The November Archives
We eat you because we love youNovember 27, 2003:
  • Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! We spent the morning of our first Thanksgiving as a married couple snuggling on the couch, watching the Macy's parade and a dog show that followed it. We cheered for the golden retriever, but in the end, the Doberman won Best in Show. Too bad.
  • Then we went to the Carusos' house for a big turkey dinner (at 2pm) and an evening of game playing. We played Balderdash (which Chris won -- hooray!) and several rounds of Catchphrase. It was a very fun evening and we ate enough to feed a small army (well, let's be fair -- Chris ate enough to feed a small army). To top matters off, we were sent home with leftovers. You've gotta love Thanksgiving day.
November 26, 2003:
  • Twinkie was full of pleasant surprises for us this morning. First, we were awakened at 5:30am to the sound of retching, as Twinkie was vomiting on the bedroom floor. Chris was selected to clean this up, since he didn't have to go to work today. The cause of the vomit is still unknown, though it may have something to do with the fact that the other day Twinkie ate a pen.
  • Later in the morning, while we were eating breakfast, Twinkie came in from outside and placed her head on Renée's lap. We saw a brown speck and thought that Twinkie had dragged in a piece of mud. Alas, it was not to be. Twinkie had actually deposited a dead roach on Renée's leg, just like a cat presenting a kill to its master. But before we could even react, Twinkie snapped it up and ate it. That's our dog for ya.
  • We had our Thanksgiving dinner at the Tingles' tonight and then proceeded to play Slap Solitaire for several hours. For those of you unfamiliar with the game (as Chris was before tonight), it's a game played like regular solitaire, except for the fact that the aces go into a communal pool where other players can then play onto them. This results in a mad dash to play your cards before someone else can, hence the slapping of the title. It was very fun, though Renée's dad dominated the competition (consisting of Renée, Chris, Mike, and Natalie). We then watched many clips of terrible movies from badmovies.org. If you've ever wanted to see redneck zombies gouging out someone's eyes, this is the place for you.
A tasty treat for dogs to munch!
It's like brushing with Big Red!November 25, 2003:
  • Today we got our new furnace, which couldn't have come at a better time, as last night was the first freeze of the year. Now we no longer have to look forward to a 53-degree house in the morning.
  • Tonight we watched the American Idol Christmas special. Hooray! Only two more months until Idol is back on again regularly. And did anyone else see the commercial for the American Idol video game? We're intrigued...
  • From the "It's Been A Slow News Day" File: While in Tallahassee, Chris purchased a tube of the new cinnamon-flavored Crest toothpaste. Both Chris and Renée are quite pleased with this new dental delight.
  • Finally, the Tingles have decided to host their Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday rather than Thursday, sparing us from having to try to eat two huge dinners in the span of three hours, as originally planned. Our stomachs are most thankful.
November 24, 2003:
  • Today was Renée's first day at her new job with WEDA, which was rather uneventful. The agency director did buy everyone in the office Chinese food to welcome Renée, so that was nice.
  • Chris, meanwhile, returned from Tallahassee today, where he was shooting some pickups for a feature that his friend Dana directed. The shoot went well overall, if a little zany -- he got to shoot in three different motels in two days. Chris also made some progress on his fourth Dark Tower book, Wizard and Glass. This is good because in a fit of overzealousness, he checked out the fifth Dark Tower book, Wolves of the Calla, almost two weeks ago. And now, with the library's due date looming large, he must try to read about 800 pages in 7 days.
  • On Friday night, we went to a concert that WEDA was sponsoring: "An Evening with Kathleen Bertrand and Friends." Kathleen Bertrand, in case you don't know, is a jazz singer with a penchant for bad outfits and very mellow music. Fortunately for us, our tickets were free, since other people paid between $25 and $75 for their seats. Had we had to pay that much (or anything, really), we would have been most displeased.
