Sweet Victory

My awful roommates are moving out April 11. Mike calls this sweet, sweet victory. I call it peace. It is bitersweet because it's been a rough year and these guys use to be Mike's friends, its hard to say if that friendship will ever be mended, it also puts us without their rent money. We have had such a bad experience with renters that it's unlikely we'll get new roommates. And if we did let someone move in, there would be strict expectations laid down in the begining. At present there are few people who we'd let live with us. Parker, our perfect, clean roommate & friend, will stay with living with us, which is good. We are counting down the remaining awful roommate days, we even have a paper chain!
20 days and counting!

The irony in them moving out, is that they are moving in with one of Mike's other friends. This friend thinks that I am hard to live with because of the things the other boys tell him. Which is BULLSHIT. I admit that I am sort of a clean freak but it's a neccesity when there are so many people living together. So this friend they are moving in with has a wife, her name is also Brooke, I dont think will tolerate them! I just dont think they have any real clue how disrespectful these guys are. They live in a smaller house then ours and i know it will be cramped.
These boys have:
-ruined our washer by over loading it
-nearly ruined our newly remodeled bathroom with filth by NEVER cleaning it. (As a side note, i think that bathroom has been cleaned MAYBE twice, once by one of the guy's girlfriends, and once by his mother. Yes his mother came to our house and cleaned his bathroom, PATHETIC!)
-They constantly leave thier things out: mail, shoes, candy wrappers, laptops, etc.
-spill on the floor and counters and neglect to wipe it up
-cram things in the garbage and never take it out
-overload the fridge and freezer
-make messes in the fridge
-put stinky food in the fridge and don't cover it
-never rinse their dishes, put them in the dishwasher which clogs the whole drain, which makes the whole kitchen stink
-freak out about the air freshner i put in the kitchen to cover this stink
-eat all my candy out of my candy dish, never refill it and leave the wrappers all over the place
-leave the dvd player on all night
-leave dvd covers all over the floor
-ruin our dishes with knifes
-use all the propane in our bbq and dont replace it
-The thing Mike and I fight about most is them, that is one big thing i'll be glad to have done with!
-one of them had some random girl over who thought she needed to shower and he used one of my guest towels without asking and its gross, he didnt leave it somewhere so i could bleach the hell out of it so we are making him buy it. That girl had maybe been to our house 3 or 4 times (someone none of us really know) and he went to work one morning and just left her here sleeping, in our house, unsupervised.
I'm going to stop there, this wasn't meant to be a list of complaints, if anything it makes me look pretty clean-crazy but it felt good to vent it out, so thanks for listening. My point is that the friends they are moving in with have no idea how bad these guys really are, but soon they will, and they will know that it's not just me being "hard to live with" that has made it so unbearable.

We have embraced the less money idea though and went grocery shopping this weekend to save money by eating at home more often. It is fairly hard to plan a weeks worth of meals and do the shopping all in one day. Oh and its hard to cook too! I am learning though! My stepdad got me a crockpot for my birthday last year and i put it to use for the first time this weekend! Shredded chicken enchiladas. It was so easy too! They were pretty good. So if any of you have EASY recipies i'd love to try them out! That being said, Mike is one of the pickiest eaters i've ever met! He'll have nothing to do with vegies, and doesn't love rice. Rice. Its my comfort food. My family eats rice with nearly everything. Mike told me once that we should only have rice once a week. Well Jen suggested spanish rice with my enchiladas last night and i didnt think Mike would even touch it so i didnt bother, then when we were eating he says that next time it would be really good with rice. go figure!

Happy Green Beer Day!

Happy St Patrick's Day! We have started a tradition of going to Hopper's to partake some green beer on St Patty's Day. It's lots of fun, my parents love to go to Hoppers too. This year it was My Mom, Todd, Uncle Robby, Mike and Me and it was yummy! Here are some pics..




This is Uncle, he had a heart transplant two and a half months ago, and is not really drinking beer, but my mom made him hold a green beer for the pic. The only alcohol he gets is hand sanitizer! But we're glad he could join us!

Sushi!

