Paw prints in my grout

   The title is exactly what it sounds like! Less than 10 minutes after Bob finished the  grout and warned us "don't let frying pan face in there <his nickname for Apollo>, he'll ruin the grout" I naturally found "frying pan face" cowering from me in the farthest point of the bathroom. And then came Turk from the other side. So not only did they get in there right away, but they left tiny paw prints in the grout. Forever.

   Then one of our friends, who has an affinity for putting the cats on top of the fridge, placed Apollo up top. He then climbed to the VERY top shelf and balanced on my brand new Fiestaware pasta bowl that was already teetering on top of 3 or 4 other fancy serving pieces.

   It was unharmed, lucky for our friend. So Dave will be over tonight...maybe tomorrow I'll have some pics for you.

My Trip to Miami Last Night

   In a Twittersation last night between my friend Chris and I he mentioned that he was a ritzy Miami party (what else is new  @ChristopherRenz). He rubbed in my face all the glam and I was at home in bed with my laptop and Kindle. Rad. At one point he says to me something along the lines of "wish you were here, we'd get thrown out together". Then someone approaches him and asks why he isn't wearing his trademark bow tie. He says he's incognito.

   Me- "It's not "incognito" if you're wearing skinny jeans and your Lego watch"
   C- "Ummmm are you here? how did you know that?"
   Me- "I too, am incognito. See the tall man with white shirt to your left? It's me"

  I receive this mention on Twitter this am:

"@AutumnVanWeir You mean THIS tall man with white shirt that was standing next to me?"

Twitpic





   I couldn't have planned that better if I knew Will Smith was at that party. So yes, Chris. I have an excellent makeup artist and I tricked the paparazzi. Suckers. I had planned a "see that palm tree?" joke. Good thing I went with "tall man in a white shirt".

   While I was evading people at a Miami party I was also ripping a cat off a screen. Turk learned how to get up on the dresser and climb. I didn't realize it was her at first, I just heard "jungle sounds" and when I looked up from my Tweeting, I saw this.

  Please note Apollo in his normal easy-going hang out. Looking up at that crazy kitten and wondering why the hell she's doing that. I already had a headache. After I dragged her off the screen 4 or 5 times I was about ready to retire.

  

   But I couldn't fall asleep just yet. My dear husband was out night-golfing with a few friends as a pre-wedding sport for his BFF. However, it was mid-lightening storm. Aaron assure me it would be fine. After he left the thunder kept at it and I decided to check the weather online.

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
in effect until Thursday, Aug 18, 9:30 PM

...A CLUSTER OF STRONG THUNDERSTORMS IN
LITCHFIELD COUNTY IN NORTHERN CONNECTICUT... DUTCHESS COUNTY IN EAST CENTRAL NEW YORK...

AT 854 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A CLUSTER OF THUNDERSTORMS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING...FREQUENT LIGHTNING...AND HEAVY RAIN. THIS STORM WAS LOCATED NEAR NEW PRESTON...OR ABOUT 11 MILES SOUTHWEST OF TORRINGTON...AND MOVING EAST AT 15 MPH

   But he knows better, right?

  Looking forward to this weekend though. Our friends Wes and Kelly are tying the knot tomorrow!! Check back later, I need help deciding how to wear this new short hair!

XO Autumn Van Weir

3-0

  My apologies for no post from this weekend for you all to devour. My 30th birthday began of course at midnight on Saturday the 13th. Normally I wouldn't be up so late but our friend Scott was leaving for law school the next day so we went down to our local watering hole to say hello. Upon our return, Apollo met us at the door. Usual. Nothing out of the ordinary. We assumed Turk was sleeping on my pillow where we often find her when we come home later. We go up to our bedroom, no Turk. I call for her, check the closets (find some poop in Aaron's closet. Awesome) but no kitten. I start to get my jammies on and I hear a strange rustling by the clothes pile. The laundry basket was downstairs so we had just accumulated a few chef coats etc on the floor where the hamper would be. I lean down and hear the sound coming from what appears to be the heat/AC vent. I pause. Two eyes staring back at me. "Is that a mouse?... OMG TURK!!!" Yes. The first 20 minutes of my 4th decade of life was spent panicking because "someone" left the vent uncovered int he bathroom reno and the cat got into the air ducts.

   Aaron, seeing my panic, tells me it's OK, we'll get her out, just be calm. Images of our cat stuck are terrifying me. He moves the dresser like a hero who lifts a car, normally it takes both of us, moves it and digs up the vent. Turk vanishes into the recesses of dark. I call to her lovingly, so she doesn't run. Aaron gets to the other side and lifts that vent. Apollo races between the two vents, looking up at us with horror "where's my kitten?" Obviously during the Kitten Crisis of '11 I didn't think to photograph. I will not share a photo of the vent so you can get an idea of why I was freaking out.

Picture eyes and a tiny orange cat through that vent.

