Category Archives: life

PSA – Brought to you by the letters D, P, and R

I’ve started doing HIIT – high intensity interval training. I’ve read about it for a really long time and finally decided it was the next frontier and it was time to go there.

Pathfinder Parkway

I like to run on the Pathfinder Parkway. It’s pretty and quiet and even though there are usually a lot of cars in the parking lot, you encounter people only rarely. I love it.

Monday was the first time I’ve been to the Pathfinder since returning to Bartlesville and it struck me how much dog poop is littering the path.

poop pile1

Today, there was a pile RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of the path.

poop pile2

Now, they don’t call me Lauri Grace for nothing. I have a hard enough time running and not face planting without slip sliding off of my feet via a pile of dog poop.

Seriously, folks. Would you want to step in a pile of someone else’s dog poop while you’re trying to exercise in the beauty of nature? Would you want to step in a pile of your own dog’s poop?

Clean up after your pet

Here’s what we know, you and I: dogs poop.

For that reason, when you take your dog outside, you should be prepared.  Bring a bag to clean up after them.

It’s been made super easy to do this. You can get these cute little bone shaped plastic bag dispensers that you attach to your dog’s leash so they are always there. You can buy these at a pet store or – beauty – you can get them at the Dollar Tree for a mere dollar.

poop bag holder

And, dig this, you can get a three pack of replacement bag rolls also at the Dollar Tree for a tiny dollar.

After you pick up after your dog, as a responsible dog owner would, the City has even graciously placed a trash bin at the entrance of the path so you can make a deposit. Easy peasy.

bin

So c’mon friends and fellow Pathfinderites, let’s consider our fellow exercisers and save them from a stinky, broken experience.

Thank you.

This PSA brought to you by the letters D, P, and R. (Dog Pooping Responsibly)

Okay, okay. I’m not Wonder Woman

I like to believe I’m Wonder Woman. And being here by myself a lot of the time, I’ve actually been amazed at what I can do when I try hard enough.

wonderwoman

Yesterday, I had perfectly flat hair. This is an IMPORTANT detail since my hair is pretty curly and it’s kind of time consuming (and impressive!)  for me to achieve that level of flat all on my own. Usually this state is only achieved by professionals.

Anyway, it got hot yesterday. Around 9:00 p.m. I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to sleep with it being hot so I proceeded to try and put the window air conditioner unit into the bedroom window. I had told David to just leave it since it was cool when he left and I’d get to it when it got hot. How hard could it be?

Mistake.

I couldn’t get that thing into the window for anything. It was like wrestling an alligator. And it was hot.

I called David 10 times, sent photos, tried to get an understanding of why this particular unit would not get into place.

I finally got it there and turned it on. I was feeling all happy that, hey, I guess I’m Wonder Woman after all. I was sweaty and my hair was curling up but the air conditioner was in the window and I was going to be able to sleep in cool bliss.

Until…rrrrrrriiiiiipppppp. THUD.

Dang it.

I went into the bedroom and, you’ve got it, I found the cord still plugged into the wall but a gaping hole where the air conditioner had been.

ac

Sigh.

By this time, the country song was just writing itself.

The a/c fell out of the window
But it landed on nobody’s head
It’s just really hot in the bedroom
I don’t think I can go to bed.

I was absolutely, positively sure it was Miller Time and as I sat enjoying my beer, I thought that I really should have just opened the window, taken out the screen and dumped the air conditioner out the window.

At least my hair would have still be straight. ;-)

Carpe-ing the java @CoffeeCON2013 style

Yesterday, was CoffeeCON 2013 (@coffeecon2013) and it was amazing!

Before going to CoffeeCON, I was finally able to meet up with Ruthann (@RAWiesner) for breakfast. She took me to a place where they bring donuts to the table like they bring rolls or chips and salsa at other places.

donuts

How can you not love a place like that? I had an amazing frittata with spinach, bacon and tomatoes. Yum!

Then it was off to the event du jour: CoffeeCON!

Just opening the door you know was fabulous because you could smell all of the different coffee offerings.

coffeec

When we got to CoffeeCON, we found my twitter friend, Debra (@debramariem).

girls

Debra is terrific, too, and we had fun hanging out together, visiting the vendor booths, the classes and our other twitter friends,

Coffee NateCoffee Nate (@CoffeeNate) and Robert Caruso (@fondalo) who were bloggers at the conference.

Lauri Rottmayer, Robert Caruso, Ruthann Wiesner

One of the things I was most looking forward to was talking to the roasters. There were several different options there including a woman who was roasting beans with a heat gun (yes, like the one from Lowe’s) and a guy who had repurposed his hot air popcorn popper to roast coffee. He was very excited with his roaster and was cute to listen to.

There were two roasters, though, that had machines that seem like what I would use to roast coffee which I believe is the next frontier for me.