  • Also on Friday, we had a very busy morning. Our errands included the post office (for stamps), Michael's (for an inkpad), CVS (for beverages), the Salvation Army (for a Thanksgiving outfit for our seasonal midget), Petsmart (for Twinkie's Christmas present), the library (to pick up a held book), and Super Target (for Sandi's Christmas present). It was quite a productive morning.
  • Saturday, Renée went to a hockey game that Mike was broadcasting. The game had to be called when the opposing team's coach came on to the ice to attack one of the Georgia players. Needless to say, this made for an entertaining event.
  • Finally, we got our new stove, and just as we promised, the first thing we made was French bread pizza. Tasty.
Not the Milton Bradly game of the same name
Not quite a winter wonderland yet, but closeNovember 19, 2003:
  • Much of yesterday and today was spent waiting for Chris's car to be repaired. We dropped it off because (a) one of the retractable headlights was stuck in the down position and (b) the left rear turn signal was no longer functioning, but the left front signal was functioning at triple speed. After about 24 hours in the shop, the car was fixed. The total: $90, of which only $10 was parts. It's a crime, I tells ya.
  • We finally bought our new stove today, delving into our wedding money to purchase a Frigidaire gas range. It should be delivered tomorrow, and we are very excited that we will at last be able to eat the French bread pizza that has been in our freezer for a month.
  • Chris went to a group interview for part-time seasonal work at Media Play today. He appeared to be one of only three people who is past high school age. Ah, the joys of a Masters' degree...
  • Yesterday we resumed our long-defunct exercise routine by walking around the neighborhood. We saw lots of oddly colored houses as well as one giant dog that appeared to be tethered to a car. To help motivate ourselves, we came up with a rewards program based on how many times a week we do our thirty minutes of exercise. Rewards range from a Baskin-Robbins treat to a dinner-and-movie date. We'll let you know how this works out for us.
November 17, 2003:
  • Another busy couple of days. We went to the Caruso family's house on Friday to give Kate her birthday present, which was the first season of Dawson's Creek on DVD. We then watched the pilot episode. Let it be known that Dawson's Creek is officially horrible.
  • On Saturday, we had a visit with David, Stephanie, and Joe. The boys all went out to see The Matrix Revolutions, which was fortunately better than The Matrix Reloaded. We then all watched Zeke, which may or may not have been a better movie....only time will tell.
  • Yesterday, work continued on the porch. We got the splash blocks put up just in time, as it rained last night. Luckily, it appears that the new roof is watertight, a dramatic improvement over the very leaky roof that was in place when we moved in.
  • Today we were relatively productive. We went to the library and to the vet's office to drop off Twinkie's records. We also listened to two hours of Running With Scissors on CD, despite the fact that neither one of us is enjoying the book that much. Tonight was also trivia night, and after a rough start we recovered nicely and ended up tied for third place at the end of the night. Sadly, though, we lost the tiebreaker, which was "How tall is a regulation bowling pin?". Chris guessed 18 inches, but it is only 15 inches. Quite sad, but as they say, there's always next week.
15 inches of tragedy
My precious!November 13, 2003:
  • The good news of the day: Renée got a job! The interview that she had last week with the Women's Economic Development Agency clearly went better than she thought, because today they called to offer her a position starting on November 24th! Now if only that bum Chris could find some more paying work....
  • While on the phone today, Renée looked out into the backyard and saw not one, not two, but three deer just beyond the fence! Chris went out with a camera to try to get a picture and saw that there was actually a fourth one, a little baby deer that was only about as high as Chris's knee. However, the deer scampered away before Chris could get a good shot of them. When we get the film developed, we'll have to see if you can make out anything other than deer butt as they're running away.
  • Courtney invited us to meet her in Chamblee to help her pick out a kitten for her mom. We found the address for the pet store and set out on our way. The only problem? The pet store doesn't actually exist anymore. There's only a vacant building at the address where the store used to be. Then we got stuck in terrible traffic on the way back. Needless to say, it wasn't our most productive trip.