Mike and I have been getting more into sushi lately. I think this is more because I've been more willing to try new foods. We went to Tsunami and had such terrible service that we didn't want to go back, so we decided to try Asian Star, which is also close to our house. So it's Saturday night at about 630, we think we'll have this long wait. . We pull into the complementary valet, walk into the restaurant and are seated within 30 seconds. It was awesome! The seaweed was a bit tough and chewy, but it think that's par for seaweed? It was good though, we really like Asian Star and will go back! Here is a pic of my California roll and cucumber roll, I wanted a California roll with cucumber in it but Mike told me I couldn't special order so i just got one of each. Look how cute and teanie the cucumber roll is!

Then we got home and invited some friends over and i began drinking, pressured by our friend Justin to drink too quickly. I take a shot with everyone and feel incredibly sick so my sister tells me to just go throw up and I'll feel better, so i do. And i DO feel better. Then i blow my nose, and seaweed comes out! Crazy huh? I'm beyond thinking that this is gross because its so funny! I mean who ever has seaweed come out of their nose! I guess its the risk you run when combining sushi rolls and large quantities of alcohol!

There aren't words for this...

In case any of you thought i was exaggerating about how messy my downstairs roommates are.. here is the UGLY truth.

This is a pie that has been in our downstairs fridge (the one we keep drinks in) SINCE THANKSGIVING! Parker even put it in his room this weekend as a joke, and it ended up right back in the fridge!



When we first moved in I was having a problem with people using pans and then putting them in the dishwasher, so the next person who wanted to use the pan had to wash it before using it (there were 6 of us when we all moved in and not very many pans). Mike's solution was to donate to a George Forman Grill to one of the roommates. Well it NEVER gets cleaned! I shouldn't say never, when he's done using it, he splashes water on it. It's now growing mold! He looked at it the other day and wondered who used it and didn't clean it!
And wouldn't you know it, it still hasn't been cleaned!


I really hate that their mothers didn't teach them better. It's really sad. They've been picked up after their whole lives and now they can't do it on their own. I try to think of them as retarded little brothers but its still very frustrating when they don't clean up after themselves!

74th Annual Meeting

This past Friday was Transwest Credit Union's 74th Annual Meeting which Mike was in charge of planning (the meeting is for members and the board of directors to vote and stuff). So I went as the supportive girlfriend and sat and looked pretty.. but it actually wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. I sat with some of his work friends while he ran around and fixed loose ends, then we had dinner and listened to some people speak. Not too bad at all. This all created so much stress for Mike for the past week. We went to lunch the day of the event at The Training Table and some little girl was suddenly at our table yelling into a rolled piece of paper, and talking to us like we were friends. Mike would normally be so annoyed and tell her to go find her parents (who, by the way, were no where in sight), but it was a welcome distraction from all the stress he's had planning the meeting. Here is a pic of our new friend sitting at another table coloring by herself (no parents around to pull her pants up!). I was certain that she was going to come and steal our french fries but she left us alone after our food was ready.


After the meeting, to help Mike relax from all his hard work, I decided to try to make a drink out of my Cocktail Handbook called Planter's Punch, we had thought it would be similar to the rum punch he loved in Mexico. Well here are all the ingredients i bought for it. Turns out that it tastes AWFUL! I should've known, its more parts liquor than parts juice and all the juices are citric juices. It honestly gives the weird feeling that you're going to vomet, like when the saliva pools in the back of your mouth. The sucky part about it is that i bought all these items that i don't normally use. (3 types of rum, grenadine, grapefruit juice, etc.) I guess at least next time when we try a new drink, we'll already have some of the ingredients!


As I'm putting away the failed drink liquors I realize that we have so much alcohol. Visitors must think we are alcoholics! SERIOUSLY I don't drink that much. I am mostly a social drinker. Or after a really bad day! But really, not that much!
I guess having lots of different liquors will help me for more drink recipes in the future due to the large variety already in my kitchen right?! ;)

Oh, and yes, my bacardi gold is wearing a hat and scarf, it was a gift and i love it! So bacardi gets to keep his warm attire until he is gone.

According to Mike

OK, so this story is partially correct. Yes, i am playing a computer game. Normally the lil shit i call Ando just hangs out eats some cotton from his toy, no hit no ball no foul, right? Ok so i am playing and look down. He has a HUGE shit on the floor which he is EATING!!! I am about ready to lose it at this point. I grab him like a mother dog does her babies and throw him over the baby gate (which we use to trap him so he doesnt eat the bean bag, oh wait he alreay did). I let him out. I am ok at this point. I get a plastic bag, a ziploc bag, and some paper towels. I am walking down the stairs and i am thinking about wtf i am about to do and i am on the verge of VOMIT. Let me tell you, i don't get sick to smells, or gross stories or other debachury (i can't spell, i have been drinking). I am literally sick to my stomach. I put the ziploc bag on my hand to protect it from the EXPOSIVE DIAHERRA (spelling again, drunk). I hold onto the paper towels and i pick it up. This stuff STINKS. Like i can smell it upstairs stinks. I take it outside and i let the dog out, he got to stay outside til brooke got home.

