Look what we got

We researched. We looked. We narrowed it down. We offered. They countered.
We accepted.
Check out our new pad. :)

And now for something completely different!

Marcus and I have done a lot of things together. We've visited casinos (what does it say about me that I mentioned that first?), gone to college and graduate school, worked in West Virginia, lived in the city that never sleeps, gotten married, honeymooned in the Florida Keys, made a little person, cooked tacos, and lots of other cool things. But we've never bought a house before. And in case you couldn't tell, we're freaked out.

It's 11:24 on Thursday evening. At 4 in the morning, the Marjen household will pack up our Dodge car and head out for the Great Alabama House Hunt of 2008. Lord help us. We have about a zillion houses to look at and only 5 days in which to see them all with Phil, our realtor. Fortunately, my parents will be joining us on Thursday evening. Our brains should be sufficiently fried by then and I, for one, will be good and ready for a hug from my Mommy and Daddy. My dad, who gets a kick out of watching me handle stressful situations, should be in for a real treat.

I'm taking the computer with me in hopes of posting daily updates. Hopefully our hotel will have internet access. Be sure to check back to laugh at, uh I mean read about our adventures!

How NOT to lose the baby weight

Eat the following BEFORE NOON:

1 whole wheat bagel with low-fat cream cheese (Ok, so that's not too bad)
1 cup coffee with equal (again, not bad)
10 blue corn chips with roasted garlic hummus (uh, oh)
1 can of Cherry Coke. Full calorie. You know, because the artificial sweeteners in Diet Coke are bad for the baby. The baby who's been out of my body for 3 1/2 months. Yeah.
3 potato pancakes with fat-free sour cream (My mother is now opening another window so she can write me an email telling me to watch my salt.)

I was going to have a hamburger and fries, but realized I used the hamburger meat to make spaghetti sauce last week. I am very forgetful about meat these days. I preheated the oven Monday night to make chicken only to look in our fridge and freezer and realize I had not bought chicken. Nice.

Anyway, this weight was much cuter when it was all in my belly in the form of a cute baby-to-be. (see photo) And I'm going to Alabama next week where I will CERTAINLY eat BBQ. Probably twice. Oh, well.

If you cut yourself, I'm totally there for you.

I had grand plans today of doing laundry, going to Hallmark to purchase cards for our friends and family with late-April birthdays, strolling through the 'hood with Dean, hitting the grocery store to try and get inspired about dinner. This was all before Dean decided that all he wanted to do today was nap. All. Day. He did stay awake long enough to dribble formula all over himself and me, which prompted me to give him a bath, which prompted him to pass out. Anyway, since I have some free time, I decided to clean out the remaining drawers in my dresser, clean out some old purses and make a final bag for Goodwill. That didn't take as long as I thought, so I decided to tackle the cabinet under the bathroom sink. Now I admit to being a bit of a hoarder when it comes to bathroom things. I love lotion, body wash, sample-sizes, all such as that. But y'all. Even I have to admit that my findings were a little out of control. Let's inventory, shall we?

I found:

*Enough band-aids to stop the world from bleeding. Forever. Seriously, there are like 20 boxes under there. Fortunately, I can use them to re-stock my stage management kit.

*4 bottles of Advil liqui-gels. Before I got pregnant and was then diagnosed with PKD, this was my pain reliever of choice. Now I'm Tylenol all the way. But Marcus keeps telling me we are out of Advil, so I keep buying it. And now we have 4 bottles. I condensed them down to 2.

*A bottle of body splash I received as a gift in 2001. I know.

*Approximately 500 of those neat little makeup bags Clinique gives you as a free gift when you buy $21.50 worth of stuff. My mom always sends me hers. Did I mention how cool my mom is? They are filled with trial-sized goodies, and we all know how Jen looooooves trial-sized things! I haven't had to buy mascara in 3 years.

*5 bottles of various prenatal vitamins (none of which I could keep in my stomach for more than 20 minutes) and a bottle of Centrum Silver, which eventually became my prenatal vitamin of choice.

*A bottle of M, Mariah Carey's perfume. I got it when I was on The View.

*2 pairs of those mesh panties they put on you in the hospital after your c-section. Now I don't remember a lot about the few days following Dean's birth (thank you, Percocet), but I do remember packing these in my bag to bring home, along with a package of the enormous sanitary napkins they give you in the hospital. I have no idea when or where I thought I would need to wear mesh panties, but I'll be danged if I wasn't leaving with mine! Maybe I'll put them in my stage management kit.

*Hundreds of Kotex. Seriously. Hundreds. And I just bought a new pack last week. So hundreds and 24.

*Venus razor blades!!!!! I'm actually really excited about these because they are expensive!