   Eventually she came out to Aaron because I had to walk away to calm myself a little. I didn't know whether to laugh of cry. Talk about giving me a run for my money. And then I was 30.


    Later that day I was busy living it up NYC style (again). My husband took me to The View, a revolving restaurant that overlooks NY near Times Square. It's 48 stories up and the views are spectacular, pics don't do it justice, but I tried!

In the next picture please note in lower left corner. Aaron kept on the look out for his "sex".

   
      It was pretty awesome. Food was to die for. I will do anything for a well done fillet mignon. I was accused of being crabby because I didn't eat lunch (excuuuuse me for living)  and my husband got his dessert and it had a crab shaped cookie on top. Natch one of the crab claws ended up in my dessert.

And man was it good! And I promptly "tore it up".

   Next we were off to Times Square and the obligatory "picture of ourselves somewhere interesting".

  



I looked for Tina Fey. She wasn't there.

   It's important to know that I have loved Barbie's since I was a kid. I have the first 10 Holiday Barbie's, including the original which means I am awesome.  I was thrilled to get to Toys R' Us in Times Square and see the Barbie department. This years Holiday Barbie pictured above. Lovely.    
   Beautiful weather and my fave city in the world. It was good times. We got to meet up with my friend Erica for a Magnolia cupcake run and she escorted us back to Grand Central...us silly farm-folk always get lost. (I heart Erica. We would have gotten lost)
  
   Yesterday was spent GLUED to my new Kindle. Hunger Games. That's all I can say. I had nightmares last night and woke up with pain my back and hurty eyes. Yet it didn't stop me from pulling over on my way into work and reading for 20 minutes in the famed Christmas Tree Shop Plaza. I can't get enough of this book. I got the trilogy as an awesome e-gift from Sara (thanks again! My husband says he misses me). Seriously, if you haven't read it, you may want to pick up a copy. Riveting.



   Hello thirties, I'm here. You're welcome.

XO Autumn Van Weir

My OCD Hurts

   I must get myself to a therapist. I'm pretty sure I have a low grade form of OCD. I delayed going home after work because I knew the contractor would be there. Me and a strange man I dont' know and I'm not happy with alone in my house didn't sound appealing. Call me crazy...

  I got home around 6 pm or so and there was no truck in the driveway. Hmmm. That's odd because we expected him around 3:30. Here I was looking forward to seeing the tub I chose a month ago actually in my bathroom and not in my spare bedroom. Not only was he not there working, he never showed up at all. I hate-texted my husband to tell him "his boy" wasn't at our house. This lead promptly to a "I told you maybe" argument (which he did NOT tell me "maybe"). I sulked around. Called mother to whine and when she told me to relax, it'll get done I fired back with a picture of my spare bedroom in it's current state. I inherited my OCD from my mother so I knew she'd understand.

   She didn't really. She empathized but told me to get over it, more or less. "Say it all to me now, get it out of your system". When I call mom, that's usually what I need. On a lighter note, the cat fell in the toilet again. Yesterday morning as Aaron was getting ready for work and was literally peeing...she jumped on in. I'm female so I don't know all the mechanics of peeing while standing up but I'm assuming it can be done with one hand? Which was my question to him. "Why didn't you use the other hand to stop her?" He said "How would I do that?" I didn't think an anatomy lesson was necessary. I left it at "I don't know how you pee...but...". Miss Turk got another bath yesterday morning.

   I think Aaron felt mildly guilty for my stress level so he cleaned his closet out this weekend. I don't know where in that thought process he figured it would be a good idea to dump the items that didn't have a home on the floor of MY closet. I dug out a collapsible laundry basket (frankly I don't know where it came from or why we still have it...) and that ended up in my "fancy shoes" bin. It's exactly what it sounds like. I dumped that and several other items back in his closet. I came home to find Turk like this:

   Inside of the collapsed bin, hiding out from Apollo who desperately wanted to get into it. He just didn't fit. This lasted for quite some time and I just snapped a few shots because it was wildly entertaining.

   My last thought was regarding the DIY craze taking over America. I am a fan of DIY and if you have the time, energy and creativity...do it up. I do not consider myself an authenticated DIY-er because I sprayed a couple items silver. Don't misunderstand me. However, when I am driving down 84 on my way to work and I witness a DIY project on a VAN, I question how far we're taking this as a society. Do not ever spray paint components to your vehicle unless you want it to look like a Pirate Mobile.

   What is this eye sore? What am I looking at? I considered riving my car off the road just to get away from this "treasure chest", but I really wanted to see the sides as I knew if they were willing to spray the tire holder and the "trunk" they didn't stop there. There was no "safe way" for me to get a pic of the side. I would have swerved while traveling in the fast lane and/or the gun toting DIY-er would have shot me when he realized I was photographing his Liberace town car. Sure enough, the frames around the windows were gold, the car door handles and even the bottom section that you stand on to get into this monstrosity. It was really special. I would ask that you do not DIY your cars, in the future, my readers.This has been a public service announcement.

XO Autumn Van Weir