Sticky note it!

Packing is for the birds

2012-01-14T17:49:00.000-06:00

I've been truly spoiled with the amazing corporate move the last two times I've shuttled my stuff from home to home. I just pack a bag for myself, handle the kitty (not a small feat, I might add, but still...), and let them do their thing. It's SO amazing. And SO expensive it would make your eyeballs pop out of your head if you ever wanted to actually pay for it. Yeeps.

And yes, that's right - it's finally time to move into that beautiful house we bought a few months ago. Hooray!!

So this time around, with a whole houseload of stuff that needs to move from one house to another, we're doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Not the REALLY heavy lifting - that's what movers are for. But I have to pack my own boxes now. Oh, poor spoiled Erin. And the dear animals are so confused - I think they're afraid they're going to be forgotten unless they jump into boxes as well. It's ok, fur babies, we've got you!

But at least as of this afternoon, we have bare cabinets and a whole kitchen's worth of stuff allllll boxed up...

...and aren't friends wonderful?? Major, major props to Kami and Carolyn for a Saturday afternoon kitchen packing extravaganza. I mean, I have a lot of stuff. And Craig has a lot of stuff. And so there's a lot of stuff. And we both love to cook, so there is a LOT lot lot of kitchen stuff. Much of it breakable and frah-gee-lay. And these gals papered and wrapped and taped and organized and make it happen. Love them. Can't thank them enough.

We have an army of book boxes lining the living room. Scattered packed things here and there. And still quite a bit to go, which Craig delights in informing me is mostly mine. I can handle it. I have until Friday morning to make it all happen. Yeeps again...

Can't wait to make you our own, lovely new home. See you soon.

A swift punch in the face

2012-01-08T22:35:00.000-06:00

Remember that cookbook I mentioned? That just made my day?

Yes, that one. I was so excited to receive this in the mail that I punched myself in the face. Literally. Ripped open that packaging so quickly that my hand flew back and connected with my face. Which caused Craig to laugh and laugh and laugh at me, and I think I actually did something practical like ice my face. Which was probably dramatic. But so was the punch in the face, so it really all goes together.

I mean, this may be the only time my name makes it out in the world in print (unless you count any number of boring tax things I worked on while in DC, which I don't count since they were...boring tax things), so I overreacted.

There I am! Woot woot!

My notes are responsible for things like pan de campo, ruby red sweet rolls, and coconut tres leches cake. And I just had way too much fun testing recipes. How to turn this into a job...

Go forth and make these things. Check out the Homesick Texan blog. Buy the book of deliciousness (Kindle edition, only $9.90!). Make tasty food.

I heart the reading

2012-01-08T11:06:00.000-06:00

Resolution win = book recs for you! But first, the way I read books has changed a little bit because for my birthday, my husband went and got me one of those nifty tablet thingies...I'm assuming mostly because he saw how many books/magazines I hauled around the country during our extended Christmas 2010 travels, and I think he was very VERY concerned about what would happen on our Costa Rican honeymoon if my bag was overweight due to books. Seriously. So I'm now at least semi-on the e-reader bandwagon.

I will never, ever stop loving real books. I love them. But here are some good things about the e-reader...

I can get new things to read RIGHT NOW. You know, provided the tablet is charged and I have an internet connection. But generally...RIGHT NOW.
Portability, especially when traveling. One tablet weighs way less than the hardcover set of Hunger Games, a back-up paperback, and four magazines. Promise.
Look up feature. If I come across a word I don't know, I'll just highlight it and look it up in the dictionary. Vocabulary win.
I was having trouble thinking of pros, but Craig says: "duh, you can play games on it." I said I have a computer for that. Whatevs.
Craig also says: "no paper cuts." I'm not sure the last time a book gave me a paper cut, but I'll give him this one.
Craig says: "a few raindrops hurt a book. Tablet, just fine." Actually what he really said was something about it being more impervious to water (impervious!), so I put it in Erin words. I tried to counter this with "ok, but if you drop either one in the bathtub, they're both goners!" - he just sighed at me.

Not so great for the following things...

Borrowing/sharing/lending/loaning. It's just much easier to swap paper books with your friends.
The aforementioned "needs to be charged" business - can be really inconvenient sometimes. Craig has some nifty converter in his car that lets me plug it in, which saved me life during our Christmas driving.
Screen glare - not usually a huge issue since I can adjust the brightness, but it's not perfect when I'm outdoors.
Durability. Paper books do perfectly fine when you drop them on the ground. The tablet...well, there's now some boo-boos on it and a small scratch on the screen.
Speaking of the screen...it's ALWAYS dirty in SOME way. I can't wipe the fingerprints off a thousand times a day. And that bothers the OCD in me.
Minor, but you know how you have to shut off electronic devices for take-off and landing? Yeah, you can keep reading a real book.

Doesn't cut straight pro or straight con, but worth mentioning:

The shopping experience has really changed. I love nothing more than going to Half Price Books for an hour and perusing the shelves, checking out back covers and finding bargains and things I might otherwise never have found. It's a little more organized to shop on the tablet...but just not the same experience.
The reader apps aren't quite the same, and I have to give NOOK a thumbs-up over the Kindle on this one...mostly for the nerdy feature than turning a page feels slightly more like actually turning a page. Yup, that does it.

So now...I just read both kinds of books. Paper and electronic. And it works.

Oh, and in the interested of being an organized reader and keeping up with what my friends are reading and finding cool new books, I'm also now on goodreads, which is a fun website that lets you add books you've read and rate them and organize them on bookshelves and add a bookshelf of your "to-read" books and what you're currently reading and it's just cool. Do it. If you're a nerd like me.

Book notes from my 2011 reading list. Here you go.

AWESOME, read these immediately if you haven't already:

The Passage (this one is a beast and kinda crazy/scary/weird, but I really got into it and blasted through it MUCH more quickly than I thought I would) by Justin Cronin
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series by Stieg Larsson
The Help by Kathryn Stockett

GOOD, put it on your list:

The Unnamed and Then We Came To The End, both by Joshua Ferris
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Devil in the White City by Eric Larson

DAMN, THESE WERE LONG, but mostly I'm glad I made it through them in the end:

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose

FOODISH, and definitely good for my other foodie people out there:

The Sweet Life in Paris by David Leibovitz
Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl

NICE AND FLUFFY for the gals. Or the guys. No judgment:

The Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand
Jill Mansell books: Take a Chance on Me, Rumor Has It, Miranda's Big Mistake (probably never would have read these without their $1.99 price tags and prominent placement on NOOK list, so possibly score one more for the e-reader)

WAH-WAH:

Songs of the Humpback Whale by Jodi Picoult. Normally I really enjoy her books, but this one...nope. One of her earlier books that you can definitely skip.

Go forth and read!!

Resolutions schmezolutions

2012-01-02T20:00:00.000-06:00

Oh, January 2, 2011. When I was apparently filled with great resolve and optimism. Exactly one year later, let's just see how things turned out on the whole "here are my resolutions!" front...

Lose 25 pounds in 10 months. FAIL. I actually gained weight this year, quite the opposite of every other bride out there who manages to shrink herself for the big wedding day. Anyone remember Weight Loss Challenge? Yeah, that didn't exactly pan out the way either one of us intended. Oops. I continue to blame love...I wonder how long I can get away with that...
Hit 100 blog posts in 2011. FAIL. I couldn't even squeak out half that many. 49. That's all. But you know what? In the middle of all the life insanity, the blog didn't completely die. And I'm pretty dang happy about that. Live on, blog! And maybe in 2012 I can pick up NaBloPoMo again since November 2011 was just a teensy bit crazy.
Read at least 30 books for pleasure. WIN. 32, actually. Same as last year. Phew. Needed to throw a win in there.
Start volunteering on at least a monthly basis. FAIL. Selfish year for me.
Maintain sanity during wedding planning. WIN. AND FAIL. I definitely had my moments along the way, some of which only my dear husband was witness to and I can therefore deny deny deny, but I think I did a decent job of remembering what the day was about - marrying Craig, not obsessing over tiny details that no one notices anyway. Hey, and we're still married two months later and well on our way to outlasting that Kardashian business.

This year's resolution? Not to make any resolutions. I'm guessing that 2012 is going to be a little bonkers, too, what with the end of the world coming and all, so I'm just going to take it as it comes.

I'll just try to adopt Zach's happy-go-lucky attitude a little bit more...after all, he's (apparently) adopted some Texan attributes. Smart puppy, learning how to say "y'all" - he's a winner.

Eleven for '11

2012-01-01T23:36:00.000-06:00

Eleven pictures to oh so briefly sum up my 2011

I moved back to Dallas from DC...in the middle of a giant snowy disaster. Which you'd really think would be much more likely to happen the other way around. But I was home.

And not only did I move to Texas...but Zach did, too. And his dad, of course. And Harry thought this was pretty much the worst day ever. I worried. A lot. And basically it's all ok now.

I bought a dress. Not just any dress. THE dress. And they celebrated by attacking us with bubbles, which was fun and wonderful in every way. I'm so glad my mom was there.

My sissy went and graduated from Duke Law School. Kinda a big deal. Just sayin.

So many wonderful times throughout the year with so many wonderful friends, and nothing says it better than four Fredericksburg pies. Yes, four. We needed alllll the flavors. So grateful for these wonderful friends, and not just because they agree to four pies.

We celebrated this whole "we're engaged!!" business with some official photography moments. And I've just never been happier.

I have two of the most amazing friends a girl could ask for in Carolyn and Kami, and our annual summer trip is always, always one of the highlights of my year. And Beaver Creek in the summer is a TREAT with these ridiculous Texas summers.

Soooo....we bought a house. A month before the wedding. Much going on? Nah. Just the usual. So we bought a giant, beautiful house to turn into a home and build our lives together. Ok, maybe a touch more awesome than "the usual."

Last year I did some recipe testing for a cookbook...and the cookbook became real and a free copy was shipped to me and my name is in there and I think the whole thing is just generally cool because I absolutely loved the work and the whole experience. I. love. food. You know this.

Craig and I got married. And we had a wonderful wedding. Surrounded by family and friends. And we had a FUN wedding. One of the most amazing days of my life, really and truly.

And we followed up the wonderful, amazing wedding with a wonderful, amazing honeymoon to Costa Rica where we did ridiculous things like zipline through the rainforest. Such an incredible trip, and really a very incredible year.

I carry your heart with me, I carry it in my heart

2011-12-04T23:23:00.000-06:00

Have been kinda absent from the blog, basically because I went and got married to that Craig guy. And it was pretty much the most amazing and wonderful day ever. Not to be cliché...but it was. And I wish I could relive that day over and over, buy my face would probably break from smiling, so it's probably a good thing that we can't make one day repeat itself over and over.

Enjoy the preview video, and pictures to come! Also, if you were there, please send me your pictures - I'm dying to see them!! It took every ounce of my being to not bring a camera to my own wedding...

* e.e. cummings, if you're curious, for the post title

Deep fried turkey

2011-10-21T22:11:00.000-05:00

Does anything more really need to be said?

Ok, one more thing needs to be said. Don't try to teach babies how to open beer.

Good work, Mike. On the turkey. And the beer.

When a task looms large...make ice cream. Really.

2011-10-21T21:54:00.000-05:00

Task looming large:

Another task, but enjoyable task, that helps with task looming large:

When faced with addressing a rather large pile of wedding invitations...I recommend ice cream. Homemade ice cream. Courtesy of a wonderful shower gift from my future mother-in-law and a few key ingredients...including Guinness. Beer ice cream. Not beer with ice cream, which was extremely disappointing in Prague, but actual beer ice cream. Potential kitchen adventure ACCOMPLISHED. David Leibovitz's Guinness-milk chocolate ice cream. So good.

And obviously the invitations have made it out by now. Phew. Because with two weeks to go, that would be kinda disastrous. Now if only all the RSVP cards could come back...

Come back to Texas...

2011-10-21T20:30:00.000-05:00

...it's just the same since you went away. Before you lose your accent. And forget all about the Lone Star State.

Oh, you're already back? AWESOME. Then you can come visit us!!

All in reference to my dear, wonderful, amazing friends from forever, Carrie and Jason and the adorable Alan, who made the journey back to Texas (Houston!) from an extended stay in New York City (which don't get me wrong, I loved visiting them there...but it's nice to have them HOME). Yay yay yay!! So of course a summer road trip was in order, and we were more than happy to have them come hang out in Dallas with us for the weekend.

In July. When it was 28 bajillion degrees outside. Every minute. And yes, almost three months ago. Deal.

We had plenty of chill time, and Mexican food time, and for the kid in all of us...aquarium time! Also apparently a fun activity...house cleaning time! Who knew. Two year olds have a fascinating kind of attention span.

Alan + Swiffer = kitchen tile moments. Both toy and cleaning apparatus. Awesome combination. I'm totally putting Swiffer pads on the knees and feet on all onesies.

Cleaning is exhausting. Apparently for both dog and human. Also, tile floors are nice and cool in the summer heat...

I wish I still saw the world through his eyes. Everything is AWESOME.