We watched coffee demos and attended a couple of classes.

demo

I was really taken with the siphon coffee maker and think I’m going to have to have one of those. I was sad that we didn’t get to see the Turkish Coffee demo. She had some kind of a water issue but I did get the instructions for making the coffee so will be trying that at home soon. :-)

Right before I left, I thanked the show producer, Kevin Sinnot (@coffeekevin), for his fabulous event. He wanted to interview me because I had come from Oklahoma for the show. I did that and said my goodbyes.

interview

It was such a great time. Great coffee, great people. I can’t wait to return next year and bring/meet more friends. Will you join me? :-)

My crazy mixed up day

Yesterday morning, when I woke up in Oklahoma it was cold, but a sunny pretty day. I was excited because I was headed to CoffeeCON 2013!

I left the house at 7 a.m. It’s super dark to get from our house to the turnpike so I wanted to avoid that if I could be still get to Chicago in time to have dinner with one of my favorite friends I’ve never met, Ruthann Weisner.

By the time I got to Vinita, the day had turned cloudy and overcast. I wasn’t too unhappy with that since it’s pretty hard to drive East in to the rising sun. When I was almost to Joplin, I started seeing patches of snow on the sides of the road and roofs. Oh, isn’t that cute! It really did snow on May 3rd.

By the time I got to Springfield, it was full on snowing including snow plows, cars in the ditches, a flipped over semi truck and an accident on the other side of the road that had traffic backed up for miles.

 

I was happy not to be on that side of the road and I drove carefully (there are idiots out there!) for a little over four hours until I got to Rolla, MO where I usually fill up the first time when I drive to Chicago.

And this happened:

 

Please tell me, how on earth I managed to have clothes for six days and four seasons, twelve pairs of shoes, my computer, two coats (winter, spring), my coffee bag, and a pillow but NO PURSE!

LOL! I’ve never done that before. I called David, a.k.a. my hero, and told him of my plight. He got my purse and another pair of shoes (because you just can’t have too many shoes) and headed the over four hours to bring me my purse.

It was lunch time by then and I was hungry. I had brought toll money because I knew I had to travel on the tollway part of the way to get to my hotel but I had no idea how much it was so I asked on twitter if anyone knew.

tolls

 

Yes, that’s what I figured. A bajillion dollars. Illinois tolls are EXPENSIVE! So I looked around the car. I always have money in the center console and I wasn’t disappointed. I found a bag of dimes that must have been left in there from when we had to use the laundromat at some point.

dimes

Feeling like a panhandler, but a happy panhandler, I went into McDonald’s and paid 33 dimes for my lunch.

David arrived around 3:45 and I was gassed up and back on the road by 4 p.m.

I had put my winter coat on because it was 31 degrees and after sitting in the car for four hours I was chilled through even though I put the heat on periodically.

I stopped for gas the second time in a blinding thunder storm. When I got out of the car, I realized

warm

 

It was 68 degrees. I was pretty sick of driving by that point and the rain made it hard to see since it was getting dark. I drove about ten more miles and that was it. The roads weren’t even wet. I opened my sunroof. :-)

I finally arrived just before eleven p.m. I had left 16 hours before that and I was never so happy to see a hotel room or bed in my life.

I didn’t get to have dinner with Ruthanne but I’ll be having breakfast with her and I’m super excited to go to CoffeeCON. I hope your Saturday is fabu and unmixed up! :-)

30 Day Video Challenge

Yesterday afternoon, I was looking through my twitter feed when I saw my friend @jennipps tweet about a 30 Day Video Challenge she was participating in.

jen

I clicked in and thought, “I want to try that, too!”

I love video but, for some reason, I never think to do it first. It’s more something that I remember belatedly. With the minor except of Vine and I still don’t go to that first as would be so much fun.

I posted that I was in, thinking I would have to be a day short as it was already May 1st. And then I realized there was no reason why I couldn’t do a video yesterday even though it was a more “unplugged” version of me than what I usually do.

So my goal for the challenge is to make video be more of a first thought than one somewhere down the road.

Here’s my first video. I’d like to clarify that I’m trying to change my Trophy Wife status by getting a new job and not getting rid of my fabu husband. :-)

 

I’m a rockstar!

Well, not yet. But maybe in my next life I will be.

My musical tastes tend to run the same as a 15 year old boy and probably so too does my desire to be a rockstar.

Did you see the movie Rockstar with Mark Wahlberg? That was like my perfect fantasy movie. All of a sudden, I’m fronting my favorite rock band.

The part where he’s at his first gig and is standing at the top of the stage, looking down the stairs? Dude, that gave me goosebumps like no other.

And then he fell. Yep, right down those stairs. I was then sure he was me. ;-)

The other night I watched the livestream of the Cheap Trick Live at Budokan 35th Anniversary Concert (click to watch video).

It. Was. SPECTACULAR!

Live at Budokan 35th Anniversary Concert

Again with the goosebumps. Through the entire concert that was one of the best I’ve seen even after all these years.

