If you were to come over to our house today and peek in our bathroom there are three things you would notice right away.

From Daily Daguerreotype

1. It’s about time for the bathroom’s weekly cleaning, but I’m sorry… I’m too busy compulsively working on my 3 year old quilt to realize, care, or do anything about it.
2. There is still no door. Matt found five layers of paint on the door that he was painstakingly trying to strip using The Worst Chemicals Ever before we decided to spring for a heat gun to peel off the old paint. As strange as it may seem, the bathroom door is low on his priority list because he’s a notorious Project Finisher and wanted to complete the laundry room first to fill his deep internal void. At least this is what he claims. I have a feeling he is putting off the bathroom door until LOST is over to prevent me from inviting people over for weekly LOST parties. He claims I “chitchat” too much during the tv show when we watch it with other people. WHATEVER.
3. And then this one… a grody tennis ball sitting on the pedestal sink. Shall I zoom in for you?

From Daily Daguerreotype

Yes, a drooly, filthy once-bright-pink tennis ball. Anyone who has spent five minutes with Berlin has figured out that she is OBSESSED with fetch. It could be considered clinical… or just the “golden retriever” in her. So every time I’m in Target and they have tennis balls in the $1 section, I pick up a bag. Or two. Or two hundred.

Well they seem to get lost in the backyard frequently, so we’re always pulling out new balls for her to play with. But then out of the blue she’ll find an old ball, and it’s always at the most inopportune of times. Like this morning when she was up and ready to go outside at 6 am. Matt walked her over to the back door and opened her doggy door which she quickly bounded through. Five minutes later I got out of bed for my 911th trip to the bathroom, and who should come in to join me but Berlin with her dirty, stanky backyard find. Knowing full well that when I headed back to bed she would lay down next to me on her own bed and tear the ball to shreds leaving felt and rubber pieces all over the bedroom floor, I quickly confiscated the ball and placed it out of her reach… on the sink.

She was devastated and went back to her bed to pout. Until she found another ball out of reach under my dresser which kept her occupied for about an hour.

So is a nasty tennis ball sitting on our bathroom sink unusual? Not at all. Just stroll through our downstairs and you will find them everywhere. On top of bookshelves, the fireplace mantle, hidden in drawers. Inevitably when I go into labor and need to be packing up my hospital bag, instead I will be frantically running around the house collecting old tennis balls and sanitizing the surface they were sitting on because MY MOTHER WILL DIE AND KICK ME OUT OF THE FAMILY WHEN SHE SEES THESE!

I’ve already posted about one gift I received at Christmas with the “local” theme, and today I want to post about the other gift which is local to Chicago, where my oldest sister lives.

From Daily Daguerreotype

It’s an insanely cool and funky appetizer tray featuring a plate with Chicago landmarks. I realize that it is supposed to be used for hor d’oeuvres or cupcakes or other bite-sized entertaining foods, but I’m one of those people who has a hard time putting something away in a cupboard and only using it on special occasions. Do I have hor d’oeuvres out every day? NO! But I have bananas out every day, so let’s put em on the cake plate!

(Also, don’t those tomatoes look good? I typically despise an uncooked tomato, but pregnancy is doing weird things to me, people!)

Chicago is one of my favorite places even though I’ve never lived there. My first trip to the Windy City was right before my freshman year in high school when my dad took me on a business trip with him. We stayed in a mind-blowing suite on the twenty-something floor of the Hilton Chicago Magnificent Mile that included a cheese platter and a bottle of wine. My dad let me have a swig of the wine which I thought was disgusting at the time, but I was all about that cheese! I handed out pamphlets at his seminars, went to numerous dinners in private rooms of fancy restaurants, enjoyed a true Chicago hot dog while watching Sammy Sosa play at Wrigley Field, and fell head over heels in love with the son of my dad’s old college roommate – a senior at Arizona State University. I came home knowing I was going to live in Chicago one day and even created my very first email address with “ChicagoGirl1″ as the username.

My next trip back was in college when a few of my friends piled into a white Oldsmobile for a spur-of-the-moment roadtrip. To save on accommodations we pulled the car into truck stops to sleep for a few hours each night leaving us mighty tired and mighty greasy when we finally made it into town. Our trip was ill-timed, just a month after 9/11, so everything in the city was completely shut down. We couldn’t go to the top of the Sears Tower, most of the municipal buildings were closed, and the streets were dead quiet. But the city was still beautiful, and the guy I wanted at that time kissed me, so Chicago remained magical in my mind.

I took another trip back to visit my sister for Easter and interview for a record company internship later that year. I loved driving around downtown and imagining myself hanging out there all summer long, although I eventually wound up in DC for a different job. I met up with a friend who took me to Maggianos for my very first experience with calamari. (Mance, I think I still owe you a dinner at Smith & Wollensky.) And I finally got to the top of the Sears Tower on a gorgeous day where I could take in the whole city – beautiful and sprawling as ever.

We’re headed up 65 again this year for Easter to eat some more great food and enjoy the company of family. No matter what I can’t help but think that maybe one day I’ll live there for a while. Although perhaps if I lived in Chicago the romance would wear off, and I’d rather always think of it as a beautiful place to fall in love with the wrong person… but eat the best slice of pizza around.

You heard me right! Recently you guys have been visiting and commenting and keepin the love flowin over here at Verbal Intent, and it’s about time I give a shoutout to my awesome readers by doing a giveaway. It hit me the other day when I took Matt out to dinner on MY dime for the first time in a while, that I think my official job these days is a blogger. Soon to be a mommyblogger, even. Weird and wacky and wonderful.