Check out the fun in the Picasa album. Mainly aquarium shots. I refrained from photographing all of our food. You're welcome.

Carrie and Jason, so glad you guys are close again!! See you in a mere two weeks for this whole wedding business! YAY!!

Giant big deal #1 - we totally went and bought a house

2011-10-21T19:57:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it?!? Normally I'm a huge overanalyzer and delayer of doing and major procrastinator...but we just DID this thing. We'd spent a few weekends with our realtor checking out houses in various areas to get a really good idea of what we really wanted in a house and where we wanted to be geographically...and did you know there are about a million things to consider when you're buying a house? Things like square footage (Craig won this battle - his belief is bigger is better) and number of bedrooms and school districts and size of backyard and age of home and how much do you really want to spend and dear HEAVENS the commute time and so on and so on and so forth. And imagine two people who both like to have their way making this decision together. We made it through this - good pre-marital test, methinks.

And while I wasn't 100% really ready and totally on board with buying a house RIGHT NOW - it just worked out. We both fell in love with this place, and it has absolutely everything we want, and I want to live in this house for the next fifty years. I love it. And Craig loves it, too. And when that actually happens, you dang well better just buy the place. Especially when the sellers are more than happy to do a sale-leaseback so the buyers (ummm...us) aren't stuck with rent+mortgage for a few months. It just all came together.

So I crunched spreadsheet numbers and panicked while Craig told me it would all be ok...and it was. I'm such a worrier.

Yay for our own little slice of Carrollton!!

That day we celebrated with lunch at Abuelo's (extremely close to our new home AND site of many fond A-town memories AND delicious Mexican food!!), and then we also had giant steaks and a bottle of bubbly for dinner. Because food is really the best way to celebrate, you know. A little anticlimactic since we don't actually live in the house (and won't be there until December/January, btw), but still really, really exciting. And really, really real when we make that first mortgage payment here in about ten days. Yowza.

I grabbed the pictures from the realtor website and tossed them into a Picasa album if you'd like a better look. It's all perfect and wonderful in those pictures (except for the color of the dining room - I'm dying to paint, and other than that it's pefect...and maybe some more painting, because I'm demented and actually really love to paint walls), so it might look a little more sad when we move in and have less furniture (fact of new home ownership, right?? there is a dining set in our near future...), but it will be our home. For a very long while. And I'm so, so happy about that.

Oh? What was that you said? We're totally insane for adding "home purchase" to the list of life events occuring over the last month or so, especially with the wedding coming up? I totally agree. Hoping my stress levels at least burned some calories.

Just a little crazy around these parts...

2011-10-21T19:29:00.001-05:00

...what with, oh, I don't know...planning a wedding and buying a house and going to New Orleans AND Philadelphia AND Atlanta and oh yeah there's this thing called fall busy season that I'd managed to pleasantly avoid for a couple of years while doing the DC thing but returned with a vengeance this year and deprived me of sleep and sanity. You know, just normal stuff.

So get ready for a mini-blog-extravaganza. Just to catch up. With shortened posts. Less wit. Fewer pictures. Much sadness. Think of it as a condensed weekend marathon of one of your favorite shows.

GO!

Also, if anyone has tips on how to get the header picture to actually match the width of the blog, that would be stellar. I don't have the energy.

I'm alive

2011-10-18T22:06:00.000-05:00

Promise.

Bat! MOVE!!

2011-09-16T22:26:00.000-05:00

Yup, it's almost time for the bat. And this only happened...you know...two months ago. A little behind on blogging due to this whole "busy season" thing I didn't miss while in DC and am still not a huge fan of. Anyway...our last evening in Beaver Creek was off to a perfect, relaxing start - delicious carb-loaded dinner lovingly prepared by Kami. And then...adventures in dessert. I will share my scary makeup-free face just to show you my total excitement at scavenging for sticks and finding the perfect ones for marshmallow roasting.

We successfully built a roaring file (I'm so proud!) and proceeded to melt/burn things into tasty deliciousness. Yes, it was actually cool enough to light a fire. Colorado during the summer is awesome.

Did you know you can smash a peanut M&M into a marshmallow and make something tasty even tastier? I wish I could take credit, but it was totally Kami's idea.

And then...the bat. We'd opened up the windows in the condo to let the cool breeze in...and we also happened to let in A BAT. It swooshed in through a window and set off a great round of screaming and covering with blankets and general swooshing about in efforts to send the hideous creature back to the night from whence it came. Instead of immediately swooping back out as we hoped, it decided to cling to the stone wall in our condo and REFUSE TO MOVE.

Not a great bat picture, and in no way does it capture the moment when the bat started creeping across the rock and stared at us with devil bat eyes. I didn't have my zoom lens on, and you can bet your life I wasn't leaving the room to go do something silly like switch lenses. And I refuse to publicly post on the blog semi-humiliating pictures of us in various stages of bat defense.

There's also a video out there. It largely consists of me screaming "bat! MOVE!!" while throwing objects (empty water bottles, pillows, small candles...anything, really), attempting to get it to move down to level one where Kami and Carolyn were ready to swish it back out the window. All in all, I'd say the bat removal process took 45 minutes. Forty-five very stressful minutes. Here's what we needed to get ourselves through the experience. Along with at least one disc of Sex and the City.

After that traumatic experience, we actually slept pretty well - and then we had to hit the road. Boo. Like, major boo. Definitely did not want to leave our vacation. So...we pinned our hopes on the Colorado lottery. Which didn't exactly work out, but at least we got a scenic overlook out of the deal.

Goodbye, mountains. =(

We snuck into Denver with enough time for a pretty amazing burger at the Cherry Cricket (have you ever had cream cheese on a burger? if not, try this immediately!! so tasty), then it was off to the airport and back to reality. I gave a vacation rundown to Craig with a drawing...but I don't think he was nearly as amused as I was.

Love you, girls! Love you, mountains! So long, vacation!!

Back to the mountains, please?

2011-09-03T17:19:00.000-05:00

I'd like to go back to the mountains for a plethora of reasons. Very near the top of the list is absolute relaxation, which is due in large part to Day 3. For Day 3, we spent an obscene amount of time basically living at the Allegria Spa at the Park Hyatt. Massages, spa lunch, poolside time, excessive amounts of reading and relaxing in these amazing heated stone chairs...pure and utter bliss. Now THAT is vacation. No pictures necessary. Not even small children poolside with plans to flood every possible dry surface could dampen our relaxed spirits.

After becoming semi-human again (since our spa experience transformed us into blobs of happiness and not much more), we had high, high hopes about an evening at the Ritz in nearby Bachelors Gulch. Just look at these smiling faces ready to go.

Maybe we were setting our expectations a little too high. But the Ritz...the Ritz was a bust.

Fail #1 - lack of options for drinking and/or dining. As in...apparently the Ritz is the place to be in the winter only. So many things were just closed! How sad.

Fail #2 - table stealers in the form of sweaty mountain bikers. Noodle-heads.
Fail #3 - incompetence and basic lack of caring from wait staff. And bar staff, for that matter. Even if you don't know how to make a champagne cocktail, you pull out the interwebs and just look it up. So much for customer service. Not that we don't love just plain ol' champagne...

...but come on, even the Blackberry browser with spotty mountain reception can get you to a champagne cocktail.

So we gave up on the Ritz and headed back through the Beaver Creek gates for dinner at Rocks Modern Grill. And it was pretty tasty, and they took good care of us, and they sold us another bottle of wine to take home when we realized we all just needed one more glass and everything was closed. Thanks, Rocks. Rocks 1, Ritz 0. Day 3 in the books.

Day 4 dawned...well, it didn't really dawn because it was pretty rainy and kinda gross. We kept our hopes up, though, and drove over to Vail to check out some different hiking trails. It took a bit of doing to actually find the trail we were going for, but our brave mountain driver got us there safe and sound! However, when we got there...

...we encountered this kind man, a real hiker, with poles and shoes and double layers of clothes and the whole shebang...and he basically told us we would die if we tried to tackle the slippery trail.

So...we turned around and went back home. But at least we got to see Vail. And we proceeded to take our hiking picnic and turn it into a living room picnic, which isn't entirely a bad thing. It also gave us the chance to do some fireplace testing to make sure our s'mores plan for that night was a go (and by "fireplace testing" I mean "stuck our heads into the fireplace to make sure the flue was actually, truly, 100% open"), and I brought in wood, which made me feel like a good provider...or something. Really don't be impressed, though - the wood was pre-chopped and sitting on the deck approximately ten feet from the fireplace. Still, it had to be done.

Then to work off our picnic, we made the uphill trek back into town, stopping along the way to make some more new friends. With inanimate objects. But friends all the same.

We chilled around the fire pit for a bit...

...and then some ominous clouds starting rolling in pretty quickly, so we decided it might be in our best interest to hurry home and have a roof over our heads.

Ahhhh, more relaxation at our home away from home. Thank you, mountains. At least until the bat showed up. Next installment.

Spare time?

2011-08-26T23:52:00.000-05:00

What's that? Oh, I'm sorry - I'm deep in the middle of this thing called "busy season," which I didn't miss AT ALL last year when I was already lost in thoughts of Spain (which I NEVER blogged about, which is completely inexcusable, because now I'm sure my feeble mind has lost all kinds of details - how terrible). And I'm getting married in seventy days (you know, for anyone who's counting), and did you know there are all kinds of little details that come up in the two months before that amazing wonderful awesome day? Also, we're beginning a house/home search (eeekk!!), and the formerly exploding basil has now digressed to a point of crunchy deadness given The Oven conditions we're facing, which makes me sad, and I'm just tired. So the blogging is a little behind.

When I do have some time to blog, I find myself drawn to other diversions on the interwebs, namely Pinterest - it's where I'm spending entirely too much time lately, but I just can't help myself. I love it. Which means I'm spending time finding all of these amazing craftastic and foodcentric projects I want to embark on...but again, I have no time to do them. Someday...when sewing is a priority instead of silly things like doing laundry and...yeah, ok, sitting on my couch like a blob because I've lost all incentive to do anything. I blame The Oven.

Escape from The Oven

2011-08-16T21:13:00.000-05:00

A little over a month ago...I escaped. From The Oven. To The Mountains. And it was everything I thought it would be. Except for the bat that swooped into our lives, which I was not expecting at all. Don't worry, I'll tell you allllll about that particular adventure. Just not yet. First let's start with beer.

For our annual girl trip, this year Kami and Carolyn and I opted for something a little close by, a lot relaxed, and INFINITELY cooler than The Oven (also infinitely cooler than last year's trip, thank goodness) - to Colorado we go! Specifically to Beaver Creek, where you're not exactly roughing it. I mean that quite literally, since that's the slogan for their ad campaign. We really did leave everyday life behind when we went through that magical gate. But before we got there, we spent a little time at Wynkoop Brewing Company in Denver (source of the beer sampler above - I really loved the chile beer...imagine that!) and made the drive through some rather cool and picturesque scenery to get to our mountain escape.

I see mountains!!

Really, REALLY glad we never needed to make use of the runaway truck ramps - YIPES.

Since we were in the land of microbreweries (and since we had a late check-in at our condo - might as well kill some time with another stop for alcohol, right?), we stopped along the way in the cuteness that is Breckenridge and checked out the offerings at Breckenridge Brewery.

Just look at all of those adorable tiny beers! I was actually very pleasantly surprised by the vanilla porter - dessert beer, yum.

After navigating the mountain passes and picking up provisions, we checked into our ENORMOUS (yay for summer rates!) condo at Ridgepoint and got settled. Which for us means...

...wine and cheese hour in the living room. There's really no better way to start the night. We barely managed to rouse ourselves from the really comfortable couches, but we pulled it together for a late dinner at Vin 48 (it was outside the prestigious gates of Beaver Creek!! but the food was really delicious) - boots and all. We embraced the slight chill in the air and went all out with sleeves and cardigans and boots. Coming from The Oven, it was a truly wonderful sartorial experience. Day 1 in the books. And yes, I realize that in the five pictures above, two feature landscapes and three feature alcohol. We have our priorities right. Pictures of actual people to come, promise.

The next morning we made the hike into Beaver Creek proper/the village/land of really expensive stores and hotels and restaurants and promptly made a new friend while grabbing lunch. Meet Lexi. Carolyn almost stole her.

After carbing up, we decided to tackle some hiking - after consulting a very large, very informative map, of course.

And into the woods we go!!

Byeeeeeee

Some notes on hiking:

if you're on a paved path...or a freakin' ROAD...it's not hiking
if you encounter your dream home along the way, possibly inhabited by a delightful young man named Hans...it's not hiking

aspen trees are really lovely - you might even refer to them as nature's Q-tips (so skinny and so fluffy at the top!)
if there are signs telling you how to avoid bears - then it's probably really hiking, at which point my ability to actually hike will fade considerably

We made it back safely, no bear attacks, and made our way back home...DOWNHILL!!...with short stops along the way to investigate the most enormous dandelions ever and some really beautiful views.

Chill afternoon at home, and then we again donned boots, cardigans, and sleeves (yay!!) for a drink on the gorgeous patio at the Park Hyatt and fancy dinner at Grouse Mountain Grill. Great night. Day 2 in the books.

