What's the word?

In the six days since I've gotten engaged the only issue I've had is the word "fiance." It might be one of the most awkward words to enter my lexicon, and I make it even more awkward by always dragging it out in a mock-pretentious French accent, even though I know it just calls even more attention to how awkward I feel saying it. "My feeeeeoooonnnnncaaaaaaaa."

Every time I'm talking with someone who doesn't know Tom and I know that I need to reference him in the conversation, I have an internal struggle in my brain over, "Do I say 'boyfriend'? Should I say 'fiance'? Boyfriend? Fiance? Boyfriend? AARRGGHH!!" It's quite painful, and I end up just sounding like a bumbling idiot.

I just googled "alternate words for finance" and found nothing, except for this expert Jezebel post, http://jezebel.com/5097803/is-there-a-better-word-for-fiance. As the blogger mentions, "betrothed," which is the suggestion WikiAnswers provides, sounds even more archaic and stupid than fiance.

So, I think I am just going to refer to Tom as "Tom" in all conversations from here on out and people can look at my left hand if they want to know what's up.

Oh, hi.

Remember me?

The past few months have gone by way too quickly, mostly because I started a new job in July that has basically dominated my life and we had a busy summer filled with visitors and short East Coast jaunts. I can't believe it's already almost the holidays. And we've been in Denver for almost seven months. Yowza!

A few short musings...

1) Excuse me, weather gods. Did you know that it's almost the end of October and I live a mile above sea level? Can we please get some cold air up in here? I'm hot. I would like to wear a jacket, or at least a long-sleeve shirt sometime in the near future. (Yes, I realized that it's probably going to be freezing in a few weeks. And, no, I won't wish that it was warm again.)

2. Today when I took Chowder outside to pee during my lunch break, he tried to run away with a homeless man who was walking a bicyle. I had to chase after Chowder (and the homeless man), screaming, "CHOWDER! CHOWDER! COME BACK HERE!!" None of that phased the homeless man (or Chowder) until I screamed, "EXCUSE ME!! EXCUSE ME, CHOWDER!" Then the homeless man thought I was yelling, "EXCUSE ME!" at him and stopped, whipped around and looked at me all offended. And I had to be like, "Oh, me so sorry!! My silly dog wants to run away with you!! And you don't want that! Har, har, har!!" Ugh. I think it's time for obedience school.

3. We are taking a trip this weekend - and I have no idea where we're going! Eeek!