things that are making me happy

i'm kind of in love with the color scheme of this room. it makes me really happy and i want to sit in a big chair with a smoking jacket and cigar. so there. def the prettiest of all the red and purple combos.

dream apartment - 68

so this link has some cool pictures of pools. this first one is neat because its in boston (you can tell by the skyline. that, AND, they tell you in the below section)

this next pictures really irked me. we all know i'm afraid of sharks in pools. WHY would you paint them on the floor of the pool??? thats just asking for trouble.

so i just keep going back to this pool which makes me very very happy - indoors (no stupid bugs or trees or other forms of life), there is a SWING - AWE-SOME, AND its right next to a bar! (at first i thought it was a kitchen which seemed silly to me, but then i realized...)

thoughts?

gotta get thru this

ok. let's do this. i figure i'd write now and then not feel guilty in the morning when i am too tired to ramble. its 12:12am. sunday evening / monday morning. today did not turn out like i thought it would and i am trying, desperately (?), to do the ONE thing i need to do this weekend: expense reports. i dont know why i just can't do this. its weird. ugh.

anyway, i've just put on stand by me and i'm determined to not go to bed until i finish them.

so here's why my day didn't turn out. i played tennis with bubby and then asked kc to go to brunch. i would've only had a glass of wine at brunch, but ... well, i had more. then i suggested we go for another drink. which we did; we went to the beehive. then, once again, i suggested we head to my place to play a game. so they were over until 5pm. they left to go to a movie with higgi and i went upstairs to get ready for yoga at 630. i sat on my bed and called my mom. i put on wait, wait dont tell me so i could listen to it while i got ready. then, all of a sudden, it was 7:30pm. i must've fallen asleep on my bed and totally missed my yoga class. i was sad. i really like that class. no more drinking on sundays. i like that class and don't want to miss it again.

since i woke up, i've done quite a bit, but not my expense reports. i'm gonna start now. let's see how long it takes me.

[song by daniel bedingfield. i think.]

i'm not your stepping stone

morning. i'll preface the title before i get going anywhere else: i'm not trying to subtly tell anyone anything. that's just the song i'm listening to right now. i love it. paul revere and the raiders. not your stepping stone! your stepping stone!

anyway, its sunday. there is absolutely 100% something new that is making me very very happy. giddy happy. i don't know how to link to it, so check this out. genius! i just tweeted about it i like it so much.

i was going to write more, but i actually have to get going soon. i'm going to brunch with kc and the sunshine band. i've already played a few games of ticket to ride today (on my ipad - LOVE the app!!), played tennis with bubby at northeastern and took a quick shower. now i'm heading out for mimosas and brunch.

ok, i guess ihave 3 min. so friday night i was at work late and didnt get to go to my bollywood class. and i think this coming friday i'm going to take my little out, so i dont think i'll get to go to it then, either. i hope they keep having it.

yesterday, i went to michael's with bubby and i paid to get 2 things professionally framed and then got a ton other frames for things i like. woo hoo. oh, i shouldn't gotten some regular picture frames. oh well. next time, i guess. gotta do some hanging now, too. i'll take pics and post them up. after that, i rented a zipcar for my lazer hair appointment. did that and then picked up dry cleaning in my zipcar, stopped to get sushi and came home to eat and drink wine while i read a book that i was supposed to finish FOREVER ago. played some ticket to ride and then watched a movie and went to bed (you will meet a tall dark handsome stranger).

tonight i'm going to yoga but after brunch i 100% MUST do my expense reports and create a budget. it will kill me if i dont. ok, over and out.

dream apartment - 67

yes, please. so fun! here are more.

