AutoblogGreen

When Steph helped me set up my RSS feedreader, we included Autoblog in my feeds because I like cars. I was excited to find that Autoblog has a new spinoff, AutoblogGreen. I've spent most of the morning catching up on it, but now that I'm current, it'll be easy to stay that way. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like a Prius is in the near future for me (unless I win the lottery), but you can be assured that I'm going to consider fuel economy when I decide to replace the Honda.

Two-year anniversary

Yesterday was Steph's and my two-year anniversary. In the morning, we participated in a scavenger hunt with our friends Jen and Lori to raise money for ICAAN, the Indiana Canine Assistant and Adolescent Network, and then we went to dinner at Maggiano's and re-created our first kiss on Steph's back patio. We're going to try a different Italian place every year.

Year 0: Iaria's
Year 1: Dinner cooked by David and Garrett (Steph was recovering from her surgery and wasn't feeling well enough to go out yet)
Year 2: Maggiano's

Maggiano's was excellent. I couldn't quite figure out what I wanted, so our server offered that we could order the family-style dinner even though there were only two of us. This dinner consists of two appetizers, two kinds of salad, two pastas, two entrees, and two desserts. We have ten boxes of leftovers. Ten boxes. Everything was tasty; I'm just a little worried that we won't be able to finish all the leftovers before they go bad.

ETA: I completely neglected to include in my anniversary post anything about how wonderful my girlfriend is. She is cute, smart, funny, interesting, and creative, and I am so lucky to share my life with her.

Four for Friday

Courtesy of belicove.com:

Q1 - Possessions: Do you think that the more stuff you own enhances your life or adds to your burden?

It depends. I currently have too much stuff, which adds to my burden, but if I didn't own some of my stuff, my life would not be as good as it is. (Currently, I'm thinking about my toothbrush, my bed, my skates, and my favorite shoes. I don't include the cat because really, I don't own her -- she owns me.)

Q2 - Oil: If OPEC decided to turn off the oil spigot, do you think that the United States would have the right to wage war to protect its interests?

No. I think the United States should be much farther along on the path to living without other people's oil.

Q3 - Movie: Have you seen the movie Ellie Parker with Naomi Watts? If so, would you recommend it to a friend?

I haven't seen it.

Q4 - Birthday: What are the maximum number of days someone should spend celebrating his/her birthday?

Well, my girlfriend says there's such a thing as a Birthday Mardi Gras -- that's when your birthday falls in the middle of the week and you celebrate it on both surrounding weekends. :-) I tend to celebrate on my actual birthday and also go to dinner with friends, whether that's on my birthday or on another day, but I figure that you should go ahead and celebrate whenever possible!

Bonus Question...

Q5 - Dancing: How often do you dance... and I don't mean just boogying to your favorite tunes inside your car or in the shower. We're talking real dancing here, with a partner on a dance floor (weddings count).

As often as possible, but realistically only a few times a year. (Does Dance Dance Revolution count?)

Kansas

After a long day of photographing big things and driving, we are finally in Kansas. Today we went up in the St. Louis Arch (against my mother's advice), which was cool. (My mom went up in it when I was about twelve and hated it.) My favorite big thing today was the giant fork in Springfield, MO.

Tomorrow: wedding.

Indian burial mounds

After we visited the giant ketchup bottle and took a picture of an interesting building that appeared to be part church, part BBQ place, we happened upon the Cahokia Mounds. We climbed Monk's Mound, and from the top, we could see several other mounds nearby. Next to them was Woodhenge, a circle of 40 tall wooden poles that were an ancient calendar.

It was starting to get dark, so we found a hotel with a barbecue place next door. In the morning we're planning to find a big shoe made of shoes and a cowboy muffler man, among other things.

Quote of the day

...boredom can't find you if it doesn't know where to look.

--goRVing.com site

Road trip!

Our road trip to Kansas for Steph's cousin's wedding is going swimmingly so far. We've photographed a giant cross, a Madonna of the Trail statue, and foot-high pies (here at the Blue Springs Cafe, which conveniently offers free wi-fi).

Next up: a giant ketchup bottle. After that, St. Louis.

New pants!

Last night while shopping for a wedding present, I wandered into the clearance section at the back of LS Ayres. A couple of years ago, one of my cow-orkers sent around an e-mail about this clearance section, and I went at that time and got a bunch of clothes for $2.53 apiece. Last night, many of the clothes were $2.98. I got 25 items of clothing last night for $213 and change. I added up the original prices this morning and they came to more than $1150! I got several sleeveless dresses (a couple with excellent 70s patterns -- one I swear came straight from a wallpaper sample book I had when I was a kid), a couple pairs of pants, and some sweaters and skirts and shirts and jackets, too. One of the dressses is perfect for the wedding, and today I'm wearing a new pair of brown pants with cool button details and stripes down the sides.

Paper clip

A guy in Canada has been trading stuff. He started with one red paper clip and wants to see if he can get all the way to a house. He's up to a year's free rent in Phoenix.

Cleaning the bathroom

Tonight I cleaned the bathroom. I hate cleaning the bathroom more than any other household chore. Fortunately for me, Steph has agreed to clean the bathroom when we move in together.

A list of things I would rather do than clean the bathroom:

Do laundry
Wash dishes
Mow the lawn
Do taxes
Go to the dentist

After I cleaned the bathroom, I had an ice cream cone. I deserved it.

Day off!

We had Good Friday off from work. This morning I got up and read some blogs and then started to work on the stuff in the dining room. I made a lot of progress! This afternoon I skated and then came back and made brownies for the women's pitch-in tonight and continued to work on the dining room while the brownies baked.

I'm going to head upstairs and start in on the second bedroom now for a change of pace. Preparing to move sure is hectic, but it'll go more smoothly if I get everything organized first. The other morning, I decided that I had two rooms completely ready to pack (that's counting the upstairs hallway as a room). Six more to go....

House!

Steph and I have been looking at houses lately. It started out with curiosity -- we drove by a house for sale that had a porch Steph liked, and we wondered what it looked like inside, so we called my real estate agent and asked to see it. I told her to be prepared for an extended casual house hunt. I looked at 115 houses in the search for my current house, and I had no reason to believe this process would go any differently. Besides, we weren't ready to move.

Then we found it. The third house we looked at. THE house. It meets all of our needs except one (it has only a 1 1/2-car garage and we wanted two) and most of our wants.

After much discussion, we decided to go for it. We wrote an offer on Monday night, received a counteroffer yesterday, and accepted today. The inspection is next week.

Know anyone who wants to rent a cute three-bedroom Cape Cod?

Funniest line of the week

My girlfriend, earlier this evening: "I'm so glad you still love me, honey, in spite of my flatulence."