And Your Little Dog Too....

Weekend in the Hill Country

2012-01-23T22:38:00.002-06:00

This weekend to celebrate my 30th birthday, D was kind enough to reserve a cottage in the Texas Hill Country with our friends the Andersons and the Mizes. This is probably our last weekend to get away and it was absolutely perfect.

Our Bedroom

The grill and firepit, where we cooked s'mores under the Texas stars.

D was sweet enough to roast me a marshmallow and I made myself a PERFECT s'more with a Ghirardelli mint chocolate square. Not diabetes approved, but it was my birthday weekend and I only had one.

Front porch for relaxing

Gourmet kitchen where we all cooked dinner together Friday night.

The cottage was set on 34 acres and had two horses, one was a mini-horse.

Janet and the mini-horse

Christine and Janet with the not-so-mini-horse

Interesting story about the horses. We got there super late after dark and wanted to build a fire in the outdoor fireplace after dinner. After a lovely night, we finally turned in. Around 7 AM I woke up with a leg cramp (yay pregnancy ailments) and walked into the kitchen to walk it off a bit and get a look at our surroundings once the sun came up. Much to my surprise, staring in the living room window at me were the horses. I got D out of bed and asked if the horses should be this close to the house and he said that the corral was probably close to the house, to which I replied, "No, they're standing next to the hammock, THAT close?"

He jumped out of bed and we realized that the gate we had gone through the night before to get the firewood (and had left open) was the gate to the horse corral. Thankfully, we had secured all the other gates on the property, so they couldn't escape, but D still had to herd them back into their corral. The mini-horse wasn't having it and freaked out and started running around the house, which in turn got the bigger horse all riled up. So there we are, in the middle of no where, with 2 horses in our front yard and no idea what to do. Thankfully they decided to return to their corral on their own, after which we secured the gate (um, hello, if you're going to rent out your cottage maybe LOCK THE HORSE CORRAL GATE or perhaps LABEL THE GATE or better yet DON'T STORE THE FIREWOOD IN THERE???)

After D was done playing horse whisperer, we collapsed back into bed for a couple more hours. The horses were super friendly to everyone else later that day, coming over and letting everyone pet them. Everyone but D. The horses had already decided that he was not cool.

Later that morning, Christine prepared a delicious diabetes friendly breakfast for us and we headed into Fredericksburg for some shopping while the boys went to the Admiral Nimitz museum. I found some yummy smokey salsa and white truffle oil for D and I to enjoy at home and found some dog treats that looked like s'mores for the pups who were spending their weekend at the kennel. That night we headed to dinner at the Cabernet Grill.

D and I before dinner

The girls before dinner

After an amazing dinner I got my long awaited slice of chicken fried pecan pie with a scoop of Jack Daniels ice cream. While I wanted to wolf the whole thing down, I shared it with D since I wasn't really supposed to be eating it at all. He was happy to oblige, for the good of the baby of course.

We spent that night playing games and laughing so hard I was sure I'd pee my pants (thankfully I did not). The next morning we packed up and stopped at the Herb Farm in Fredericksburg on our way out of town for a delightful brunch and then headed back to Austin.

30 Years and 30 Weeks

2012-01-19T10:03:00.025-06:00

Here I am at 30 weeks on my 30th birthday! I always imagined I'd spend it partying it up in Vegas, but being 30 weeks pregnant, well let's just leave that trip to my 31st birthday, shall we?

We have a few special things planned though, don't fret, and if I'm good and take pictures I'll share them with you next week!

Not much else to report, the gestational diabetes thing (and the continued morning sickness, SERIOUSLY, still with the morning sickness?) continues to be not the highlight of my pregnancy, but doing well so far as we continue to tinker with my medications. Baby is active, but I think rather than kicking as much as she used to, she's running out of space and really just getting more jabby than anything. My appointments are now 3 weeks apart and I'm getting closer and closer to my "no travel" deadline for work. It's going to be weird going months and months without a single business trip but I've got a good reason to stay home!

I'm looking forward to so many things, like celebrating my birthday with friends and D this weekend (and taking a break from all things baby or house related) and registering for our shower gifts next weekend!

So That Was a Fail....

2012-01-17T22:29:00.001-06:00

So I may have mentioned that I was given a large number of hand me down bottles. My mom and I took some of the bottles apart this weekend to wash them. Today I pulled them off the drying rack and assembled them to put them away in the baby's room. Note that I was very meticulous about only washing one or two types of bottles at a time and was very careful about pulling the pieces apart so there would be a limited number of spare and confusing parts or worse, missing parts. A clever plan, eh? So here are the bottles from that wash load that I was able to reassemble.

And here are the leftover pieces that I'm not sure what to do with. I mean holy crap man, they multiplied! And I can't seem to figure out what goes to what. How did this happen? I'm going to need some diagrams or websites or something to figure out where all these parts and pieces go. In the mean time, my baby only needs 9 bottles right? Good thing I have boobs....

Nursery Progress

2012-01-15T18:26:00.000-06:00

This weekend my parents were kind enough to come to Austin and donate their entire weekend to slaving away in the nursery while I sat with my feet up. Okay, that's only partly true. My feet were up, but I have not been feeling stellar. I was diagnosed with a borderline case of gestational diabetes after failing both my 1 hour and 3 hour glucose tests and started on a diabetic diet and prescribed Metformin. One of the lovely side effects? Stabbing horrible gas pains in the abdomen despite consuming the maximum recommended dosage of Gas-X. Like grab a throw pillow and wince in pain gas. I'm thinking it makes the average person majorly farty, however with the restricted real estate around my intestines lately, I think it's just getting all stopped up in there. I would kill to be farty right now. I never thought I'd type that.

Anyways, I did manage to go through a lot of the hand-me-downs from friends and family, wash them, and put them away. The color I picked out for the nursery is very.....yellow. I chose Olympic Paint in Butter. The folks at Lowe's said it was VOC free and I think they were correct, the room has very little odor to it, perfect for a nursery. I've always wanted a room that's a beautiful buttery collor. However, it is a bit more yellow than I was expecting, so we're not completely sure about it. It's also a huge change from the previous walls which were dark blue, but I think we were expecting something more muted. We have no intentions of changing it, one weekend spent painting was enough thank you very much, so I'm hoping once we finish decorating the nursery it'll grow on us?

Inside the crib with my childhood doll Lolly (in pink) and my other childhood baby doll Alberta, serving as the Baby Daniel stunt double for things where we can't wrangle a terrier into position.

Here's the inside of the closet. It's a bit of a jumbly mess right now because the car seat is in there, once we pull it out and put it in my car it'll be less chaotic at the bottom of the closet. But for now I have all our little dresses hung up with age specific closet dividers.

Above, a wide shot of the crib against the yellow walls. The bassinet to the right is a vintage bassinet that will ultimately live in our bedroom for the baby's first three months. This piece has been in my family for generations. My parents were kind enough to test it for lead paint (it passed) and spruce it up for us. It's been impossible to find a skirt to go on it, modern bassinets break apart where the tops come off. Short of having a skirt custom made, I don't have a solution, but I figure Ginger will probably just hide out under the skirt so it might be for the best that we don't have one. The blankets on the crib are ones that I had as a baby.

The lower shot is of our changing table and dresser. What do I put in the bins under the changing table? I bought a pack of wipes and newborn diapers, but I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to put in the other bins. More diapers I assume? Lotions? I'm sure I'll figure it out. The changing table and dresser are covered in toys that were handed down to us. I put them all through either the dish washer or the washing machine in a lingerie bag. Some of them made noises and seemed like they may not survive the cleaning. So far we look like we'll have a 75% survival rate of my cleaning shenanigans. They were free and I'm sure they were all over the floor and in some other kids mouth and while I GREATLY appreciate the freebies, I wanted to make darn sure they were clean before I gave them to our daughter. I'm going to let them sit out for a week, then turn them all over and let them sit for another week to make super sure they are dry and don't mildew.

My mom and I also started to navigate the GIANT stash of bottles that were handed down to us. We started with cleaning and sterilizing the Platex Ventaires and Dr. Browns as I plan on starting with those. Our minds were a bit blown with all the parts and accessories, but also, someone was kind enough to give us the little baskets to wash all the pieces in the dish washer, so that was a huge help. I'm being really careful to only keep one bottle type in play at a time, because I think my brain might explode if I tried to have too many rolling around, trying to figure out what piece goes to what brand bottle. Plus, I guess normal people only try one brand at a time, then go out and buy a different kind if the first kind don't work to help eliminate any problems? We are not normal people. We have been greatly blessed in the bottle department.

So the room has a LONG way to go, there are a lot of decorative elements that we will register for and continue to hunt for, plus a few more weekends ahead of me where I still have to sort through and wash the hand me downs. But for now, I'm very relieved, especially because sometimes women with GD have complications that require them to deliver early, that we have a lovely start under our belts!

The Baby and the Bathwater

2012-01-05T22:34:00.003-06:00

The way I see it, I have a few problems here folks.

It just occurred to me this week that I will have to bathe my infant. I am now obsessed with this fact.
I watch YouTube videos of infants getting baths every night.
I am terrified to have a tiny slippery wiggly little baby in my hands, what if I drop her? She will take her baths in a tub surrounded by pillows on the floor apparently.....
Every time the baby starts to fuss and cry in these videos I start to cry. I didn't even used to like babies that much. Now I come unhinged when one cries because of a little water?
And the dogs do not seem to be taking kindly to all this infant screaming coming out of my computer. Been getting plenty of dirty looks from the furry first-borns.

What are we going to do?

Non-Alcoholic Alcoholic Beverages

2012-01-03T22:04:00.034-06:00

Since I'm pregnant and have been majorly missing my occasional beer, wine, or cocktail, I've been exploring a few low-alcohol options. Let's start with the beers, shall we?

First, I tried the old stand by, O'Douls. I drank this in college when I had to give up the hooch while recovering from hip surgery (took 9 months, not my first dry spell, I've done this before). D thought it was weird that I awkwardly told the checkout girl that I was only drinking it because I was pregnant. I can't have someone thinking I would actually drink that crap normally, okay? I like beers, good beers, legit beers, like Young's Double Chocolate or some other hand crafted microbrew that makes me seem all awesome for liking it.

It's probably the easiest one to find out at a bar, I've ordered it a couple times on 6th street. Not as good as a Dos Equis (which is what I try to pretend I'm drinking when I drink it) but it scratches the itch. The thing I've found with most of these non-alcohol (or low alcohol, less than 0.5% by volume) is that they don't go down as smoothly as their alcoholic counterparts. Mostly, you have one and then you're full, do yourself a favor and switch to water.

This weekend I found Kaliber at Spec's. Kaliber is made by the same people that make Guinness.

I like Guinness and I saw another preggo buying it, so I figured I'd give it a shot. It wasn't great, it really had a strong molasses taste. D said it tasted like they'd poured syrup into water and encouraged me to not feel bad about tossing the whole six pack. This is a normal reaction I think from someone who can actually drink real beer. Good beer. When your options are crap or crap, you learn to be less picky. Note that they store a lot of gluten free beers in the same refrigerator unit at Spec's as the non-alcoholic. D had to point out to me a number of times that I had an armload of gluten free beer that would indeed, still get me drunk. But if you don't do gluten, rest assured, there are options out there for you apparently.

Christmas eve I tried Sutter Home's alcohol removed bubbly from their Fre line of wines.

It didn't taste anything like a brut sparkling wine I'd ever had, but I tolerate the sweeter sparkling wines quite well and it was nice to have a bit of bubbly in my hand all evening and I bet it would go nicely in with some orange juice for a faux mimosa. Again, doesn't go down as easily as the real thing, I can easily toss back an entire bottle of champagne by myself, but slogging through an entire bottle of this was a bit much. That being said, I still like this better than say a bottle of sparkling apple cider, though, any bubbly port in a storm.

Finally, for New Year's Eve, I found Ariel Wines at Spec's. I'd read about these wines, they seemed pretty legit and I was excited to try them.

I bought a bottle of chardonnay to have on my birthday in a couple weeks and a bottle of the sparkling for NYE. I ran into the same issues with Ariel as I did with the Fre, too sweet (but the Ariel was less sweet), didn't go down too easily, but I think it was better and I'd prefer to buy Ariel than Fre in the future. I haven't busted open the chardonnay, my big 3-0 is in a few weeks and I'm saving it for that.