Baingan Bhartha

guten moooooorgen.

i'm at work already. been here since 730 so THERE. HA! i came in early because i really really must absolutely do some expense reports. i did one quick one yesterday and that felt good. i need to do about 8 other ones, at least. and i have to get them to our accountant dude soon because the turnaround.... well, its not so fast and i am gone in a week. so that is my main goal for today and this weekend. other than that, i have a ton of cards i need to send (if you're so lucky you may just get one!) and i need to put a study schedule together. tonight i am going to go to a bollywood dance class. my friend, lisa, didn't know what bollywood dance was, so i am going to look for a video of it. i know my brother homie knows! he and his friends bonded with my roommate freshman year of college over it. they came to visit in boston and danced bye, bye, bye for her and then she showed them the bollywood video and they practiced that, too! ohhh, who is that funny bollywood guy?? i'm gonna have to find that, too now. grr. (happy grr)

so here is the first bollywood video i could find:


basically, all bollywood movies are the same - boy falls in love with girl (or vice versa) but something is keeping them apart (usually parents or social status - darn!) and then they dance men vs. women and get together in the end. if you've seen slumdog millionaire they do a bollywood dance at the end. and that is the class i am going to go to tonight (if i actually go - its supposed to rain and i hate the rain. i'm afraid i'll melt. so i might just go home. OR i might stay late and finish expense reports! mwahahahahahahahaha!!!)

anyway, also this weekend i have another laser hair removal appointment. which means i have to get a rental car (zip car), BUT i havent ordered that yet because i am not sure if i am going to see my little or not. we have kind of been playing phone tag. sunday night i have a cool yoga class and thats about all i have planned for the weekend.

what are your plans?

oh, also, here is a cute video that a enjoyed.


h/t here.

oh! i also forgot. last night lisa and i played tennis at a country club - movin up in the world, people!! - and then went to eat at the franklin cafe. omgosh. tennis is SO FUN. it was AWESOME. we play against this couple who seem really cool. and they are beginners like us. the husband is slightly better - he's moved on to the "intermediate" class, while we're still very beginners, BUT we all kind of suck, which makes it so fun! it was really cool. i enjoyed it a lot. i was just emailing mother hen and saying how i might bring my tennis racket next time im in fargo so i can
beat
my
brothers.

or maybe play when they're in boston. oooo. that would be REALLY cool. what sayst you??

[no song title for today - its actually the name of an eggplant dish at my favorite indian restaurant. but say it. it sounds awesome. say it with an indian accent.

get on the pony, romance the cow

so my friend [dave] earns two gold stars for getting back to me so quickly! i asked him for the guy who "translates" bollywood videos into english. i had seen these a few years ago, but couldnt remember the name. [this is in reference to my post today, so you get two posts for the price of one!] anyway, this guy is HILARIOUS. (in case you don't get it, these arent REAL translations, they just what it SOUNDS like.)




oh, actually, this second video that i found explains just that:



maybe i'll learn the johnny gay dance tonight.

de rien

its 450 am. i have been up for a few hours now - unable to sleep. my goal is to put the computer away at 5 and attempt to get 2 hours of sleep. i have tennis tonight so i need to be in better form. sigh. why can't i sleep?? i think its the heat. even though the fan is pointed DIRECTLY on me, i keep waking up and its not pleasing to me. grr. this is the 3rd night in a row or something. maybe i'll take friday off so i can sleep in and get some stuff done. i have to finish a book by saturday. and i have yet to do the stupid expense reports. that frustrates me. at about 330 this morning i thought of showering and taking a cab to the office, but then i remembered that they shut off the AC during the night and our building gets super hot. that would have put me in a worse mood, so i decided to hang out here listening to music and willing myself back to sleep. sigh.

so last night went to kc and the sunshine band's condo to watch one of my favorite movies - gloomy sunday. check it out if you want. its quite good.

i think i was going to write about something else, but now i can't remember.

so i haven't been following the minot flood recovery. i have no idea where the water level is, but apparently its gone down quite a bit because i know people who are going to help with the cleanup. it seems odd because half the city was destroyed and the other half is still working and (mostly) functional. bizarre. here is a story about how there was already a housing crisis in north dakota (minot, specifically but all over western nodak). is the only thing i've seen about the flood recently.

ok, its 5 so i have to go to bed. i can't figure out how to embed, so check this link out. i love wipeout. i saw this episode - it was totally crazy when the girl on the yellow thing held on with her legs - wild!