*3 trial-sized cans of Edge shave gel. These belong to my husband. One of my pet-peeves about Marcus is his complete inability to prioritize what needs to go in his makeup kit when we travel. (I know it's an "overnight kit" because he's a guy, but I call it his makeup kit. Because it irks him. And that makes me giggle.) He NEVER brings shaving cream. He ALWAYS borrows a full-sized can from his dad when we visit, then steals it. Therefore, we also have 6, count em, 6 full-sized cans in our 1/2 squre foot bathroom. Gr.

*17 small bottles of hand lotion. This is because Marcus and I both had terribly dry skin in the days after Dean's birth, probably because of all the Purell, baby wipes and hand soap we used during diaper duty. I have now distributed our favorites among my purse, his makeup bag (hahahaha), my makeup bag, my stage management kit (which is getting SO totally stocked!) and our home. I now feel that I must tell you about Glysomed, the best hand lotion in the world. Unfortunately, it kind of smells like old ladies at church (slightly rosy). The good news is that it works so well, you just don't care!

And now, a free moving tip from Jen:
When purging your bathroom cabinet, be careful not to pour out too many different scents of lotion, perfume and body spray on the same day. Spread it out or else you, too, will end up smelling like a mix of Clinique Happy Jasmine Ylang Ylang White Tea Lemon Verbena Cucumber Melon Baby Powder. Mmm Mmm.

Let's hope Jessie Spano doesn't show up in CHICAGO

I just read on playbill.com that Mario Lopez, aka A.C. Slater from Saved By The Bell, is about to make his Broadway debut in A CHORUS LINE. Now, I realize the man can dance. I mean, who can forget him ripping off his clothes in "The Max" to win Jessie's heart with some sassy pique turns? But this is part of an ongoing trend on Broadway where, let's call them "unconventional" actors end up in shows. CABARET a few years ago was the perfect example. Everyone from Brooke Shields to Molly Ringwald to Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie!) was in it. Seriously. Marcus and I are about the only people in NYC who did not grace the stage as Sally Bowles and the Emcee. A stage manager friend of mine worked on that show and said they had a piece of paper in their office where people would write down who should play the roles next. Most of them were jokes, but a couple of times, folks from that piece of paper ended up in the show. I certainly understand the need for a "big" name on the marquis. That certainly sells tickets and often brings in a more diverse audience than you might get with theatre-only actors whose names are not as recognizable. I'm not saying these folks are not talented, I'm just saying that if my years of working in the NYC theatre scene and the Broadway community have taught me anything it's that there's an unbelievable amount of untapped talent in this city. I'd like to see an unknown actor (or even a lesser-known theatre actor) get a role over a "big name" any day. This, friends, is why Jen usually works for not-for-profit companies and is also why she will never, ever be a theatre producer in NYC. (Well, that and she's broke.)

So what's your nightmare casting for Broadway? Mickey Rooney as Annie? The guy who played Squiggie as the Phantom? Don't just limit yourselves to Saved By The Bell characters! :)

FINALLY!

Oh, spring has come at last to NYC! (of course the forecast says it's going to rain all weekend, but give me my moment, won't you?) I love spring, always have. It rejuvenates my mind and body and brings back fantastic memories of springs-gone-by. Gone are the grey, dreary days of winter, melted is the snow, no more do I have to wear boots and a coat. My body, by the way, rejects coats, having grown up in the south and never having needed a real coat before I moved to Ithaca, New York at the tender age of 24. Talk about one extreme to another! Mr. Dean and I celebrated the gorgeous weather by going into Manhattan to have lunch with Kitty and Vikram in Bryant Park. It was packed, others obviously as excited as we were about the sunshine and high-60s temperature. Dean was his usual charming self, flirting with passers-by and girl babies.

Did you notice I put a link in that last paragraph? You can click it and learn all about Ithaca! Yes, it took me this long to figure out how to do that on my blog. I am intimidated by the little buttons.

Before I was a mommy, today would have prompted me to run to the nearest nail salon for a pedicure to ready my tootsies for sandal season. Now, however, I don't think I should force my 13 week old (Oh my gosh, he's 13 wks. old!) to sit in a tiny space getting high on acetone fumes while Mommy gets her toes painted bright pink. (shameless plug for OPI Japanese Rose Garden --greatest bright pink toe color ever! Again with the links--I'm outta control!) Rather than my inaugural pedicure to welcome springtime, today I opted to shave my legs while Dean took a nap, something I'm sure my husband will appreciate. (Who am I kidding? He probably won't even notice!)

So tell me, friends, how do you ring in springtime? Pedicures? Ice cream from the truck? Inquiring minds want to know.

Fun with spit rags...Part Deux!

This will never not be funny.