Don't worry, that bat story is still coming. I'm saving it for you. You can check out the full photo spread here, though, and just know that the bat lurks within.

God bless America. And cake balls.

2011-08-06T10:21:00.000-05:00

Happy 4th of July!! Oh, what? That was a month ago? Gotcha...just a touch behind on catching up on the blog. Don't worry, I'll get there. It's a little different blogging from The Oven rather than the D of C just because...well...life is different. But I still want to blog it. So here goes. =)

First and foremost, I'm back in the land of hatch chiles!!! So when we came across some at the farmer's market over Pendarvi weekend, I immediately snatched up an entire bucket with big plans - namely, a smallish 4th of July bash coming up where Craig and I would whip up food for approximately twenty when we knew our attendance would be six adults + one cute baby. We sometimes go just a little bit overboard...

Back to the chiles - I roasted them over open flames (only a teensy bit dangerous, right?), and they miraculously transformed into burger toppings and hatch chile guacamole. Yum x 1000.

In addition to the massive amount of black bean and corn salsa...and burgers...and chips...I also went a little dessert crazy with red velvet cake balls and mascarpone stuffed strawberries - let's hear it for the red, white, and blue! This was my first time actually making cake balls, and I have to thank Sarah for introducing me to the tasty little creations years ago...about time I tackled them! And yeah, it's a little bit messy.

Eeeeekkk, scary red velvet hands!! Good camera work, Craig. =)

It's an army of patriotic cake balls! Ummm, yes, one cake kinda makes a LOT of cake balls.

I think they're just adorable!

And don't worry, I know there are more adorable things in life than stuffed strawberries...adorable things like Zach and Gracie playing ball together (well, kinda) under the kitchen table. Squeeee, I love it!! Sweet kids.

That's what I call baby-sitting.

A certain someone's mom has gotten pretty good with a sewing machine lately, and in yet another display of adorable, Gracie's 4th of July outfit was just too cute for words - we even got her to wear the hat for just a couple of quickly snapped pictures.

Happy 4th of July, everyone! Only a month late! Hey, America's awesome no matter what day it is. Except for maybe now with those debt crisis disaster terribleness going on...oh, I'm sure there's still awesome to be had. There's optimism and confidence for you.

Battling the heat with frosty beverages

2011-08-02T16:22:00.000-05:00

Weekend before last we hopped in the car and set off for the FW in this whole DFW metroplex thing - Craig had never been then, AND we had big plans to meet up with the Vaughns for an afternoon of...well...Mexican food and alcohol, when you get right down to it. So, first stop was the patio at Joe T. Garcia's, an institution in the arena of Mexican food and Ft. Worth things to do.

Yes, please.

My previous experience with Joe T's has been (1) you can only order enchiladas or fajitas, and (2) the food's just ok but the experience/ambience/patio makes it all worth while. So imagine my surprise when an actual MENU came out with TONS of options! I stuck with the cheese enchilada but also added a taco into the mix. And while I'm happy to report the expansion on (1), (2) still holds true...although you get a little less atmosphere when there's no live music rocking the patio. But we had shade and fans, so that certainly helped. As did margaritas. Duh, margaritas always help.

After loading up our tummies, we headed over to Rahr & Sons brewery for the Saturday afternoon tour. When we showed up, I was a little worried about the line...

...but we were in without a problem! Into the un-air conditioned brewery, that is. Which we knew going in. And we knew it was going to be hot. H-O-T. But still. I wasn't expecting to be quite so shiny throughout the afternoon. Thank goodness for the fans.

And the tour wasn't much of a tour (ummm...we actually kinda missed the whole "tour" part of the afternoon, but our $7 for three beers + a glass bargain pretty much made up for that), but we did enjoy catching up with friends, hearing some tunes, and checking out something new.

She was pretty good!

Craig showing off his glass, and blocking his face, which is how he prefers to be photographed.

The sweetest baby alive handled the heat pretty well...although she looks a little worried here. Good work, Gracie!

Tooooooooooo hot to do anything!!

Showering, no shampoo needed

2011-07-27T22:27:00.000-05:00

Last weekend...ok, wait, make that weekend BEFORE last since time is completely disappearing and sneaking away from me...I got to spend the afternoon surrounded by dear family and friends at this only-comes-around-once kinda thing known as a bridal shower. And it was absolutely fantastic. Craig's mom flew in, the amazing Dana made the journey from Virginia, my MOHSOB (maid of honor sister of the bride, duh!) trekked halfway across the country, Mom & Dad (although no boys allowed at the shower!) drove down along with a wonderful aunt and cousins...and then there's all the people here in the oven who made it a point to be there, too!

To celebrate me. Well, and this Craig guy. It was pretty awesome. Mexican food, margaritas, Bob Armstrong, and absolutely no games. I'm not really a games kinda girl, especially when it comes to...myself. But I do love board games. Excessively, actually.

It goes against every ounce of my being to NOT take pictures at an event, but my goal here was to actually be present and enjoy the time with my family and friends. Which meant no picture-taking allowed - just soaking up the moments and memories. Therefore, all of these pictures are courtesy of the amazing Sarah and her fantastic fixed lens that I just might go out and buy for myself. And she's a pro at uploading and Picasa sharing in a timely manner. Just one of the many, many reasons I love her dearly.

That being said, here's the one picture I'm contributing to this event, which was taken on my phone mere moments ago with a nifty little diddy known as Vignette, which I've completely fallen in love with.

Love love LOVE these invitations so much!! Carolyn, you do good work.

And now...thank you, Sarah, photographer extraordinaire!

That sweet, crafty Sarah went and made me the cutest apron...with a "P" in the corner! I think I wore it for half the shower.

Wonderful Sarah friend person crafter photographer amazing. Just summing her up.

Diana was an absolute pro with the cake balls. For bringing them AND for serving them so beautifully. What a fantastic friend!

Ok, yes, I was enjoying my margaritas. Amanda looks perhaps a touch concerned.

Quite a pile to work my way through!

My beautiful, amazing, wonderful beyond words bridesmaids (MOH and sistah friend is sitting next to me stage right, of course). Love these girls more than you can ever know.

A giant thank you to everyone who could be there! I had such a fantastic time celebrating with all of you!

Who gets married OUTSIDE in JULY? In TEXAS?

2011-07-23T18:01:00.000-05:00

These people do. And if I didn't love them both more...the sweat might not have been worth it. But a truly touching, very personal ceremony in Nancy's Garden at the Arboretum really helped. A fantastic lunch at Maggiano's to celebrate the happy couple was pretty nice, too. Congrats to Nolan and Erin! Full (minimal) photo adventure here.

Sorry, unsuspecting guest sitting in front of me - I had to capture the sweaty moment.

The happy couple! =)

Ahhh, a cooling fan!

Yay, they're married!

Pendarvi weekend in The Oven

2011-07-23T17:15:00.000-05:00

I'm no longer referring to Dallas as Dallas - it's just "The Oven" from here on out. Probably through September or so. And it's kinda unfortunate that my future in-laws visited a few weekends ago in the midst of this unrelenting heat. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time in air-conditioning. These oven conditions limit outdoor explorations rather severely, and a lot of my "fun" ideas get blown out of the water.
Sidenote - I think Craig is only mildly amused (perhaps bemused?) by my frequent use of "Pendarvi" rather than the appropriate plural form. But I like it. Deal with it, dear.

The Pendarvi and future Pendarvis (you know, me!) spent relatively cool time exploring the famers market, wandering Half Price Books, embarking on rehearsal dinner extravaganza planning, and indulging in LOTS of eating - Chuy's, Smoke, Big Al's, Y.O. Steakhouse, Manny's, Twisted Root. My body STILL needs some vegetables. Yes, even weeks later.

Momma Dale sits Texas-style at Y.O. Steakhouse

Minimal pictures from these weekend adventures, mostly because I'd still like my new family to like me and think I'm possibly normal instead of "oh my heavens, who is this crazy girl taking pictures of our hamburgers??"

Had a great time getting to know my new family a little bit better, and here's wishing you and yours LOTS of air conditioning.

They will occasionally burst into song and dance

2011-07-03T16:40:00.000-05:00

I love artsy stuff. Especially when it involves people far more talented than I singing and dancing on a stage. So when fellow enjoyer of artsy stuff Diana and I lined ourselves up for a rather art-tastic week (also, after two years in DC, very much a treat to see Diana THREE TIMES in one week), I was pretty pumped about it. Brief recap to follow.

Billy Elliot at the Winspear Opera House - angry tap dancing is awesome, and the Winspear has one of the coolest light fixtures ever. It was a little unfortunate that we bought tickets for this show WAY in advance and had no idea that the Mavs would be playing for the NBA championship that night...and WINNING...but at least it was better than when we went for Rock of Ages and were surrounded by tornadoes.

Oh, and not really artsy, but the boys met us for dinner beforehand, and Craig had his FIRST Lone Star beer. We're getting him integrated, Texans.

Next up - Ben Folds playing with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, which is by far one of the coolest concerts I've ever been to. I LOVE this man's music, and he is such a great performer - his impromptu composition of a new song (never to be released due to its ridiculousness, I'm sure) on stage was just freakin' cool.

We closed things out with a performance of Next to Normal put on by the Uptown Players at the Kalita Humphreys Theater - Diana and I were a little intrigued by the crowd for this particular show (the demographic was heavily skewed in the loving man-couple direction, which we couldn't figure out...was it a connection with one of the actors? the location of the theater? the musical itself? anyway, lots of fabulous shoes for us to admire...), and the subject matter was pretty heavy, but we both really enjoyed it.

To cap it all off, last week I caught the Spazmatics (80's cover band!) with Jenny and Molly at the Arboretum as part of their concert series. It's such a great setting - right by the lake, bring your own blanket and cooler, enjoy. Plus it's just fun to bust out some of your favorite 80's tunes. Loudly.

TONS of fun, although I think I'll be more excited about the fall shows when I can hopefully avoid rivers of sweat.

Now, if my State of the Arts license plate would just show up...

We do enjoy our wine

2011-06-18T12:37:00.000-05:00

We very belatedly celebrated Carolyn's birthday (ummmm...can you say February?!? Life's been a little crazy...) a couple of weekends ago by taking a short trip over to Grapevine and enjoying our own little slice of Napa right here in the DFW area. Maybe it's not quite Napa, but the wine was pretty tasty and it's a MUCH shorter trip that rather pleasantly occupies a Sunday afternoon.

I'd been in/through Grapevine before, but had never really spent time on its cutesy Main Street or checked out any of the wineries - and it was really fun! It was on the exceptionally-hot-oh-my-gosh-where's-air-conditioning side of things on this particular day, so we didn't do much wandering - pretty much just straight from tasting room to tasting room. Which is really not a bad way to go. At all. Especially when there are crisp white wines awaiting you at every location.

First stop - La Buena Vida. Beautiful courtyard, fun live music, tasty wine. Perfect.

Tasting room at La Buena Vida - it was way too hot to sit outside

Veltliner - that's a new one for me! Also, wine from Bryan. =)

Second stop - Homestead Winery, in a super-cute old house. We also witnessed some flying cork action here - it was pretty hilarious.

Third and final stop (see, we're not tooooo crazy) was Cross Timbers, where it was delightfully air conditioned and the wine was delicious. Also, the kind gal pouring our wine gave us free cheese and crackers. Two thumbs way, WAY up.

Tasting room at Cross Timbers - we're happy.

Two sweet little peas in a pod

2011-06-18T12:03:00.001-05:00

A couple of weekends ago I journeyed (yes, a journey - we had to stop for provisions and everything! Ok, maybe just carbonated beverages, but that definitely counts as provisions in my book...) to Ft. Worth with car buddies Kami and Sarah to celebrate our dear friend Amy, who's due with TWINS in September. Double baby blessings!! Also, double poopy diapers, but let's not get too caught up in that right now. Stay tuned for total baby shower cuteness.

Adorable peas in a pod cookies!!

And there they are in all of their sonogram glory! Can't wait to meet you, babies!

Jenny brought sweet baby Taylor! She stole the show for a bit...

...much like this. Floor gymnastics and model poses. She's too much.

Sarah always makes the CUTEST baby things, and this was no exception! I think Amy kinda loves it. =)

Teensy and adorable bundt cakes from Nothing Bundt Cakes, which were AMAZING. Plus you get to try more than one flavor if you split with a friend...

The cutest idea!! We all wrote messages and notes on teensy diapers, and now when Amy and Brandon change them in a few months, they'll (hopefully) get to smile a little bit when dealing with the poo.

It was such a cute shower, and we had a great time celebrating the growing Davis family! Photo spread here, which disproportionately consists of many pictures of the adorable Taylor - she can't help her photogenic cuteness.

Capturing moments

2011-06-16T19:56:00.000-05:00

We had engagement pictures taken a couple of weeks ago by our FANTASTIC all-things-wedding-related photographers, Sara & Rocky, and I'm so excited to share some of the shots with you guys. I 1000x love our photographers, and I can't wait to see what they capture on our wedding day (142 days to go!). If you want to see many, many, MANY more pictures, just let me know and I'll send you the password to our share site.

