The end is nigh!!

I am sitting in my new, expensive condo watching the rain POUR DOWN wondering WHY THE HELL I CHOSE TO SETTLE IN CHICAGO!

Now granted, the city I left, Denver, was just slammed by a terrible snow storm (I'll tell you this since our affiliate in Denver, J, is apparently dead or drunk or hung over or something... are you now too good for this blog?!) so apparently there is no escaping the crappy weather right now.

But seriously! I haven't seen the sun in what feels like weeks. (Irony alert: I used to complain about too much sun in Denver... oh well!)

Last night, on my way home from one of my last-ever PM shifts, I got caught in a DOWNPOUR. At one point I was trying to avoid big puddles on the the sidewalk and went into the street (bad idea) and got caught in a flash flood! Seriously, I was ankle-deep in water. I had to put my shoes in the drier this morning (YES, D, I did and NO, D, the drier didn't break!) Now today... we are again in a freakin' flood watch.

Oh NBC Thursday... j'adore!

I'll freely admit it... I have no life. I look forward to days of the week based on what TV is on. I should do something about that someday, right? Meh...

In the meantime, let me just gush about the comedic genius that can now be found on NBC Thursday night (note to NBC Universal / GE: please send my commission for this plug in the form of high-end GE appliances at your earliest convenience).

The new lineup trimmed out the show that I didn't watch, namely "My Name Is Earl" and added "Community" which I'm starting to love. Joel McHale... you had me at... whatever you first said in the pilot of your new show. "Parks & Recreation"? Who doesn't love Amy Poehler? No, seriously... who doesn't love Amy Poehler? I want to know because you, sir/madame, are someone that I don't know if I can trust!! And if you missed the wedding episode of "The Office"... well, I'm sorry for you. But there will always be a special place in my heart for "30 Rock". Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski... never has such an amazing ensemble cast been put together.

Now I know what some of you are saying: "damn, if you have such a hard-on for NBC why don't you just... do it!" Well, smarty-ass... you can just... suck it or something. How can you not love the writing on a show that contains a sequence such as this which takes place while Liz and Jack are driving to Stone Mountain, Georgia looking for a new cast member who will speak to "Middle America"?:

Liz: Jack, for the eightieth time no part of America is more American than any other part.

Jack: You are wrong. Small towns are where you see the kindness and goodness and courage of everyday Americans. The folks who are teaching our kids, running our prisons, growing our cigarettes. People who are still living by core American values.

Liz: There are plenty of core American values in New York. [spots garish fast-food joint on the side of the highway] But there are NOT restaurants called "Fatty Fat's Sandwich Ranch"! Turn here TURN HERE!! [grabs wheel to force Jack to make the turn]

Jack: Ah, Lemon if this is going to play out like lunch I suggest you crack your window now and save yourself the embarrassment in twenty minutes. Now... they have hush puppies here which you might know better as a knish or beniet.

Thank you, DVR!! This same episode also featured Tracy Morgan freaking out that he would be the 3rd celebrity to die (they always die in 3) and in an effort to avoid that fate he crank calls Betty White with "Boo!" trying to scare her to death. OMG, who comes up with this! And props to Betty White on that fabulous cameo.

Okay, I'm done...

How about this??

These colors are called "tyler taupe" and "tawny rose". Ehh?

P. D. and J.: Color Correction

P. D. and J.: Color Correction

So, I know we had this whole discussion before in our old apartment, but here we go again. P and I can't decide on colors for the condo. Basically everything in the place is green. Living room/kitchen, hallway, master bedroom, master bath. We aren't green people.



Clearly, we're contemplating color in this shot. Also, it should be noted that this was the final walk-through before we actually owned it. There's a LOT more crap crammed in it right now, which is why you can't see any "live" shots just yet. The living room and kitchen are both in one space. You can see the cabinets in the picture, and that's black granite countertops. No backsplash (yet). At the other end of the room is the fireplace, also granite.



So, smarties, what would you suggest?

Hair today...

...more hair tomorrow? I'm doing it. I threaten it every year, but I'm growing my hair out. This is what I'm thinking, though honestly, I can't see myself as wearing it THAT messy. Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns? Discuss. Via the blog comments.

And condos!

