Troubles McSteans

 *Taps microphone* Hello? Is this thing on? Hi. Wow, it's literally been 10 years since my last entry. I'm not sure I remember how this works, but I was revisiting some old posts this week, cringing at the hideous background and feeling the urge to try blogging again. My apologies for being a bit rusty, but I hope enough time has passed that I won't tire of it soon. Those that are familiar with my work know that this is a blog largely about the mundane. I will (probably) not be getting political. It's not that I don't care, it's that there are plenty of people shouting into the blogosphere about politics. Look, it's been a super shitty year for everyone, so my goals here are: 1. Start logging snippets of my life to help me remember things happened. 2. Hopefully take your mind off of the world for 5 minutes as I complain about crap that could happen in any given year that is not necessarily 2020. Like a story about how my dog will not eat. This is not a new d...

Emerging from hiatus to share our latest adventure with food additives. A while back, Ryan found and ordered the J&D's Ultimate Bacon Lover's Gift Pack (how could he not??). A few weeks ago we cracked it open and performed our first taste test, starting with three of the ten varieties of Bacon flavored Salt. Other items awaiting us in the Gift Pack: Bacon flavored lip balm Bacon flavored envelopes (or MMM-velopes) Bacon flavored popcorn Bacon flavored sunflower seeds *Bacon flavored mayonnaise Bacon flavored ranch dip mix *Product most likely will not be sampled thanks to it's 2 day layover in our mailbox. Sorry folks, we'll eat a lot of gross things, but I draw the line at food poisoning.

Somehow one's failure is only magnified when recreated in slow motion with Legos.

We now conclude our tour of soda marinades. Last stop: A&W Sauce. Part 1 Part 2 Surprisingly, I'd say the A&W was the least offensive of the three marinades. Not that it still wasn't bad. Thanks to my helper tasters Steanso, Paul, Erin, and especially Ryan for braving all three! Ryan has ordered me a secret gift set that should provide an entire summer's worth of tasting adventures. You are in for a treat and I am....probably not.

I got all gung ho this afternoon to bathe the dogs. Lucy in particular, considering every time I looked at her recently I could practically hear the flies buzzing, was in desperate need of a dip in the tub. My plan was to get Scout in the bathroom first, because I wasn't sure if 1) She would actually go into the bathroom 2) She would actually get into the tub 3) She wouln't freak the hell out when I ran the water As it turned out, we barely covered step 1. She was frightened of the towels I had placed on the floor, and when I tried to lead her in by her collar, her defense mechanism was to hit the deck. Taking a different tactic, I went to get the mini-marshmallows to attempt to lure her into the bathroom. I didn't honestly think this was going to work, but it was worth a shot. After feeding her a couple of treats, I tossed one into the tub to see what would happen, but that only resulted in the sudden appearance of a black lab in the bath. I gave up and washed Lucy. So...

Tomorrow, the 28th of April, is Ryan's and my 10th wedding anniversary. Ryan and I met at a party my freshman year at Trinity University in San Antonio. I had been randomly placed with roommates (hi Shannon and Erica!) that had gone to high school with Ryan, who was attending the University of Texas here in Austin. Ryan was down in San Antonio for the weekend visiting his brother Jason, who was a fellow Trinity Tiger (rawr). We only chatted for a bit that night, and while I thought he was super cute, I didn't quite know what to make of this tall, *cough* slightly inebriated friend of my roommates who needed a tree for support and seemed to be trying to focus through my head to a point about a foot behind me. While subsequent meetings went much better than our first introduction, they were few and far between. I only saw him once more that year and twice our sophomore year, but he made an impression on me and I looked forward to our rare meetings. The stars finally aligned o...