So if you can abstain from drinking for 9 months, great for you, I on the other hand, occasionally need a virgin margarita at happy hour, a cold alcohol removed brew at the end of a hard day at the office, or a little something bubbly in my hand at parties to make me feel like my old self again. Or at least like one of the big kids. I don't miss feeling hungover though, that is one thing I've decided, is totally played out. I want to snuggle my adorable baby girl once she arrives more than I want to spend the day lying in bed with a headache.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T21:44:00.001-06:00

We had one of our most low key New Year's celebrations this year, maybe it's the pregnancy hormones, but maybe I just realized how super duper blessed we are. Saturday I spent most of the day in the kitchen, cooking chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles (YUM!) and the Barefoot Contessa's Greek Salad Recipe. I added some lettuce to the salad, since D isn't fond of weird veggie only salads. I also used some of the olive oil we brought back from Tuscany for the dressing. I hate how Ina Garten is always saying "use 1/4 of a cup of good olive oil," implying that her viewers typically buy some sort of subpar ingredients on a regular basis but since you're making her recipe you should step it up a notch? Maybe it's just me....

Anyways, I brought half the cupcakes over to a get together at D's brother and sister-in-law's house in the late afternoon. We visited and had snacks and the boys grilled. I mostly housed the chips and dips, using pregnancy as my excuse for my usual gluttony over anything dippable.

After the sun set we headed home to change clothes, feed the pups, and then head to NYE bash number two (yes, we're very popular, kind of a big deal, I know) where I brought the rest of the cupcakes for dessert and the greek salad I'd prepared earlier. We went over to Christine and Parker's for an AMAZING dinner complete with an impressive spread of hors derves, wines, egg nog, a delicious prime rib, yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes, and kale au gratin. Suddenly, I wished I'd made a more impressive dessert, maybe cupcakes are a bit low brow as a finale for a spread like that, maybe I'm a bit nutty because I'm preggo, but they were moist and totally hit the spot. I ate two.

We headed home right after midnight, this preggo was A) exhausted and B) *TMI alert* rather gassy. Like grab on to something wincing in pain with gas cramps gassy. It was so bad that I had flashes of worry that I was in labor or something. Then the reality set in that oh-my-god-labor-is-going-to-hurt-that-much-and-more-f*#$! So we came home where I could take the appropriate medications and wait out the storm in the peace of my own bed. Also, note, that this isn't like me being all farty and gross, it was just pains, I would kill to "be all farty". The baby seems to be jamming up all that business in my digestive tract so it's not getting out, thus the intense stabbing pains in my abdomen, causing me to excuse myself from social gatherings, lest people interpret my periodic gasps and winces of pain as I clutch the nearest pillow as actual labor. I blame that damn greek salad and all the chopped up veggies....

New Year's Day we woke up, decidedly un-hungover, and spent the day doing chores around the house. I picked out a paint color for the baby's room. There were multiple trips to Lowes. The paint department guy there officially knows me as the crazy pregnant lady who bought WAY too many sample jars of paint and made off with roughly half their paint chips.

Left to right: Sliced Cucumber, Lilting Laughter, Yellow Bliss, Butter, and on the bottom, Vanilla Wafer

The Lilting Laughter came off very pink and while I loved the Sliced Cucumber, we realized our ENTIRE house is either green or grey and that it wouldn't kill us to use a different color in one effing room. Vanilla Wafer is a bit too close too white, so it's in between Yellow Bliss and Butter. Butter looks best in the daylight, Yellow Bliss, best by artificial light. We're still trying to decide between the two, but I'm sure it'll look great whichever one we choose. As you can see we have ridiculously dark blue walls in that room, so a good coat of primer will be required.

While I was having my color summit in the nursery (attendees included two terriers and D), I also made a big pot of my Guinness Stew. This is one recipe that I can genuinely claim I made up. I researched some other versions online, but it was inspired by something D had skiing one time and came home and told me about. I made some tweaks from the last time I made it.

-Brown the meat in half a stick of butter. Toss the meat with 2 tablespoons of flour, salt and pepper, then throw it into the melted butter. I used 2 lbs this time.
-slice up an onion, 4 cloves of garlic, two carrots, 8 oz of sliced mushrooms, and half a lb of new potatoes, sliced in half.
-throw it all in a pot, add a can of tomato paste (4 oz-ish?) pour in a can of Guinness, add a cup of water and one packet of onion soup mix (I made this in the past with 2 packets, but I'm trying to cool it on the sodium being preggo and all and it was perfect)
-throw in some herbs, thyme, a couple bay leaves, some dried parsley, basically anything that sounds good and isn't nailed down
-put a lid on it and slide it into a 350 degree oven for 2 hours (I took it out once to stir it half way through)
-D likes his sauces thick, so I thickened the sauce with a couple tablespoons of flour, but that's totally optional
-I served it with buttermilk biscuits, but if you kept the sauce thinner, some rice or egg noodles might be nice.

And there you have it, flying by the seat of my pants, making it up as I go and never the same way twice, but it always turns out damn tasty and D is a very happy man. Which is good because he spent the whole day rekeying our locks, replacing door knobs, fixing our brand new fan (which was crappily made, engineer husband to the rescue!). And that is the very unglamourous way we rang in the new year, but it made me realize how blessed we were to have so many good friends, plenty of food on the table, jobs that allow us to have such nice things, a beautiful home, a darling child on the way, and of course, two of the snuggliest and most entertaining pups on the planet. Sometimes you have to stop and wonder what you did to deserve all this, you know?

27 Weeks

2011-12-27T16:23:00.002-06:00

Here I am at 27 weeks, in my last week of my second trimester during the last week of 2011! Everything is definitely getting bigger, Santa brought me lots of maternity dresses and some bigger maternity jeans. I'm finding some of the ones I originally bought that were incredibly too big are now laughably small with a serious "crack" issue when I sit down. The time has come for full belly coverage on the pants and I've set my wardrobe up for these last 3 months to be all about the mumu and less about the pants.

My nausea seems to be getting worse, I've been doubling my anti-nausea medication, which has been helping and so far it's only dry heaves, no actual vomiting. Everything looked good on our last ultrasound, I have my glucose test next week. Now that January is upon us, it's time to get down to business completing the nursery, finding a nanny, registering for baby shower gifts, and getting everything in its right place by mid-February.

I can't travel anymore, per my doctor's orders, as of Valentine's Day so I figure it's best to have everything squared away so if she comes early, we won't be taken by surprise. I can feel my stomach expanding upwards, doing things like bending over to dry my hair or shave my legs are becoming increasingly uncomfortable, not to mention how I picture squishing the baby while doing those things. I'm also super burpy, which I think is terribly unattractive, but not much I can do given my current situation.

Cooking and grocery shopping is easier, I can now grocery shop alone without someone to help me get the food products that gross me out. I can buy raw meat again and have no problem preparing and cooking red meat. Chicken still makes me heave so D has to do all the prep work for me so I can just slide it right into the pan. I still can't face the frozen dinner aisle, so if D wants these, he knows he has to go to the store himself to get them. But I'm back to enjoying cooking and have been making some delicious creations such as smoking a chicken on the grill, roasting a prime rib with gravy and mashed potatoes, and all sorts of chili.

I am looking forward to March, when our little girl is ready to be born and I will finally have my body back!

Darryl's Guitar Project

2011-12-18T00:46:00.000-06:00

Since Darryl has been so kind as to photo document our living room improvement project (coming soon to this blog, it's done, now we're still cleaning up) I thought I'd share another project he's been working on and documenting, his guitar. Check it out, he was inspired by a lot of the art we saw in Italy and I suspect compelled to create something while I was busy creating our first child (ok, he started it before I ever got pregnant, but still, we kid about it). Check out his many months of hard work.

Hallway Makeover

2011-12-13T23:10:00.003-06:00

Our house came with an interesting wall pattern in the entry way which spills into the living room. On top, white stucco texture, on the bottom, weird 1970's grass that was painted over a pink salmon color. Annnnnd popcorn vaulted ceilings to boot.

This week we're having someone come in and retexture the stucco and remove the weird grass stuff. We're doing a two toned grey color scheme with a white chair rail. They will also be scraping down the popcorn and retexturing our tall vaulted ceilings in the living room, hallway, and the baby's room. We are really excited to update this eyesore to something more contemporary. I'm looking forward to updating the door knobs, light fixtures, fan, etc to give the room a more polished look.

We figure we'll be in this house for a while, at least until we are blessed with baby #2, but for now we wanted to improve on D's most hated room. Can't wait to show you the progress as we go!

Thanksgiving Entertaining

2011-11-21T21:30:00.002-06:00

This Thanksgiving I'm making a couple recipes that I found on the Internet and have tested out one or more times with good results so I thought I'd share my contributions to the family Thanksgiving meal. Also, I cooked my first Thanksgiving meal last year as we hosted it at our house. I'll share with you some lessons learned. I find that cranberry sauce is not as hot of a commodity on the Thanksgiving table as some of the other sides, but it's one of my favorites. I'll never forget my first Thanksgiving with D's family when I saw them slicing the gelatinous goo out of the can with a look of horror. Cranberry sauce has always been my job in my family. I typically follow the back of the cranberry bag's directions exactly, but since I'm sharing this talent with D's family, I decided to dress it up a bit with this recipe.

Cranberry Sauce

Gourmet Magazine November 1991

a 12-ounce bag of cranberries, picked over
1/2 cup honey
2 to 3 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar, or to taste
two 3-inch cinnamon sticks
6 whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, or to taste
3/4 cup water

Preparation

In a saucepan combine the cranberries, the honey, the brown sugar, the cinnamon sticks, the cloves, the nutmeg, and the water and simmer the mixture, covered, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the cranberries have burst and the mixture is thickened. Transfer the sauce to a bowl and let it cool. The sauce may be made 2 days in advance and kept covered and chilled. Serve the sauce at room temperature.

According to the Internet, cranberry sauce freezes really well so I plan on making it Monday night and then allowing it to defrost Wednesday night in the fridge.

I tried the next recipe for D's birthday and he gave it rave reviews. Since we'll be staying in a cabin and somewhat "camping" this year for Thanksgiving, I thought this was a perfect dessert. I use store bought graham cracker crusts because I think making crusts from scratch are a fool's errand and that no one can really taste or appreciate the difference, so why bother unless you're going for something very specialized?

Chocolate S'more Pie

Gourmet November 2006

For chocolate cream filling

7 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not more than 70% cacao; not unsweetened), finely chopped
1 cup heavy cream
1 large egg, at room temperature for 30 minutes

For marshmallow topping

1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin (from a 1/4-ounce package)
1/2 cup cold water
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Vegetable oil for greasing

Preparation

Make chocolate cream filling:
Make graham cracker crumb crust and reserve.

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Put chocolate in a large bowl. Bring cream just to a boil in a 1- to 1 1/2-quart heavy saucepan, then pour hot cream over chocolate. Let stand 1 minute, then gently whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Gently whisk in egg and a pinch of salt until combined and pour into graham cracker crumb crust (crust will be about half full).

Cover edge of pie with a pie shield or foil and bake until filling is softly set and trembles slightly in center when gently shaken, about 25 minutes. Cool pie to room temperature on a rack (filling will firm as it cools), about 1 hour.

Make marshmallow topping:
Sprinkle gelatin over 1/4 cup cold water in a large deep heatproof bowl and let stand until softened, about 1 minute.

Stir together sugar, corn syrup, a pinch of salt, and remaining 1/4 cup water in cleaned 1- to 1 1/4-quart heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over moderate heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then boil until thermometer registers 260°F, about 6 minutes.

Begin beating water and gelatin mixture with an electric mixer at medium speed, then carefully pour in hot syrup in a slow stream, beating (avoid beaters and side of bowl). When all of syrup is added, increase speed to high and continue beating until mixture is tripled in volume and very thick, about 5 minutes. Add vanilla and beat until combined, then immediately spoon topping onto center of pie filling; it will slowly spread to cover top of pie. Chill, uncovered, 1 hour, then cover loosely with lightly oiled plastic wrap (oiled side down) and chill 3 hours more.

Brown topping:
Preheat broiler.

Transfer pie to a baking sheet. Cover edge of pie with pie shield or foil and broil 3 to 4 inches from heat, rotating pie as necessary, until marshmallow topping is golden brown, about 3 minutes. Cool pie on a rack 10 minutes. Slice pie with a large heavy knife dipped in hot water and then dried with a towel before cutting each slice.

I plan on making the chocolate portion on Monday night. Unfortunately, I'm planning on lugging my stand mixer along (I have a more portable hand mixer, but 5 or 6 minutes of holding that thing seems like torture. I know, I'm spoiled.) so I can make the marshmallow topping the night before Thanksgiving. I plan on popping it under the broiler right after dinner to make the marshmallow the perfect amount of gooey.

