Be my Valentine, Stinky

As you likely know, I find Valentine's Day to be an overpriced, capitalistic, commercial monstrosity that sets unrealistic expectations about love, sex, and romance, and is a made-up way to guilt people into spending money. So, basically, I'm Debbie Downer for Valentine's.

However, this year, I feel a little justified, as Valentine's may have jumped the shark.

What THIS Woman Thinks

I'm a regular reader of Slate. One of their columns is XX Factor, "What Women Really Think." It focuses on women's issues and is generally pretty progressive. However, this morning's (Feb 3) column has me seethingly mad, and is perhaps the most anti-feminist argument I have ever seen in this column. I believe it's because it's about Melania Trump, and the writer disagrees vehemently with the Trump Presidency. But that doesn't make what she says ok. If a liberal First Lady was making the same choices, I don't think she would have written this column, and that's is not only not fair, it is hypocritical and undermines women's equality.

So I wrote a response.

De-Southwesting, Session 3

Before (photo courtesy of the realtor who sold us the house)

So, I get these ideas in my head...

In our never-ending quest to rid the house of the vestiges of its former southwestern glory, we spent the last couple weeks remodeling the half bath on the main floor. I was heading to Guatemala for a week for work, and Eric planned to replace the disgusting, decomposing tile in the half bath. The half bath also houses the laundry room behind a set of bi-fold doors, which meant moving the washer and dryer out into the living room for several days, hence why Eric wanted to this while I was gone. My OCD can't handle washers and dryers in the living room.

Do Better

I'm writing this for me. I don't expect to change anyone's opinion, and this is solely my opinion. My family, my work, I don't know if they agree or don't agree with me.

I read the draft of the executive order suspending visas on Thursday. The executive order was signed on Friday. Today, I read the final copy, from the White House's website, then re-read it to make sure I understood.

I've listened to the commentary.

I've checked my heart, my beliefs, and my learning.

I cannot support this.

Race Report: Polar Prowl

Confession: I was feeling aspirational when I registered for this race. A bunch of people from Eric's work were going to be in town for annual staff training and wanted to do it. I figured a half marathon early in January would keep me motivated through the Christmas season and I would start my running season early.

Yea, that was totally a great idea until I blew that pesky recurring disk in my back hauling stupid garbage cans up that ridiculous driveway of ours, resulting in weekly visits to my amazing chiropractor and physical therapist, but NOT resulting in quick recovery.  And unfortunately, one of the things that exacerbates an already bulged disk is... running. Suck.

"Good," not "Fun"

View from the first hotel

I am currently on my way back from a six-day trip from Guatemala. When I leave for work trips, people often tell me “oh, have fun!” This happens to Eric too – more frequently, in fact, as he travels more than I do. When we get back, one of the most common questions we hear is, “Oh, did you have fun?”

To be totally honest, I’m exhausted and emotionally spent from this trip, so much so, that if someone asked me right now if I had “fun” on this trip, I would likely cry. Fun is for vacation. This is something else.

Scoop on the Poop(er)

Over Christmas, Eric bought us a new toilet. Actually, he bought us two toilets.

And because I apparently am both old, and have no life, I am so excited about this thing!

Ok, here's the deal. When we moved in to this house, we moved in with Bruno's original toilets. They didn't work well. We tried switching out the guts of the toilet for new guts, with mediocre results. Now, when I saw "mediocre results," I mean that the toilets continued to back up on random occasions, with, or without large cargos they were carrying. Just cause.

That gets annoying after a while, not to mention that keeping plungers next to all the toilets is not exactly the bathroom aesthetic we're going for.