Silly songs

I realize it's been nearly a month since I last posted, even though many funny things have happened. It's actually a virtually daily occurrence in our house, and that's something I am frequently grateful for. D & I spent a pretty relaxing weekend at the house, but still managed to get a lot done. On Friday, I held the second Pittsburgh Neuroanatomy Group meeting, which is something I've been trying at work. Basically we have a bunch of neuroanatomists in the department, but because they all work in different areas of the brain (hypothalamus vs brain stem vs midbrain vs cortex), we never really all get in one room together. Which is a shame, because on technically related matters, there's a lot we can learn from each other. So, I've been trying to get everyone in one room, talking about their projects, techniques in general, and also socializing (since one of my main problems is talking to professors, and I imagine I'm not the only grad student who is intimidated by these pretty-famous-people). I still feel like most of them don't like me, but I'm working on getting rid of this negative thought. I've been going to therapy for this kind of thing, and I'm going to try to get better at getting myself out there, professionally.

But, back to our weekend. After the meeting, I met up with a couple of friends for some beer, pool, and darts. Then D met me at the bar, and we went home. Unfortunately, he got a new Sims game (Sims castaway), and so he spent the majority of the evening playing that. Well, so did I (we took turns), but I also went to bed at 9:30. Saturday morning, I met my friend M for coffee (as is our habit now). I walked down to the So Side Flats, which was good for me even though it was 22 degrees out. Warmed up in her house for a bit, then we headed out. She's going through a bunch of annoying legal stuff over her husband's kid from a previous marriage (big custody battle in the last year, and the mother is incredibly unreasonable), so we usually chat about that, and we caught up on our respective Thanksgiving stories (she went to Massachusetts, where we're both from, and D & I spent the weekend in Phila). After coffee, we usually wander into the insanely expensive kitchen store where I spend too much money on little gadgets I don't need, but I avoided it this time. I did go to the bookstore though, and found some really good holiday cards. Then both of us went to the grocery store, & I got candy making materials.

So, Saturday afternoon, D & I made toffee. I also just about finished wrapping presents for my nephews, and started making out envelopes for the cards we'll need to send out. D did a heroic amount of laundry, I made an edible dinner (though not fabulous by any means), and finally cleaned my bathroom. with Lysol :) The real stuff, not the stuff that's in meadow blossom scent or whatever. I bought 5 bottles of the concentrated lysol off the internet for very cheap, but was dismayed to find that all of the caps were defective - D couldn't get them open any more than I could. But, I just drilled holes in the bottles, and transferred them to another container. I know you're not supposed to do this, especially since I don't have the secondary container labeled, but I assume that the cats still can't open bottle caps & that D would realize that it doesn't smell like something one should drink. Plus it's in the chemical cabinet. Maybe I'll get around to labeling it soon.

Oh, but back to my weekend. Sunday, I got up early-ish, made it to work for a couple of hours, & then went grocery shopping. In the afternoon, I coated the toffee with chocolate, made soup for the week, and made a roast beef for dinner (something I very rarely do).

After dinner, D & I watched cartoons, and got ready for bed. As I was leaving the third floor, I told him I would switch the laundry for him (since he was still going to be up for awhile), and he started singing, "I'll switch the laundry" to the tune of "I shot the sherriff". This is one of the things that I love about him. We both do this - I have a song that I sing to my cat "Kitty, kitty, oh-o kitty cat, what are you lookin' at?" that is a supremes song, I think - and have done this for a long time. I can't claim credit for it even, my mom always made up songs when we were growing up, and she usually came up with her own music too. But I love that he's as silly as I am in this respect.

I actually first noticed it when we made our first drive from MA to PA. We drove overnight, and somehow kept singing, "I been driving all night, my hands white on the wheel, durn-nurn-nur-nur-nur-na na na" at intervals when neither one of us had anything left to talk about. It would crack both of us up, and it made the trip more fun. I don't remember the first silly song he made up, but I do distinctly remember him backing me up on a rendition of the themesong from the Jeffersons. He's a good back-up singer, and it was one of those moments when you realize you really love this person. (There's also the tale of der Muffinmacher, and der Snuggler, but that's for another time :)

Hope everyone is having a good day!