Lessons Learned From Last Year

Do not try to brine a Butterball turkey, it will come out too salty.
If you do brine your turkey (and you really should, it makes a world of difference if you do it right) pay careful attention to the brining time and salt quantity indicated versus the weight of your bird. I really messed this up last year and our turkey came out so salty it was practically inedible.
A good apetizer you can get super easy is baked brie. My local HEB carried ones already wrapped in puff pastry with fruit topping between the pastry and the brie. This appetizer really wows and all you have to do is dump the thing in the oven and slice up some apples, carrots, cellary, and lay out some crackers.
If you're doing a cheese tray, include a nice variety of cheeses, both hard and soft and a mix of fruit are a good combination. I also recommend you include a wedge of honeycomb. You can order one from Savannah Bee Company, one of the vendors I tried recently at A Christmas Affair. They always include a little honeycomb on my favorite cheese tray at Cru, which is where I got this idea.
Most of all, relax, it's Thanksgiving. Sometimes it goes off without a hitch and sometimes after weeks of planning you totally ruin the turkey in a freak brining accident. Just chalk it up to a good story you'll all laugh about someday.

Weekend Recap

2011-11-20T21:30:00.001-06:00

First of all, thanks to everyone for the helpful input on the shoe size issue. I've decided to refrain from any shoe purchases until post-baby. My husband can write me a big fat IOU on them.

Friday
Had a nice evening home alone as the hubs was out with friends. I got plenty done around the house, I hung up and partially organized the nursery closet, did laundry, and worked on our will. Now that the baby is on her way, I figure we need grown up things like a will and life insurance. These aren't super fun blog fodder, but I will recommend Quicken WillMaker. Not sure about the quality of the legal document produced by it, but it took me no time to put together.

Saturday

Saturday morning I went to Junior League's A Christmas Affair with Christine and Janet. I am so glad I discovered this event as it will probably be something I take our little girl to as she gets older and will be attending for the shopping. I thought it might be a silly way to waste money, but once I got there, I saw lots of unique things and wished I'd come with a better game plan to do more of the shopping with the nieces and nephews.

I got lots of great hostess gifts that I now have a decent little stockpile of. No longer will I have to rummage around at the last minute or run to the store on the fly so I don't show up for a dinner party empty handed. I got drink mixes, dip mixes, teas, a super cute ornament customized to indicate that this year is the Christmas that we are expecting (will include a photo once I get it on the tree), and lots of baby clothes. I also discovered Austin retailers that I would have never known about otherwise like GaGa Boutique located on SoCo. They had all sorts of unique Austin-ey onesies (I got one with a guitar on it as a tribute to D), teething necklaces, and I picked up this Diappes & Wipees carrier.

It holds 2-4 diapers and wipes so if you want to grab the baby and minimal extra crap, you can just grab this. Once again, the guitar theme for D. I figure it's good for him to have when he's taking the baby somewhere quick or running over to a friend's house so he doesn't have to lug the giant diaper bag. There were also lots of clothing boutiques for grown ups and children alike. Sadly I didn't want to invest in any clothes other than maternity, so I skipped the grown up stores but they had some super cute stuff. I got the baby a couple other things, but didn't get too carried away, if anything I wish I'd bought more because I kept thinking about things and wishing I'd sprung for them. I'll know for next year and plan my budget accordingly. They also have great events in the morning for the kiddos, I look forward to taking our little girl to those!

Afterwards I came home and had a nap. Later that night we met friends downtown for dinner and drinks.

Sunday
Sunday was a rather dull day. I woke up and got a prenatal massage and then came home and did chores. D continued his war with the dresser refinishing all weekend, extended from last weekend. We finally gave up and decided to paint the whole thing white to match the other baby furniture. We tried, you win some, you lose some. I then sat around the house, drank tea, did laundry, napped, ran errands and snacked on some smoked gouda (cheese is my number one craving in pregnancy).

I got a lot done and feel like I'm leaving the house in good shape for the upcoming holidays! I look forward to spending time with family and cooking up a storm!

Weekend Recap

2011-11-15T17:12:00.042-06:00

Friday

My parents came in from Houston to help us with baby prep stuff. We had a yummy BBQ dinner of food my parents picked up in Elgin and then went to Lowes to get supplies for our weekend projects. Darryl was kind enough to replace our kitchen sink faucet since it was corroded and getting dangerously close to breaking. I kept imagining it breaking off on a Tuesday night and a giant geyser shooting up in the middle of the kitchen. Replacing the faucet was really the last thing that needed to be done for our kitchen makeover, so I was glad to finally have it out of the way!

Saturday

My mom and I went on an Ikea adventure and found a great changing table that matches the style of our nursery and was under $70! Sold. We came home to find D and my dad working their way through restaining the guest bedroom dresser to match the nursery based on a project I saw on Young House Love. Turns out Sherry and John, they are not. It ended up being a difficult project, but they persevered. After Ikea my mom and I ran some errands together and then went through the GIANT box of hand me downs from our friends' little girls. We are so lucky because they had the most beautiful clothes. My mom kept exclaiming how much better dressed my daughter is going to be than me! Since we were given clothes from newborn to 12 months, I ordered a set of baby closet dividers and hangers on Amazon. When they come in I'll be able to hang all the pretty dresses by age range. Then my mom and I practiced swaddling my childhood baby doll using Youtube videos and directions from Happiest Baby on the Block. We took a dinner break and then D and my dad put the crib together in the living room.

Sunday

The dresser still wasn't going great, the stain wouldn't dry so we decided to just leave it for a few days in the garage. D put together the changing table and we rearranged the guest bedroom furniture to accommodate the new baby furniture. At this point we realized a major miscalculation on our part. There was no way to fit the crib through the doorways from the living room to the nursery. So then poor D and my dad had to pull it apart and put the parts, defeated, into the nursery/guest bedroom. My mom and I spent some quality time getting my closet situation under control.

All and all, it was a productive and busy weekend, but I'm sure D will be glad that we don't have another one like it planned until January when we paint the nursery and start getting it set up for real!

Closet Woes

2011-11-13T17:09:00.000-06:00

We live in a small house built in the late 70's. Thus we have limited closet space. Since I lived here first by myself, I called dibs on the master bedroom closet and refuse to share it. (Before you feel too bad for D, he has like 3 closets in the study and hallway outside our bedroom. Plus we both have dressers.)

Behold, my closet in all its "glory". I use that term loosely.

My closet is 5x5, which is pretty small for a master bedroom closet, so I have a rule, no new clothing article can come into it without something going out of it. However, with my expanding waist line (and hips, and rib cage, and boobs) I can't wear a lot of my favorite closet staples (all of my carefully aquired Antrho clothing collection, tear). I know I'll be able to wear them around June, after my body starts to return to its original shape, but for now, I can't wear a lot of what is in my closet yet have no room for the new maternity wear I'm accumulating. So my mom helped me go through my closet and dressers, weed out a bunch of things that I'll probably never be able to wear again (Note that I anticipate my ass shrinking, but not back to a size 4 probably seeing as it wasn't quite there when I got pregnant in the first place. Time to let go of that dream.) for Goodwill. The other items, I bid a temporary farewell to as I boxed them up in a giant Rubbermaid container and put them in storage for the next 6 months or so. After the baby, when I return to work, I plan on swapping out the contents of that box for my maternity clothes. I think this is a good strategy for other space strapped preggos out there, it's too annoying to get dressed for work each day and have to try on clothing article after clothing article that is too snug, doubling my getting dressed time.

My question for those of you out there who have had children or are currently pregnant, did your foot size change? I've got a pair of spendy designer shoes on my Christmas wishlist and I'm wondering if this is a foolish time to ask for them? So far all my shoes seem to fit the same. Just wanted to make sure we're not about to waste a boatload of money as these.

Halfway Done!

2011-11-07T23:17:00.001-06:00

Here's a photo after a very large meal at Eddie V's to celebrate D's birthday last weekend at just under 20 weeks. I'm calling it my 20 week photo since I was super duper full, I probably look bigger :).

Never a dull moment around here, last week I started having chest pains, upper back pains, heartburn, and a shooting pain down my left arm. Yes, I'm way too young to have a heart attack, but the symptoms were too textbook to ignore, so off we went to the ER at 4 AM. Sidenote, if you have to go to the ER, 4 AM is THE time to do it, especially on an early Wednesday morning. It was totally dead, we got right in and were on our way home by 6:30 AM after I had been thoroughly checked and cleared for heart problems, pulmonary embolism, and preeclampsia. The final verdict, chest pains were from all the vomiting I've been doing lately. Allow me to explain.

In my first trimester, I had terrible morning sickness from week 6 on. Then around week 16, things started to look up. I finally started to feel like my old self again. I was no longer gagging and dry heaving 7 to 8 times a day. Despite the barfing in Target incident around week 12 or 13 followed by a prenatal vitamin on an empty stomach (my bad), no real vomiting.

After my dinner with Darryl at Eddie V's we came home fairly stuffed. I had eaten less than D, but if you hear him tell it, this whole thing resulted from my overeating. We were in the middle of watching a movie on the couch when I jumped up and ran to the bathroom and proceeded to vomit up an obscenely expensive seafood dinner. Have you ever vomited lobster and king crab legs? It's tragic. I whimpered a lot.

After that, I noticed I really wasn't hungry much and that my nausea wasn't related to my having an empty stomach the way it was earlier in my pregnancy. Sure I had some awesome days with no nausea but then I'd have a day where I found myself staring at my computer monitor at work, jaw clenched, unable to focus on anything other than NOT PUKING (which I did). I even resorted to running out of my office mid morning, driving 3 miles home, and coming crashing into the guest bathroom much to the dogs' bewilderment to get on all fours and puke in the comfort of my own home. I'd finally had enough.

The hospital wrote me a prescription for anti-nausea meds and some serious pain killers for the chest pain. Besides the nurse administered pain meds in the ER, I haven't touched them since, I hate the way they make me feel, but I did see my OB today and got him to extend my nausea meds, which he had no problem with and even encouraged.

So far I've gained 15 pounds, which is nothing to sneeze at and is a pound or two more than I should weigh right now, but considering I didn't gain any weight from last month to this month, probably attributable to my eating issues, I'm not worried about it. I'd rather have 2 pounds to spare than feel totally queasy while trying to shovel more food in my gullet.

Now I'm just going to get plenty of rest, enjoy my new medication, and make wise eating choices with a few splurges here and there, my love for cheese and other dairy products during this pregnancy knows no bounds, so I'm just going with it, especially since I need the calcium.

While this is totally worth it and I will gladly do this again, I had no idea how sick I would be (don't freak out if you haven't had kids yet, most women don't have these problems). I basically feel like I've had the flu for the last 5 months. It's this kind of feeling that makes the scariest parts of labor seem like a walk in the park because it will mean the beginning of my body feeling back to normal. Plus, I can't wait to meet our little girl! I want her to grow to full term and arrive healthy, but I still wish she was here today to snuggle with and spoil!

Parenting Moment of Panic #1

2011-10-27T22:07:00.006-05:00

This week I had to Google "What does a baby wear home from the hospital?"

Seriously, I'm fretting more over that than the prospect of the actual labor. Solution? I think I'm going to delegate this task to D. It's literally a 5 minute drive from the hospital to our home, yet I am terrified that our child will be inappropriately dressed.

PSA For All Wannabe Preggos

2011-10-25T22:04:00.001-05:00

Before I got pregnant, I thought I was a very clever girl. I thought, "Hey, flowy tops and dresses are in right now, I'm going to stock up on them and look at the give they have through the stomach! I'll totally be able to wear these when I'm preggers!"

Fast forward to now, 18 weeks, my coming to terms with the rib cage expansion. Last week I put on my Anthro shirt dress that I got last Christmas and almost sent back because it was so big, but decided I could make it work by belting it. Yes, the boob buttons were tight, but hello, pregnancy boobs, not too bad, went down another button and BAM, before I even got to the tummy button on the full skirt, the rib cage button got the best of me. AND since it's on your rib cage, no amount of sucking in or abstaining from gluttony is going to help you. Today, put on my flowy Anthro top I got for my birthday last year. Same dilema where the sash wraps above the tummy. That little button was hanging on for dear life while my tummy remained hidden under the flowing layers of fabric.

So there you have it, bubble burst. Unless it's a mumu, you're not going to be able to wear it when you're knocked up if it doesn't allow for some stretch, even if it was rather big on you to start with. ::sigh:: I'm sure Anthro will start making maternity wear right after I'm done having all my kids.

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

2011-10-23T21:44:00.001-05:00

We went to our doctor's appointment a couple weeks ago and found out the happy news that we are having a girl! Now that we've had some time for it to sink in, I've gone into full tilt nursery planning mode. I suppose a vision board or Pinterest would come in handy here, but instead I've decided to vomit my vision all over this blog. Behold, the inspiration for my color scheme from Pottery Barn Kids:

Pink, green, white, and khaki will be the main color elements.

