and "are not particularly interested in the practical application of our work". At least we're smart? Oh yeah, nobody cares how smart the receptionist is.
• Current celebrity obsessions: Lena Dunham (because she's awesome) and Taylor Momsen (I can't explain why at all).
• Trevor went to Chicago for a week last month and after talking to a lot of people involved in the improv comedy world there, we're kind of playing around with moving to LA instead. Chicago is a place you go to improve your craft and get noticed, not a place to settle down; anybody who "makes it" from Chicago ends up in Los Angeles or New York. The general consensus seems to be that Trevor is already plenty noticeable and already has a ton of performing experience (he's been averaging about three shows a week for over a year now), and he could get his career going faster by skipping the Chicago step.
• I definitely eat like a girl. All I ever want is vegetables and desserts.
• This weekend I started working at ComedySportz on a part-time basis. I'm there all the time anyway, so when a position opened up for someone to take tickets/sell concessions/etc., I figured I might as well get paid something for it. Half the job is just sitting behind the concession booth and watching shows, so it's pretty chill. It won't be a game-changing amount of extra money coming in, but every little bit helps. It's actually more money than Trevor gets paid for doing shows, which doesn't seem fair in the sense that basically anybody with a pulse could do my job and very few people have the audience-drawing power that Trevor does. But I guess most of the performers are really there for the love of doing improv comedy and would do it for free, while nobody just really has a passion for cleaning theaters and writing down ticket reservations.

Bountiful Basket

Bountiful Basket contents + Fidel

Last week, my dear friend Rachael posted about getting a Bountiful Basket on facebook, and I was intrigued. Bountiful Baskets is a non-profit co-op designed to help people eat more fruits and vegetables for less money. Basically, you pay $15 ($25 if you want all organic) and get a basket full of mixed produce once a week (you don't have to order every week, but you have the option to order/pickup once a week). The produce you get varies from week-to-week, but it's always about half fruit and half vegetables. The website says the produce you get retails for about $50. My guess would be more like $30, but that's still a terrific deal.

So I did my first pick-up this morning, and I'm feeling pretty good about it. Getting up at 7:30am on a Sat was strange, but surprisingly kind of nice. (I still have so much Saturday left! And I've already done something productive!) The pick-up went smoothly and I'm excited about eating the food I got (while writing this, I've already consumed a peach).

The Contents of My Bountiful Basket + How I Feel About Them

• 1 canary melon - I have no idea what this thing is, but I've never met a fruit I didn't like, so I look forward to try it. If I keep doing this basket thing, I'll probably be exposed to all sorts of fruits and vegetables I haven't tried. Exciting.
• 4 bananas - These will be gone instantly. If there is easy-to-eat fruit in my house, I am eating it. It's just the best snack.
• 8 peaches - See above.
• 8 plums - See above.
• 6 oz blueberries - I love blueberries and never buy them because they're fairly pricey for the amount of fruit you get. I'll be designing some sort of dessert around these soon.
• 1 bunch kale - Kale is supposedly the most nutritious green, but it's so strongly flavored that I'll probably mix it with some romaine or something in salads. I don't think I've ever bought kale before, I'll need to do some recipe research.
• 5 ears corn - I'm kind of meh about fresh corn (I think it tastes better canned, I know this makes me a Bad Person, but I can't help it). Trevor, however, loves fresh corn-on-the-cob like nothing else and complains that we don't buy it enough. So I'm excited for him.
• 2 zucchinis - I'll have to try making some zucchini bread. Because it's the only way zucchini tastes good.
• 3 tomatoes - I wish there were more. I go through tomatoes like mad. Apparently these ones are organic (I didn't get the organic basket, but these have a sticker saying they're organic); I wonder if they'll taste special?
• 1 head cauliflower - I need to buy more ranch.
• 2 bunches radishes - I don't know what on earth to do with this many radishes. I like radishes, but they're kind of a garnish in my mind, not something I need a ton of. Also, do people do stuff with the greens? I'll have to do some research to make sure I use my bunches here productively.

Overall, good experience. I'll probably do another pick-up in a couple weeks.

If you're interested in Bountiful Baskets, you can see if there's a location in your area here. They've got a lot of sites in mountain west states, and a few others scattered about the country. I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has good/bad experiences with them.

Note: This isn't locally-grown food. If that's what you're looking for, go to a farmer's market or join a CSA. This is about cutting out the middle mad and saving money to eat fruit and vegetables, but it's still your typical grocery store produce. I just mention this because a lot of reviews I've read complain about how they're not trying to save the environment or whatever. But that's not the goal, so chill out.

Embarrassing Music Confessions

1. Despite being a rather large fan of both Nate Ruess with The Format and Andrew Dost with Anathallo back in the day, I never really listened to their new band, (the now very mainstream) fun. until they had a song covered by the Glee cast. There goes any street cred I could've ever claimed having seen fun. band members in concert before they were big...or whatever hip kids get street cred for.
2. You know how whenever "Call Me, Maybe" comes on the radio everybody tears their hair out and screams "Nobody ever wants to hear this irritating song again! Who are they still playing this drivel for?!" Me. The answer is me. Before Carly Rae Jepsen came into my life, I missed her so bad.