[listening to beltuner]

put me in, coach

i'm ready to play!

today!

soo.... yesterday. umm, yeah. we had our first softball game last night. i was super dooper dreading it because of the heat, but when we got to the field, it wasn't that horrible. AND, for the record, well... everything needs to be recorded:

so we joined a financial services softball league this year ("we" = my company). we're a young company (average age is potentially lower than 30) and innovative and we like to have fun. i'm on the charitable contributions committee which is sponsoring the team (because our committee is kind of also the "social" committee - our main goal (while volunteering and donating) is to get employees involved) and so i've kind of been helping get people amped to join the team. our first game was supposed to be in may. there are 8 teams in our league (or maybe 10?) and our games rotate nights - one night it might be on tuesday and the next week it might be thursday and the week after friday. so its pretty inconsistent, BUT we have at least 20 people who signed up to play, so we never thought it would be an issue getting people to the games (we need 10 players).

i think i've mentioned this before, but we have not played a SINGLE game this year. we have had 4 or 5 rainouts, one game where we had to forfeit because we didn't have enough people (4 of whom are in my team and we were all in vermont for an off-site event) and one game we got all geared up to play and found out the day of the game that the league hadn't reserved our field for that day, so we didn't actually have a game. so its almost the end of summer and we have never played. last night was our first game and we actually played!

and here is how we did... you have to have at least 2 women on the team and you can have 10 people in the outfield. its slow pitch softball and i'm not sure how competitive the league is. we are not a competitive firm. we had 5 women last night at the game. and 5 men. in fact, two of our players CAME to the game FROM vacation - like, they LEFT their vacation just to come ot the game because we weren't going to have enough players otherwise. this was kind of a shock, but maybe not since it IS a "holiday" week... so, anyway, 5 women, one of whom is me (i have NEVER EVER played softball before - up until mid-may i had never thrown a ball and up until 2 weeks ago i had never swung a bat (and even then it was a "cricket" bat (and would you guess that i am ACTUALLY pretty GOOD at cricket??))). so that is just a summary of our team. we get to the field and there are about 12 30-year old, in-shape, fit men on the other team. one girl. since they ddin't have enough girls, we were given at least one out per inning to "even it out." (i'm trying not to think aobut the implication that, of course, a WOMAN will get an OUT - whatever.)

i was super worried about not being able to throw the ball. so we practice beforehand and i caught a ton of balls! AND i threw them back to my partner. i was pretty damn good.

so we start. the other team bats first. i'm the catcher. after the 3rd player, there was a play at home base and i forgot to get the ball that was thrown at me. oops. i was worried about being run over by the runner. so, that was my first mistake. after that, the pitcher kept running in to home to help me out. kind of embarrassing, but whatever. we put most of our "good" players in the in-field because its slow-pitch softball, i guess. the assumption is that all the plays are in the in-field? anyway, the plays were not. ALL of the batters hit to the WAY out-field. in fact, they might've hit to the OTHER field. after the first 9 batters, we got our first (default) out. then another 9 batters - 2nd default out. if you're keeping score, this means, YES, EVERY player scored. not necessarily a home run, but they hit home plate. after another 2 or 3 players, we caught a pop-fly to get our 3rd out. great start to the game. yes, it is easily 20-0.

so w'ere up to bat and i was batting 5 or 6. we had 4 hitters and 3 outs. no runs. we officially suck.

we switched up our players to put the better players in the outfield and they put me in right field. we got considerably better after that, but they still scored a few runs on us every inning. when it was my turn to bat, i hit the ball but did not make it to first before they got me out. oh well. i think i was the 2nd out and right after me was the 3rd. no scoring.