Since we hope at some point to also have a boy, the main elements of the room will be white and green with interchangeable accents in pink. I want it to look like a little girl's room but I also don't want to spend a fortune to change the gender on it later.

I found these curtains from Pottery Barn Kids also, but they came with a hefty price tag. So I'm taking a page from Young House Love and going to see if my mom and I can make our own curtains and bed skirt out of some similar fabric I can find. Can anyone recommend a good fabric shop in Austin beyond the obvious JoAnn's or whatever?

Also from YHL, I adore their crib choice. It's reasonably priced from Walmart and stylish. Plus they have already done the legwork on their blog to match the stain color on the drawer, so I'd like to refinish our existing dresser in our guest room to match. I plan on getting pink and/or green sheets for the bed.

The matching changing table for the crib from Walmart was like $300. This changing table from Ikea is less than half the price. I've been looking a few options at Ikea that I've been considering hacking into a changing table, but a trip to the store to gauge actual usability is in order first. Our friends generously gave us a mobile to hang on the crib, but I'd like to get something a bit craftier and schmancier to hang from the ceiling over the changing table so the baby has something to look at in both places.

As far as the room is concerned, we'll be scraping down the popcorn ceiling, painting the dark blue walls of our guest room khaki, adding white crown molding and a ceiling fan. Finally I'd like to get an area rug that's either green or pink so the little munchkin isn't crawling around on the hard floors and add some white floating shelves to display books and stuffed animals and whatnot.

The last piece of the room puzzle is the glider. Gliders, in my opinion, are a horrible travesty against furniture. All the ones that I consider to be reasonably priced (less than $300) are hideous eyesores that I am loathe to allow in my house. Gliders I do not find aesthetically offensive typically cost $800-$1100. I'm not about to drop that kind of coin on a chair that I cannot later put in my living room, that I will essentially own and use during a short window of my life, my child bearing years. So, I'm still looking for a solution for that, I've considered some plain rockers and some other recliner style chairs as alternatives but I've heard so much from new moms about how important a comfortable glider is for middle of the night feedings, it's one area that I'm willing to sacrifice form over function. Still, I'm hoping to start combing consignment shops for something a bit more attractive.

The glider I wish I could justify.

The reasonably priced glider that I will endure and enjoy the extra $600-$900 in my bank account. That's a lot of money! Can you imagine what all I'll be able to do with that money?

So there you have it, we have a plan for the baby girl's room. We won't start putting the plan in motion for a couple more months, but at least I have some sort of vision and direction for it, which is unusual for me. Can't wait for our little bean to be born so she can be in awe of her mommy's mad decorating skillz (that she essentially ripped off from YHL and a variety of other blogs, what? At least I'm honest?).

I Am Not In This 99%...Stop Speaking For Me

2011-10-11T21:20:00.000-05:00

While I don't fully subscribe to the "I am 53%" movement (clearly you still pay taxes even if not in the form of a federal income tax), I certainly abhor being lumped into this 99% business. These people defecate on police cars. These are not my people. I found this dog photo on the "I am 53% Tumbler" and thought it was too cute to share.

Maggie and Lee's Wedding in Wimberly

2011-10-09T20:29:00.006-05:00

Last weekend D and I had the pleasure of attending the wedding of my good friend from elementary school (and junior high, and highschool, and college, and as young professionals in the ATX before she moved away), Maggie. Maggie and Lee really know how to throw a wedding. It was held at Old Glory Ranch and was the perfect setting for a fall wedding. And we were blessed with perfect weather, the first weekend in a long while where it wasn't scortching hot. When we left, the thermometer on the car said 59 degrees!!!

When we walked out of the chapel, to the string quartet playing "The Eyes of Texas", we were greeted by these adorable little donkeys carrying buckets of beer.

Here's Darryl looking sheepish with the awesome donkeys. He loved them and I reminded him that I had recommended them for our own wedding cocktail hour but he shot them down. Now who's sorry? Beer donkeys are freaking awesome.

The Old Glory Ranch floral design was unbelievable. I should have taken more pictures, but I was ill prepared with only D's camera phone. Look at how fab these fall floral displays are. And they were ALL over the place. Clearly no expense was spared on the floral design. One of the most beautiful weddings we've ever attended.

Cocktail hour.

Maggie the beautiful bride and my preggo self. First time a stranger has asked me when I was due, I'm starting to show! We had to leave a bit early to take care of our dogs and get my preggo behind to bed, so we didn't get to see their grand exit, but I hope to see it in the photos from their photographer's website!

Boots!

2011-10-02T20:44:00.000-05:00

From beck-a-boo crafts on Etsy.

Found these adorable baby boots on Etsy, they come in all sorts of colors and patterns. Are these gender specific? They seem to be more suited for a little girl, but I might have to put a set on our baby even if it's a little boy. I think I'm going to get them in the 9-12 month size, so they can wear them in Fall 2012. I had such large feet when I was born, I think any newborn sized footwear would be a bad choice. Baby D is going to have some seriously big feet if he or she takes after their mama.

I Would Like to Eject From This Vomit Comet, Please

2011-09-25T22:15:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone for all your sweet comments on my last post, we are so thrilled at our new addition! However, growing the little guy or gal is proving to be a bit more taxing than I had anticipated. Since week 6, like clockwork, morning sickness kicked in. Most of my female relatives didn't have much morning sickness to speak of (or they suffer from amnesia) so I wasn't really worried about it. Prior to that, I started to feel mild queasiness around meal times and it was easily managed by having a snack to calm my stomach. I didn't have much of an appetite, I had some food aversions, but no big deal.

After week 6, "morning sickness for realz" kicked in. Weeks 6-13 were nauseous in the mornings, some days were worse than others but most were manageable with a little help from the hubs bringing me cereal in bed before I got up and a cup of mint tea. I dry heaved and gagged around meal times (you know when your dog starts to gag and dry heave on your carpet but is suddenly okay? I sound EXACTLY like that about 7 times a day) or any time my blood sugar got too low, but I kept thinking hey, it's week 13, this is going to disappear any second now, as my doctor promised "one day you're going to wake up and feel just like your old self".

So Friday I woke up and felt pretty good. I thought, maybe this is it! I got through it without actually vomiting! Saturday proved me wrong. Near misses trying on maternity clothes with my mom at Macy's but I survived. However I wasn't so lucky in the dressing room at Target later that evening. I made it to the front of the dressing room area and (thankyouJeusus) found a trash can and unloaded in front of a half dozen or so horrified bystanders, of course vomiting in my hair and all over the shirt I was trying on (guess who is the owner of a new maternity shirt). I announced to my audience that I didn't have the flu and that it was morning sickness and could someone please get me a tissue. The clerk was super sweet about it and got me something to clean up with and kept insisting I didn't HAVE to buy the shirt (trust me people, I did) and even offered me a trash bag to take back with me if I felt like I needed to throw up again (it was a sweet offer, but after that incident, I pretty much threw my clothes back on, gathered my purchases and got the ef out). I seriously need to write that Target a note about how the clerk was super sweet about the whole thing. I wanted to die.

So Here's a List of Things That Make Me Want to Vom (Some of this is TMI but I threw up in a Target this week, this shit got real)

Fish
Sushi
Brushing my teeth
Using mouthwash
Walking from the car to a building in the heat
Watching a kayaker paddle by while sitting on a park bench (it looked hard, made me want to barf)
Talking about food
ACL Fest
Trying on clothes
Dressing rooms
Raw chicken
Raw beef
Smokey flavors on foods
Pooping
Lean Cuisines (I literally cannot look directly at them)
Many aisles of the grocery store
Grocery shopping in general
Showering in any position except sitting down at the bottom of the tub
Cajun food
Hamburger helper

Things I Have Tried to Alleviate the Nausea

Accupressure
Ginger caplets
Candied ginger
Ginger snaps
Ginger tea
Saltines
Mint tea
Tums
Eating something before I get out of bed

This could potentially last me 2 more weeks....or (groan) the remainder of my pregnancy if I'm extra unlucky. Totally a worth while sacrifice for our little bean, but if I woke up tomorrow and didn't want to barf, pretty sure I'd weep with joy.

Now Jay Z has 100 Problems....So Does D.

2011-09-21T07:14:00.002-05:00

So a few months ago, D and I were clearly hanging around with Beyonce when we came up with a most fabulous idea.

So we did. (Note that this is not Beyonce's actual pregnancy test. But we took them together. True story. Why would I lie about such a thing?)

So obviously B and my's next decision was, how to tell the world?

We played a little rock, paper, scissors, and B won the right to make her announcement on the MTV movie awards.

And I.....won the right to announce it on this blog. So here we are. It's not as glamorous, but it's happening, I'm due in March.

Here we have some terribly unflattering photos of me, the first at 7 weeks.

The second at 13 weeks.

You will note my hair is a hot mess. I've not felt stellar since week 6, and can honestly say I have only done my hair ONCE since then (I go to work with it half wet people, just finally attempting to reinstate makeup, don't judge me until you've been there).

So there will be more about my baby growing shenanigans to come on the blog. Honestly, I've got a lot of good material. Material that those not already knocked up should avoid reading, lest it should completely freak them out about having a kid some day. It's not that terrible and we are terribly excited, but I am looking forward to no longer having an uncontrollable physical dry heave response at the sight of a Lean Cuisine.

I've decided to finally blog about this after much deliberation about the topic. On one hand, I know there are real life friends who I haven't told about our happy news, but on the other, I decided early on to not make a HUGE deal about this and call up everyone I knew. I figured it would just kind of come up when I wasn't drinking or had a giant 7 months preggo belly or whatever. And if we haven't run into each other in the past couple of weeks, then I apologize that you're probably reading it here first. But I think there's a story to tell here about this journey and I'm finally ready to write about it.

And I'll try to not make this blog a shrine to my pregnancy or my future child, I want it to still be about me and other things. I've found it so hard to blog since I found out because honestly, growing a human inside of me is the biggest thing going on in my life right now, so it would be weird to not include it. That and football season are what's going on in my life right now and I don't think my reading audience comes here to read about football.

So there you have it. Cat out of bag. There's a bun up in this oven and so far everything is looking great!

It's the Most Wonderful Tiiiiiiime of the Year!

2011-09-07T22:34:00.000-05:00

This about sums up how I feel about the Saints versus the Packers tomorrow night. AND college football on Saturday. AND all day Sunday. AND again Monday night. My football viewing is really going to conflict with my Monday night yoga class.... How many people utter that phrase?

You see, I love college football, yes, but mostly I like to watch Texas play and then any other team that's a major contender for the national championship against Texas. Since (let's be real) we just clawed our way back into the top 25 rankings, that's not going to be happening this year, I've gotten into the NFL.

That's right folks, fantasy football. And I'm forcing the hubs to do it for the first year ever. We are like the real life Jenny and Kevin from The League. Except I think in this scenario I'm Kevin and he's Jenny, though he does NOT run my team.

Also, The League starts in October. Even if you think Fantasy Football is the geekiest thing on the planet and you know nothing about it, I promise, you'll still like this show.

So let's go Vick in a Box (my team name). And yes I drafted Michael Vick. And yes my dogs audibly booed me when I did that. And no I'm not sorry, because mamma's gonna buy them lots of kibble with all the money she's going to win when she takes first in her league. Just sayin'.

I Blame My Lack Of Blogging on the Heat

2011-08-21T13:44:00.000-05:00

So we've switched to radio silence on this blog lately. There are a number of factors at play here, but I think the main one is I cannot...freaking handle....the heat ANYMORE! I've been off doing all sorts of things, like girls weekends in New Orleans or family beach weekends at Port Aransas. Things that would make fabulous blog fodder. But I don't think I've taken a single photo this summer, mostly because I'm quasi paralyzed by the triple digit heat which we are on track for reaching the 70 consecutive day mark this week.

I AM SO DONE WITH YOU WEATHER! I've pushed through all summer, found ways to beat the heat like gardening in the shade, sipping lemonade, jumping into Barton Springs 4th of July weekend, but I'm officially tapped out. I tried to hike 3 miles yesterday morning and nearly barfed 3 times. Ginger was huddled under the park bench panting and I thought I was going to have to carry her back to the car (but then I started to wonder who would carry ME back to the car). Then I spent the rest of the day curled up on the couch watching the Back to the Future trilogy while trying to replenish the electrolytes in my system.

I no longer want to cook because it makes my house too hot. I used to enjoy smoking meat on the grill but can't stand the thought of smokey meats in this heat, and frankly I don't even want to eat because I'm too busy sweating. I have quit doing things on the weekend because I can't stand leaving my house to go places in this weather. So until September rolls around, I'll be huddled on my couch in the cool air conditioning until further notice....

