Archive for the 'Rants' Category

Unexpected treasures from housecleaning

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

While we were cleaning up this weekend for the party, I was rearranging some of the stuff that’s on the lower level of our coffee table (ie, the place where we stick photo albums and stuff that we don’t know what to do with), and I found this beautiful silver frame, with our names engraved at the top, which contained what looks like handmade paper with little red pressed flowers on it, and a possibly-handwritten 1 Corinthians 13 (you know, “love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy…”). We must have put it down there with the other silver frames we got as wedding gifts but hadn’t found any pictures to put in them… In any case, I pulled it out, dusted it off, and it now occupies a prominent place on our bookshelves. It’s perfectly beautiful, and as over-used as 1 Corinthians 13 is at weddings (since Paul wasn’t actually talking about romantic love, but whatever), it’s one of my favorite passages.

The problem is… I can’t for the life of me remember who gave it to us. Which makes me absolutely *terrified* that someone didn’t get a thank-you note for it!  Y’all KNOW how I am about thank-you notes.

So if this sounds like something you gave us, please pipe up in the comments so that I can send you an inexcusably belated thank-you note, as well as an apology for letting your lovely gift languish on our coffee table’s lower shelf for too long.

tips for a happy wedding

Wednesday, October 17th, 2007

I have a friend who is planning a wedding right now, and she’s frustrated by how complicated it all seems to be. So, since I think this is the kind of information that is helpful to people generally, I’ll share with you what I learned about how to put on a terrific wedding with reduced drama and no debt.  (I know, there was TONS of drama involved in planning our wedding, but it was mostly external- I’m pretty sure I didn’t personally cause four sets of reception plans to fall through.)  Advice culled from my own experience as well as from those of my friends.  It’s by no means comprehensive, but it’s some stuff that worked well for me.

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par-tay at Hacienda Bridge

Tuesday, June 5th, 2007

On Sunday, Tom and I are hosting a li’l shindig at our place to celebrate our first anniversary.

If you are in DC and a friend of ours and yet did not get the invitation, it’s not that we don’t love you. It’s that we’re usually in the middle of something when we start adding people to the guest list. Drop me a line and I’ll share the plans with you on Planyp.us, which is one of the coolest party/invitations/planning sites I’ve ever seen.

Nathan Fillion can’t get no love at FOX, clearly.

Thursday, April 26th, 2007

Tom sums up my feelings pretty nicely about Drive.

The show had aired a grand total of THREE episodes before FOX pulled the plug.  Nothing like deliberating over a decision, guys.

sick. again.

Saturday, November 11th, 2006

Dear sinuses-and-throat,

Stop it. Just fucking stop it. It’s bad enough that I had to wander through the streets of NYC and schlep to Penn Station with a fever. It’s bad enough that when I got home to my husband I was too tired and ill to have a decent conversation with him. It was totally over the line that I had to spend my birthday sick, feverish, and miserable. But today Mike and Jessi are getting married, and Tom’s whole family is in town. And I’m stuck sitting in a corner trying to stay upright instead of conversing pleasantly with my in-laws, because you chose THIS weekend to get all clogged and gooey and sore. So fuck you. Get better already. I’ve kept you well supplied with the finest OTC pharmaceutical products modern medicine has to offer. How about a little gratitude?

Love,

Tiff

it’s cold, and the internet wolves are after me

Friday, November 3rd, 2006

We’re getting new windows at Hacienda Bridge today.  We’ve been planning to do it for months, and in the grand tradition of the Baxendells, it’s happening on the coldest day so far this fall. 

I thought they were just going to take out a couple of windows at a time and then replace them, but according to Tom, who called me at work this afternoon, they took ALL the windows out at once and then started replacing them then.  So it’s 40 degrees outside and there are TEN GIANT HOLES in my house.  They promise we’ll have windows before dark, though.  That’s good, because this morning they were predicing that itwas going to drop below freezing tonight, and all I could think was, “Wow, I’m SO glad we’re going to have our new windows by then.”

Oh yeah, and our phone/Internet is down, and Comcast can’t set a service appointment because their service database is down. 

So if you don’t hear from me for a couple of days… that’s why. :D

one other change in my life

Monday, October 16th, 2006

I thought of another thing that is different now that Tom and I are married.

I can’t just have an upset stomach or be extra tired now.  Oh no, I can’t just feel a little stomach flu-y.  If I mention any sort of stomach discomfort or fatigue now, a look passes over the face of the person I’m talking to.

Every young married woman I know will know the look.  And we probably all hate it uniformly.  It’s the look that says the person is wondering whether they should ask The Question.  It’s the look that makes us all want to shout:

NO, I AM NOT PREGNANT!

Maybe if you hear us better you’ll stop asking and let us puke in peace.

an open letter

Thursday, August 10th, 2006

Dear Spammers:

My comments are not here so that you can game Google and artificially raise your PageRank.  If you’re interested in raising your organic ranking, you should consider buying ads here like the ones I have over at MPOJ

Otherwise… I hate you.  Please die.

No love,

Tiff

non-consensual behavior

Monday, June 26th, 2006

You know what would be great? If the spammers pushing the Indian pr0n could STOP ASSAULTING MY BLOG!  That would rock.

Assholes.

newlywed thoughts

Tuesday, June 13th, 2006

We don’t feel old enough to have the terms “husband” and “wife” applied to us. That doesn’t mean we aren’t trying them out regularly. :)

Tom does this cute ring-twisting thing, since he’s still getting used to how it feels on him (I went through this with the engagement ring). I think this is adorable and giggle just a little bit whenever I see him doing it.

Note to our unmarried friends: Yes, it’s our honeymoon, but you know, we DO have to come up for air once in a while. And food. And potty breaks. So it’s not surprising at all if you see us online. We’re probably snuggling up in our matching bathrobes and making smoochy faces at each other, if it makes you feel any better.

The small notecard form factor is the bride’s best friend- you can fit about 5 sentences on them, and then your thank-you note is finished.