Deep Ellum first, White Rock Lake second. We had a fantastic time, even if it was a touch on the hot side. I love that we'll have these moments captured forever. And yes, photo overload to follow shortly after these words.

Hill Country hi-jinks

2011-06-12T16:19:00.000-05:00

Over Memorial Day weekend, I introduced Craig to the joys of Texas Hill Country by journeying to Fredericksburg with many good friends (all of whom have already managed to blog about this trip, whereas I'm the slacker who can't get around to it until two weeks after the fact) - and we had such a fantastic time. Some of the details...

Vaughns picked us up for the trip down on Friday morning, and it's just impossible to head south on I-35 without making a stop at the Czech Stop. Where else are you going to get your second breakfast of kolaches and awesome things like jalapeño peanut brittle? Which is delicious, by the way - basically normal peanut brittle with a little kick at the end, and it just happens to be an unnaturally bright green.

Our relatively painless trip continued with a stop for lunch at Hyde Park Bar & Grill in Austin (one of my favorites!)...

...and another very important stop in Blanco for a tour at Real Ale. It was remarkably information and really fun, even if it was a little bit hot and windy, which made the trip into the massive beer cooler and our frosty samples all that much better. Go forth and drink Fireman's #4, y'all!

We successfully made our way to Fredericksburg, picked up the keys to our extremely adorable rental house for the weekend, and quickly met up with the Reynolds to go grab dinner at Ausländer, which was extremely German and extremely delicious and fondly reminded the Vaughns and I of our extremely awesome time in Germany...and provided extremely large beers, which made Craig extremely happy.

We spent the rest of the night chilling at home, welcomed the Keffers, and turned in early to accomplish a very important vacation goal - rest rest rest. The next morning Uncle T manned the kitchen to turn out a very tasty breakfast, then we hit the streets to take on another very important vacation goal - shopping!! So many cute, cute things in this town. I'm 100% in love with red and basically want to buy everything in that entire store, but I resisted.

More German awesomeness at Rathskeller for lunch, then more shopping...

I'm obsessed with all things kitchen-related, and especially whisks...

A stop at the toy store resulted in a very entertaining puppet show for Gracie

We then spend a very large chunk of the afternoon and evening on the spacious patio at Silver Creek, enjoying some beverages and tasty food and delightful live music, even if it was a touch on the warm side...I mean, Gracie needed a dose of water on the head, which very obviously lead to a stylish mohawk.

A relaxing evening at home consisted of a rousing round of horseshoes (Craig and I were the undefeated weekend champs!! Ok, yes, only two games were played, and if Mrs. Keffer had played us again with any partner at all, I'm guessing we might have gone down...the girl has a knack for horseshoes), an excessive amount of pie...

Can you say margarita key lime, buttermilk, cherry, and peach praline? Maybe a little bit overboard, but I'm a firm believer that there's no such thing as too much pie

...and quality front porch time. Thank goodness for the sun going down and some cooling breezes.

The next morning we had a museum contingent (Admiral Nimitz Museum and National Museum of the Pacific War) and a home contingent, and let me just say that the museum contingent had their heads filled with more than they ever knew about what went on in the Pacific during World War II. I could have spent days in that musuem. I actually had no idea that Admiral Nimitz was raised in Fredericksburg. And did you know that Craig's dad served on the USS Nimitz? I was actually really impressed with everything the museum covered.

After a heavy morning of war and submarines and Operation Toenails, we certainly needed some relief in the form of Mexican food for lunch. Nothing like margaritas to get your mind right.

Get your mind right for visiting wineries, that is. We made our way to Rancho Ponte, Grape Creek, and Becker for a wonderful (though very windy) afternoon of tastings...

...and glasses enjoyed and live music and this close to crawling moments for Baby Grace (don't judge us for enticing her with wine)...

...and generally wonderful times with friends and even a few moments of flying through the air.

We picked up pizza for dinner and relaxed at home. It was wonderful. The porch swing and I became very good friends.

Check out the full photo spread from the weekend. Perfect. Other than The Lampasas Blow-Out. Which involved a diaper rather than a tire.

Lawyered!

2011-06-05T10:17:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago we made a journey to the forest to celebrate an EXTREMELY important event...Amanda's graduation from Duke Law!! I can't believe she's knocked this out - I mean, where did the time go?!? At any rate, super proud of my sissy and super excited to go see her and my family (yay for mommers and dadders!) for a weekend of celebrating.

First order of buisness was a law school family BBQ in the gardens at Duke, and since it didn't actually rain on us (phew!), it was a lovely event. Plenty of delicious food, the chance to meet Amanda's law school peeps, minor forest/garden adventures, and wonderful family time.

Thanks for taking our picture in the forest, Craig!

This was all pleasantly follwed by chillaxin at Amanda's with a board game or two (I love games!! and these people indulge me) and admiring the pretty awesome Duke quilt my mom made for Amanda. It's enormous!! And amazing!

The next morning we also had some dress adventures checking out bridesmaid dress options (don't worry, we totally didn't make the boys come in with us for that one), and to reward ourselves for tackling a wedding-related task, we of course had burgers for lunch. Bull City. Soooo tasty. And especially tasty were the duck fat fries. Cue music of the angels.

Also cue music of the angels for our rockin' mini-van. It held everyone and all of our stuff comfortably and was actually a quite enjoyable ride for the weekend. Even if it was a mini-van.

Now it's time for...the hooding ceremony! Held indoors at Cameron, thank goodness, because it actually did rain during this one. What's the hooding ceremony? I'm calling it the occasion where mere robes become adorned with an epic hood that will choke you if you don't pin it carefully. Specially reserved for those who have completed extra years of intense schooling.

I think I'm in the right place! We'll see!

Offically hooded and making her way across the stage! Goooo Amanda!! Also gooooo zoom lens!

She's hooded, and so are all of her awesome friends!

Proud and happy family with the hooded lawyerette! Also, the purse is totally Amanda's and not Dad's, although he can really rock a pink clutch.

Double lawyer power!

A celebratory dinner at Dos Perros (yay Mexican food!) followed, and then fast-forward to the next day for epic, all-school, all-inclusive graduation ceremonies, AGAIN with the threat of rain...come on, forest, let up on the rain!

There's not a building on the Duke campus that can hold all of these people, so we were hanging out at the football field, which they totally enhanced with fake buildings - Carrie observed "lend an air of Harry Potter" to the event.

They actually did have ponchos handy in case of rain, which was very thoughtful.

She's all graduated!!

Aren't we cute at the football field?

Always Red Raiders...even when we're at Duke, oopsie.

And back to the law school to claim this VERY important piece of paper - yay for Amanda!

The picture extravaganza has exploded on Facebook, of course, and then there's the ENTIRE album on Picasa for your viewing pleasure.

Major congratulations to my sissy!!

Smoke it

2011-06-03T21:03:00.000-05:00

I'm now the proud owner (by inheritance through engagement to a man who loves BBQ with all his heart and soul) of an awesome grill and this thing called a "smoker," which apparently transforms meats in magical ways. I have no idea how to use it, but I'd like to think I could figure it out if we had some kind of emergency that required smoking.

To celebrate this device and the man who comes with it AND to ring in the season of "hey let's have people over and grill/BBQ and GOSH it's hot outside!!"...obviously pre-Memorial Day festivities were needed at the Erin/Craig/Harry/Zach residence with some good friends. And plenty of meat. At least two pounds per person. Because that's what Craig believes.* At least I also got him to believe in Texan seasoning for the brisket. Go Texan!

Ok, and we also MADE BBQ sauce. Craig went mustardy, and I went tomatoey. Welcome to my new meaty, saucy life.** Another new part of that life is a

In attendance at this bash? A number of wiggly babies, both human and canine***...

...and sometimes the human and the canine come together when you realize that the massive couch-shaped dog bed is just perfect for the baby who needs a little bit of a prop to assist with self-bottle feeding.

Zach's good at sharing, Gracie - you're in luck.

Oh yeah, we also had plenty of hungry friends here, too, who did all they could with the massive amount of food taking up every inch of counter space in the kitchen.

So great to spend some quality time with good friends. And some good meat. Lots and lots of good meat.

*I was sending people home with meat bags. We had a LOT of food.
** Yes, I realize how ridiculous this sounds. Just go with it.
*** There's a feline wiggly baby, too, but you can believe he was in hiding or held captive in his room for the vast majority of this.Sam's Club membership, since we actually have room to store 28,000 rolls of paper towels AND they offer much more reasonable prices on giant slabs of meat. Oh boy.

So we've taken care of all the big things, right?

2011-06-01T21:20:00.000-05:00

Picking out cakes = FUN. I mean, you walk into a bakery and are immediately hit with a wave of sugary baked goodness and then sit down and look at pretty things and eat cake. How could that be bad? And I'm so glad Kami could come with us for the cake adventure! I remember doing this with Diana and Trinity (dang, did you know you guys have been married for years now?), and we just had so much fun with it.

Wedding ckes are coming from Romano's, and they're already 100% paid for, so we can definitely check those bad boys off the list. Right now I'm totally in love with Romano's. And I plan to stay that way in case the cakes don't show up. Done. I didn't know if they wanted me to take pictures or not...so I just snuck in a few while plates of cake were being prepped for us. Which takes more than a moment when we're checking out sixteen flavors. Love you, Romano's.

I will give them a little bit of grief for what I'm referring to as the archaic flavor divide - white cake for the bride and chocolate cake for the groom. Craig is completely and totally weird and actually doesn't like chocolate cake, which makes me wonder why I would even marry him in the first place* - but don't worry, there will definitely be chocolate cake at our wedding. =)

I think one reason I loved this part of it so much...well, I love baked goods. And all things chocolate. And basically anything involving food at all. This was basically a win-win situation for me - leave work early to go taste cake. Please ignore the fact that I actually went BACK to work after this 4:00 appointment. Sigh. Temporary setback.

And as much as I love my morning baked goods...I love sleep a little bit more. So this is the kind of bakery I want. They head straight into dessert and don't leave it. What bliss.

And the decision making process was surprisingly easy! I mean, this wedding stuff can really drive you crazy...if you let it. Did I spend hours looking at pictures of cakes? Ummm...~~definitely~~ probably yes. Did it really matter in the end? Not so much. And it's going to be beautiful AND delicious.

Although after looking at that picture again I kinda want to do that ribbon thing that's going on with the pink number...oh boy, so much for decisiveness.

You know what else is fun? Engagement pictures! Did those with the wonderful Sara & Rocky last night in Deep Ellum and at White Rock Lake, and the little preview they shared has me all excited. Coming to us in two weeks or less!

Oh, and "so we've taken care of all the big things, right?" - quote courtesy of Craig. I just smiled in response.**

* Not really. Love him lots. We're all weird in our own special, loveable way.
** I may have also said something like "do you really think so? I'll show you my list..."

Dandelions are devil spawn

2011-05-19T18:56:00.000-05:00

A couple of weekends ago, my quads and hamstrings (are those the same thing??) and glutes and basically every muscle in that general area were screaming at me. Not from some massive gym session, no, but it was definitely a workout. Known as weeding. Known as weeding flowerbeds that really needed to be weeded about two months ago. Known as weeding "totally overgrown with every manner of evil plant not limited to but including massive amounts of dandelions which possess a remarkably stubborn root system" flowerbeds. There are special tools out there, specifically crafted for those moments when you have to face down these Vicious Taproots. I just wanted you to know what I was up against.

It took three hours. I was very hot and sweaty. The end.

I also went and bought MULCH. Who am I?? Craig told me mulch would prevent weeds from cropping back up, and I didn't believe him, but then I Googled it and did believe him. Thank you, magic Google machine. And Craig. I don't have much...or any...experience with this mulch business. And by the way, sweetie, mulch doesn't exactly weigh the 20 pounds a bag you said it would...it's kinda heavy...

Pretty new red mulch = awesome. Dead bits of worthless crap to the right = no good. Time to buy more mulch.

...and it doesn't get quite the coverage I envisioned. I knew two bags wasn't nearly enough, but now I'm planning on buying at least ten more. Ick. At least it's a good workout. Oh, and I also added rosemary to the herb party while I was at it. That was MUCH easier than the Flowerbed Taproot Extraction of 2011.

Shouldn't someone else take care of this while we're in a rental house? My thoughts exactly. But our landlord doesn't believe in hiring a lawn service; he believes in adding clauses to our lease that say things about watering the lawn and such silliness. Hindsight.

Now that I have some space to work with that isn't overrun by every imaginable form of evil weed, I'd love to put in some pretty flowers...but I'm not going to go to the effort for this temporary house. So you'll have to settle for the single pot of marigolds (in an inherited pot, I might add - I just pulled out whatever sad dead thing was in there and started over) greeting you at the front door. Why marigolds? Because they're so bright and cheery! Also, they're practically impossible to kill - the things are basically like weeds with pretty flowers attached. I figured if they could survive the Texas Panhandle's harsh conditions, they should do a-ok here.

