Married to the Empire

Monday, August 18, 2008

Crazy Week

Last week was kind of crazy around here. I had the pleasure of creating my first-ever blog series: One Income 101, and I was overwhelmed by the positive response to it! For those of you who visited for that, thank you!

Additionally, I had the unexpected experience of having a nationally-syndicated talk show call me to ask me to be on their show. They were having the book author quoted in that CNN article about stay-at-home wives on their show, and they wanted me on with him. They said they wanted me to talk about how our marriage has been strengthened by having me at home. I declined. I don't want to be the national poster child for stay-at-home wives.

I did some clothes shopping last week, which I rarely do. I had a couple of $10-off-any-$10-or-more purchase cards, so I decided to spend them. How is this for only 79 cents out-of-pocket (original price: $36)?



I wore it all day yesterday and received a ton of compliments. I also took advantage of Texas' tax-free weekend and purchased a new pair of jeans and some undies.

The other interesting shopping I did was to drag my long-suffering hubby with me on Saturday to an Asian grocer. That was quite the fascinating experience! I came home with a few interesting new veggies to try, some staples, and a few convenience-type items. Dumplings, anyone?



My final interesting event of the week was that I battled my cat. Doogie had to go to the vet's for his annual checkup. He's hard to get into his carrier. I posted once about how I get him in, but he's now on to that trick. We had quite the fight on Friday with me trying to shove him in his carrier and him resisting mightily. I prevailed, but not before he'd ripped my shirt. We arrived at the vet's office quite angry with each other. For being only 11 pounds, he sure is scrappy!

While interesting is always a nice change, I really don't mind the mundane ordinariness of the average week! Here's to hoping for some normality this week.

9 comments:

AnneK said...

When I started reading your blog a year ago, I had no idea you were so famous. :)

JunkMale said...

Cool, I see Korean packaging there!

My wife and I love those dumplings (they're called mahn-du in Korean, usually romanized as man-do or something, but that spelling leaves room for gross mispronunciation). Don't worry, even we buy the pre-made kind sometimes. You can imagine it takes forever to hand-make all those individual dumplings.

Anne Marie@Married to the Empire said...

Annie, famous? Hardly. Strangely thrust into the spotlight lately? Kind of. Really, I'm more than happy to fade back into quiet anonymity. (But I am excited that the blog gained a few new readers!)

JM, I can't even imagine taking the time to make and stuff all those tiny little dumplings! I have my limits!

Anonymous said...

If you saw the Today Show this morning, you would know that you are wise not to make your own dumplings. During their food segment, a Chinese chef was featured with a show and tell about dumplings. His spokesperson said it takes 6 months to learn the proper way to roll out the dough and another 6 months to learn how to fold the dough. It's folded 18 times, by the way.

JunkMale said...

Anonymous,

Maybe that's the Chinese way. I never heard any Korean person say that. When my mom makes them, they buy the dumpling wrappers that have been pre-cut into circles.

Anonymous said...

Anne Marie-
We have the same ordeal with our cat! Our solution? Wrap her up in a towel and THEN put her in the carrier, tail first. That sounds horrible, but believe me, she wiggles out of the towel just fine once she's in the cage, and then the towel is there for when she releases the infamous cat fluids.
Ahhhh. The joys of being a cat owner!

Anonymous said...

I found that a lot of Asian groceries tend to be cheaper than Safeway & such large chain grocery stores. Maybe it is because we Asians are cheap. My hubby and I eat a lot of dumplings, too.

Anonymous said...

That's pretty cool that you were contacted by the show. It would be affirming, I'd think to realize that your voice is being heard.
Your new shirt is super cute!
Bella hates being put in her carrier, too. Once I succeed in stashing her inside, she always rams her nose really hard against the door. I'm always worried that she'll injure herself. Crazy cat!

Anne Marie@Married to the Empire said...

Sue, the problem is, I don't think my voice really would have been heard. I got the impression they just wanted to trot me out to prove the author's point, not my own. I'm not at home for the reason that the show was wanting me to state. And really, I was just too afraid of more negativity. I didn't realize how vicious people's opinions could be about the subject!

Kimber, I'm going to have to remember the towel trick for next time. I swear, that cat will give me gray hairs with his freak outs! Even my 190-lb. husband can't hold onto that little cat if he doesn't want something!

BagLady, I found the Asian store to be a lot cheaper for certain staples, which was nice. And a much greater variety of brands! That made me very happy because the hoisin sauce I find in most regular grocery stores isn't very good. I was also blown away by their varieties of meat. Rabbit, for example, which I've never seen in an American grocery store.