Football and IKEA Chaos

I would have to say I am a super star girlfriend who has recently earned herself some girlfriend bonus points. Last night we went to the Cardinals vs. Broncos pre-season game with a friend of ours. One of our friends is a season ticket holder and had two extra tickets and asked me if Andy and I would want to go with him. Of course I was not that interested because I just have no interest in football and especially not a Cardinals/Broncos game, but I said yes because I know Andy would want to go. He recently said he would want to go to a Cardinals game this year just to check out the stadium. I endured a whole football game for my man. Now that is love! Then this morning I watched the Badger game on television with Andy. I usually only watch half the game with him before I move onto Lifetime; but I watched the whole game with him. Talk about super girlfriend status. Even though I am not much of a football enthusiast I had a good time at the game last night with Andy and our friend and again this morning watching the Badger game this morning with Andy.

Oh, an update on our pantry door – following the Badger game we drove to IKEA (aka the cluster f*&% of all stores) to see if we could get a new door to replace the one Madison ruined (read how in an earlier posting). We got lucky and did not have to purchase a whole new pantry as they did sell the door separately. Also, IKEA is another store that should ban children. Talk about a playground for children, or parents that allow their children to think IKEA is a playground. We had to dodge in and out of the aisles so we didn’t bump into or run over children. It was chaos. On my way out I saw a box with a sign above it that read “Please give us your comments to help us improve our store.” My first thought was “Yeah, don’t allow children in your stores as it might help the actual customers shop better and faster.” Again, this would be a rant stemming from my previous post titled “Kids Should Not Be Allowed in Public.”

So, it’s been a good couple days filled with football and IKEA chaos!

Congrats to Me!

I just want to let everyone know that I was promoted to Marketing Manager just like the firm had promised. Remember about two years ago when I was promoted to Marketing Specialist and put in charge of the department I was told that when I finished my Bachelor’s degree at ASU I would get promoted to Marketing Manager. I got the news yesterday and I am pretty excited about it. It doesn’t change my duties at all because I am still in charge, but I am excited to have the proper title. So it’s time to celebrate!

Madison Strikes Again

We have had Madison for almost a year now and we have had to fix and replace so many things she has damaged that I thought she couldn’t come up with anything new to destroy in the house, but she found something to ruin and it just adds another thing on our list that we have to replace. Last night Andy just started making tacos for dinner while I finished up doing the Wii Fit (my latest obsession, and still is) when all of a sudden I heard a crash followed by Andy’s potty mouth being directed at the dog. I looked in the kitchen and saw Madison’s latest attempt at destroying everything in her path. In our kitchen we have a tall glass kitchen table with wrought iron high boy chairs. When we moved in I purchased three tall and skinny pantries from IKEA that matched the kitchen nicely. It was a temporary fix for not enough cupboards in our small kitchen and was suppose to last until we could re-do the kitchen the way we wanted. They are tall and skinny, made from wood with glass doors trimmed out with silver/metal. Madison was sitting on one of the high boy’s, which she has been told a thousand times that she is not allowed to sit in them, so Andy yelled at her to get down. When she jumped down toward the pantries the wrought iron high boy followed her and crashed into one of the glass doors and shattered in a million pieces all over the kitchen. It was quite the sight to see. To my surprise I did not get mad, yell or scream, but instead I just laughed internally and gave Andy a hard time for his out-of-control dog. By the way, it was not the time to give Andy crap about his dog misbehavin’ or rub it in that his dog it out-of-control while I laughed as he swept the floor. Yeah, not a tactful time for that. Madison was put in her cage while Andy cleaned up her mess for the next two hours. We are now down to two pantries and will be making a trip to IKEA this weekend to see if we can just replace the door instead of buying a whole new pantry. One pantry was not cheap even though it was purchased at IKEA so we are hoping we can just buy the door since we think I bought all three in pieces like IKEA usually sells their stuff. Anyways, hurricane Madison strikes again!

New Reality Show For You Addicts Out There

Last night Andy and I were watching this new reality show called America’s Toughest Jobs. Ok, I am hooked on reality television, but this one is different. They take people and put them on the toughest jobs and if they can survive then they go onto the next tough job and if the boss on that job decides they just weren’t cutting it then they get sent home. Last night was the first time this show aired and I just happen to stumble across it as I was channel surfing on my Direct TV guide and I am glad I did because I am now hooked. The first tough job these people had to do was crab fish. I don’t know if you ever saw the reality show called Deadliest Catch about crab fisherman, but Andy and I were addicted to this show for a while. It’s where you go crab fish up past Alaska in the Bering Sea in the freezing cold for hours on end. Plus it’s a death trap of a job because you could easily get killed. These innocent people who perceived themselves as tough had to go be crab fisher people and let me tell you if I was on this reality show I would have just said “Let’s save the competition and I will just quietly go home right now.” I am no quitter, but if you think I am going to stand on a boat in the middle of no where when its 10 degrees outside you have got to be kidding me. Andy of course agreed with me that there was no chance that I would have survived the first challenge. He thinks I can’t handle physical labor. It’s not that I couldn’t handle the physical labor part, it’s the part of being in the freezing cold all soaking wet on the verge of my death as this shabby fishing boat rocks up and down bringing in tons of sea water every time the nose of the boat slams back into the sea on the downturn of each wave. No thank you! This is from the girl who moved south to Phoenix to escape the Wisconsin cold winters. I will keep watching this reality show and see if I come across a tough job that I might actually do…but I don’t think next week is the week for me because according to next weeks preview it’s on Ice Road Truckers. Again, cold weather and I just don’t go together. If you are looking for another reality show addiction I would suggest this one is for you. It’s on Monday nights at 9pm and I think it was on ABC, or CBS…or maybe was it NBC. Who knows…that is what the Direct TV Guide is for!

