The First Night in Reno, or The Night I Was Mistaken for a Hooker

Sometimes you need to get out of Utah, if for no other reason to remind yourself how quirky it is and that the rest of the world isn't so conservative. With that in mind, we spent last weekend in Reno for the Western Athletic Conference Basketball Championship. We almost didn't make it! You see, Dr. HokieKev spent the first part of Furlough Break in New Jersey working his undercover job. His flight back was supposed to get into Salt Lake at 10:30, our plane to Reno left at 11:10- plenty of time! Not so fast my friend, he was delayed and ended up sprinting across the airport to make the flight that I was prepared to cry, lie, and wager into staying at the gate until he arrived. None of this would have been a problem had the WAC kept the schedule as originally planed which gave Utah State the night game. Instead, they changed it to give the home team, Nevada-Reno, the advantage. Since when there are home teams in championships, I do not know- but that is another story for another time.

So anyway, we made the plane and headed to Reno. Our seat partners were fun. Dr. HokieKev sat with the Aggie pointgaurd's family and I sat with a woman who lives down the street from Sarah Palin in Wasilla, AK. We chatted. Dr. HokieKev made friends. We finally landed in Reno. The first game was fairly uneventful. Upon its conclusion, we headed back to the hotel to change for dinner. After a quick tripadvisor search, Dr. HokieKev settled on The SteakHouse at Harrah's! which was across the street from our hotel. We got all dressed up and made our way to the hidden gem (seriously, located UNDER the casino- accessible only by slightly hidden stairs- booths only facing out. Total mob front from the 70s) with EXCELLENT food! We ate dinner, desert, blah blah blah boring boring boring and then proceeded to leave. As we were crossing the street back to our hotel, Random Dude approached Dr. HokieKev and clearly said "Dude, are you in a position to help me find a hooker?" and clearly looked directly at me. WTF!

Now I am not easily offended- in fact, it takes an awful lot to offend me. But this- um, yeah- was a little bit offensive. I mean, do I really look like a hooker? And before you all comment on my obvious hookerish attributes, I would like to add that I was not dressed in a manner that would warrant the assumption. I didn't have the dress from Halloween on (I save that for Vegas)- I didn't even have anything that lowcute on- and even if I had, so what...no reasonable person has ever jumped from cleavage to hooker. In fact, both Dr. HokieKev and I looked like we had stepped out of a J. Crew catalog (aside from the fact that nothing we were wearing was actually from J. Crew). I guess this particular weirdo was into preppy hookers with professorial pimps!

Accountability- The Report

What I Accomplished Over Furlough Break

1. Match living room paint and touch up all the walls I also touched up the paint in all the other rooms upstairs. In the process, I made friend with pink putty.
2. Clean the kitchen really well Everything but the inside of the refrigerator is now spotless. Well...I also didn't get around to washing the floor, but nonetheless.
3. Hang the picture frames in the guest bedroom FAIL- I didn't go downstairs all week
4. Find or build a bedframe for guest bedroom #2 FAIL- see above
5. Clean the master bath really well I also cleaned the 2nd bathroom really well.
6. Install fancy shower head in downstairs bathroom FAIL- see above
7. Find two brown, quilted euro shams for the master bedroom that do not cost $99.99 each They aren't quilted but they are cute and didn't cost $99.99. I made the sales girl at Bed, Bath, and Beyond take them off a display.
8. Figure out something to do with all the mail Got a mail holder for the laundry room
9. Organize the laundry room/tv equipment room FAIL-eh...
10. Build a coat rack for the laundry room I also made a shelf and got a container for the mail. Now if I could only get Dr. HokieKev to put his keys on the keyrack...

6 out of 10- better than 50%!

Pink Putty and Paint Stirrers

When Dr. HokieKev and I decided to move to Utah, we also decided to buy a house. We took a long weekend last March to fly out and look at over 30 houses...in three days. We bought the last one we looked at. Fanciness and upgrades enticed us. Things like this:
And these:
And all this (which, consequently was its own pain in the butt- but I think we finally have it working right):

And this lovely kitchen with its gorgeous travertine wall:

The reason for all of the fanciness was mostly the fact that the previous owner was the builder. In fact, that is his profession- he builds houses. He puts fancy upgrades in his. So, we bought his house and with it got the upgrades. We own these things now- they are still fancy.