Day Dreaming

2011-08-10T20:16:00.026-05:00

I've been having trouble sleeping lately, I wake up every night at 3 AM and cannot get back to sleep. This has been going on for a couple weeks. I. Am. Exhausted. So one of the things I think about in the wee small hours of the morning is my next trip to Vegas, which we are planning for my 30th birthday. We aren't planning our usual trip, it'll be more of a grown up trip focusing on visits to the spa, fine dining, and a nice show rather than partying at a rooftop bar with our friends (which is LOVELY but we're just going to do something at a bit of a different pace this time). So instead of our usual Hilton, where we typically get comped a suite, I want to go a bit higher end. I'm trying to decide between the Wynn (or the Encore)....

The Bellagio...I've always wanted to stay there but is it too old and tired now? Has it lost its luxury quotient?

The Cosmopolitan...this fits more of our younger partying profile for our trips to Vegas...not sure if it's really a good fit for a weekend more geared towards romance and relaxation...

Aria, is this (or the Cosmopolitan) really in the same class as the Wynn or the Bellagio? We will probably never stay anywhere in Vegas this nice again, so I want to make it count. The pool isn't really a factor since we'll be going in February.

I'm also contemplating the shows, I'd love to see Garth Brooks but with tickets starting at $250 a person, I think it's too rich for our blood. Other options include LOVE, O, or Absenthe.

What do you think? What hotel would you stay at on your ultimate Vegas fantasy trip?

How To Tuesday: Agua Frescas

2011-08-09T05:04:00.000-05:00

I've been playing around a lot lately with agua frescas. It started when I had a big quarter of a watermelon and didn't know what to do with it. Today I decided to play with cantaloupe. The process is the same for each kind of melon but both yield refreshing results.

First I chopped up 2 peeled canteloupes into chunks to the top of the blender. Then I filled the blender half way with water.

Next I blended it to a nice puree and then strained it into my pitcher. When doing this with watermelon I picked the seeds out at first, then decided to just blend it all together and it worked out fine. Next I squeezed the juice of 2 limes into the pitcher, added about 1/4 cup of sugar (you could also use a basil or mint simple syrup). I only had to add a couple tablespoons of sugar to my watermelon agua fresca since it was so sweet, but I had to add more to my cantaloupe. Next I added about 1-2 more cups of cold water until my pitcher was full (not rocket science, just keep tasting and filling the pitcher). Voila! Ice cold refreshing agua frescas that are a great way to start your morning on a 107 degree day!

Last Day in Rome

2011-08-02T19:57:00.000-05:00

On our last day in Rome we woke up and took a cab to the Villa Borghese. After a lovely morning of art (my favorite was Apollo and Daphne by Bernini) we headed back to our hotel for some quality R&R at the pool. As soon as we got out there, it started raining, of course, so we spent some time enjoying the Turkish baths and nap room. We were so bummed our pool day was ruined, but we settled for some other forms of R&R.

We strolled down to a cluster of sidewalk cafes we'd stumbled across a few nights earlier. We sat at a sidewalk cafe at a table next to a lovely couple from the States and chatted for hours.

We ordered antipasto, which was prepared in a style similar to that served by my family on holidays, had to take a photo.

We strolled around and got some final gelatos of the trip and then headed back to the room to finish our bottle of wine and pack for our flight home the next morning. I've never been excited about the prospect of going to Europe, but I'd definitely return to Italy. Next time I'd love to go to France or Greece or Spain!

The Day We Ran Into Rick Steeves, Saw the Vatican, and Other Things

2011-07-30T16:02:00.000-05:00

Darryl arranged for us to have a private tour of the Vatican while we were in Rome. We saw all the big sites, the Sistine Chapel (and totally illegally took photos of it) and St. Peter's Basilica.

Here we are in front of the main altar in St. Peter's.

This man is clearly asking the Swiss Guards for fashion tips.

Me in front of St. Peter's.

After a 3 and a half hour tour from our lovely guide, we decided to catch some lunch. We went to a couple places in our Rick Steeves guide book but we either couldn't find them or they had gone out of business. I was nervous because the Steeves states that most of the eating establishments around the Vatican are sub par, so I really wanted to stick to the book. We bickered a bit, Darryl was sick of following the book. Right about then, following the book paid off in a big way.

We stepped into a cafe from the guide book, I started to go in to the air conditioned part but Darryl stopped me and said he wanted to sit outside. While we were sitting there waiting for our food I was casually flipping through the guide book and eavesdropping on an intense business related argument at the table next to ours. I took my shoe off and started fussing with my blister guards and next thing I know the guy in the argument jumps up and runs from the table next to us. I figured they'd finally come to blows but snapped out of it when Darryl says, "it's Rick Steeves". The guy had run up to him to shake his hand.

It took a while to register, of course I froze like a deer in headlights with my Rick Steeves guidebook in one hand and my shoe in the other, there he was, in all his glory, 10 feet away from us. The Steeves cometh. Finally, when I snapped out of it I screamed at Darryl, GET THE CAMERA!

I may have been paralyzed in awe of the Steves, but I did get a few photos of him dashing off across the street towards the Vatican with his camera crew. We were talking with the owner and he said that Rick Steves comes there once a year and that they were shooting a segment inside for his TV show. I will never forgive Darryl for not letting me lead us to eat inside ;)!

This is my smug "I just saw Rick Steeves in ITALY and also I have gelato" face.

After our big lunch, we stopped for gelato. Yes, gelato was served as an included dessert, but we got more, I don't need your judgement. Then we walked down to St. Angelo's Castle and climbed to the top for some sweet city views. After all this, we were spent. We hiked back to the subway, which dropped us off to our hotel shuttle station and then took a nap. That night, we decided to hang around the hotel. Since even the room service and cheap restaurant were above our price range, we had some cocktails and snacks in the executive lounge (free) and then struck out in the residential neighborhood surrounding the hotel. We made a pact and decided to eat at the first place we came to.

Not far from the hotel we ate at a place called "The View" where we were the only tourists in there amongst a ton of loud locals. We were greeted with a complimentary glass of champagne and a spectacular view of Rome at sunset. We started with beer cured beef carpaccio served with guacamole (not too shabby with the guac, Italy). For my main I had the best, most melt in your mouth, lamb chops that I've ever tasted in my life. We had an amazing basil creme brulee for dessert and strolled hand in hand back to our hotel room, a couple blocks away. Much nicer than fighting through the tourist traps littering Rome, it was one of my favorite meals and a remarkably romantic evening. We went back to our room and opened a bottle of Chianti and enjoyed our balcony.

The Rome Waldorf Astoria, My Natural Habitat

2011-07-12T22:55:00.001-05:00

On our second day in Rome we left our tiny cramped room in the city and did some sight seeing. We bought our Roma Passes, hopped on the subway, and zipped off to the Colosseum. We did our guided tour with our Rick Steves audio guides, of course.

Next stop was the Forum and Palatine Hill, Roma Pass and Rick Steves to the rescue!

Next we grabbed a couple slices of pizza and ate on the steps by a fountain near the Pantheon. We went inside an had a look around, once again, Rick Steves free audio tour.

Next we headed to the Trevi Fountain, tossed a few coins into that bad boy. After a day of hoofing it around to all of Rome's archaeological treasures (which was made easier because there were some helpful street signs unlike anything we'd seen in the other Italian cities we'd visited thus far), we were wiped out. So we grabbed our luggage and hopped a cab to our second hotel in Rome, the Waldorf Astoria. I have a ton of hotel points and the hotel was free (it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it). Other friends had stayed there and had good things to say about it even though it was more out of the way than most other touristy hotels. I was THRILLED when we walked into our room. LOOK at how big it was! It was big by American standards, so by Italian standards it was downright obscene. I was giddy. No more crashing into each other while we tried to get ready in the morning. Pillow menus, fluffy robes, room service, complimentary sparkling water and chocolates on the pillows. Oh and the CLOSET space. Our hotel was also home to La Pergola, the only three Michelin starred restaurant in all of Italy. Of course we didn't have reservations made 6 months in advance, nor did we have 400 Euros to spare for us to have dinner there (not an exaggeration, that's how much it costs), but I took the elevator up to the top floor and rolled out of it like I owned the place. Even the bar was too spendy with the cheapest cocktail costing 15 Euros. As quickly as we came, Darryl piled me back into the elevator before I could get us into some serious financial trouble.

We had a cute little seating area and a balcony with chairs and a table. And the bathroom was huge. I had my own little makeup stool and area, so no fighting for the mirror.

We freshened up, had a few glasses of champagne and snacks in the complimentary lounge and then took the shuttle into town. You could rent a Ferrari from the hotel and zip around town. We were more comfortable with the shuttle.

We went for a romantic stroll to the Spanish Steps, pretty much just wandered around and did the Rick Steves night walk in our Rome tour book.

We had a long wait at the taxi stand to get back to the hotel, which was annoying because we were super tired and spent half the night stroll lost, but when we returned to our room we found a chilled bottle of champagne waiting for us. I had mentioned we were celebrating our second wedding anniversary months ago when we were making our room reservation and they remembered.

So we put on our fuzzy robes, slippers (isn't it funny that they put out little mats by the bed when they did the turn down service? I do hate letting my bare feet touch hotel carpet, it's like my pet peeves were totally catered to.), grabbed our pillow chocolates and our bottle of champagne and sat on the patio and watched all the people roll in for the night in their Ferraris.

Some of those people drove not just Ferrari's but Bugatti Veyrons. The most expensive modern car in the world (worth a cool 1.5 million dollars and I TOTALLY touched it). Out of our league much, ha!

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

2011-07-11T22:24:00.025-05:00

Ferris Bueller said it best. I owe you guys the recap of the last 3 days of our Italy trip but here's a brief summary of what's been going on in my life lately.

I've taken to going to boot camp with my dog Ginger. She gets so tuckered out!

I'm learning to smoke meats. So far I've smoked 2 racks of ribs, a chicken, and a half a pound of almonds. I'm getting better each time, but on Sundays until further notice, my hair pretty much smells like mesquite.

I spearheaded my company preparing a meal at the local Ronald McDonald House. I've also been doing other fundraisers at the office. I made Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls for the fundraiser. And they were glorious.

I had a fabulous bachelorette party weekend with bride to be Lyra. We had a nightcap at the W hotel and probably narrowly missed being crushed by falling plates of glass.

Ginger killed a possum in the back yard. Here she is, quarantined in the bathtub while we bathe possum off her. I found her with it in the yard, screamed my head off at 11:30 PM for Darryl, who had to put the poor creature out of its misery while I checked Ginger all over for broken skin or possum rabies (she was fine).

Basically, I've been enjoying my summer and living life to the fullest! Hopefully I'll slowdown a bit and take some photos of my happenings for the blog!

Kate Middleton Costume Tutorial

2011-07-10T22:11:00.002-05:00

I went to a costume party this weekend, no real theme except for a "Halloween in July" kind of thing. It was actually neat to have something to dress up for at an odd time of the year. I was so pleased with how my costume turned out, so I thought I'd share it with y'all!

I tried to channel what Kate wore in her engagement announcement press conference with some of the outfits she's been wearing as she toured North America. First I paired a Banana Republic grey wrap dress with some Ralph Lauren black round toe pumps (not pictured). I have a silver Tiffany & Co. "k" initial charm that I wore around my neck. I totally lucked out by going into Sam Moon and finding an EXCELLENT replica of her sapphire ring for $12. It's so pretty, going to be hard to not wear it to work or something as an accessory, ha. I work with a lot of dudes so I doubt anyone will notice. I had been watching YouTube tutorials and was planning on making my own red fascinator out of cloth and feathers but I found these big great hair "flowers" at Sam Moon. I went for the biggest, gaudiest option.

Finally, I finished off the outfit by picking up a bottle of cava and brought my own champagne flute which I sipped throughout the party (I love the taste of champagne but I suppose you could pour any cocktail in there). I topped it off with a black faux snake skin clutch from Old Navy that I already had. I did my hair in big loose curls, lots of dramatic eye liner on the eyes, contoured my cheek bones with bronzer, and applied a nude lipstick and gloss.

Today I Am Grateful For.....

2011-06-21T22:59:00.001-05:00

Seems like a lot of people around me have a bit of a bug up their butts lately. Maybe it's the phase of the moon or the fact that I came back to work after a lovely little weekend (to be recapped later) but since I am uncharacteristically Zen as of late, here's a list of things that I am thankful for:

Pretty light weight cotton dresses and sandals to wear to work in triple digit heat.

A fresh cherry colored pedicure

Snaking on fresh salsa made with tomatoes from our garden.

Fresh watermelon.

