Lost, Lost, Lost, Lost...

...Lost, Lost, Lost, Lost. Yeah, that's about all I can think about today!

Introducing...my new niece!

D-D-D-D-D-Dora! The dog, not the Explorer. Yeah, Dani and Pepe (aka: Carter) may not be quite there on the kid front, but they are now the proudest of parents to doggie Dora. Leila's first maternal cousin - yea!
No one's quite sure her breed, but research suggests she's at least part Louisiana's state dog, the Catahoula hound (or the Cousawatcha hound as I continue to call her) and she's cute and good natured as can be 5 days into her adoption.)
And for the record, if one ever wants to have movie star blue eyes - simply use the red-eye reduction feature on their camera software! Neither Dani, nor Pepe have baby blues and yet, behold:
It's miraculous!

Yes, We Can!

Guess what tee-shirt I was wearing all day today? Oh, yeah, Obama '08 baby. I know it was simply a bedtime delay tactic, but my daughter just stayed up to watch his speech. We were on my bed with the lights out - both in our pjs (did I ever have a life?) - she had a book in her lap and a few minutes in she held it over her head and started shaking it. Took me a second to figure out why she was doing that, then I realized she was shaking it in concert with Obama's supporters waving their change signs. Love it. I've said before that we Williams' train 'em young. She then pointed out another book to me and said "get it, get your sign". I started to wave it and she said "no, put it in your lap until Obama says it again." She also clapped along and chanted "yes, we can" when appropriate. Ugh - Hillary's coming on now - that's my cue to go put on an episode of the Tudor's.

Bear with me!

I'm having to multi-task and blog at 10:39 p.m. here while watching Nip/Tuck and listening to the hubby toss and turn in bed waiting for me to turn off the multiple screens.


First day on the new job was fine - as well as 4 hours of watching ethics and your benefits and you videos can go...followed by a couple hours reading annual reports etc. b/c I won't have a computer for a week - welcome (back) to the government! My cubical does have a lovely video of the Capitol dome though! That's something...


Weekend was fine - nice to have the 3 days certainly. Got my Yoga buzz on Saturday morning then met Faith, Mary and baby Campbell for lunch. Looked at houses and took the kiddo for a haircut Sunday. Dined w/ the refreshed from their week in Antigua parents Sunday night. Groceried, got ready for the new week/job/life, and Taqueria Poblano'd it for dinner with Dani and Pepe (aka Danielle and Carter) Monday and that was about that.


And just for the record - unflattering picture of me, but whatev' - this is still where I stand politics-wise:

I'm way too angry and frustrated with the Clintons for further commentary - you know, "a picture speaks..."


And finally, OMG!!! Heath Ledger is DEAD??!! I'm a dozen so years removed to have that River Phoenix devastation, but what a shocker. He was awfully talented. And hot. And young. And poor baby Mathilda!


Right, going to sleep right about nows...

This is KILLING me...Bwah!HaHa!!!!!

I can't figure out how to embed it, but OMG, too funny! Probably had to watch the original on Gawker yesterday (or on the Abrams report or probably any other entertainment media in the past 24 hours...) but splicing in Will Smith with those facial expressions = GENIUS.

http://www.iklipz.com/MovieDetail.aspx?MovieID=095ee98e-24d3-4d48-bcff-8ecf45fabca8

House Hunt

OK, now that the job transitioning is actually taking place, we have exactly 6 weeks to find ourselves a new roof for our heads. And I think I have just about determined that I am not a big fan of major adult decisions - specifically, do we take the plunge into home ownership? I kind of like signing away my monthly rent check and being able to call someone to take care of repairs, pests (oh, the pests! I think I might be able to handle anything after the past year's mouse genocide at 800 Bashford Lane. Anything but spiders. Or cockroaches/waterbugs...Or house centipedes...Or Sprickets - commonly known as cave crickets, but we always called them Sprickets growing up for spider/crickets...), etc. but I know full well that there is no return on continuing to do that in the long run.

So I finally did contact a loan officer this week to at least have some sense of what we qualify for, and the good news is that we do indeed qualify. Said lender graduated from my high school 5 years after I did, reminding me, as I'm too frequently reminded, that I am old, and probably should have some equity by now! And the connection with him was made because the realtor we hope to deal with if we do grow up and decide to buy is my old high school gym teacher. It's a small world after all! I'd forgotten she was doing real estate part time now, and we ran into her at an open house just before Christmas.

The loan we're qualified for would cover a small three bedroom row house in the Warwick Village section of Del Ray with a finished basement and smallish patio/yard. I'm not looking for much more (though that would limit our offspring to 2 for certain) - just begging to have a living room of my own - I know the toys would migrate, but if their primary home was a nice basement, I'd be ever so thrilled. Could probably get slightly more bang for the buck further out in Fairfax, but we really want to stay in the City of Alexandria. I was assured that we were actually well qualified for a higher loan, but the mortgage then creeps toward unmanageable. Under these terms, we're looking at $1,000 more than we pay in monthly rent, which we may be able to do w/ our salary increases, but there would go what little entertainment budget we have. Sparing the change for my wine and Starbucks addictions may just tilt me back to renting...

Miscellany

So I've been on this major high from cleaning out my office for the past week or so. There was just something very rewarding about tossing entire drawers worth of paper into a dumpster with the promise of starting something fresh ahead. Now I am looking at one banker's box - just one sole box of work product I thought might be worth archiving - on top of an empty filing cabinet. One box contains 6 & 1/2 years worth of work. Is that kind of pathetic? Not really. It actually just kind of provides me with a great visual for why I'm moving on!

Yoga. Do people really value it enough? After nearly 3 years, since just before Leila's birth (could be why she's such a flexible little thing), I returned to a general class at Yoga in Daily Life Saturday morning. And man was it amazing. Probably because it was just 90 straight minutes for ME without a chatterbox toddler or a grouchy husband hanging on. But it really is amazing to take that time to form a consciousness with each and every part of your body. Just that short time one day a week really makes me feel like I am walking out of there taller and straighter and more aware of all the abuses I put my body through the remainder of the time. Now if only I could follow through on my promise to wake up to do pilates a couple days a week I just might get back into my R&R jeans by springtime. Of course, when I returned home after 2 hours, Cesar took off to play golf for 5 because that is just totally the fair thing to do in our domestic breakdown!

Other weekend highlights included Henry Jones' 4th Birthday party Saturday afternoon - Leila can still hold her own with the big boys and had a blast treasure hunting. She wisely stayed out of Henry and Rowan's epic dart gun battle, however! Saturday night Cesar and I watched We Are Marshall, which is a lovely little three hankie film. I rented it for the Matthews (McConaughey & Fox), figuring if anyone could get me into a football genre film it would be those two together, but it really was quite a sentimental little film. Yesterday we house hunted, which was...depressing. Anyone have $749,000 to spare for our dream house? I'm trading messages with a mortgage guy now because we need to determine whether we can even buy anything. And if not, we need something new to rent by March 1st. Tick tock, tick tock.