Craig is in charge of grass while I'm in charge of everything else. Which totally works. For now. Especially since our system for taking care of the leaves from the magnolia tree involves just mowing over them. I love the magnolia flowers (did you know they kinda look like giant roses before they bloom? It's so cool!)...all of those leaves, not quite so much.

Maybe we should just go live in a condo somewhere...except I do love our outdoor space. And with Zachary running around, it's basically a necessity.

Time to go buy more mulch.

Getting married is extra fun when you have awesome friends who throw you fun parties

2011-05-08T19:01:00.001-05:00

Also, longest blog post title EVER, but I really couldn't scale that one down. It had to cover all the bases.

There's something to be said for running off to a beach and just getting married and not doing all the "stuff" that comes along with a wedding, but...I'm really enjoying this time with friends, celebrating and anticipating the ~~biggest party we'll ever throw...I mean, when else do you hire a DJ??~~ wedding day festivities. It's fun!! Fun now that we have a lot of things planned and I'm not worrying about where to have this shindig - now I'm getting to do cool things like learn what craspedia are and how freaking cute they're going to be come November 5th. Provided that florist proposal works with the budget. Hmmmm...

Anyway, back to the partying! Last weekend the Broussards and Petersons threw us a lovely bash - with a "sweet beginnings" them and desserts as far as the eye could see! Do they know me or what? I'm so, so glad that so many of our friends could come out for the afternoon and celebrate. Enjoy some photo love.

We believe in party guests of every age...especially when they're as adorable as babies Taylor and Rhett. Could it be baby love??

Amazing cupcakes!! There was this Almond Joy creation...oh my, we might need those again for the wedding. Also, Jenny, that is a lovely tablecloth! =)

Rich, rich chocolate truffles (oh yum!) get a big thumbs-up from Diana

There were plenty of friends with smiling faces...

...and new friends with faces that weren't so smiling from time to time, but you know he still loved hanging out at the party with his sweet mom and dad.

Yes, there's also something to be said for that beach, but there's also something to be said for this - good times with great friends. And there will be many, many more to come.

Check out my shots from the day's festivites here, and I'm going to track down some winners from Jenny's camera, too. We're a fun bunch.

Please let me win, please let me win

2011-05-07T10:28:00.000-05:00

Are more people than usual playing the lottery these days? Or is it just the usual number of people dreaming about escaping their day-to-day?

Inspired by the New York co-workers who split a $319 million jackpot, we've now started a pool at work. I figure the hope alone is worth contributing a dollar a week. Although I had a minor heart attack when an email came across with "WE WON!!!!" - I mean, we did win...all of $3. Sigh. Please reinvest my $0.30 share in additional hope.

Home sweet home

2011-04-30T11:06:00.000-05:00

Before actually moving into this rental house in February, I'd lived in apartments/dorms for the last...oh, ten and a half years or so. So actually living in a HOUSE with SPACE and a BACKYARD is something of a revelation to me.

A few of these revelations and new experiences...

- Constantly Swiffering hardwood floors. Which was driving me crazy. On a daily basis. Sooooo...there's now this little robot roaming around our home on a daily basis around noon. Craig finally talked me into a Roomba. We've named it Chalupa...you know, because it's round. And we love Mexican food. It seemed semi-logical at the time...plus I think Craig thought I might love it even more if we gave it a name.

Craig said I wasn't allowed to put this picture on the blog because he basically hates all pictures of himself, which he is DEFINITELY going to have to get over (hello, have you met me and my camera??)...so I just did some strategic editing. I promise he's smiling really big. Next time I just won't ask him and post it anyway.

- So many rooms I didn't know what to do with them...especially while I was waiting for the rest of the furniture (you know, that whole roommate bit) to show up. Now, though...we've done a fairly excellent job of filling every nook and cranny to the max. And there are even things on the walls!

- Buying things in bulk. Like paper towels. I actually have somewhere to put them. Oh, and there's this thing called a garage. It's so cool.

- Outdoor space!! And the option to do things like plant herbs (I have some exploding basil going on, which I'm very excited about)...

...and enjoy a patio/deck (especially now that it's shaded due to this cool canopy thing Craig and Dad put together - good work, boys!)...

...and use real flames to transform normal food into grilltastic meals. Boys come with some cool stuff.

Now, please excuse me while I go do things like learn how to steam mop and pull 3 foot weeds (eeekk!) from our flowerbeds.

Let's get on this whole wedding thing

2011-04-27T00:12:00.000-05:00

Did you know that getting engaged is a little overwhelming at first? There's this great sense of euphoria that comes over you...and then everyone you know immediately asks what day you're getting married and where you're getting married and what your colors are and whether you've thought about using this person or that person for this or that and OH do you know what kind of dress you want, and it's enough to make someone contemplate getting married on the side of the road and just being done with it.

But then there are also really fun things like...

...going wedding dress shopping with your mom and one of your best friends and having a BLAST. I think my mom was really worried that I was going to be stressed and indecisive and overwhelmed and basically freak out. And don't get me wrong, I might have had those thoughts, too. But we really had the BEST time, whether we were digging through piles of ugly dresses...

...or finding the winner and jumping up and down with joy. Such a fun day! Major props to the ladies at LuLu's in Uptown for embracing the fun and my ridiculousness.

...registering!! Is there a little stress involved as you debate which flatware feels the best in your hand and which towels are going to claim a spot in your future life (I swear we touched every towel three times) and whether or not you really need this or that or this? Yeah, a little bit. But mostly it's crazy fun zapping things with a cool little gun and picking out things together. We went to Bed Bath & Beyond on Friday afternoon (after having a couple of margaritas at lunch - my plan, as I figured Craig would be more amenable to my preferred options if I gave him a little booze, hehe) and spent about three and a half hours listening to the china spiel and making a lap of the store and heading back to the desk three times to get our gun fixed. It was so much fun!!

I think Craig started losing steam somewhere in the middle of towel selections...notice my beaming energy and his desire to just move on with the process. Ahhh, memories and moments.

Scanny guns are extremely fun!!

And then we came home and promptly put together another registry on Amazon. And next Sunday morning we're hitting up Crate & Barrel before the store opens for one of their special registry events. A glass of champagne AND a scanny gun? Don't mind if I do!

...planning the honeymoon. We're going to Costa Rica!! And staying at amazing places like the Xandari Resort and Spa and Arenal Nayara and Pranamar Villas and doing amazing things like zip-lining through the jungle and staying in an ocean-front villa and hiking around a volcano and just sitting in a hammock and reading and relaxing in hot springs and generally just enjoying life. I can't wait for this part.

...figuring out fun little details instead of the big, budget-busting items. Fun little details include paper products, which I'm totally obsessed with, as well as cool things like the wedding cake.

For everyone out there who wants to stay up to date with wedding news, I even busted out a wedding website. Nothing crazy, I exercised some restraint - just some info for the curious types and out-of-towners.

Weddings are 100% absolutely crazy. But also kinda fun. Plus there's that whole "I do...for life" bit, which seems pretty awesome to me.

Delicious snacking opportunities

2011-04-23T12:44:00.000-05:00

I really love desserts. And baking. And sharing excessive amounts of butter with other people in order to get these dangerous baked goods out of my house where they won't directly apply themselves to my hips/waistline/arm flab deposits. Which is why over the past couple months at work when we've been...well, busy, to say the least...we try to encourage each other along with the promise of treats around 2:30 in the afternoon. Snack attack!! Crazy me, who loves kitchen adventures, signed up for three go-rounds.

First there were homemade Oreos. Which were sooooo good. And also took absolutely forever to make. Although I kinda love going into a Zen mode of rolling out 150ish balls of cookie dough.

Then there were the butterscotch bourbon bars, which I rebranded as butterscotch bourbon cake when I quadrupled the recipe for everything except the brown sugar. Oops. Fortunately, it was fantastically delicious and no one knew they were a semi-screw up until I shared my original plan. Baking adventures are fun!

And finally, rocky road brownies. Which if you don't pay very close attention to when under the broiler for a little marshmallow toasting action...ummm...there could be something along the lines of actual flames and some shrieking and a finished product that looks something like this:

Fortunately, you can just scrape off the blackened goo (while standing in a faintly campfire-s'mores scented kitchen, I might add), pile some fresh marshmallows on top, and give it another shot. And then you'll end up with something like this, which is much pleasing to the eye...and the smoke alarm.

Yup, that's a triple batch of brownies. At least on this one I got the math right.

Oh, and for Easter tomorrow I'll be contributing blueberry crumb bars (already tested and approved) and caprese pasta salad to the spread.

Anyone out there have some start-up capital for the bakery?

Chocolate + beer = awesome

2011-04-10T10:11:00.000-05:00

Not the most timely blog post ever (you might even call it un-timely or completely irrelevant given that some of my upcoming exclamations are seasonally inappropriate), but how do I, of all people, get away WITHOUT telling you about something that intentionally pairs one of my most favorite things ever (chocolate!!) with one of Craig's most favorite things ever (beer!!). Yes. You just had to know. Beer and Chocolate Tasting at the Ginger Man. YES. Good times with Carolyn and Justin and assorted other friendly faces.

Untimely item #1 - this relates to Valentine's Day. Today is April 10th. You do the math. But really, is there any other day of the year that lends itself to pairing chocolate and beer? I'm sure we could come up with one, but Valentine's Day just screams YES to this.

We won glassware!! Temporarily filled with chocolates wrapped in cheery Valentine's Day wrapping, now residing in our freezer awaiting a frosty brew.

Untimely item #2 - I'm going to refer to Craig "being in town" when Craig now...lives here. But it was really nice that he was here so we could have a low-key Valentine's Day together and actually see each other during that whole living-in-different-parts-of-the-country bit. Besides, could anyone else have modeled the paper accompaniment to our event with such pizazz? Oh, wait...this is how he usually operates when I ask for a picture. Covers his face. I'll put together a collage of those shots one day.

We worked our way through seven-ish beers of varying strengths and chocolatey-ness, paired with the likes of chocolate-covered strawberries and straight-up milk and dark chocolate. And while I didn't necessarily think that beer and chocolate would really go together at the start of the thing...some of them surprised me. In a good, tasty way. Fun! Please see the aftermath below.

Go to the Ginger Man and some love - a lot of people find it awesome. Especially when you can enjoy an amazing patio in the middle of February. And maybe even the middle of April.

Where do you get your news?

2011-04-04T23:07:00.001-05:00

Katie Couric is apparently throwing in the towel on this whole "hosting the evening news" gig...but I don't care. Well, and you probably don't either. And based on her ratings, neither do a whole lot of other people. But I really don't care because I don't get my news from the evening news. I'm rarely home in time to watch it anyway, and even if I am...I'd rather watch a rerun of Scrubs and then catch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert a few hours later in the night to fill me in on what's really going on.

If I watch TV "news" at all. Isn't that really what the interwebs are for? I spend my day in front of a computer, and why would I want to watch the news when I can selectively scroll through whateverwhatever.com and pick the headlines I'm interested in?

I'm afraid the days of Tom Brokaw (or, for an earlier generation, Walter Cronkite) may be over. Those dramatic "breaking news" moments are a little less dramatic when Twitter exploded twenty minutes earlier with all the "news" you need to know.

I'd rather just read The Onion.

Weekend update

2011-03-27T22:19:00.000-05:00

- Hired a wedding coordinator/planner. This did great, great things for my sanity. Did you know planning a wedding takes a lot of work and time? It's kinda remarkable.
- Met Molly and Robert in Ft. Worth for a great dinner at Los Vaqueros and an awesome, Texas-tastic concert at Billy Bob's - Wade Bowen!! I love this man. God bless Texas country music.

Not the greatest picture, but it's a man with a guitar...what more do you need to know?

- Made vanilla bean panna cotta with strawberries in red wine syrup as a dessert contribution for carb-loading dinner at Kami's for the race day girls. So, SO great to spend some quality time with these good people.

- Speaking of race day girls, cheered on Kami and Belinda as they totally kicked butt in the Dallas Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon. Way to go, ladies!! I'm really proud of you for attacking this the way you did and finishing strong. Also, thanks for a reason to go to Cafe Brazil and eat one my favorite things...chilaquiles!!

Oh, by the way, my roommate gets into town tomorrow. My roommate/fiancé/"the boy" and his giant dog. Harrison and I are both EXCITED and and a little freaked out. Actually, Harrison has no idea what's really about to happen. But I've tried to warn him. And I can't wait for Craig to be here.

Party on the patio

2011-03-20T16:16:00.000-05:00

It's here. Spring. Dallas has been hit with a stretch of gorgeous 80-something-degree days, and we're soaking up all the patio time that deserves.

Preferred spot? Deck in my very own backyard. Although it's lacking the friendly waitstaff that refresh your water glass and bring you tasty things to eat. Harrison also sits at the glass door and meows at me to come back in. Poor little guy. Still weird being in an actual house.

Patrizio's. I always feel poor over in that privileged part of town, but I can certainly afford a baby bellini and plate of pasta to buy some time on that pretty patio with my dear Sarah. Plus Anthropologie is right there and perfect for post-dinner wandering and dreaming.