However, in all of these upgrades and all of this fanciness, the former owner neglected to pay attention to details. Let me remind you- he is a builder, he builds houses. That is how he makes money. Anyway, he left out the details. I don't know why I have picked now to start worrying about these things, but in the last few weeks they have really bothered me. You see, there were several spots throught out the house where paint was touched up- with the wrong color. There is a fairly large section of an accent wall in our living room- the only wall in the whole house that is a different color from the rest- that was painted the wrong color. There were nail holes. And gouges in the wall. And almost every light switch plate looked like someone had taken a chopstick size screwdriver and punched a hole in the wall right next to it. The ones without actual holes, well...you could tell that there were holes which were painted over- poorly.

I mean, I guess I could give the guy the benefit of the doubt. When you are moving out, you are bound to ding some walls or leave some nail holes unfilled. But once again, he is a builder. He does this stuff for a living. That is how he makes money. I could also see if the fixing of these things took time. And before today- maybe I thought they did. But once again- DUDE BUILDS HOUSES. FOR A LIVING.

Once again, I don't know what this has just started to bother me, but it has. Noone will be able to tell that the accent wall is two colors. But I know. Most people won't realize the poorly painted over imperfections. But I will. So today, I went around my upstairs with a can of pink putty and filled in the holes and gouges. It took less than ten minutes. I didn't even have the proper putty knife. I used a paint stirrer. Did I mention the putty was pink?


After about an hour, the pink putty turned white. Once again, I took less than ten minutes to go around and sand away the excess. One day this week, I will take another ten minutes or so to paint over the holes and dings and dents. I don't build houses for a living. I also no longer have chopstick size holes next to all my upstairs light switches (I am saving the downstairs for another day).

Now there is the small matter of that pesky 1500 lb. gun safe in our office...

The Latest Cake

Here is the latest creation in my "Almost Ace of Cakes" repertoire. I really wanted the Steelers to get into the Super Bowl because their logo seemed so easy to pipe. I was wrong! The Cardinal was MUCH easier.

Here is the rest of the spread from the Super Bowl party. As always, there was a TON of leftovers. Maybe next time, I will just order pizza.

Accountability

I am really good at starting things around the house but sometimes not as good at finishing them. Next week is Furlough Break- I refer to it this way because, being a grownup, Spring Break seems so last season and USU has issued a furlough for all employees over said Spring Break. Something about saving money and not having to eliminate positions. Anyway, Dr. HokieKev will be out of town for the first half of Furlough Break- at least we are assuming he will be out of town, somewhere, on the East Coast- which translates into it being a good time for me to get some stuff done. I find it much easier to get certain things done when Dr. HokieKev is out of town. I don't have to worry about fixing dinner or relocating misplaced items or picking up stray socks so I can focus on trying to finish the things I start. In an effort to actually finish the several things I have planned for Furlough Break, I figured I would post them on the interwebs because- as we all know- if they are on the interwebs, they have to get done. So here goes...

What I Will Accomplish Over Furlough Break

1. Match living room paint and touch up all the walls
2. Clean the kitchen really well
3. Hang the picture frames in the guest bedroom
4. Find or build a bedframe for guest bedroom #2
5. Clean the master bath really well
6. Install fancy shower head in downstairs bathroom
7. Find two brown, quilted euro shams for the master bedroom that do not cost $99.99 each
8. Figure out something to do with all the mail
9. Organize the laundry room/tv equipment room
10. Build a coat rack for the laundry room

#1 should not be too hard if I can convince the man at Sherwin Williams that I would rather have him match the paint color than purchase a gallon of paint from the man at Kwal's who talked to me like I was 5. I hate that.

#4 can't be that hard. Certainly, I can screw a piece of plywood to some wood blocks and turn it into a bed frame. Hopefully, the guy at Home Depot agrees. While I am at it, I can pick up supplies for #10. I took shop class in 6th grade- I have a drill.

