I still call him my boyfriend

A few weeks ago, I came home from Pitt.  C surprised me with a date.  Actually, C will say it wasn't a surprise, I should have known because I asked him to plan it.  However, I thought the date would be us going out to dinner, not going to a dinner theater detective show.  (Which was AMAZING btw)

Anyway, the show required me to dress up.  Since I had only brought jeans home, and the only nice clothes I had in Chicago were summery, I had to go shopping.  So, C and I went shopping.

I narrowed down the choice to 2 outfits so I asked the fitting room attendant "to go get my boyfriend, C."  As soon as she left I realized my mistake.  Sorry C!


C and I got engaged September 30th.  It is now the end of January, we have set a date, picked a venue, hired a DJ and photographer, chosen our colors and are getting ready to send out the Save the Dates, and I still catch myself calling C my boyfriend.

When my friends/family or whoever would call their fiances their boyfriends, I always thought they were just doing it for the attention.  They wanted to show off the fact that they are engaged.  

I can tell you for a fact I am not doing it on purpose.  

Save the Dates - Abbreviations

I don't know if its just me, or if its all engineers or what, but when I'm chatting with people (via gchat, sametime, or office communicator) I tend to abbreviate things all the time.  Pittsburgh gets abbreviated to Pitt.  Marquette University gets abbreviated to MU.  Engineering terms get truncated.  The Kentucky Derby is just The Derby (because honestly, what other Derby matters?)  Basically, I've developed my own language.

So, when I'm talking to someone about Save The Dates, of course that gets abbreviated.  Hence my hilarious conversation -

I'll let you know, but i'm pretty sure we are sending STD's to everyone who she put on the list. If I remember it was ~ 70 people

C and I should probably get on those STDs...

  HAHA

  STDs!

  Save The Dates

  LOL

Since this convo I have started to abbreviate Save the Dates as StDs.  Its helped a little.  But has still been some hilarious conversations.

I Bought the Dress I'm going to be Married In!!

I've been to two bridal salons.  Both were amazing experiences.  (Message me if you need recommendations in the Chicago Area.)

My fiance reads this blog so I can't get detailed except to say it is white. ;)  And its beautiful.  And I look beautiful in it. (What can I say, I'm modest.  Haha)

But, they say as soon as you try on the dress you know, and that's the case.  I tried on the dress at the 2nd salon and I didn't want to try on anything else.  The only reason I tried on the rest of the dresses was this was the first dress I tried on at that salon and I booked a 2 hour appointment.  Once I put it on, it was perfect.  It fit like a glove and I felt happy in it.



Every once in a while I get really giddy and excited about the fact that I am marrying C.  I can't wait to start our life together.

Used Furniture Grosses me out

So, I'm in Pittsburgh (which many of you already know).  I'm only here for 6 months so I do not want to

1.  Move all my stuff here.
2.  Buy all new expensive stuff.

So I had a few options.  Try to find a furnished apartment (they are as much as $500 more than what I'm paying now, btw it was CRAPPY furniture), Try to rent Furniture (as much as $600 a month on TOP of rent), OR stay in a hotel (as much as $800 a month more than I'm paying now).  So I decided that I could furnish an apartment for less than 3k ($500 times 6 months...)

So far I've spent ~ $200.  I bought a blow up mattress that I plan on sleeping in until I find a cheap bed ($60), sheets and a comforter ($100), and miscellaneous items around the apt.  I "splurged" on the sheets and comforter because I think I am going to keep them and use them in the guest bedroom at the house.  The blow up mattress was also a splurge, but I have to sleep on this for at LEAST 1 week (perhaps as much as 6 months) so I wanted it to be nice.  BTW - this air mattress is "a Queen" and all I have to say is BS.  This is NOT a queen while fully blown up.  Its a full.... at MOST.  So, Coleman, liar, liar pants on fire.

Anyway, since I have nothing better to do (and goodwill failed me) I've been scouring Craigslist looking for cheap items.  I have to say most of the furniture grosses me out.  Basically anything with cloth gives me the heebie-jeebies. All I keep imagining is people peeing or puking or having S*X or doing other gross things on the furniture.  I mean lets face it, some people are NASTY. And it just grosses me out.  With a kitchen table, I can clean 99.9% of the germs off of it.  (According to Lysol or whoever).  Which means if I clean it twice with Lysol (or whatever) 99.9% x 2 leaves VERY FEW germs on it.  So stranger's puke or whatever germs are virtually gone.