The Phone Order Fear

Last night was Andy’s big draft day for his fantasy football league. Just like millions of other men out there in the world he was looking forward to this day when he could pick his players to create his fantasy league. As you read earlier I just don’t get it, but even though I don’t get it I was being supportive last night. I did not make fun of him once and I even took the dog out to go to the bathroom while he waited online for the next chime to let him know it’s his turn to pick. I even ate dinner at 5pm with all the other blue hairs in the world just so Andy could make his draft on time which was scheduled for 6pm. I am not a fan of eating at 5pm, but I am such a good girlfriend that I gave in only after probably one joke about accommodating his fantasy draft. Andy wanted to order Chinese food for dinner because he said he was hungry for it; however, I think it was because he didn’t trust that I would have dinner cooked by 6pm. Anyway, Andy has this weird issue with ordering food and I just don’t get it. Anytime we order food he makes me order because he just doesn’t like calling. He will throw a tantrum if I don’t order it. It’s actually pretty funny. I asked him 20 times last night for a reason as to why he has an issue on ordering food over the phone and he doesn’t know why this is. I remember his mother telling me that Andy was always like this even as a kid he would make his younger brother order the pizza. Which, by the way you can order your pizza online now instead of over the phone so you can imagine how happy this makes Andy. He will actually order pizza online over Chinese food if I refuse to call. The only reason why I refuse to call is just to see if Andy will actually give in and call, but he just won’t. Andy’s issue is actually to my advantage because when he pulls the “I am not calling” thing he says “I will buy if you call” which works out to my benefit. Anyway, maybe someday he will surprise me and pick up the phone and make that call to our favorite Chinese delivery and place the order for Moo Shoo Pork and Chicken Fried Rice!

Sweating It Out At Dave

Last night we went to see the Dave Matthews Band at Cricket Pavilion (which is an outdoor arena). I mean, what else do people do when it’s 112 degrees outside; go to an outdoor pavilion to see a concert? Well, on Thursday night Andy mentioned going to see Dave and my first thought was the memory of two years ago when we saw Dave in the month of August at Cricket and it was so hot out that I was miserable and we agreed never to attend a concert outside in Phoenix during the months of June, July or August. After I reminded Andy of our last experience we both agreed on Thursday night that maybe it was a bad idea after all. Well, on Friday we both agreed that at least it was something to do and we had a couple friends that were going and it would be fun to tailgate with them. After this agreement I checked the weather and it said 112 degrees for Saturday, which brought back nightmares of two years ago, but I figured I would make the best of it. We got there early to tailgate with a couple friends and when we rolled into the parking lot the temperature on Andy’s car was reading 111 degrees. I was a little worried about swamp ass and being miserable, but we got lucky as we got to park in the shade. As we sat there in our own sweat with our friends enjoying our drinks our one friend made a comment that at least there was a breeze. If you think a hair dryer on high heat pointed right at your face is a nice breeze, then yes, there was a nice breeze; however, I didn’t see it that way as I sat in my own sweat because by now my shorts were soaking wet. We finally went into the concert at 8pm and I was thinking “Boy, it cooled off out here” and really it was about 100 degrees outside and not 111 degrees. I felt crazy for even saying that it felt like it cooled off because it was still 100 degrees. When we did leave the concert at 11pm Andy’s car registered 97 degrees and let me just tell you that I am so ready for fall weather. I did tell Andy that I would be the designated driver and drive us home because the pavilion was a good 30 minutes from our house. Let’s just say he took full advantage of his designated driver. It was too funny. He was cracking me up. As many people know Andy is a quiet guy, but when he drinks he turns into Chatty Carl. He always makes fun of me for being Chatty Cathy when I drink, but he was just as bad. He was cracking me up. We ended up having a great time at the concert even though I could feel sweat beads run down my butt, which was gross by the way. It was fun to hang out with friends and Andy’s drunken stuper was absolutely hilarious. Andy and I always seem to have a great time with each other no matter what we are doing and I like that we are able to do that.

Pool or Grass?

I read an interesting article yesterday in the AZbusiness magazine. It was talking about the future of Phoenix and I would like to share some information from the article. AZbusiness was predicting that in the year 2040 Phoenix will no longer be a metropolitan area, but instead a megapolitan area because the population will be 10 million people. The megapolitan will consist of Phoenix and Tucson being combined as one. It may seem kind of crazy since there is quite the distance between the two cities, but I guess seeing the Phoenix area’s growth it could be possible. Another thing it mentioned was that since water might be scarce in 2040 with 10 million people in the area that they would have to control how much water you use by making you choose between your pool or your grassy lawn. I thought about this for a minute. If a government official came knocking on my door and told me I had to choose between the grass we have in the front yard and in the backyard or our pool, what would I do? Let’s flash forward to the year 2040. I am now 60 years old and heading towards retirement, and who knows if I will still be living here, but for shits and giggles let’s just say that I still live in Phoenix in 2040 and I have both grass and a pool. I am also thinking about the summers in Phoenix and I am assuming that in 2040 the summers will probably be longer and even hotter, so my vote would be for the pool. Hey, I will be heading toward retirement and will have nothing to do all day long, but float in a pool. I need something to float in while I turn my skin into leather so I can be just like all my other retired friends here. That was an easy decision, but to think so far ahead it was kind of a crazy moment I was having envisioning being 60 years old and what life would be like. I am assuming Andy would also vote for the pool too. I know he wouldn’t want to do yard work when he is 58…remember he is younger than me. So, the decision would be hands down for the pool.