Dashing out of work at 4:45 to meet friends at Times Ten, where we proceeded to hang out on the patio for the next four hours while sipping a lovely sauvignon blanc (it's white wine season!) and enjoying pizza from Scalini's. I love that they deliver to that patio. It's the perfefct combination.

Common Table for brunch. The sky threatened us with a few clouds, but then it cleared out and was just lovely. Any Sunday is better with mimosas and something that's been Benedict-ed.

Although any Sunday is not better with a SUNBURN. I met Kami and Carolyn this morning for brunch at Taverna, which was delicious and wonderful in every way as we enjoyed the patio and people-watching and catching up on life, but I had my back to the sun. My delicate Casper-like skin shrieked in horror and promptly turned a rather bright pink. It's only MARCH, for crying out loud. Guess I'd better go ahead and bust out my SPF 80 for daily outings. It's kinda frightening what can happen to my skin with an hour of sunlight.

I feel like this kinda became an advertisement for various Dallas establishments with patios...but DC deprived me of patio time. First of all, the weather is generally not this cooperative there this time of year, and patio space = valuable real estate = minimal patio space. And I loved my rooftop time, but it's just not quite the same. Good to be back in patio land.

Wedding festivities, NY edition

2011-03-19T11:57:00.000-05:00

One of the best things I got out of my time in DC was a wonderful new friend, a constant during the crazy who was always there for sanity checks and explorations of the city. Yeah, basically we ate out a lot, but we also did awesome things like explore Annapolis and enjoy Labor Day outings in New York and get up close with cherry blossoms. We also both happened to meet the crazy guys who decided they wanted to marry us (a little weird, right? just a little?), and I was more than happy to head back to the East Coast for a New York weekend to celebrate the union of the fabulous Dana Duffin and Rex Holmes.

Craig flew up from DC + I flew in from Dallas = reunion in JFK, once I actually figured out which terminal I landed in. Poor guy was confused when I told him I was in Terminal B and he informed me the terminals are numbers, not letters. Oops on my part. We worked it out, though. Totally found each other.

We didn't have any real plans for Friday night - we just set out to have some fun in the city. I LOVE NYC. I really do. I have a coffee mug that says so.

After navigating the AirTrain and the LIRR and the NYC subway and a couple of blocks (phew!), we checked into the Belvedere and promptly headed out to start our evening at Casellula for a little food and a glass of wine to fuel our bodies for some serious Times Square strolling. This place was extremely cute, extremely delicious, and EXTREMELY busy by the time we left to do some walking. We stopped by the TKTS booth about ten minutes before the shows kicked off to see if we could snag bargain tickets to a Broadway extravaganza, but the only half-price tickets were for the pricey seats, which means they were still a little pricey for our liking.

So instead, I bought a $5 scarf/wrap/pashmina-thing from the crazy street guys. And we were just confused by sheep.

Our chilly-ish night needed an injection of fun, so we headed back to base camp and formulated a plan around "tiki bar." Oh yes we did. And that's where we went. Look for the big yellow surfboard and you'll find yourself at Réunion in Hell's Kitchen. It was FUN. And I think I'm now addicted to mai tais.

Follow up mai tais with a late dinner at Becco and it was a pretty stellar NYC evening.

Saturday: fairly ridiculous driving adventure through Queens with a WAY lost shuttle bus driver on our way to the church, beautiful wedding ceremony, epic and beautiful and touching and fun and amazing reception at Westbury Manor in Long Island. Fantastic day with Craig celebrating this wonderful event. The boy even tore up the dance floor a little bit. THAT is how you know it was a good time.

Note to self: I've resolved to go ahead and take the beast camera to weddings. And everywhere. I had this silly idea to rely on Craig's little camera for pictures so I wouldn't have to bring the giant purse and my giant camera and worry about its well-being with drunken revelry all around. I deeply regret this idea.

I'm sad about this picture. =(

Congratulations to Dana and Rex!!

Busy much? Also, adventures in weight loss

2011-02-28T21:37:00.000-06:00

The last three weeks had just a touch of whirlwind to them. You know, moving back to Texas. Into an actual house. And starting a "new" job. In the middle of busy season. And having Craig here one weekend and my parents the next and then Craig again. And I'm going to NYC this weekend for a very dear friend's wedding. And did you know that I've spent more time in Home Depot in the last three weeks than I have in my entire life?

And I don't want the blog to die. Poor neglected blog. It's had a whole lot of zilch going on the last few weeks. I'm back, little blog, I'm back.

Especially since I need to document the latest step in the healthy living plan...

I could stand to lose a few pounds. For health's sake. And vanity's sake, of course - I don't want to worry AS much about my arm flab in a wedding dress here in about eight months. I've put on about 15-20 pounds in the last year or so (I totally blame Craig taking me on all these amazing dates and cooking for me...plus I'm also buying into the theory that falling in love makes you gain weight...it's possible!), and I'd like to take it off. Plus another ten on top of that to get to a healthy, stable place. And Trinity's kinda in the same boat. Well, not the wedding dress thing, but the "could stand to lose a few" thing. So he offered up a weight loss challenge, pitting us against each other, sparking the competitive spirit in both us. Motivation!!

Plus it makes it more serious if you give it a logo with Harry Potter font. How could that be anything but motivational and awesome?

We weighed in a week ago, set our goal weights, and are going to check our percentage lost every two weeks - the winner (who's really the "loser") gets some kind of prize from the other. And the ultimate winner (whoever hits their goal weight first) gets something awesome. We just haven't decided quite what yet.

So far...I'm not off to a stellar start. I mean, I just got back to the land of Tex-Mex. What am I supposed to do, say no to shrimp taquito day at Chuy's (Wednesday, of course) or fried chicken taco day (Thursday, if you're interested) at Taco Joint? Maybe I should also think twice about making a triple batch of homemade oreos (I took them all to work, don't worry - not a single one left in the house. But of course I still ate plenty during the baking process...). And I should actually join a gym and actually go there. Getting on a consistent workout schedule would really help. Which is where a 9-to-5 schedule would come in handy. But no excuses! Time to do this thing!

It's good to be back in Texas, y'all, even if enchiladas tempt me at every turn.

Adventures in moving

2011-02-05T16:14:00.000-06:00

"Adventures in moving" is just a little broad. Let's also file this one under (1) the poor kitty who couldn't fly (Harrison was supposed to fly out Wednesday...and then Friday...and now MONDAY! Poor little guy) and (2) what happens when a door seal is broken during Snowy Icy Disaster Times (bazillions of cold air molecules rush into your home, creating a thermostat reading of...freezing. Not good to see your breath in your house. Heat is now on and the door seal is now fixed, phew).

Possibly also file under (3) North Texas goes Super Bowl crazy (but at least the Pittsburgh and Wisconsin fans know how to drive in ice and snow, right?) and (4) reacquiring your four-wheel drive vehicle in place of rental car on the day The Great Melt begins (although in its defense, the little Nissan Versa did just fine as long as I went slooooowly - driving on the frozen equivalent of a Slip 'n Slide isn't exactly my idea of a good time. Glow sun glow! Melt that snow!).

Who would have thought that I'd need to worry more about snow and ice blanketing North Texas than attacking D.C. this time of year? After powering through Snowpocalypse 2009 and Snowmageddon 2010, I sent up little prayers to Mother Nature for her to please go easy on the East Coast during late January, early February this year. Too bad I forgot to account for crazy Texas weather. Dallas has been blanketed by ice ever since Tuesday...and another six inches of snow fell on Thursday night. At least I was fortunate enough to be traveling on one of the few flights that actually made it from DC to Dallas on Wednesday. Egads!

However...I'm remarkably impressed that both the movers with my giant truckload of stuff AND the car carrier got here TODAY. Thanks for battling the elements, guys! And thanks for unpacking my ridiculous amount of stuff while I spend the day tethered in, knocking out things like address changes. And blogging. And wondering how the heck to arrange the living room.

It's starting to actually feel like I'm back here now and not just on a short visit. Phew. Now, if we could just get poor little Harrison here...

You might be moving REALLY soon if...

2011-01-31T00:06:00.000-06:00

...the only things in your fridge are Diet Coke, milk (for cereal in the morning, obviously), and half a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Don't ask why the chocolate chips made the cut (have you met me?) OR why they're in the refrigerator.

...your walls no longer have anything on them. They look so naked and sad with their gaping nail and anchor wounds.

...you think "whatever!" about random carpet stains rather than try to actually get them out. That's what the deposit is for, right?

...the DVR is only 16% full because you've been cleaning it out, trying not to miss those INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT shows you've had recorded for the last six months. Which obviously weren't that important. Oh, wait - I disconnected everything an hour ago, those shows are now GONE. I think I'll live.

...you WALKED home from work for the last time on Friday. Time to go back to the land of plentiful highways and gaz-guzzling cars.

...the thought of not sharing walls with ANYONE is consuming your every thought, given the noisy new neighbors who've moved in next door. WHAT are you people DOING?!?

The movers are theoretically showing up at 8 AM tomorrow. And I'm giving them a walkthrough, a rundown, a once-over, and then hustling Harrison over to the vet for a round of shots and a couple of days of boarding, which I'm sure he'll be THRILLED about. So hopefully a lot of my stuff will magically disappear into a giant truck during that time. Yipes.

One-way flight back to Dallas on Wednesday - a lot sure has happened in the last two years.

Challenges to the "eating well" portion of the healthy living plan

2011-01-23T19:40:00.000-06:00

When it comes to the "hey, perhaps choose a vegetable over mac n' cheese!" debate that goes on in my mind, trying to figure out what to put into my body on a daily basis, it really helps to limit the whole eating out extravaganza. Much easier to control myself and make healthy choices when a crisper drawer full of veggies stares me down. However, there's a ploy out there from the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington known as Restaurant Week that kinda gets in the way. It's hard for me to resist three course, relatively reasonably priced meals at some of DC's finer dining establishments.

Masa 14 - Wednesday night helping of shrimp ceviche, pork buns, meatballs, and chocolatey goodness
Cedar - Friday night helping of butternut squash soup, short ribs, and chocolatey goodness
Oceanaire - Saturday night helping of clam chowder, pollock, and chocolatey goodness (I'm not predictable AT ALL when it comes to desserts)

Tack some wine onto all of those, of course. Back on the wagon again shortly. You know, after I finish this pizza for dinner. And live without a kitchen for a week and a half or so as soon as this move commences, which is coming up remarkably soon. Holy schmoly.

Holidayapalooza 2010, sweet babies edition

2011-01-13T20:51:00.000-06:00

...and Dallas time is here! Flew in the night of the 28th, jetted out the morning of the 31st, did a MILLION things in between. A million things like...combing through all of our options and finding a really cute house to rent for the next year, checking out a couple of potential wedding locations (eeekk!), introducing Craig to the joy in my life that is Central Market, and stuffing our faces with deliciousness from the likes of Twisted Root and Chuy's and Smoke and Zorba's with some of my very best friends. Oh, and a couple of their highly adorable babies.

Diana and sweet Gracie, just chillin' at Chuy's

Carolyn and tiny baby Rhett! So glad I got to meet him and see his mommy! And just to clarify...his mommy is Molly, not Carolyn. Don't go confusing yourself on that one.

The baby transfer...always a delicate manuever.

Sweet Mr. Rhett is quite content with Kami

All the sweet baby pictures are here. And I'm so, so glad I got to spend some time with my friends - I'll be back before you know it!

Holidayapalooza 2010, A-town style

2011-01-13T20:08:00.001-06:00

...and now, landing in DFW the night of the 23rd. And not going to A-town until the next morning. Why is this, you ask? Well, you try booking a flight from Norfolk to Amarillo within a day or two of Christmas and see what all you come up with. That doesn't cost a bajillion dollars. Hence a late arrival in the state of Texas, one night at the Hyatt Regency DFW (which was actually rather lovely and quite reasonably priced), and an early Christmas Eve flight into Amarillo...where I learned, in addition to the fact that baking adventures are generally always awesome, the following things...

Mexican food is, without a doubt, always delicious and guaranteed to produce a smile. Love you, Abuelo's.

I love homemade Christmas ornaments, especially the bug-eyed gingerbread man. He holds a special place in my heart.

I'm in need of some "keep calm" advice these days, for sure, as evidenced by the presence of this cute baby book in my stocking AND a "keep calm and carry on" coffee mug gift from my sister. Deep, calming breaths...

Festive holiday socks are the BEST. Thanks, Mom!

Nothing makes a man happier than beer, really. Especially Shiner Holiday Cheer. Doubly especially when it's cradled by a Seahawks koozie as gifted to my parents by Craig as semi-retaliation for their efforts encouraging him to become a Cowboys fan. Oh dear.

A-town pictures here. Enjoy. Also, we spent a LOT of time playing with the Wii and generally chilling. Also, I got to see some highly wonderful Sullivan gals who totally made my night. Also, it's always, always nice to be home. Really, really nice, actually. Dallas time is coming...