A bouquet of peonies sitting on our kitchen table.

What are you grateful for?

Roman Around

2011-06-19T18:46:00.002-05:00

After our lovely jaunt to the Amalfi Coast we packed up and headed to Rome for the final leg of our trip. This was the worst train ride ever. Well, I'm sure there are other horror stories out there much worse than ours, but it was pretty lame. First, our train was delayed about 2 hours so we had to spend that time hanging around the Naples train station. Not exactly the kind of place you want to make an extended stay and every time I got up to check the board, the train got delayed another 20 minutes. Ugh.

Darryl reading on the train as the train I wished we were on rushed past us out the window.

Finally we get on the train. Immediately I notice we aren't in one of the nice, sleek Eurostar trains that we were on during our other legs of the trip, but a Trenitalia intercity train. And somehow we appeared to be the only tourists on our car. Not a big deal, except the train broke down. Twice.

They kept making announcements over the intercom (all in unintelligible Italian, of course). We sat there, unmoving on the track for about an hour each time. And every time the train stopped, the Italian passengers became more and more exacerbated. Some angrily questioning the conductor. Others making phone calls to what I imagined to be loved ones waiting for them at the station. It was the most irate I saw the Italians around me during the entire trip. Italians are a fairly laid back people compared to Americans. So honestly, I was too afraid to ask anyone around me what was going on, lest I irritate them more. So we sat there quietly, reading our books, observing the scene around us, praying that neither of us would have to use the bathroom before we arrived in Rome.

After what seemed like an eternity, we arrived on million hours late and trudged to the Hotel Serena near the train station. We checked into what is possibly the smallest hotel room I've ever seen. All the hotels we stayed at on this trip were at least 3 stars, so it wasn't a terrible hotel or anything, just tiny.

The elevator would barely hold D, myself, and our 2 bags. Plus it was the old fashioned kind, with the door you pull open. I kept imagining a drunk college kid opening the door and stepping down the elevator shaft to his death. Next our room had no AC. It was way too noisy in the city to keep the windows open at night and our room rate clearly stipulated AC. Turns out you had to go down to the front desk and specifically request that it be turned on. Finally, the shower was akin to the size of a small marine shower on a boat. You were basically stuffed in there with barely enough room to turn around or throw some elbows to work up a good lather. And it leaked buckets of water through the space at the bottom of the door. The room itself barely had room for the queen sized bed, an armour, a desk, and limited floor space for our bags. What an odd hotel, but it was clean and the staff was nice.

Why is the Whopper angry?

By this point it was around 3 in the afternoon, so we took the subway to the Piazza Popolo. The irritation of our train ride combined with our tiny living space, compounded with the general culture shock that is Rome versus the Amalfi Coast lead us to a bit of a breakdown. We had skipped lunch and needed sustenance. We stepped into an Italian cafe and browsed but didn't see anything that looked particularly comforting, so we admitted defeat and split some chicken nuggets, fries, and a coke at the Burger King across the street.

I don't typically go to fast food in the US, especially not BK, but I can't imagine how these stay in business. Our tiny shared snack cost 8 Euros and was even WORSE than the BK back in the US. And the restaurant was filthy, yet full of people. Why on earth would anyone other than an American tourist at their breaking point choose this place over all the other establishments Italy has to offer. Nonetheless, I've never been to an American chain like that in a foreign country and the food did hit the spot. We were fortified for a few more hours of "Roman around" until dinner.

church in Piazza de Popolo

We strolled through the high end stores on Via Condotti. I went into my first H&M ever. I took photos of all the neat shop displays.

Sparkly Shoes!

Louis Vuitton store, went inside, poked around.

Finally we ended up on the Spanish Steps and did some people watching.

Next we went to Capital Hill to watch the sun set. There were a lot of stairs. My legs got really tired.

Ancient Rome

Dusk at the Forum

After a long day of hoofing it all over, we stopped at a cafe on our way back to the hotel and I had my first and only pizza of the trip. Not a fan of the pizzas in Italy. I'll stick to my Chicago deep dish, thanks. With that, we returned to our hotel and passed out.

Positano

2011-06-14T18:34:00.003-05:00

Having recovered from my bout with food poisoning/a stomach bug (oh irony of ironies, I write this post at home on a work day as I was stricken with a similar episode starting last night, but alas, no bidets to barf in). So the day after the Capri trip I did not go on, we departed for Positano.

Still hadn't quite conquered solid foods yet, but thankfully didn't get sick on the bus ride. Beautiful views!

Overlooking the sea. Still feeling kinda weak.

We meandered our way down to the beach, reading the Rick Steeves guided tour the whole way down, poking our heads into all the little shops along the way, brousing through brightly painted ceramic pottery and linen dresses.

Beach! I laid there for a while, then we decided to try and introduce me back to solid foods.

Bruscetta. This place was one of the best places we ate on our trip.

Darryl declared this the best lasagna he'd ever eaten.

Spaghetti putanesca. This dish hails from this region. Not usually my first choice on the menu, but I figured, when on the Amalfi coast.......It was great!

View from the Foreiner's Club at sunset

After some more random toodling around and shopping, I was fairly tired. We considered continuing on to Amalfi, but we were fairly content to head back to the hotel for a nap and fresh clothes.

Next we checked out the Foriener's Club in Sorrento which has amazing views of Vesuvius, live music, good eats, and good cocktails. You'll note that I reintroduced alcohol into my diet prior to essential nutrients, such as meats and other proteins. What, champagne is an important part of a balanced diet. Don't judge.

The Foreiner's Club is a notorious hot spot for wedding receptions, so as we dined we were treated to one of the most spectacular fireworks displays courtesy of one of the wedding parties.

Enjoying limoncello and tiramisu, enjoying the fireworks

Thus ends my recap of our Amalfi Coast leg of our trip. My impressions? Despite the stomach issues, it was probably my favorite leg of the trip. The sea breeze, Vesuvius in the distance, the smells and sights of fresh citrus everywhere. Don't even THINK about skipping the Amalfi if you get a chance to visit Italy. It was amazingly relaxing, beautiful, and SO romantic!

The Day I Did NOT Go to Capri

2011-06-12T20:32:00.000-05:00

One thing I failed to mention in my last post was that as we strolled back from dinner and gelato, I felt like my stomach was having some digestive issues. I chalked it up to heartburn as we retired for the evening. Then in the wee hours of the morning....it began. Food poisoning.

I use that term loosely, Darryl and I ate all the same things and HE didn't feel the slightest bit ill. I however managed to have the colon cleanse to end all colon cleanses interspersed by bidet vomiting. You know what's handy? A bidet to vomit in. I saw the contents of last night's dinner in reverse as I yacked it into the bidet. And then I turned on the water and neatly rinsed it out. How convenient. How Euro of me to vomit my hazelnut gelato into a bidet?

By 10 AM the day was starting to slip away and I was no closer to making it farther than eyesight distance from the bathroom. So I convinced Darryl that there was not much else he could do for me and to go alone to Capri. So thus I spent this day of my trip weak, slipping in and out of sleep. My goal for the day? Consume a banana and a bottle of water and keep it down by the time Darryl returned.

This is the boat Darryl took to Capri. Or it was Ralph Lauren's yacht. He saw that too.

Rocks and blue water and stuff.

Darryl on Capri

The chairlift. That I didn't get to ride. ::sigh::

So Darryl came back and showed me all his photos and videos and regaled me with his tales of travel. I told him that I managed to shower while he was gone. I didn't mention that it was huddled up in a ball sitting on the floor of the shower. So sick.

Me and my chamomile tea

So he helped me get dressed and walk a short distance to the closest possible cafe.

Darryl's pizza, I couldn't look at the food on the other side of the table, made me queasy.

Minestrone, cures what ails ya.

I had my tea and my soup and I managed to keep from barfing at the sight and thought of the other food around me. Mercifully, I was doing considerably better the next day. The next installment, Positano, my road to recovery, solid foods, and other things.

Day Trip to Pompeii

2011-06-07T08:04:00.078-05:00

The next day we woke up bright and early and hopped a commuter train to Pompeii. It was a tad bit overcast and rainy so I was nervous, but it all worked out in the end. Pompeii was probably our favorite stop of the trip. It was A LOT bigger than we'd anticipated. Glad I wore comfy shoes!

Entrance to Pompeii

Standing in the road in Pompeii

The city is amazingly preserved, you can even see where the chariot ridges worn into the streets that are still there! Here I am standing on the rocks that were used for pedestrians to walk on when they would flood the streets to clean them. If you've spent time in Pompeii having volcanic dust blown in your eyes every 5 seconds, you'll understand why.

D with his headphones in, listening to his Rick Steves tour

Bodies preserved from the eruption

More streets of Pompeii....

Bakery, these things ground up the flour

Darryl in the Pompeii version of McDonalds

We learned that the women traditionally prepared the meals for their families starting early in the day, but this took ALL day, so only one meal was prepared and eaten in the home. The rest were taken in these sort of fast food restaurants. There were counters with holes in them to hold the hot food. I made Darryl stand in one.

Me reading the guide book in the amphitheater

One of the homes and its grape orchard

Large theater

More roads and stuff, and Vesuvius

Naughty fresco in the brothel

Brothel bed

The brothel was interesting, the prostitutes were called "She-wolves" so the brothels are called Lupinars. The frescoes were believed to either be "inspirational art" for the clients or a "menu of services". The beds didn't look particularly comfortable, but then again, they weren't meant for sleeping....

We were not prepared for how huge this place was, all there was to see, and all the rich history there was to take in. We went back to Sorrento and our hotel and had a long nap, but I spent most of my time Googling all over the internet to learn more about Pompeii. I'd love to read a book on it, so freaking interesting!

After we'd recharged for a bit we went to watch the sunset over the Bay of Naples.

We strolled back down to the small marina for a fresh seafood dinner.

Sauteed zucchini appetizer

Eating over the water at the Ristorante Bagni Delfino

Darryl's yummy lobster ravioli

Sorrento at twilight

Fresh sea bream, local, right off the boats

After a lovely romantic dinner served by some of the nicest servers we met on our entire trip, we strolled back to the hotel, but stopped and got gelato on our way of course.

Chocolate art in the gelato shop, they put Obama on Mt. Rushmore....in chocolate

This gelato was really good!

I'm so glad that this day was so amazing, because the next day was freaking rough.....and all that food I just showed you I ate? Yeah, I saw it again. It. Was. Ugly.

Serene Sorrento

2011-06-05T15:04:00.003-05:00

After our jaunt in the Tuscan countryside, we hopped another train from Naples to Sorrento first thing in the morning. Everyone warned us about Naples being big on pick pockets and scam artists so we were on high alert. Luckily, when we arrived in Naples and made the transition from the regional train to the local commuter train with ease and without incident. Once we got on the commuter train, we had a 1 hour ride to the end of the line, which was Sorrento, located on Italy's AMAZING Amalfi coast.

Sorrento main square

If you get the chance to go to Italy, DO NOT miss the Amalfi coast. I think this was my most favorite leg of the trip. There was a lot to see, lots of good day trips you could take from Amalfi, lots of opportunities for the 3 Rs, romance, rest, and relaxation. We arrived and checked into our hotel, the Antiche Mura, which was a really nice 4 star hotel. We decided to upgrade a little bit on this part of the trip, per our travel agent's recommendation.

So happy to be on the coast!

After we got situated at our hotel we strolled around to the Pizarria da Gigino where we had a very late lunch.

Darryl's Pizza

My caprese salad

A couple of words about the food. First, we discovered on this trip that we didn't really like Italy's pizzas. They were hard to eat. I was starving and not amused at the prospect of sawing through it with a butter knife, and the proper Italian way to eat pizza is with a knife and fork. While we were obviously American, we tried to respect the local etiquette as much as possible, thus the frustration. And on top of it all, it was kind of just, meh. We tried A LOT of pizzas throughout the trip, typically from highly recommended places in our guide books. Italian pizza just didn't do it for us. I also came to terms with the fact that I'm not a fan of mozzarella either. My caprese salad was phenomenal. The tomatoes were so fresh and tasty and amazing, they tasted like home grown. It is my belief that the tomatoes on the Amalfi Coast were extra spectacular due to the fertile volcanic soils. But the thing that was kind of ruining the salad for me? The mozzarella. I tried fresh mozzarella a few times (as well as having had it numerous times at home) and you know what? I'm over it. Give me shredded any day, but you can have the fresh mozzarella, I'm not interested in it. It's bland, it tastes like nothing, and it has the texture of a sponge.