BUT, I can't very easily bleach an entire sofa.  I may be able to clean the surface of the couch, but I can NOT clean the stuffing or whatever is under the cloth surface.  And liquid can penetrate stuff REAL deep... Ewwwww.

And, even though I can put a slip cover over the sofa, put a mattress cover and sheets over the bed, I still can't get over the grossness.... I know this is a "me" thing, but I can't get past it. :(

Week 1 DONE!

Week 1 in Pittsburgh down, 27 more to go.  In those 27 weeks I have almost a week off for Disney World with C, My first bachelorette party, and my MOH (Maid of Honor) coming to Pittsburgh to see the MU/Pitt game.  Unfortunately, right now, that's all I have scheduled.  (While I'm reading what I write I realize it may  be slightly confusing why I am having a "first bachelorette" party.  The first one is a destination party, while the 2nd one will be in Chicago.)

So everyone should come visit me. :D

Icey Windshield in a Rental

Honestly, I've been pretty lucky.  Today (Wednesday) was the first real cold day here in Pittsburgh.  However, last night was REAL cold.  Cold enough to make all the car windows frosty.  And that is the start of my problem.

But back to the beginning of the story.  I woke up and got ready for work.  I went to the cafe area (like I have been every morning) in my hotel and got my complimentary coffee.  As I went outside to get to my car I realized I could see my breath and there was a TON of frost on every single car in the lot.  I began to wonder if my rental car came with an ice scraper.

Even though I may not be able to drive well in the snow, I have dealt with frost quite often and I know what to do.  So I immediately turn on the car, blast the defroster (including the rear defroster) and start searching for the ice scraper I'm praying the car has.

Of course I can not find an ice scraper, so I got back into the car and sat there until the defroster began to work.

About 30 minutes go by until I finally admitted to myself that the defrosters and heaters in the car do not work.  I can still see my breath in the car, and there has been NO progress on defrosting my windshield.

So I went outside and try to find someone who does not look like they are in a hurry.  I see this gentleman and I walk up to him and explain my situation and ask if he has an ice scraper.  He explains that he does and he'll bring it right over.

Of course he managers to scrape off all the ice in about 3 minutes and I thank him profusely.  Unfortunately the entire endeavor made me about 45 minutes late for work and when I finally did arrive I was frozen to the bone.

I'm calling Avis in a little bit... we will see how that goes.

First day in Pittsburgh

They don't have a computer for me yet, which means I can not do any training.  Therefore, I have nothing to do.  I have already attempted to go to several banned websites including - Netflix, Hulu, Youtube and Pinterest.  For some reason they do not allow Pinterest, but they do allow Facebook.  And thankfully gmail is also on the "allowed list."  However, I'm bored of facebook.

So, I decided to waste some of my time writing C's brother (Navy) a letter.  He started basic last Tuesday and we got his address over the weekend.  In the letter, I told Navy how I was bored and tired.  Then I started to feel a bit guilty because I can only imagine how difficult it has been with doing PT and everything.  After 5 minutes of doing that, I ran out of things to say.  Nothing is really that exciting here.

I have explored the bathroom (they are very nice and new).  The cafeteria looks really nice too!  I've heard that there is a gym here, but I have yet to venture there.  And the rest of the 4 hours I've been here has been extremely boring.

*sigh*

Let me know if you want to send Navy a letter, I can email you his address.  If I figure out something interested to write about I will... until then.

Pinterest - Guest Bathroom Towel Rack

I'm addicted to pinterest.  With a new (to me) house, I have a lot of decorating and projects I want to do.  One of the biggest challenges in the house is storage.  There is no pantry, very few closets, and no linen closet.

So when I saw a pin on pinterest where you can store towels on a wine rack that hung on the wall I was intrigued.

The first challenge was locating the wine rack.  I found it at wayfair.com.  Here is the link to the wine/towel rack.  Right now the price is listed at $30.99, but I bought the rack at $19.80.  So I would watch the price, $31 is a little pricey to me.  I had never used or even heard of Wayfair before this purchase, but there were no problems with the purchase.