So the condo is really great. We have a mile-long list of improvements we'd like to make (and no money to do ANY of them). Slow and steady wins the race, I suppose. I'd post pictures, but the condo is still primping. In anticipation of the pictures, some of my favorite highlights include:

1. The incredibly clean and sparkly bathrooms. We came from a vintage apartment with a very old bathroom. The hot water didn't work until my brother fixed it. And even after it started working, the water would leak all over the top of the sink. Plus, there was only one bathroom, and it smelled like mildew. I bet if you tore the tile off the walls of the shower, you'd find a metropolis of mold.

Our new bathrooms are all tiley and granitey. My new Sunday ritual is to scour them both from top to bottom. My sick secret is that I enjoy it.

2. The incredibly clean and sparkly kitchen. Our old kitchen can be described in one word: sick. It was about the size of a shoe box, and there was about one foot of counter space. The cabinets (all four of them) didn't match, the counter didn't fit, and I had to scrape an inch of grease off the stove when we first moved in.

Our new kitchen has TONS of cabinets and appliances that work. Well, except I hate the dishwasher. It's the most awkward appliance I've ever seen, and none of our dishes really fit. But the REST of the kitchen is wonderful. Our pantry cabinet holds more than all of the cabinets combined in our old kitchen.

3. The closet space. If I was good at html, I'd insert one of those heavenly "ahhhhh!" sounds here. We had no closet space in the old apartment. What we did have was crammed full of my "old lady Christmas village" (P's words, not mine) and miscellaneous other Christmas decorations.

We have a full wall of closets in each bedroom (which badly need organization -- #3 on our list of wants), a coat closet, a linen closet and a full storage room. *sigh* Also, have I mentioned all of our kitchen cabinet space?!

We're definitely still unpacking -- we're also still getting used to where things are. Example: Last night, at about 3:30am, I woke up to a very loud boom. I yelled something like, "holy shit!" and got up to turn on the light. I found P on the floor holding his knee. The poor guy had hit his knee on the corner of the chest at the foot of our bed. As soon as he did, he hit the floor. Hard. He was ok, but I'm pretty sure the cats are scarred for life. Think low to the ground and wild-eyed.

I have these grand ideas that I'll come home from work and completely organize one room each night. What actually happens is that I come home from work, make dinner or clean up after dinner (depending on who is cooking), and sit on my ass watching tv for the rest of the night. If good intentions were dollar bills, I'd have enough to buy numbers 1 through 3 on our wants list. Well, gotta go! "Real Estate Intervention" is on!

Just rip it off quickly...

Hello loyal blog fan(s). It's me, P. Who am I, you ask? Good question. I have been absent from this blog for far too long. I'm guessing few people even bother checking in on PD&J anymore. But hopefully we can get this blog goin' once again.

I thought I would blog today about why it has been so terribly long since you've heard from me. It has been the absolute worst 3 months of my life. This summer was hellaciously busy and now we are halfway into October and I'm all, "Hey... wha' happened?" (QUICK, NAME THAT MOVIE REFERENCE!)

So why, you ask (or not... but I'll tell you anyhow...) have you been so MIA? Well, over the summer I (we) was (were):

1. Studying for boards. I will (HOPEFULLY) soon find out that I am a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist. I studied starting in August and took the test in early October. It was a hard test and I spent all of my free time studying. Now that it's over I can finally enjoy my free time (for a little while). You know, leisure reading? I don't remember the last time I finished a book.

2. Preparing for / interviewing for a faculty position at hospital above. I had my interview just about 1 week before my boards. Oh, and I had to prepare a 45-minute presentation for that. And FYI I got the position. More on that later.

3. Some of you might have also seen the last post about how we moved and how much of a nightmare that was. So we were SUPPOSED to close originally only 3 days after my 2-day interview (!!) but that got delayed. As did our move.

In the span of 12 days, during which I worked every single day (yes, the weekend included), I had this job interviewed, closed on a condo, moved (I didn't help as much with that... shout out to D and my mom) and sat for my boards. Ask D: I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Now I'm free and still feel exhausted from the last few months. I could use a long vacation. But alas I work this weekend. But the new job is no evenings, weekends or holidays so just a little bit longer and I'm free!