Fruit stand in Sorrento

Darryl reading the Rick Steves walking tour

After lunch, we popped into a Christmas shop to procure an ornament to adorn our Christmas tree. I try to get an ornament from every vacation we take as a couple. I lost the lobster from our trip to Boston last year (fail), but hopefully I'll remember where I put the Italian ornament come December. After that we checked out the lemoncello factory. We expected this to be a big facility, possibly offering a tour and a tasting. It was fairly disappointing. It was really just a couple of vats in the back of a small shop, but we still got a free tasting. It's not our favorite thing to drink, but you get a glass of it after every meal in this region, so we just went with it. Then we started reading the Rick Steves walking tour of the city. We much preferred his audio tours, we got tired of stopping and reading the excerpts out loud to each other, but it was fairly interesting.

Giant lemons, Sperry Topsider for scale....and also my leg.

Shop full of lemon paraphernalia

Sorrento is known for its amazing citrus fruits. One morning I even squeezed my own orange juice with a press they leave out for guests. So. Freaking. Good. And they had HUGE lemons the size of footballs and lemon orchards every where you look (and lemoncello, and lemon granita, and lemon soap, and lemon, candles, you get the idea).

Main church in town

We walked down to the sea at the end of our walking tour. Beautiful views. You could rent space to lay out on the piers, but it was a tad bit chilly for it that day.

Bay of Naples behind us

Look, I found Vesuvius, I think I'm the only one here cheering for an eruption....

Boats by the water

After spending time taking photos of the Bay of Naples and Vesuvius, we strolled down to the smaller marina for more sight seeing. This may sound a bit boring to you, but Sorrento was really beautiful, so even though our legs were totally worn out, we kept pressing on.

One of the biggest past times in Sorrento was the evening stroll taken by the residents. On our way back to the hotel for a little rest we encountered the beginnings of this phenomenon. By 9 PM when we re-emerged we found this main street was closed down and the streets were packed with locals and tourists alike, strolling around with their dogs or families, enjoying a gelato and the evening air. It was like nothing I've ever seen. What a pleasant way of life.

Strolling in Sorrento

Some sort of chicken breast thing?

Mushroom Risotto

We found a good spot for dinner outside the Men's Club. No, it's not a stripper joint, but a club for old men to hang out, play chess, and share the local gossip.

Musicians serenading us in front of the Men's Club

Enjoying some wine with my dinner

Afterwards we got some gelato and strolled around until midnight when we headed back to our hotel.

Mini-Panic Attack Thanks to The Bump

2011-06-02T22:14:00.000-05:00

When I was a bride to be, I lived and died by The Knot. I got so much help, support and great advice from The Knot message boards. So much so, that I credit a lot of my wedding's final outcome to the influence of that board. So naturally I've toodled around on The Nest boards. It's mildly interesting, I've posted every now and again.

So now, as we look to the future, I've started poking around on The Bump message boards. Just poking people, I can verify with 100% certitude that I am not currently knocked up. Also, I am holding a beer as I type this sooooo yeah, don't read into this too much. Just been on my mind since so many of my peers are starting families right now.

Most people I know had very little difficulty getting pregnant (or so they claim). Many of them say they got pregnant right away, on their first try. While I'm still warming up to the whole idea of housing another human being inside me for 9 months, getting knocked up right away does not sound great. I'd like to try for a bit, that's half the fun right? I'm a firm believer that it's not about the destination, it's about the journey.

So I started poking around on the Trying to Conceive board and boy is my mind BLOWN. I know, I'm increadibly naieve and probably half the people who say they got pregnant right away are liars or weren't trying at all, but all the charting and the ovulation testing is really throwing me for a loop. I thought that when the time came, we'd just do our thing for a while until one morning I peed on a stick and saw a plus sign or a smiley face or whatever the crap they have.

I've occasionally peed on an ovulation strip out of sheer boredom, never am I ovulating*. There's nothing on TV....I wonder if I'm ovulating...I'm gonna go pee on a stick and find out...Note I keep ovulation tests in the house because I had to spend my FSA on something at the end of last year. I heard these are expensive so I stocked up. What? That's normal, right? They don't expire for like 3 years, I figured I might need them in that time frame, I think it's a safe bet.

*Note that in no way am I doing this in any kind of methodical fashion or am I in any way shape or form in my monthly ovulation window, so it's no reason to be alarmed/concerned. SHEER BOREDOM PEOPLE.

I don't want to take my temperature daily. I don't want to chart it on a handy little app on my iPhone that sends my husband and I text messages or "booty calls" to let us know it's time to try. I don't want to cry when I get my period. I just want to live and let nature take its course. But as I read these messages, some of these ladies have been trying for a year. A year! I'm all hippie zen now, but where am I going to be a year from now? The mayor of Baby Crazytown?

I guess it's just sinking in that maybe this will be hard. Maybe I will have no control over the situation. Maybe our bodies will just have limitations. And we'll figure out how far we're willing to go for a tyke or two of our own when the time comes. But wow, you spend so long trying NOT to get pregnant. And then there you are, failing at something the girls on 16 and Pregnant obviously excelled at. Kind of scary isn't it?

Biking in Tuscany! Followed by Barfing in Tuscany!

2011-06-01T04:57:00.059-05:00

On our last day in Florence we met our "I Bike Tuscany" guide near our hotel and she drove us out to San Donato in Poggio, a small Middle aged village between Florence and Siena. We were surprised to see that it was just Darryl and I and our guide, so we would essentially be getting a private tour. Beyond being a serious biker, she was also a licenced sommelier, which in Italy is a 3 year program of study. Score!

Walking to check out the church

Watching mass from the doorway

Tuscan hillside vistas

Ready to ride

You know what is a lovely concept? A leisurely bike ride winding through the Tuscan hillside. No dreadful giant buses. No monstrous sized tour groups you have to fight your way through to the front to hear the guide. No packed wine tasting rooms. Yes, this was going to be glorious. You know what I didn't count on folks? Tuscany is hilly as a mother effer. And bike riding....well whoever said "it's just like riding a bike" is an asshole, because I forgot.

Entering the first winery with our guide

I'm not sure what was wrong with me that day beyond the fact that I was riding a bike in Hilly McHilltown, but I guess I didn't eat enough for breakfast because I got queasy. So queasy that a few times I had to stop climbing the hill, get off the bike and walk, and then collapse in a heap at the top of the hill, chugging water, contemplating my nausea. But, never under estimate the things that motivate this woman. Motivator numero uno, wine. So onward I pressed to the first winery, Casa Emma.

Wines and Olive Oil at Casa Emma

Our guide handed us off to the Casa Emma guide and as soon as I got off the bike, I knew things were bad. I couldn't even stand up straight. I was mentally considering finding a tree to crawl under and die. But there was wine inside friends, WINE! My determination for wine tastings knows no bounds. I even went wine tasting in New Zealand one time with the flu. The flu! So onward we pressed. As soon as we got inside the cool wine cellar, I'm not sure if it was the temperature change or the smells of French oak barrels and the particular musk of a wine cellar that I normally find so delightful, but I knew it was game over. I interrupted our guide mid-tour (we were the only two on the tour so super awkward) and announced I needed to sit. They ran to get me a glass of water, but by then it was too late, stomach contents were on their way up. I grabbed D and told him to find me a restroom. Of course the only one there was one on the other freaking side of the winery. Let's just say I made it just in time to revisit my breakfast in the toilet.

Feeling better, look at the wine I earned!

My husband, laughing at me

Instantly I felt better. They told me they thought I had a low blood sugar attack and their solution? Handing me a glass of dessert wine with a higher sugar content. Italy, I like your style.

Ever the trooper and fortified by our first wine tasting, we got back on the bikes and rode to the next winery. And I did much better, didn't have to get off and walk a single hill. May have put it in the lowest year and furiously pumped my legs while going slower than walking on one, but I made it and I'm so glad I did, this winery was even better than the first.

The second winery had a luxury villa you could rent a room in

Not dead!

Hubs and some casks

Olive oil press

Our second stop was Villa Montecchio for a light lunch of cured meats, white beans in olive oil and tomatoes in olive oil. They gave me the recipe for their tomatoes in olive oil, which were AMAZING! Something I will totally attempt to make. The olive oil that they made on site was fabulous and totally key to the recipe, so of course I bought a big bottle to bring home as well as some of their wine. I was really impressed at the age of the winery, the vines, their cellar. It was very different from any winery I'd ever been to, it was amazing.

After lunch the guide offered to take us riding more. I told the hubs I was up for another round, but mercifully he said he'd had enough for one day, so we headed back to Florence for a little nap to recover before dinner.

For dinner we went to Antica Trattoria "da Tito" dal 1913, this lovely little restaurant around the corner from our hotel. It was recommended by our hotel and was ranked the #12 restaurant in all of Florence so we decided to check it out. We knew it was going to be good because we had to wait over an hour for a table, which wasn't a problem, because we just strolled back to our hotel and lazed around until going back an hour later. It was a great little spot, not many tourists. Our hotel was away from the main tourist traps of Florence, in a lovely little neighborhood to the north of the main tourist areas in a more residential area, which I loved being able to escape the tourist scene.

Our first course was bresaola wrapped around blue cheese with walnuts. I will definitely be attempting to replicate this at home, is was fabulous!

Bresaola stuffed with blue cheese and walnuts

Zucchini flower risotto for my dinner

Fried chicken with fried zucchini flowers

Timbuk2 Bag Sale!

2011-05-30T11:28:00.001-05:00

A larger version than my pink bag, but look at all the stuff you can put in it!

You may have noticed in my trip recap photos thus far that I am always carrying a pink Timbuk2 bag. Purchased at REI several years ago, this bag has literally been all over the world with me. Yes, it's more granola than Gucci, but it's tough as hell and full of pockets and all sorts of other neat organizational features that kept my stuff organized and safe the whole trip. I had bottle holders for my water bottle and a secret inside pocket where I kept my wallet and passport. The positioning of this pocket made it IMPOSSIBLE for me to get pick pocketed so I was able to cruise around in comfort with my mind at ease. At night I brought a small shoulder bag to take to dinner when I wanted to look a bit dressier.

I don't think they make my model any more, but I would buy this or any other bag from them 100 times over and they're having a sale that ends today!

Day 3, Hubs and I Take on the Italian Transit Strike in Florence

2011-05-29T11:20:00.000-05:00

When we checked into our hotel after our long trans-Atlantic flight and then our long trans-Italia train ride (okay, it wasn't that long, Italy isn't that big) we were informed by the hotel staff that our tour for the Uffizi had been cancelled due to a transit strike. What?

I called the tour company, they explained that transit workers would be on strike that Friday and that the gallery would likely not be open so they wanted to re-book our tour on another day or on another tour. Our itinerary didn't allow for this, so we opted for a refund and freaked out a little that we probably wouldn't be able to see the museum we were most excited about. Cue furious Googling on my iPhone to figure out what the heck was going on. One thing my Googling mentioned, during strikes to expect public demonstrations and street closures for parades. I paused to contemplate this. I, slightly disgruntled with my current work situation, had brief flashes of me joining the Italians to protest my BS paycheck compared to my workload. Sure I don't work in the Italian transportation industry, but I'm sure I could explain to them my beef and I bet they'd totally let me join their demonstrations. Also I briefly had visions of the hubs bailing me out of an Italian jail the next morning as a result of my protests against "the man" holding me down. No, today was not the day to join an Italian labor demonstration.

So back to the Uffizi. You are supposed to make a reservation to go in, lest you have to wait an obscene length of time in line to go in. These reservations book up months in advance. We had made no such reservation since it was covered in our tour. Which was now cancelled. We decided to take our chances anyways and loiter around in that line (which was quite short because no one thought the museum would be open) while the staff that had come in met to decide if they had enough people to open the museum. We didn't have to wait long, they decided to open and we were IN!

Inside the Palazzo Vecchio, brief detour on the way to the Uffizi

Palazzo Vecchio

The Uffizi

Once we were inside we cued up our Rick Steeves audio guide and got a guided tour of the gallery at a tiny fraction of the cost that we would have paid for our live guided tour, FTW! My favorite works were Botticelli's Primavera and The Birth of Venus.

View of the river and bridges from the Uffizi window

After our tour of the Uffizi we hoofed it back to the Duomo for a slice of pizza and to follow Rick Steeve's Renaissance Walk through the city.

Inside the Duomo

We started at the Duomo and walked back through the city viewing all the buildings and sites of interests from the Renaissance. Finally we ended up back at the Ponte Vecchio (yeah, we walked all over creation on this trip).