As a warning.  This rack did not come with any hardware.  We had screws laying around so we used those.

I plan on having navy and tan towels in the bathroom, I just need to buy some tan towels.  I also plan on painting the walls, although I'm not sure what color to paint the walls.  

Anyway, its just a small step to decorating, but it was fairly easy.  First project down, 1,000 to go.

Pinterest - Will you be my ...

Everyone knows I recently got engaged.  I knew who I wanted to be my bridesmaids since before I was even engaged.  One time, I almost slipped and asked my Maid of Honor to be my Maid of Honor before I was even engaged!  But I wanted to do it right, so I made sure to hold my tongue.  

However, as soon as I got engaged I went over to Michaels to mimic a pin I saw on Pinterest.  Below is the inspiration and the final product.  

The boxes included:

• Memories Picture Frame - For a picture of us at my wedding
• A scented candle in my wedding colors - Purple and Green. :)
• Chocolate - Because what girl doesn't like chocolate
• A Bridesmaid tank top - Unfortunately, I couldn't find one for my maid of honor, so she also has a bridesmaid tank also.  I wish I could have found one that matched and said Maid of Honor, but ... I didn't have enough patience to wait for it to arrive if I ordered it online. haha.  
• A cocktail - I went to Target and bought a Champagne cocktail bottle.  It was either that, or a mini bottle of Champagne, and I chose the Champagne cocktail since I feel like Champagne can be hit or miss. One of my bridesmaids is only 17, so I gave her sparkling juice instead.  

Honestly, the most difficult thing was finding the box to put everything in.  Michaels and Target did not have any appropriate boxes.  Either they couldn't fit the frame or they were T-Shirt boxes.  My mom had some boxes laying around and so I used those.  They were a bit large, but that just meant that I could display everything so nothing was covered up.

Unfortunately, because the boxes were so gigantic, the stamps looked really tiny.  I wrote "Will you be my" on the front in stamps so that when my friends opened the box they would read "bridesmaid" on the tank top. :)

I think my bridesmaid liked the boxes.  But like I said... nice boxes were really hard to find.  

Amazing App - Android Lost

A few weeks ago someone stole my phone.  Unfortunately, the person who stole my phone didn't return it so I had to get a new phone.  So I decided to research lost phone apps.

Android Lost is AMAZING.  Its still in Beta so it may have bugs, but so far I have tested out a bunch of features and they have worked.

Some of the amazing features -

Alarm

Will ignore silent mode. Turns up the volume, sound a siren and sets the volume back to normal level. It also makes the screen flash so you can see it in a loud or dark environment. Select seconds for alarm:

310203060120

I can't tell you how many times I misplace my phone.  Then I have C or Navy call my phone and my phone is on silent.  Problem solved with this app!

Overlay message

Puts a red overlay message on top of the keyguard or lockscreen. Useful in case a friendly guy finds the phone and starts using it in order to find out who owns it. Will use a tiny bit of power during unlock since it runs as a service. Send an empty string to disable the overlay message.

This is pretty self-explanatory.  There is also a way to send a text if you don't lock your screen.

SIM card owner

When the app detects that an unknown SIM card has been inserted it will send a warning to the SMS notification number and start a polling service. That way you can still use both the SMS commands and web controls even if the google account on the phone has been blocked and google cannot send push messages.

Lock phone

If you are already using another type of lock on your phone there will be no point in using this feature.

Click the button and the phone will lock the screen with the 4 digit pincode. You must first have accepted the admin rights on the phone (cannot be initiated remote). If you leaves the pincode empty the phone will be unlocked.

Erase SD Card This will erase your SD card. No further warning will be given.

Wipe phone Dont use this feature unless you REALLY mean it. It will wipe your phone. You must first have accepted the admin rights on the phone (cannot be initiated remote).  Also wipe external storage (requires android 2.3)

I wish I knew about this app before I got my phone stolen.  I ended up changing all my passwords because I was terrified.  Granted I would have had to have admin rights on my phone before I wiped it and put a lock on it, but I can guarantee I will be using these features if my phone ever gets lost/stolen.