after that, the other team switched to batting left-handed. AND they would only run 2 bases at a time. err - jog. they would only jog two bases at a time. they DEF stopped playing as aggressively and enjoyed their beers (of which we had none). i think they mercy-ruled us after the 5th inning. no one knows the score. 30+ to nothing. it was really fun, but man, we sucked.

i went home and made dinner which included chopping up some red peppers. i cleaned up the kitchen, ate dinner while watching the big c and then took a shower. after my shower i took my contacts out and BURNED my eyes. i have no idea how. obviously it was the peppers, but i dont understand - i have NEVER had issues with regular peppers before. i ended up taking the other contact out with a tissue because i was afraid of hurting the other eye.

so... all in all, weird day. crappy game. went back to the office afterward. burned my eye. and super hot out.

i'll get better, though, right??

epilepsy is dancing

oops! i let the long weekend get away from me without posting anything. sorry. and now i feel badly about that. i had SO MUCH to do last weekend and didnt get anything important done. i feel like a failure. ugh. BUT i did have a pretty good weekend. i went to a brunch on saturday. that was fun. then we went home and had drinks. i went to my room to take a nap and that was kind of the end of my saturday (which was fine). sunday, i went to quincy with the roommate to get some furniture for our place. then i played tennis and went to brunch. i also went to yoga which was great. yesterday, i went for a bikeride and stopped at some friends' house. then we had kc over to watch a movie, which we didnt get to. we went to eat at franklin cafe, instead. it was good. i did not finish my expense reports, make a study schedule, create a budget, finish a book i'm reading, etc. so now i feel badly about all that. and its starting to be super hot. i hate hot. bleh.

tonight we have a *fingers crossed* softball game. we have been rained out 4 times, had to forfeit once because we didnt have enough players, and one time we didnt realize until the day of our game that we didnt have a game. so, yes, this is the middle of the summer almost and our first game. i'm sure we're going to suck. ha! AND they've put me at catcher. i'm going to have sore thighs in the morning AND be grumpy because of all the heat. AND it means i can't go to yoga tonight, which i'm kind of annoyed about. grr. i also have to pick up the farm share today during lunch which means that after the game, i will have to come to work to pick it up because i can't very well bring half a dozen of eggs out in 80 degree weather. stupid summer heat.

wow. i wasn't even planning on complaining today! i'm in a grumpy mood because of some stuff at home. i should probably deal with it, but ... bleh. oh, and i have to find time to hang out with my little. i'm pretty sure she isn't going to call me. hmmm...

IN HAPPY NEWS! the local paper finally (?) recognized my brothers wedding. i have no idea why they are publishing it NOW, but - congrats! its offical! they're marrieded.

Published July 03, 2011, 12:00 AM
Lutovsky-Erdmann
Lindsay Lutovsky and Jon Erdmann were married Oct. 2, 2010, at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Fargo.

Parents are Scott and Peggy Lutovsky, Voss, N.D.; and Tom and Renae
Erdmann, Fargo.

Attendants were Whitney Lutovsky, Chelsey Lut­ovsky,
Adam Hass, Matt Charpentier and Joe Riley, all Fargo; Jaime Hoenke, Nash, N.D.;
Kailey Restad, Grand Forks; Danielle Erdmann, Boston; Eric Erdmann, Bismarck;
and Taylor Lutovsky, Voss.

Lindsay graduated in 2003 from Minto (N.D.)
High School and in 2010 graduated from North Dakota State University with a
master’s degree in community counseling.

Jon graduated in 2002 from
Fargo North High School and in 2008 graduated from NDSU with a bachelor’s degree
in management information systems.

The couple will make their home in
Fargo, where Lindsey is a needs assessment counselor at Prairie St. John’s and
Jon is an information technology specialist with Vision Bank.

ooo... bad editor - i just noticed they speeled lindsay's name wrong the last time. thats stoopid.

[song by edward sharpe and the magnetic zeros. cause i'm listening to them now.]