  • Chris received his Amazon.com credit card today. This itself is not that newsworthy, but we needed a picture for the day and this is the best we could come up with. And the sad thing is, it's not even a good picture. Bleh.
November 12, 2003:
  • Not too much to report -- it's been a slow couple of days.
  • Work continues on the porch. Today the first segment of screen went up, forcing the bugs to try any of the other 15 or so windows before they can get in.
  • We went out to dinner with the Tingles tonight to celebrate Renée's dad's birthday tonight, where it was determined that All You Can Eat flounder equals about four pieces -- then it's pretty tough to eat any more.
  • We began pricing new ovens today after the repairman said it would cost over $100 to fix our 20-year-old range. We think we've found a pretty good one, and it's possible that Lowe's may end up having to sell it to us for about $100 less than they're retailing it for, due to their price-matching policy as well as a coupon for 10 percent off. More on this as it develops.
It may be a deathtrap, but at least it's a NEW deathtrap
Did you know the cigarette lighter was invented before the match?November 10, 2003:
  • Fun, busy day today. We slept late this morning since we weren't working on the porch -- that was quite nice. Once we got up, Chris went to Blockbuster to return Moulin Rouge while Renée put all of her Pez dispensers up on their shelf. We then went to the library and got several books, despite the fact that we already had several more books at home that also need to be read.
  • On the way back, we stopped at Media Play, where Renée purchased a birthday present for her dad and Chris bought another substantially discounted Simpsons figure (Dr. Marvin Monroe this time). After bringing our haul back home, we left again to do some shopping at Publix to replenish our pitifully empty refrigerator. Unbeknownst to us, every day at Publix is double coupon day, so our thriftiness was multiplied two-fold. Yay!
  • We returned home in time for a double feature of Oprah and Dr. Phil, then left to go to the Pizza Cafe for dinner and Trivia Night. We named our team "Running With Scissors" after the audio book that we've been listening to, and we ended up coming in 4th place. Our prize: a Barbra Streisand promotional CD! Finally, we came back for a relaxing evening of listening to our book in front of the fire. What a nice way to spend a day!
November 9, 2003:
  • At long last, we have finished the job that we set out to do many days ago: our porch has a new roof. The fiberglass (polycarbonate, really) is up, and everything has been nicely tarred and sealed to prevent a recurrence of the leak that caused all of this work in the first place. It all looks very nice, and much thanks must be given to the two dads for all their hard work this weekend.
  • Renée had her own mammoth chore to undertake today -- the laundry. It had far exceeded the capacity of our hamper and begun crawling up the wall in a vaguely ivy-like manner. Four loads of laundry later, though, the pile has been reduced to only the stinky clothes that Chris wore while working today.
  • We watched Moulin Rouge tonight because Gale had piqued Renée's interest in the movie at the Halloween party we attended. Alas, Renée did not enjoy the film's hyperkinetic editing style, and Chris, who had disliked the film when he saw it in the theater a few years ago, did not enjoy it any more this time. That's $4.59 that could have been better spent on tacos.
Baz Luhrmann! YOU MUST CHILL!
If only it were this simple...November 8, 2003:
  • For the past few days, we have been too tired to update the page. Why? Because our days have been spent doing that favorite American pastime -- repairing the porch.
  • It began on Thursday. Chris and Renée's dad began by taking off the leaky roof while Renée began painting a large stack of boards. It was a beautiful day, right up until the moment when the last piece of fiberglass roofing came down, leaving the porch completely exposed. That's when it began to pour. Renée moved her operation to the garage, but the moist air caused the wood to take a really long time to dry -- so long, in fact, that we were painting until past midnight (and that was only the primer!). Friends, however, was kind enough to air during a period when the paint was drying.
  • Yesterday, Chris's dad entered the fray, just in time to discover the newest complication. The flooring was even more rotten than previously thought, as Chris learned when the tile he was standing on broke, revealing nothing but air underneath. This delayed our roofing job, as we had to tear up half of the floor (tiles and all) to replace the rotten floorboards. Meanwhile, Renée painted....and painted....and painted. And after all the boards were painted, Chris brought her some more to paint.