Bun E. Carlos was not with them on the drums. Rick Nielsen’s son, Daxx, was. And he’s fabulous. I sat here in my living room, with my goosebumps thinking, “If I had been Rick Nielsen’s child, that would be me drumming for them!’

Daxx

LOL! I have crazy thoughts like that.

I do know one thing, in my next life when I come back as a rock guitarist, I’m going to have all those cool guitars like Rick Nielsen has.

For now, I’ll just be a RottSTAR. :-)

Color my world

So we’ve been back in Bartlesville for about a month now and it looks like at least I will be here for a little bit longer. I decided I wanted to paint the doors. It was time! :-)

white door

I had seen a picture of a teal door in a magazine and I thought it would look great with the dark green trim and shingles on our white house.

Yesterday, we went to get some paint. I had teal in mind but was faced with this:

pantone_lauri_rottmayer

Oh pretty, pretty, pretty colors. Do I really want teal?

I love color and I’m also a Libra which makes me both very happy with a huge selection of colors and frustrated and my inability to pick just one.

I grabbed the teal but there was a most yummy blue called Turkish Tile.

turkish tile

Complete indecision. So I took the paint chips back to the where the shingle samples were and laid it all out.

chipsandshingle_lauri_rottmayer

Both colors look great with the dark green. ::sigh::

I have nothing blue except temporary navy curtains that are on all of our windows to keep the eyes of prying neighbors out of our house. One day, those will be replaced with something that makes more sense.

I started thinking that perhaps the blue would look garish if it were any bigger than the paint chip so in the end I went with the Lake Teal.

teal door lauri rottmayer

I like the way it turned out! :-)

Punked…again

By a box.

The first time was on April Fool’s Day. I was looking for dress shoes to wear to Lyndzee’s bachelorette activities. I knew exactly where my shoe boxes were because I remember feeling happy when we were unloading the truck and seeing boxes labeled ”Lauri Shoes”.

shoes

When it came down to it, though  I could just find the one box. And when I opened it up? There were no shoes inside it.

Well played April Fooler.

Today, I was looking for my second slow cooker to take for Lyndzee’s rehearsal dinner. I went into the box that said, “2nd Slow Cooker” on the side and, you’ve got it, there was no slow cooker in the box.

slowcooker

Punked…again.

There were indeed baking and kitchen items in that box. I found our third blender. Who in the heck needs three blenders? But no crock pot.

I was also looking for a red raincoat that I have. I knew I had seen it but couldn’t remember which box. I opened up a box and found my Death Row tshirt.

deathrow

When Brandon was in high school he played at both tight end and defensive end. The boys on his O-line senior year called themselves the Death Row. And they were good. The team won the district championship that year. They also made me an honorary member of the Death Row. Gives me a warm fuzzy feeling now just like the day Mike Crews gave the shirt to me. :-)

Anyway, while I try and figure out what is in all of those boxes, I don’t believe a word of what’s written on the sides of them. And I’ll probably just leave them packed. Blender anyone? ;-)

 

Please tell me who I am

You know the Logical Song by Supertramp? I was just chasing the lyrics to that song around in my head because they say “please tell me who I am”.

There are some cute apps that will take your tweets and do just that. My first favorite is the Tweet Cloud. Here’s mine for the past three months.

Tweet Cloud Lauri Rottmayer

 

Well, I think that describes me perfectly! :-)

This past week, I learned of a new app called twtrland. When I saw someone else’s, I knew I had to sign up and find out what it had collected about me.

Was there too much there that I didn’t know? No, but I did find a tweet I made that I may go down in history for. It’s Coco Chanel good.

Grammar

 

I’m currently using it as my facebook cover and my friend, Buffy, commented:

Best. Quote. Ever.

 

I agree. It’s a good one. I totally feel that way. :-)

So, who are you?

Secret for calmness while moving

calm

Yesterday, we had to stop by Wal-Mart and pick up box tape. We’re moving again. I know. Wheels on our feet.

Anyway, as we were walking to the front of the store, David asked if we needed anything else. I made a quick turn around and headed the other direction.

Me: “Yes, candy.”

David: “Candy?”

Me: “Yes, candy. It keeps everyone calm.”

So we picked up some gumdrops and some caramel creams.

caramelcreams

I don’t know why it is when you start packing things up that tempers flare and people get snippy. At  least that’s how it happens in this house. And all of the other ones we’ve moved out of. ;-)  It’s really counterproductive and when I discovered the secret of applying candy to the moving/packing situation a couple of moves ago, I was amazed at the results.

Voices start to raise, “Oh get some candy”. Candy is eaten. Peace resumes. It works. Really.

I know the lady at the Walmart though I was joking around with her and she was laughing as we left. But I know it works. I just hope we don’t run out! :-)

So how about you? Do you have a fabu secret to keep the peace during a move?