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!

Giving it away for free.

Denver's Museum of Contemporary Art (www.mcadenver.org) is literally two doors up from our apartment building, and it is a very cool space with rotating exhibits and lots of special events. Before we moved to Denver, I knew that I wanted to get involved in the community through volunteer work, and I immediately looked into opportunities at the MCA when we arrived.

The MCA relies on volunteers for almost all aspects of its visitor services, and, luckily, I was selected as a summer volunteer! Yay! I go to orientation on Saturday and I'm very excited to work with one of Denver's most exciting arts institutions while meeting new people!

Now if I could just find somewhere that would like to pay me to work! :)

Moving Pictures

I uploaded some videos of Chowder to my YouTube channel...

http://www.youtube.com/user/missmelissajean1980

He is a handful!

Chez Melisse

It's no secret that Tom is the chef in our relationship. He is great in the kitchen, and he can sometimes get a little possessive of his domain. He hates it if I ask to put the toppings on one of his pizzas. When he made homemade tortillas, he didn't like the way that I rolled them out. Since he prefers--and sometimes insists--on doing the important stuff himself, I've settled into the role of sous chef and my duties usually include chopping onions and grating large hunks of fresh mozzarella. The really glamorous stuff. I'm also really good at hovering in the kitchen, picking up dropped paper towels, putting the tops back on things and being a general dishwasher.

Truth is, I feel guilty that I'm not more proactive in the kitchen, and I genuinely want to improve my cooking skills. So, I decided that every time Tom returns from a business trip at a reasonable hour of the evening, I will make a new dish/dinner. It's a little tough because his ETA home is never entirely certain thanks to airport delays, so the past two meals I've made have been of the one-dish variety. Call them casseroles, if you will.

The first dish I made was Mexican Lasagna, courtesy of Rachael Ray. I'm not a fan of hers, but, as she might say, this is, "SOOOOOOO GOOOOOOD. MMMMMMMMM." Recipe is easy and it makes good leftovers. (I was not raised eating leftovers and kind of hate them, but Tom forces me to eat them and I'm finding it's not that bad.) I know that Mexican Lasagna is not exactly fine dining, but it's sort of a guilty pleasure and probably great to bring to a party or serve to groups. Here's the recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/mexican-lasagna-recipe/index.html

Tonight, I tried to get a little more adventurous, and I'm attempting Cooking Light's Sausage & Bean Casserole. It looks like it's going to be good, but I don't know yet because Tom's airplane is sitting on the runway at DIA, waiting for a gate to open, and I have to wait until he's on his way home to put this baby in the oven. Check out the recipe, though, and see what you think:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1673012

Hopefully it comes out good. I'M HUNGRY.

Bi-Polar Weather

The weather in Denver needs a strong dose of Lithium. I've never lived somewhere with more crazy, unpredictable and downright bizarre weather. This weekend we experienced 75 degree, clear-skied sunshine, freezing torrential rain and a nice little hail storm, and this past week the weather vacillated between sunshine, rain and snow with temps ranging from 30 to 80 degrees.

On Friday, I left the house around 3PM for a nice $50 pedicure. The skies were blue and it was warm enough for me to comfortably wear a jean skirt and flip-flops. Of course, I walked to the nail salon. My pedi only took about half-an-hour and when I went to the front of the shop to sit and dry my tootsies, I looked out the shop's window to find that the sky was black and it was pouring. Like sheets of rain coming down sideways. I panicked for a second about getting home, but (luckily) Tom was working from home and had already e-mailed me about coming to pick me up. Some of my other salon-goers were not so lucky. One girl rode her bike her there and was stuck - like me, she thought is was a beautiful day and didn't expect this meteorological moodswing. And this rain didn't let up after ten minutes of dumping. It went on for a good two hours straight. So strange. So inconvenient!

But I'm not complaining too loudly because when the weather here is nice, it's nice. I've never seen bluer skies and fluffier, whiter clouds, or felt such pure, unfiltered sunshine. I just wish Denver weather would start taking its meds and even itself out!!

Chowder!

This weekend we traveled to Canon City to meet Mr. Chowder! Might sound cheezy, but we are so in love! Although he is the runt of his litter and is tinier than his brothers and sisters, the Chow Man has no trouble keeping up with them and he's a very friendly, curious pup. We bring him home on Sunday and I think I might become one of those dimwit girls who carry their doggies everywhere because he's just so cuddly! Everyone keep fingers crossed that potty training is easy. I can't believe that I'm going to be an official dog owner in less than a week - YAAAY!