So here’s the deal… what we’re giving away is a $25 Amazon.com giftcard. Hey, that’s enough to earn yourself some Super Saver Shipping! If you’re anything like the folks in this house you absolutely heart Amazon.com, and I hope you can find something fun that’s right up your alley.

Details:

• The giveway is open now, Friday evening, and will close on Monday morning (Mar 1) at 9 am central time when I will pick a winner thanks to the good peeps over at Random.org.
• All you have to do is post a comment with what it is you’ve been ogling over at Amazon and/or what you’d like to see more of on Verbal Intent.
• Make sure you include your email address (I guess that’s a given since the commenting system is set up that way).
• You can enter more than once!!! If you post about the giveaway (with a link) on your blog, Facebook or Twitter account, just add another comment here with a link to the proof.
• Winner will be announced Monday afternoon and will be emailed their giftcard.

Ok, guess that’s it! Let the party start! And thanks for rockin the VI casbah, y’all.

You simply ought to cruise over to my sister’s blog to read her newest post. She’s spot on.

I have been dreading this day, February 18th, 2010 since July 7th, 2009. Today was my original due date.

I envisioned having to write a title for this post along the lines of “Priscilla and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.” But so far it hasn’t been like that. What in the name of Desmond David Hume?

I woke up this morning to the sun beating in through the windows, Matt fast asleep beside me, Berlin curled up at our feet, and Mojo sitting on my face meowing for his breakfast. It was perfect aside from that last part. Matt got to sleep in because he didn’t have to leave for work until noon, so I lay in bed a while longer daydreaming about what I would eat for breakfast if I were on a cruise ship and had that huge buffet sprawled out in front of me. Scrambled eggs laden with salt and pepper, bacon, sausage, croissants, cheese, a grapefruit half, strawberries, cantaloupe, orange juice and a bottomless cup of coffee. Sweet gastronomical bliss!

Then I couldn’t take it any longer. I woke up Matt to find out what he would eat for his cruise breakfast. It was basically all of the above but replacing the coffee with tea. He would hit the poolside burger grill for lunch and a margarita and would finish the day with surf and turf for dinner. We climbed out of bed and I whipped up some banana bread, coffee and tea which was ready by the time Matt got out of the shower. Then we meandered outside to the back deck and ate our breakfast while I threw the tennis ball for Berlin. It’s 44 degrees outside, or such saith Accuweather, but it felt more like the high 50s.

We sat outside for a solid hour soaking in the beautiful weather, the sun, the fresh hot morning drinks, and a puppy playing in the grass. We chatted about the summer, how each night when he gets home from work we’ll grill out on the deck, take a walk around the neighborhood, put Penny to bed, then settle in with books and iced tea in our Adirondack chairs until it’s dark out. Isn’t the best part of summer the fact that the sun doesn’t set until 9 pm? I think so.

On the list of things to accomplish today is a trip to Home Depot (of course) and a trip to Target. I think I’ll treat myself to the greatest indulgence in the world – a leisurely stroll through every single aisle of Target. It’s the equivalent of chocolate cake. I have more work to do on our taxes this afternoon, and I think I’m going to make something delicious for dinner. Like homemade BBQ chicken pizza and a big ole salad. And we’ll watch The Office and Matt will chortle loudly.

I wish I could be meeting my first child today. But I can honestly say I no longer fear death because I have somebody to meet on the other side. I’m a changed person, but the biggest change is an overwhelming feeling that I am insanely blessed. I have everything in the world that a girl could ever want. I spent such a long time chasing and working for the things I wanted in life, and here they are. All right here in my hands, and I am insanely content. I want to think that if it were all taken away tomorrow, I would still be grateful for the time I’ve had married to my best friend, laughing with friends and family, being surrounded by adorable four-legged animals, cooking and eating great food, traveling the world, and experiencing the crazy miracle of pregnancy.

After Matt left for work, I checked my email and saw a sweet note from a dear friend who remembered that today was the day. It made my heart really really warm. I know there are people looking out for me, thinking and praying for me today. Life is what you make it, and I think that today we should make it an absolutely perfectly lovely day.

Ohmyword I can’t believe I haven’t told you about this yet. It’s revolutionary and smells delicious and is good for the environment, and it’s basically equivalent to having a husband who puts down the toilet seat. AFTER EVERY USE.

For Christmas this year, our theme was “local gifts.” They could be either associated with your locale, or locally made, and in this situation the gift that my older sister gave me was both: Sweet Grass Farm Lemon Verbana Laundry Soap and Liquid Dish Soap. I haven’t used the dish soap yet because I’m using up a bottle of generic store brand, but I use the laundry soap for every load now, and I don’t think I can possibly go back.

First of all, it smells absolutely divine and leaves our clothes smelling fresh but not feeling… I dunno… heavily processed? Does that make sense? Probably not, but it does to me. I only use a smidge of it – 1/8th of a cup for each load so I have a whole slew of it left, and it works like a charm on HE frontloaders. Now, I’m a girl who loves doing laundry (don’t ask me why), and this soap takes the task of laundry to an all new nirvana. I keep it in a glass jar on top of my washer, and just looking at it makes me giddy. Now I need to find out if it’s suitable for washing cloth diapers or not? If so, I will definitely never go back.

So today after cleaning the bathroom and realizing I was running out of the generic “green” spray cleaner that I use in there, I thought to myself, “Self, I bet Sweet Grass Farm has a truly green spray cleaner that I could use in the bathroom.” So I mosied over to their site, and by jove, THEY DO!

I’m also thinking about their dusting spray because I have so much daggone painted trim in this house, and it collects dust like you wouldn’t believe. I guess it’s the wood floors?

Now I just need to decide if I want to branch out from the Lemon Verbana scent that I totally love and try something new? Eeeeny meeny miney moe…