Holidayapalooza 2010, Virginia Beach-style

2011-01-13T18:59:00.001-06:00

Christmas season 2010 was a little all over the place. Craig and I drove down to Virginia Beach on the 21st to spend some time with his parents, where I learned the following things...

The beach is always beautiful, even when it's freeeeeeeezing outside.

The city of Norfolk has mermaids everywhere. EVERYWHERE.

Large, imposing battleships are much less scary when adorned with a wreath.

Water is alllllll around. And it can come get you. I'm still not totally comfortable with water.

I also learned that my future father-in-law is an exceptional board game player (especially one particular game involving military strategy), my future mother-in-law is a rather wonderful hostess, and some kitty cats actually do like Craig (ahem, Harrison). Check out the pictures from the Virginia Beach adventures here. More holidayapalooza to come...pretend I'm flying from Norfolk to DFW at this very moment...

The most ridiculous meal ever

2011-01-10T22:56:00.000-06:00

That guy I'm going to marry (hmmm, maybe I'll just call him that instead of "the boy" or even "Craig") had a birthday last month, and because I'm such a delightful girlfriend-now-fiancée who wanted to plan a wonderful birthday dinner and eat dinner at this place myself because it's supposed to be basically the most amazing dining experience in the entire D.C. area and possibly of your life, I hit redial for the reservation line at Komi on November 18th from 12:00 to 12:45 until I finally got through to a human being. You see, they open up reservations at noon one month to the calendar day before your hopeful-please-let-us-get-in dining date. Ridiculous. It's a tiny, tasting-menu-only, highly revered restaurant with only 38 seats, and yes, I managed to snag us a reservation. Phew. Craig's excited for this dinner...(trust me, that's his excited face - he's pretty even-keel the vast majority of the time)...

Dinner was...deliciously amazingly delicious. And LONG. We were there about 2 1/2 hours. And we had five different people explaining and pouring and serving and taking care of us all night long. My only other tasting menu experience was on engagement night when I was too "eeeeeeeeekkkk!!" to really appreciate it (and I'll tell you about it anyway, I promise), but this was pretty wonderful as far as dining experiences go. Overall verdict: 1000x yum.

I "interviewed" Craig (less than a month later...not bad for the blog considering Spain hangs over my head) for some of his favorites from dinner, and here's what I got:

spanikopita
it was all good except for the brussel sprouts

What can I say - he's a man of few words and FAR LESS reactive/over-the-top crazy than I am about...pretty much everything. Oh, the food...

I interviewed myself and found out I LOVED the following from the Greek/Mediterranean-influenced menu:

the slightly-salty-but-in-a-good-way crudo course (pictured above), especially the one with the crispy caper berry garnish
tiny, adorable lobster rolls
the teensy half-smoke served with an IPA as part of our wine pairing - it was so D.C. and SO tasty
mascarpone-stuffed Medjool dates - it sounds really simple, but it was kinda amazing
our "main dish" - roasted goat with house-made pita and a host of garnishes, including tzatziki, hot sauce, and oregano sea salt that I couldn't stop sprinkling on every bite. Yeah, and I asked for more bread. It. Was. SO. GOOD.
frozen, tiny baklava for a dessert tasting

And after all of that and much, much more...we were incredibly full. With very happy tummies. And we had a fantastic wine pairing with all of this, which only made it that much better. Everything's better when you start with bubbles and finish with a dessert wine that's actually delicious and not crazy-sweet.

OF COURSE I had my camera perched in the seat next to me, discreetly sneaking in shots here and there so I could attempt to remember what we were eating since we ate about eight million things...and then I was politely informed by one of our many attentive waitstaff that Chef Johnny would prefer that I enjoy his food the moment it hits the table. Basically - please don't take pictures. Ok, that's cool by me, even though I seriously doubt the food loses any of its deliciousness in the two seconds it takes for me to capture it for posterity and memory's sake. Upon voicing this ("I really just want to remember everything we ate!"), our kind waiter had Chef Johnny write up the evening's menu for us. Which doesn't quite cover it when everything is described in one word, but it definitely helps. Thanks, Chef Johnny!

I'm not on the e-reader bandwagon...yet

2011-01-08T12:50:00.000-06:00

I LOVE books. Actual books. Not fake pages on a screen that you "flip." I just can't get into that. Although I probably will someday. Sigh. How long can I resist the iPad when everyone I know is singing its praises? Craig's had the NOOK (or is it nook? Or Nook? I can't tell...) for about a year and is pretty much sold on it, especially when he saw how many books and magazines I hauled around over the holidays to provide myself entertainment. I think he was a little shocked. Hmmmm....

I resolve to read at least 30 books in 2011. And I'm hard at work on this one since that whole "lose 25 pounds" thing is going to test my resolve more than I had hoped. Sigh again. So I'll encourage everyone else to get out there and read, too, if for no other reason than it provides an escape from the life of spreadsheets or call center questions or screaming children or whatever it is that's testing you these days. To that end, here are my suggestions from a selection of the 32 books I read last year. I kept a list. That's why I knew how many I'd read. What, you're shocked? This is me we're talking about. Of course there was a list.

I loved these, please read them as soon as humanly possible:

Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
My Life in France by Julia Child
Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
Travel Writing by Peter Ferry
Naked by David Sedaris
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

These were pretty good, too, go ahead and add them to your list:

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult
London is the Best City in America by Lori Gottlieb
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

Rereads for me, prompted by vacation and movie-viewing, that you should go ahead and read for the first time if you haven't already read them, or just skip Harry Potter if you have strong feelings about not reading young adult wizard fiction:

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

Girly books that didn't make toooooo much of an impression on me when I couldn't bring myself to read the books I felt like I should read to enhance my knowledge and bucket of cultural reference but that are probably quiet sufficient for a lazy afternoon on a beach somewhere:

The Guy Not Taken by Jennifer Weiner
Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand
The Other Woman by Jane Green
Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

Do not UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES read this crap book:

In the Kitchen by Monica Ali

Here we come a-caroling

2011-01-08T12:20:00.000-06:00

Still playing catch-up on the blog, so hope you guys enjoy all of these holiday-themed posts. At least they're making an appearance in January instead of May or something. Phew.

My D.C. time is coming to a close rather rapidly, and did you know that while I have done A LOT over the last couple of years, there are still plenty of things that just aren't going to happen? The week before Christmas, though, I got to check one more thing off the list - a visit to Ford's Theatre. Now, while I missed the "live historic interpretations by professional actors and National Park Service Rangers" that go on during the day (here's hoping the actors do the acting while the Park Rangers provide info and not the other way around), I did get to do something pretty cool - see "A Christmas Carol" in all of its Christmas wonder.

Craig and I braved the freeeeeezing temperatures and brutal wind for the short walk from my place to our wonderful pre-theater dinner at Poste, a nifty restaurant located in the original 1841 General Post Office. We warmed up with some ridiculous French onion soup and other tasty things, then took a quick stroll through the lobby of Hotel Monaco to soak up a little Christmas cheer.

Christmas cheer in place! Also, bundled up to face the elements

We froze our way over to Ford's Theater a couple of blocks away, where I managed to take my gloves off long enough to snap just a couple of pictures before my fingers froze and crumbled to the sidewalk in a pile of frozen finger dust. Ok, I still have my fingers, or else these incredible robotic fingers that are fairly nimble when it comes to typing.

One of the randomly cool things you come across in D.C. - old call boxes all over the city that have been painted to reflect something of historical significance in the neighborhood. It's a pretty cool project! Obviously, Mr. Lincoln and his untimely end pretty much dominate this block of 10th Street NW.

We got there just in time to sneak in and unbundle ourselves before the show started, so I snapped a few pictures at intermission - the stage all decked out all 1840s London-style and the box where Lincoln was shot:

Just another night at the theater! Oh, in a theater of great historical significance while being filled with Christmas spirit. Pretty cool night. Actually, it was very cold. But you know what I mean.

Snuggie power!

2011-01-06T19:31:00.000-06:00

I think the whole thing was intended for laughs. But little did Dad know that he was actually planning one of the greatest Christmas presents ever...I mean, an impulse purchase at CVS doesn't usually yield this kind of enthusiastic result.

I think I've even laughed at other people for declaring their Snuggie love. I believe a certain Vaughn might have a pink one...but at any rate, I'm now a Snuggie believer. See below for proof.

Thanks to my fellow Snuggie believer and model for demonstrating its awesomeness. It's a BLANKET with SLEEVES. Why didn't I think of this?!?

Double Snuggie-enjoyment by both sis and I (and yes, those are crazy-delightful Santa socks, courtesy of Mom) while I'm attempting to figure out how to actually focus shots with my WONDERFUL new camera lens that the parents gave me for Christmas. Must learn to not depend on auto-focus...

Getting all geared up for the Tech bowl game the night before - and yeah, I realize I look really tired. Woke up at 5:15 on New Year's Eve morning to fly back to the D of C, but also determined to make it past midnight. I'm not THAT old yet.

Zach LOVES the Snuggie. A LOT.

SOMEONE decided they were tired during the Tech-Northwestern bowl game and wanted to take a nap...which was just perfect for a sneak Snuggie attack. Oh yeah, and Tech definitely won that game.
Goooooooooo Raiders! Snuggie power!!

Is there anything better than butter and sugar?

2011-01-05T19:50:00.001-06:00

That may not exactly jive with the healthy living plan, but just go back in time a little bit, mere days ago, to the festive holiday season and your favorite things about it. What's that you say? Snow or time with family or giving and receiving or the general joy of Christmas? NO. These are NOT your favorite things. Your favorite things are fudge and sugar cookies and toffee and cornflake cookies and homemade chocolate covered cherries. You're welcome.

Sugar cookies are obviously WAY better with festive holiday colored sugar. Although these sugar cookies don't really help at all because they are ridiculously delicious and I could eat twenty at a time.

The Cookie Whisperer's face of joy as she pulls out a perfectly baked batch.

Yes, I'm aware that I look somewhat ridiculous. Ridiculous-LY ADORABLE!! Ok, anyway, it's my grandmother's apron and a crazy elf hat from who knows where, but I can't help but get into the holiday spirit when cookies are around.

There's really my sister to thank for most of this deliciousness. She's pretty awesome when it comes to baking/candy-making adventures.

Partyin' and chillaxin' in the NYC

2011-01-03T22:44:00.000-06:00

Time to catch up on blog-worthy events! And I definitely consider a weekend in NYC a blog-worthy event, especially when it includes time with my favorite (and likely only - it's a pretty unique name) Gajderoroberts clan AND celebrating upcoming wedded bliss with Dana and her stellar family and friends. Although there wasn't really much that was all NEW YORK CITY about this weekend, which was a nice change. I kinda like going to New York with some degree of familiarity and navigating Penn Station with minimal confusion and knowing how to get to various places in the city without appearing totally lost and just spending time with some good friends. Works for me.

Setting: approximately three weeks ago. Not bad considering I've been in a blurry haze for the last month or so. I blame Craig (not just "the boy" anymore - that's right, he gets a name!). New York City - multiple boroughs and many train/subway adventures.

Reason: Dana's bridal shower prompted the trip, and it's also impossible for me to go to that city and miss a chance to spend time with two dear friends and my adorable pseudo-nephew.

Friday evening arrival. Greeted by friends, cheese, crackers, fruit, and wine. Living room picnic ensues while cute little one snoozes the night away. I love our living room picnics filled with tastiness and wonderful conversation. A lot of life to catch up on in those couple of hours. Delightful.

In tackling the weekend's events, one must always consider what Mother Nature has in store. Unlike last year's horizontal rain and crazy random wind tunnels during this time of year, this year we just had...normal rain! I know, I know, you were hoping for perfect skies and stories of "dreary winter? what dreary winter?" - but alas, it was not to be. At least Saturday was relatively weather-free, and I had a fantastic time catching up with Dana and spending some time with my surrogate East Coast family. Love the Duffins!!

Doesn't the bride-to-be look festive in her bedazzled sombrero? I LOVE the sombrero flair!

Most of Saturday was consumed by the epic awesomeness that was the bridal shower and what I'll refer to as the after-party at the Duffin home, and then that blasted rain confined us to the indoors for a better part of Sunday. Not that I'm really complaining. I mean, we indulged in Eggs Benedict (homemade!! way to knock it out of the park, Jason) and oodles of coffee and and spent quality time with a certain cute kiddo and just chilled. Which was awesome.

So curious. And adorable.

Ummm...Alan...you're not quite hiding all the way...

I see you!

Did you know you can have the Wii entertain and educate your small child? How awesome is that?!? Good work, Alan!

You can get the full spin from the weekend here on Picasa.

Sometimes twelve-ish days away from work aren't enough...