That is the REAL story. Retained tampoon has NOTHING on your dog (who you love and let lick you) eating his own shit.

I deserve a metal, yes.

This Post IS NOT for the Sqeamish

This is for those of you who were requesting an Ando blog...

I have had pets my whole life. Everyday growing up I had at least a cat. Usually a few cats and a dog. I love pets, they are the best company! Growing up with pets, you have to deal with the small accidents and general maintenance that comes with animals. I've always had to clean out the catbox or clean vomit from the cats, it doesn't really bother me anymore. Don't get me wrong, I’m a gagger. I gag at EVERYTHING, but I can handle poo and vomit clean-up and live to tell about it. For example, the other day Mike found a wet spot on the carpet, so i knelt down and smelled it. He was so grossed out! Well i have to know if its urine! If my dogs peeing on the floor then i have to do something about, now if he's just drank water too fast and threw some up, well that's an honest mistake. Mike has had maybe 2 dogs in his life, I think he only even remember one, a weiner dog that they had for a short period of time then it bit his brother and his parents got rid of it. We've had Ando for about 6-7 months now and they love each other, but I wouldn't quite call him a "pet person". In all honesty, I got Ando and have taken on most of the responsibility so he's really more my dog, so I don't expect Mike to have to do much with him. Ok now you know some background.. Here's the story..

I arrived home tonight at about 6:30pm to find Ando out in the back yard still and Mike no where in sight, so I let Ando in, hang up my coat and scarf and head downstairs to find Mike. He's sitting in the computer room, playing computer. He proceeds to tell me that Ando has "explosive diarrhea", when he got home and let him out of his kennel, Ando raced to the back door so Mike let him out and immediately "his anus exploded and diarrhea was flying out of it". Then he was done and they went down to the computer room to hang out. I guess all of the sudden the "explosive diarrhea" happened again. Mike was trying to find a spot in his computer game to pause and when he did, he looks down and Ando and the poo. And well, dogs will be dogs.. Ando was eating his own poo. Mike was HORRIFIED! So he runs him outside and tries to clean up what poo was left. That’s just before I get home. I cant even tell you how funny it was to hear Mike recap this sequence of events. He is so disgusted we couldn't even discuss dinner without him gagging! Even the other day I told him a story about one of my mom’s dogs who got around the gate into the laundry room to the “treasures” from the catbox, then had some diarrhea of his own all over! It ruined her rug! Mike thought it was hilarious! I guess it’s all funny until it’s you that has to clean up the mess!

Wendover!

This past saturday Mike had a remote in Wendover at the Rainbow Hotel and Casino as it was their 14th annaversary. He still works with the radio station every once and a while when something good comes up or when he's requested by one of the DJs which was the case this time. He drove out in a kbull truck early, his remote was from 4-6. Parker, Greg and I left our house at 5:30 and by the time we arrived Mike was done and waiting for us. He wanted to try The Red Garter Casino because he heard that they have low limit tables and he likes to play craps, and none of us wanted to gamble too much money so it seemed like a good idea. If you've ever been to Wendover you know that this is the Casino way at the end of the strip and its a dive. It has the original custom carpeting that must be at least 50 years old but the absolute best part was that they are so old they have coin slots still! I've always wanted to play slot machines with coin slots but most casinos have gone modern and all you get is a voucher that pops out of the machine when youre done, like getting a receipt from a gas pump, not very exciting! BUT at The Red Garter you walk in and hear the tink tink tink of all the coin slots! I was in heavan. Parker played penny machines all night so he had vouchers and Mike was in on craps so he had chips but Greg and I had our buckets full of nickels and it was so much fun! The only thing i hadn't thought of in this whole process was how dirty money is. So $40 in nickels and about 4 hours later, my fingers were almost completely black! I washed half way through so that i wasnt completely coated and it took 4 washes to see no black. Its so worth it though! I loved those coin slots!