The cleaning stuff- well, it is cleaning stuff. At least with Dr. HokieKev gone it will stay clean for a few days.

#7 will be the hardest I am sure. My boyfriend, Restoration Hardware, is currently running a sale on the shams that need my bed. The problem is they no longer have them in chocolate. Sheesh! Hopefully, a trip to HomeGoods can remedy the problem. Don't worry- Restoration Hardware knows its place in my heart (as does Dr. HokieKev).

So there you have it- my plans for Sunday- Thursday. Thursday we are going to Reno to the WAC Basketball Championship. Then Dr. HokieKev will be home- expecting dinner!

Flashback to November

Way back in November, Dr. HokieKev's best friend, Tim, got married. We made the trek to Richmond, VA for the wedding. As always, I took some pictures that took forever to get uploaded to the computer. The wedding was held at a historic mansion- complete with mossy bricks and gazebos. It really was a great affair and I am glad the rain in the forecast stayed away. Dr. HokieKev and I had a great time- Drunk Dr. HokieKev even made an appearrance. I bring this up because it is a VERY rare occurance but I think the peer pressure got to him on this one! If nothing else, the rehersal evening proved to many that we are no longer in college and cannot party as though we are. The picture below is from the end of the reception- it for more, including some from the ceremony. If you look closely, you may be able to see uptight wedding planner chick. Seriously, if Prozac was created with any specific person in mind- it would be her!

The Funniest Thing I Heard Today

Today was Sunday. I tend to sleep in on Sundays even now that I am, as my friend Mona says, A real live grownup. I usually don't sleep past ten but today I didn't feel the need to roll out of bed until noon- I think it is my brain retaliating for making it get up so early to go snowboarding the last few weekends. I also have a penchant for waking up, looking at the clock, and rolling over for "10 more minutes." During these "10 minutes" I usually have really whacked out dreams- yesterday, I was eating cake on the top a a giant, snow covered mountain with Jenn from work while discussing the secret underground in Park City. Today, I was arguing with a manager of a train terminal in Washington, DC that I really needed a bed if he was going to stop running trains to South Carolina.

So anyway, I wake up this morning afternoon for the third or forth time and decide that maybe I should actually get out of bed and try to do something productive since it was too warm to go snowboarding. Bleery eyed, I stumble out into the living room to find Dr. HokieKev engrossed in something scholarly a poker game on his computer. This was our conversation:

Me: Do you want breakfast?
Dr. HokieKev: I was just thinking about making pancakes.
Me: What? You were going to do what...
Dr. HokieKev: Well, I was thinking I would make some pancakes.
Me: You... were going to make pancakes? When have you ever made pancakes? Or breakfast, for that matter? Do you even know how to make pancakes?
Dr. HokieKev: Well, I was thinking about it.
Me: ::laughing:: So, I take it you want pancakes?
Dr. HokieKev: With chocolate chips...
Me: How old are you?
Dr. HokieKev: ::laughing:: Six

I found the whole conversation amusing. Dr. HokieKev can grill- in fact, he does it often. He can also make tacos- although, he does that WAY less frequently. I think I have also seen him make a grilled cheese or two and heat up various frozen, boxed foods. However,I have never seen him even attempt to cook breakfast. Well, maybe that isn't true. I have seen him try- once- to make eggs. Here is how that went:

::Flashback to Massachusetts in or around 2004::

Dr. HokieKev: I am going to go make some eggs.
Me: Do you know how to make eggs?
Dr. HokieKev: Yeah, I mean how hard could it be.
Me: Okay.
Dr. HokieKev: What pan do I use?
Me: The small one.
Dr. HokieKev: Do I melt the butter or scramble it in with the eggs?
Me: Melt it first.
Dr. HokieKev: Where is that pan?
Me: Ugh, let me just do it.

See, breakfast and Dr. HokieKev really don't go together. Although, he did admit that he did this on purpose because he did not want to make the eggs. This story ended with me cooking up some chocolate chip pancakes on the skillet I once hated but have now decided is much more efficient than a pan when making breakfast foods. Dr. HokieKev got down the skillet. He also started dinner tonight- Lasagna, from a box.