2011-01-02T23:24:00.000-06:00

...and I'm wishing I had another week of vacation just waiting for me, but it looks like it's time to start 2011 with a bang! If "bang" includes back-to-back hour-long meetings in the morning. Shablammy. But I do have a lot of things to look forward to this year that don't include morning meetings. There's a whole bushel of life events coming up (you know, minor events like moving halfway across the country AGAIN and starting a new-ish yet kinda old-ish job and GETTING MARRIED and suddenly being WAY outnumbered by males in my household and all kinds of other silly things), and along with those life events, I'm going to go ahead and throw a few resolutions into the mix just to keep things interesting:

Lose 25 pounds in the next ten months by actually kicking the healthy living plan into gear. This isn't for vanity's sake, it's to be healthy. And to actually fit into jeans that fit a year and a half ago.
Hit 100 blog posts in 2011. I did it in 2009, but not 2010. And while I won't exactly have interesting DC things to blog about, I love writing and photography and find that this is great outlet for both.
Read at least 30 books for pleasure. I really enjoy reading, and with the insanity of life going on, I don't want to feel like I don't have time for one of my favorite escape mechanisms.
Start volunteering on at least a monthly basis. I signed up to be a leader for Habitat for Humanity about two and a half years ago and politely excused myself from actually doing anything since I was moving. Oh, like the same organization doesn't exist here. No excuses this time around.
Maintain sanity during wedding planning and remember what's actually important about that day - you know, the whole getting married and committing to each other part. Although I think good food is pretty important, too. And I'm sure Craig would agree.

There you have it, kids. Keep me honest throughout the year.

The angriest Santa Claus in the world and I hope you enjoyed your holidays and wish you and yours the best in 2011!

Early AM life lessons

2010-12-21T03:08:00.000-06:00

1. Do not, under any circumstances, start reading The Hunger Games anywhere near a time where a reasonable person should go to bed. Good thing I ordered the trilogy from Amazon and have two more books to get me through holiday vacation time. Yes, it's approximately 3:58 AM EST. Oops.

2. Holiday vacation time doesn't really start until 2:30 PM EST tomorrow. Double oops on the whole "starting The Hunger Games at 11:30 EST" business. Work tomorrow is most definitely not going to be awesome.

3. When it's really, really cold outside, make sure you wear some kind of shoe that actually requires use of socks. Your feet will be much warmer and toastier this way. Basically, don't wear ballet flats in DC in late December.

4. Consider shipping all gifts directly to their final destination when you live a looooooooooooong way from home. Packing can get a little iffy when you're trying to figure out where to fit certain things in a giant suitcase. Triple oops.

5. If you're getting engaged but don't know it, try to magically summon the willpower to not look exhausted by 9:00 PM so that pictures from that night actually make you look human.

6. If you're traveling to three different cities over the course of ten days during the Christmas holidays, consider starting the packing adventure before 7:30 PM the day before you're supposed to leave. Also, don't get caught up in The Hunger Games.

7. Kitty cats are very sweet when they snuggle up next to you for hours while you read young adult fiction.

That's one way to kick off the holiday season

2010-12-06T21:38:00.000-06:00

So...I got engaged on Saturday night to a wonderful man who loves me more than I ever thought possible. If only I had recorded myself telling the amazing story of how this happened so I could post an audio clip and just let it play on the blog. Can you even do that?? That would be awesome. I'll tell you about it soon, though, if you haven't already heard me crying and babbling on the phone. SO EXCITED!!!!

And yes, I'm still moving back to Texas. Just bringing someone with me, that's all. Yes, Zach the dog! And Craig, too.

Made it

2010-11-30T21:25:00.000-06:00

Yes, there were some easy ones here and there with just a picture (although I promise you I spent more time editing them in Picnik than is necessary)...but that's me. I love the pictures. And I'm sure I talked about food a lot. But that's me, too. So what better to end with than a picture of food? You betcha! And in true Erin fashion, it's a LABELED picture of food. You might want to click on it so it'll expand and you can actually read the labels. I'm sleepy and not willing to go change the font size for you. Sorry.

I love Thanksgiving. It's basically my favorite meal of the entire year. And you don't even SEE the pies here!

That health kick I mentioned?

2010-11-29T22:10:00.000-06:00

Yes, it's time. So I got things off to a good start by going to the grocery store and loading up my cart with a plethora of fruits and veggies. I had a minor environmental guilt trip as I kept filling up those little plastic bags, so maybe it's also time to jump on the recycling bandwagon. I'm an occasional recycler, but I could be a lot better about it....hmmm, add that to the life/planet improvement plan as well.

Actually, the healthy eating will contribute to the financial improvement plan as well - if I actually take my lunch instead of eating out almost every day, that should help. Man. This is looking good so far.

Lunch plan #1 - spicy quinoa salad. I cut the recipe in half so I won't get sick of it and didn't put in nearly that much olive oil - just a drizzle. Also a slightly higher ratio of quinoa to veggies. And definitely an entire jalapeño for the half recipe, because this is me we're talking about. To be accompanied by a random piece of fruit. It's tasty. This could work.

It's even kinda Christmas colored! I'm totally and unintentionally in the holiday spirit!

Bryan backyard moments

2010-11-28T22:29:00.000-06:00

Happiness is...

2010-11-27T20:46:00.000-06:00

Ponies, ponies everywhere

2010-11-26T21:03:00.000-06:00

Amarillo is covered up in horses. Plenty of real ones, yes, but there's also a herd of fiberglass quarter horses. Center City of Amarillo and the American Quarter Horse Association (headquartered here in A-town) have teamed up for "Hoof Prints of the American Quarter Horse - America's Horse," a city-wide public art display featuring fiberglass horses outside local businesses that have been painted by local artists. We are allllll about the horses here, and there are some really cute ones around town! Also some odd ones here and there, but we'll focus on some cute ones for now.

Last night we had a need to get out of the house after spending the day in a bit of a Thanksgiving coma, so we drove around a bit and laughed at the people standing in lines during sub-freezing temperatures, just waiting to snag their bargains. We also checked out a couple of ponies I hadn't seen before...it's Amarillo and there's not just a whooooole lot to do. This one is "Reflections of Love" outside the Amarillo Children's Hospital. Isn't it sweet with the mommy horse and the baby horse?? Plus they're shiny, which is just awesome.

But I think I was most amused by the sign accompanying the horses...

Outside the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, there's none other than a black horse (looks just like the Masked Rider, except...you know...minus the rider) complete with a Double T:

One of my favorites is the horse outside Hooters - it's sporting the traditional Hooters waitress attire along with a bright red set of lips. It's delightfully tacky. And that's how we do it here in Amarillo.

Healthing it up a bit

2010-11-25T21:57:00.000-06:00

When it comes to Thanksgiving...I'm a big traditionalist. Same menu every year, always followed by the Cowboys game. Light breakfast to leave plenty of room for the usual suspects. Roasted turkey, cornbread dressing, green bean casserole...I mean, it just wouldn't feel like Thanksgiving if we had it any other way. But this year we opted to change things up just a little bit in the interest of maintaining the health kick currently going on (rather successfully, I might add) in the Bryan home.

In lieu of our usual sweet potatoes swimming in their sweet syrup and topped off with marshmallows, we did a medley of roasted root vegetables. I rediscovered that I still don't like turnips, and rutabegas were a totally new thing for all of us - they were...different. Kinda crunchy, almost like an apple. But tastier than turnips!

We added another green veggie to the table in lieu of the mashed potatoes that sometimes show up - browned brussel sprouts with orange and toasted walnuts. The orange was a total experiment, but the general consensus here was one of "mmm, that's pretty good" - you know, for a vegetable.

And while I do love the cranberry sauce from a can with its perfect rings and the "splooq!" sound it makes when it finally releases, we did our own this year with fresh cranberries and Granny Smith apples and a little cinnamon and sugar - YUM.

Don't worry, I've also had two pieces of pie today - pumpkin AND coconut cream. But we've got the Wii back out, and I'm sure I'll burn off some calories. At least enough to take care of...well...the butter on my roll.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! It's wonderful to be home with my family.

A-town highlights, Turkey Day Eve edition

2010-11-24T22:33:00.000-06:00

I've been up since 5:00 AM EST, which is not the most awesome thing in the world given my general distaste for embracing the early morning hours, which also means that my brain is a little mushy right now. So you're not going to get anything overly witty or informative today, just a quick rundown of the day's highlights. Some of which are kinda ridiculous. That's just how I am.

Item #1: I'M ON VACATION!!!!
Item #2: Never having flown Continental out of Reagan before, I wasn't sure what to expect from that terminal...but I was pleasantly surprised to see an Einstein Bros just waiting for me. Not so pleasantly surprised when my "pumpkin bagel with pumpkin cream cheese, please" turned out to be a pumpkin bagel with HUMMUS on it, which I didn't discover until I was at the gate with no time to get it fixed. DISGUSTING. WHO DOES THAT?!?
Item #3: Relatively uneventful flights - always a good thing. Amused by the pilot on the Houston-Amarillo leg who announced "Ok, take a seat - we're about to go really, really fast." I like it when they mix it up a bit.
Item #4: Lunch at Tacos Garcia makes me really, really happy. You just can't get this stuff on the east of coasts.

Chips and queso are sooooo tasty! None of this "cheese dip" business!

Item #5: You know those ridiculous little machines at assorted restaurants and grocery stores that sell silly things like fake tattoos? Amanda and I chipped in a quarter each to buy ourselves a sticky wrecking ball. Yes, it's as goofy as it sounds. But it's provided us with more entertainment than you would think for a fifty cent outlay.

I'm aware that I'm ridiculous.

Item #6: I hadn't touched Wii Fit in a year. But this afternoon I did. And I'm gravely concerned with what I've done to my body in the last year. Implementing personal health program ASAP.
Item #7: "ASAP" for aforementioned personal health program means after Thanksgiving. I baked two pies tonight. I love love LOVE baking pies.
Item #8: We had one of those really beautiful Panhandle sunsets that you miss when you're gone.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve, y'all!

Support the little people

2010-11-23T15:02:00.000-06:00

I go back and forth on the Black Friday, post-Thanksgiving shopping extravaganzas that grip our nation. I'm all for a great bargain, but not at the expense of sweet blessed sleep, my sanity, or dealing with the truly ridiculous crowds. I mean, last year we even drove by Best Buy on Thursday night just to check out the camping situation, and it was pretty ridiculous. With temperatures expected to dip into the teens in A-town on Turkey Day, I'm hoping those crazy people bundle up and prepare to face the elements so their hands aren't too frost-bitten to carry out their massive purchases.

That being said, the Bryan clan will usually get out and do a little bit of shopping over the holiday weekend - just not before the crack of dawn, that's all. We like to hit up the stores when all those people who didn't sleep the night before have collapsed at home, therefore freeing up store space for us...the sane people. And this year, I'm going to make it a point to do at least a little bit of shopping on Saturday to support the little people.

American Express is sponsoring Small Business Saturday, encouraging consumers to head outside of the giant box stores (not that there's anything wrong with giant box stores - they do come in awfully handy, and Target is one of the happiest places on earth) and put their dollars back into their community by shopping at small, independently owned business. And if you’re a proud AmEx card carrier, you’re eligible to earn a $25 statement credit on any purchase of at least $25 on Small Business Saturday at any locally owned independent small businesses that accept American Express. Register here to get a $25 statement credit. I'm certain that terms and conditions apply. That's where the lawyers come in.

I might just have to go spend some dollars at Roasters...perhaps treat my family to some caffeinated treats to properly fuel us for allllll the shopping adventures! Besides, shopping is my cardio...

To the depths of Virginia we go

2010-11-22T20:38:00.000-06:00

Yet another end-of-September adventure just now getting its due on the blog. Oops. Which is good considering I haven't yet backed up to the beginng/middle of September that had that awesome trip to Spain. Super oops. But pictures are getting organized and captioned and I'll totally write about it. Hopefully over this upcoming Thanksgiving holiday business, which I just can't wait for. Where does all the time go, anyway?

Back to that September business...one lovely weekend fall afternoon the boy had the idea to make a bit of a drive out to Barrel Oak Winery, which happens to be in the middle-of-nowhere Virginia. We're talking PAST Dulles Airport here. Serious business. But I'm always up for a winery visit!

It was lovely. Just a nice weekend afternoon - beautiful fall weather, some tasty barbecue, and a bottle of wine. I'll take it any day of the week.

Oh, and remember that puppy dog you met? He came with us. Here's what happens when you try to take a picture with him, I'm on the other end of the leash, and he gets mildly distracted. Have I mentioned he weighs about ninety pounds?

Autumn light

2010-11-21T21:33:00.000-06:00

He thinks he's a lap dog

2010-11-20T20:11:00.000-06:00

Ok, so you're not actually going to see him in a "lap" setting, primarily because it would be pretty much impossible to capture him photographically in that setting while he consumes all your personal space. In the most loving way possible, of course.

Oh, and I'm not talking about the boy. Could be a touch awkward if he always wanted to be in my lap. Yipes.

It's the boy's dog. His name is Zach, and he's a flat-coated retriever, which I always thought was a made-up kind of dog until I just looked it up. Basically, he's a giant black golden retriever. And he's really sweet. And he'd be happy to meet you and lick you to death. So consider this your lick-free introduction. He's cute and sweet, even if he is a little ridiculous sometimes.

Wordless weekend, the "Friday TOTALLY counts as weekend!" edition

2010-11-19T18:15:00.000-06:00