  • Today, the flooring continued, as new plywood was brought in to cover the gaping holes. This gave us a surface to stand on, which is important for any construction job. At last, the roof that we had taken off so many days before could begin to go back up. We replaced the 2x4 beams, but then it was time to quit, so our porch still sits with no top. Will the job be finished tomorrow? Stay tuned to this webpage for the stunning conclusion!
  • In other news (and there has been not much for these past few days), we finally purchased Twinkie's birthday present, as she turned 2 on October 24th. She got a new tag, a bag of treats, and a toy that consists of a rope with two tennis balls attached, each reading "Birthday Puppy." She is quite pleased with her gifts and has been frolicking merrily with them.
November 5, 2003:
  • Today Renée had a job interview with the Women's Economic Development Agency. The interview went pretty well, though at one point Renée had to translate a passage into Spanish and didn't know how to say some of the words. The good news, however, is that now we both know how to say "entrepreneur" in Spanish: "empresario".
  • The job interview meant that Renée got to go shopping for a new suit, which meant Chris got to be dragged along for over three hours. He was good, though, and only pouted a little.
  • Renée made a very delicious pie today -- a banana cream pie with French Vanilla Cool Whip on top. Our recipe didn't include the caramel topping, but otherwise it resembles the picture. Very yummy indeed.
  • Chris went to his parents' house today to do some laundry and left with two bags full of food that his mother gave him. At last -- actual hot dog buns!
We each had two pieces today
Finally, our phone doesn't have to be on the floorNovember 3, 2003:
  • Tonight we splurged a little and bought ourselves (using the wedding money that Uncle Bob and Aunt Ruth gave us -- thank you!) a rolling cart for the kitchen. We had been lacking a suitable surface for our phone and answering machine, and this gives us both that surface as well as additional shelving and storage space. Yay! Our kitchen is shaping up very nicely.
  • Chris created a new culinary delight today. You take a hot dog, cut it up into many small slices, and then arrange them on a piece of bread. You then place a piece of cheese on top and stick it in the microwave for 45 seconds. Voila! An open face hot dog sandwich with cheese. Words do not describe this masterpiece of cooking.
  • A few days ago, we received our wedding present from Sandi -- a photo album filled with pictures that she took before and after the wedding. In a somewhat related note, we finally got our scanner to work, so we can now add photos to the site at our leisure. Here's one of Sandi's pictures, a beautiful portrait of Renée on the steps of the chapel.
November 2, 2003:
  • Relatively uneventful day today. While up on the roof today, Chris disturbed a colony of ladybugs that then went crazy trying to get away. Though Renée did her best to protect the insects, Twinkie managed to almost eat one, and another did get eaten by a large lizard out on the porch. Needless to say, it was a traumatic day for ladybugs.
  • Tonight was the annual Treehouse of Horror episode of the Simpsons. We very much enjoyed snuggling on the couch and watching the exploits of Homer as the Grim Reaper.
  • We also completed both Sunday crossword puzzles tonight. We are S-M-R-T indeed.
  • We've added a few new wedding pictures, these ones courtesy of Renée's Uncle Tim. You can find them here.
HELP ME! HELP MEEEEEE!
It gets uglier every yearNovember 1, 2003:
  • Oh, Dawgs. Why must you be so cruel every year?
  • Tonight we went to a party that Courtney had invited us to, as it was being held partly to honor her cousin, who is getting married soon. It was a post-Halloween Victorian costume party. We, however, showed up in our (slightly nicer than usual) street clothes. At least Karen and her boyfriend were there in regular clothes too. The party was fun, and it let out at a respectable hour, which was good since we had to drive all the way back from Sandy Springs.
  • We returned from the party to find that our beautiful pumpkins, which we had not had for very long, had liquefied all over the fireplace, leaving a sticky green goo everywhere. Chris had to clean up the decomposed mess, as Renée made a hasty exit once she realized what had happened.
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