Text to speech

Click the button and the phone will speak your message out loud. It will use the default installed TTS language.

EnglishDefault language

I think this is a really neat feature. :) I would want to enter "Find me please!!" hahaha.

Hangup phone Will hangup the phone. Not part of the official API so it may not work on all phones.

Call List Here you can fetch your call list. It will send the last 20 items to the server.

Sound Recording Will record a sound file from the microphone for the selected amount of time. You must have a sound player that supports 3gpp files - for instance the VLC player. If recording is longer than two minutes it will NOT be sent to the server. You will have to fetch it from the phone yourself. 10 seconds20 seconds30 seconds1 minute2 minutes5 minutes10 minuteshalf an hour1 hour

Front Camera Click the button and the phone will take a picture with the front camera and send it to your mail. Requires android 2.3. If you have an older version of android it will default to the rear camera.  Still not perfect. Yes I know that there is a quick popup and yes the mail attachment is not yet perfect.

Rear Camera Click the button and the phone will take a picture with the rear camera and send it to your mail. The phone will take the picture in the lowest possible quality which is 640x480 and around 100k on my phone.

All of these are really neat too!  You can find out if you have had any missed calls or if the person who found your phone has dialed India or some crazy expensive phone call.  I also like the camera information so you can try to figure out where you left your phone.

However the best feature is -

GPS

Click the button and the phone will send the location to your email account. If gps fix is not found in 60 seconds or gps is disabled, network location will be sent. If both GPS and network are disabled the last known location will be sent.

Auto switch on GPS if deactivated

You can see exactly where your phone is located!!!  I tried it out and I got the EXACT location where I am right now.  Kinda crazy, but SOO cool!

Engaged

Well, if official.  I'm engaged to C.  :) But I'm not going to blog about how he did it or any of that stuff, when the wedding website gets up anyone can read our story on there.  I'm going to blog about what its been like since I've gotten engaged.  

I may sound a bit conceited, but my ring is gorgeous!  And when I first called and texted all my friends, everyone asked for pictures of the ring.  I think I ended up taking ~ 30 pictures of my ring before I found ones that were acceptable.  At first I thought my fingers looked ugly.  Then when I made a fist I thought my fingers looked like toes (See picture)

And then when I tried to just take pictures of the ring people asked for pictures of the ring ON my finger.

I mean, no one ever talks about the challenges of taking a ring picture.  I just felt that every picture I took did not live up to the beauty of my ring.  (God, I sound so stuck up!! sorry!)


So, ladies, if you think your going to get engaged soon get a manicure every few weeks leading up to when you think its the big day.  Seriously... I'm not kidding.

The other gigantic surprise was how many people asked me the night or the day after we got engaged if we set a date yet.  Seriously, If I had $10 for every person who asked me if we set a date I think I would have enough for a gorgeous wedding dress.  I was shocked!  I honestly didn't expect anyone to ask if I set a date and when the first person asked I was speechless.  All I wanted to say was we got engaged like 10 minutes ago!  I ended up saying I think we want to get married in Fall, but I don't know if we will get married in 2013 or 2014.

I guess the one good thing about everyone asking me questions is it got me into wedding mode.  I've already started planning.  I've talked to my parents and C's parents to get a rough guest list together.  So far, I think the guest list is going to be gigantic and extremely difficult to narrow down.  Oh well, let the wedding planning begin!

Disappointing Pizza

I have to say, I was not impressed with Giordanos pizza tonight.  We ordered sausage stuffed pizza and it was soggy. :( I don't know if I've been spoiled with Lou Malnati's pizza, but I don't think I will be going back to Giordanos. 

It sort of makes me sad.  I grew up on Giordano's pizza.  The restaurant is down the street from our house.  I have probably had hundreds of pizzas from that restaurant, it used to be my favorite pizza!  And then I moved out to Palatine, and someone introduced me to Lou Malnati's. Lou Malnati has a butter crust.  I don't know how they do it but the crust is AMAZING.  Lou Malnati also makes its own sausage and seriously, its to die for. 

Needless to say, I haven't had anyone's stuffed pizza other than Lou Malnati's for a few years. Until tonight.

Personally, I think Ginos East has amazing thin crust, but Lou Malnatis takes the cake with stuffed.