I made Darryl drink out of the fountain, we didn't know how to do this the "right way" until we reached Rome

Us on the Ponte Vecchio, a Medieval bridge

The globe room at the Galileo Museum

As if our robust trek back and forth across the city wasn't enough, we decided to squeeze in the Galileo Museum, which is basically their history of science museum. It was neat, they had some super old maps. And when I say super old, I mean pre-Columbus-the-world-is-flat-look-out-you're-gonna-fall-off-the-edge maps, which to see an original of, is pretty cool. And we saw some neat globes and lots of tools and survey equipment. Back in the 1700s when people would have parties they would do physics demonstrations so they had all sorts of machines that generated electrical charges and did all sorts of things that I guess would entertain a people prior to the invention of reality television.

It was a pretty interesting museum, uncrowded, and well air conditioned. But our bodies were getting tired so back to the hotel (on the completely opposite side of the city again of course) we went for a little rest.

That night we went to a little restaurant we'd discovered on our stroll the night before. We settled down with some of the house table wine and had a little appetizer which was basically ham, tomato, basil, and cheese toasted.

I had the wild boar pappardelle.

And D had a pork chop with rosemary potatoes. For dessert, I think we had tiramisu. I learned that while D hates tiramisu in the states (the lady fingers are generally way oversoaked with liquor flavor) he likes proper Italian tiramisu. Imagine my relief. I typically don't care if he doesn't like the things I do because that means there's just more for me, but desserts are often shared and I was scared I would be scarfing down the tiramisu solo on this trip and was pleasantly surprised.

Then we found D some gellato (he ate this 2x a day people, not even joking) and strolled back to the hotel to rest up for our biking tour of the Tuscan wine country the next morning!

Itallian Trains Confuse Us, Our First Day in Italy

2011-05-24T19:03:00.008-05:00

After navigating customs and collecting our luggage, which kind of took for ever (and there was NO WHERE to sit while we waited for them to load one blessed piece of luggage on the carrosel at a time) we decided that rather than dropping the Euros for a taxi from the Rome airport to the Termini to catch our train to Florence, we'd take the Leonardo Express as detailed in our Rick Steves guidebook (note that this is not a free plug for Rick Steves, this is a critical detail because later in our trip we actually run into the Steves himself. Also, he may or may not be called "The Steves" henceforth in this blog since that's what we called him and his book the whole trip). We were briefed on how to appropriately use train tickets in Italy by Christine who spent time living in Rome. While we got lots of useful advice while planning this trip, Christine and Rick Steves were the two bulletproof resources that were never wrong. So we validated our tickets and with the first heave of my suitcase onto the train I immediately regretted packing so much. If I could do it again, I'd bring half as much stuff. Lesson learned.

Successfully navigated to the Rome Termini

Trying to figure out how to read a train schedule

Trains

We successfully figured out how to read the train schedule and how to get to our track. We then took our tickets, strolled up to the validation machine about 20 minutes before our train was set to arrive and then.....failure. Our ticket wouldn't print/validate. We tried a few times. We tried both ends. We even debated if the detachable strip should be detatched or not. We ripped it off. We regretted it. It made no difference because our ticket still wouldn't validate.

Then we noticed our tickets were different than the ones everyone around us had. We got ours through our travel agent. Then it occured to us that we didn't in fact have tickets but just a restervation or a voucher. So we frantically ran to the ticket kiosk and tried to enter our number in order to print our our real tickets, meanwhile our train leaves in 10 minutes. We are a litte hysterical. Kind Italian strangers attempt to show us how to use the machine but we assume that they are either scam artists or pickpockets (a fair assumption at most train stations in Italy). In retrospect, they were probably just kind strangers tired of watching us stare at it, and then our ticket, and then the machine, and then cram it in there and then walk away defeated. No joke, this went of for 30 minutes.

Finally we corner a TrenItalia representative and tell him about our problem. He looks at our ticket and says, "You don't need to validate that type of ticket". What? This was never mentioned by The Steves?! I kind of don't believe him but I am tired, I just get on the dang train knowing full and well that at my level of exhaustion I could easily create a histerical crying-fit scene* that would surely cause a conductor to take pity on a couple of American Idiots fresh off the plane.

*Don't judge. I will never see anyone on that train again except for my husband. And I think he wouldn't complain if it got us out of a fine.

We end up passing off our tickets without any question (though I still feel like some kind of fugitive) and riding in relative peace to Florence. I say relative peace because the couple of teenagers across from us made out during half the ride. Full on making out, with tounge flapping around. You know what also didn't help? They were gross. Not just inappropriate-PDA-gross, but God-hit-them-with-an-ugly-stick gross.

After arriving in Florence we started our trek to our hotel, Hotel Cimbue. It wasn't a bad walk, but I was surprised at how narrow the sidewalks were and how no one seemed to give a crap that I was dragging a roller bag behind me and weren't particularly concerned about staying out of my way. Not a great first impression of the Italian people, but it's hard to say how much of that was a real perception or if I was just cranky from being tired. We were pleased with our hotel accomidations and went up to our room for a shower and some rest. The weather was cool and perfect, we napped with the windows open.

Adjusting my scarf in our hotel room in Florence

I noticed that scarves were big in Italy. I was glad I brought one with me because I'm fairly certain I wouldn't have been allowed in the country without one.

After a nice break we headed to the Accademia and used our Rick Steves free downloaded audio tour and took a tour of the gallery. After the gallery we strolled aroun the streets of Florence and explored.

We had dinner next to the Duomo....

And had the first of many, many, many gelattos. Then we strolled back to our hotel and called it a night.

Darryl Has a Blog!

2011-05-23T19:00:00.001-05:00

All the art and we saw in Italy inspired him to pick up a carving project he's let go by the wayside for a while now. He's carving his first guitar. Check it out here.

Our Second Anniversary Trip to Italia!

2011-05-22T17:53:00.004-05:00

On May 4th we embarked on our first trip to Europe together as a couple (my first trip to Europe period). I've never had any interest in traveling to Europe, in fact, it's the LAST place I wanted to go because everyone's already been there and we could totally go when we're older. But the hubs really wanted to go and made a good case and so as a compromise I agreed to go so long as we went to Italy, which is where my great grandparents lived prior to immigrating to the US. So flights were booked and off we went!
This trip could not have come at a better time for me. Work has been such a crazy stressful mess, I have never needed a vacation more. We originally booked coach tickets but when we arrived at Dulles in DC to make our connection, the thought of spending 9 hours in coach suddenly became less appealing. After a bit of a debate, we went to the gate agent and asked that they upgrade our tickets to business class. I'm so glad we spent the airline miles, it was an overnight flight and it really helped me to unwind and rest at the beginning of our trip.

Here's Darryl and I enjoying wine at the bar at the Red Carpet Club. Notice the lady behind him at the bar looks like she might die. Totally didn't notice that when I took this picture. D is fiddling around with our new awesome camera we bought for the trip. I have no idea what kind it is, nor have I bought a digital camera since 2004, so perhaps I'm easily impressed.

Our seats were at the bulkhead in business class so we got to peep into first class. I've never seen business or first class on a long haul flight. I'm usually so far back in coach I'd need binoculars to see the better classes of seats.

The first class pod style seats were so close I could touch them. Darryl wasn't impressed with the plane, it was older. Both Darryl and I have done a few trans-Pacific flights and we took it for granted that they use the best planes in the fleet for those flights. Still, this United plane was WAY nicer than the craptastic Continental plane we took back to the States and even though we weren't on one of the sleek high tech planes that Darryl usually flies on to China, Business Class on such a long flight kind of rocked my face off. We've upgraded to Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean but this was way better.

Here's my little glass of bubbly at my seat. There were like 10 levers, it was a total mind-f***. Darryl had to explain to me how to operate my seat like 4 times and was visibly embarrassed as I tried out the various stages of incline. I made quite a scene.

Darryl is clearly too refined for my antics. After pillaging the free newspaper cart and the amenity kit (socks, eye mask, ear plugs, toothbrush and paste, and Murad hand lotion) I checked out the sleeping amenities. No ratty questionable looking pillows and threadbare blankets. A pillow with a legit case on it and a quilted white duvet which came presealed in plastic.

After our pretakeoff bubbly, we were served warm nuts. The stewardesses were also super good with the concept that my champagne glass should never dip below 25% full. After all that bubbly, I headed to the lavatory and found that everything is better in Business Class, even the lavatories. In addition to the normally expected items they had pomegranate hydrating mist for your face, pomegranate lotion, and mouthwash.

After my little trip to the ladies room it was time for dinner. Our first course was a veggie spring roll, salad, a roll, and of course more champagne. The flight attendants were the most pleasant employees of United that I have ever encountered to date. We were the youngest people in Business Class (something I didn't notice until I pointed out to D that all the people in First Class were old) and the flight attendants kept making a fuss about how cute we were. They also greeted us as Mr. and Mrs. XYZ (which threw me for a loop, how do you know who I am lady? Then I realized she was holding the manifest and knew who was sitting in what seat, I'm slow, I know).

Dinner was beef short ribs and roasted vegetables (and of course more champagne). Dessert was ice cream and grappa. Then I reclined my seat and finished watching Country Strong (terrible movie) and then laid back and caught some sleep. The flight attendants were like ninjas, my sleep was a bit fitful since I'd had so much to drink I didn't take a sleeping aid on the plane so I didn't sleep as well as I could have, but every time I woke up and drank my water, rolled over and went back to sleep, the next time I woke up my glass was mysteriously full again. Ninjas I say.

First Course

Morning came and we were treated to a lovely continental breakfast, I cleaned up a bit, and it was time to land in Rome!

On our next installment, navigating ourselves from Roma to Firenze called "Italian Trains Confuse Us".

We Are Back!

2011-05-18T21:40:00.000-05:00

We had a Rollie on our arm while we were sipping Chandon....okay it was a Timex and I seriously doubt United serves Chandon in business class.

We had lazy days in the sun...

And took in the art and history and all the wonderful things that Italia has to offer....

Coming very soon, a proper recap of our trip complete with the gory details of how I nearly met an untimely death on a bike under the wheels of a Fiat, how I barfed gelatto into a bidet (so very Euro of me), and all the marvellous other adventures (not to mention 1500 photos we took, I promise to only post half, ha).

Wheels Up in Rome

2011-05-16T02:44:00.002-05:00

Heading back across the pond to the good old US of A! Can't wait to share all my travel adventures with you guys!

Ciao Bella!

2011-05-05T17:29:00.001-05:00

This blog is officially on hiatus because I will be jetting off for some R&R in beautiful Italy!

But don't worry lovelies, when I return I shall regale you with tales of riding bikes through Tuscany from winery to winery.

Lazing on the beach in Capri and exploring the ruins of Pompeii...

And all of our explorations in the Eternal City....

Arrivederci!

First Photo Together

2011-05-03T17:25:00.001-05:00

Can you remember the first photo you and your spouse took together? Here's ours. He took me as a date to a Pimps and Hoes party. I don't even know how to explain this to our children....

Second Wedding Anniversary!

2011-05-02T01:02:00.002-05:00

While a ranch in the Texas Hill Country was no Buckingham Palace, I couldn't have asked for a more fabulous wedding day.

Two years ago today I.....

Waited anxiously to get this party started....

Shared vows with my wonderful husband...

Took silly pictures with our wedding party

And danced the night away with our closest family and friends... Can't wait for all that the future holds!

I would like to extend to you, an invitation to the Pants Party.

2011-04-18T22:24:00.012-05:00

Are you trying to say there's a party in your pants and I'm invited?

This weekend I did a little shopping at Old Navy and tried on the Perfect Trousers in white (above photo is similar, but I couldn't find the exact style on the website). As impractical as white pants are for me, Stainey McGee and unflattering (white just makes everything look bigger and let's face it, I'm a pear shape) as they are, I find myself on a perpetual quest for the perfect pair of white pants and or jeans. These actually made my butt look HOT. Hooray! BUT, the only problem I have with wearing white pants or shorts is the pockets. You can always see the outline of the pockets when I'm coming and going. What am I doing wrong here? Should I automatically buy them a size bigger, will that help? Not a fan of that idea because I liked the way they hugged the curves of my boo-tay.

I'm not worried about concealing my underwear, I tried these on in red underpants and they didn't show through. But the pockets did! (And if you're wondering, I suggest a nude Hanky Panky thong or some thigh length SPANX for appropriate undergarments with these). I've considered cutting out the pockets, but that seems lame. What do you guys do? ::shaking fist at the sky:: I want white pants this summer!

Teenage Dream by OPI

2011-04-17T22:14:00.001-05:00

I got a pedicure today and got the Katy Perry inspired OPI "Teenage Dream" put on my tootsies. I have lots of meetings this week, one of which, is with my client at their HQ. And I'm not even in a funky artsy field, I'm a geologist. Yes, that's right, I'm showing up at a client meeting with a pink glitter pedicure. Life is short people. Not. even. sorry.

Note: These are not my nails, I bite mine and they never look this fab, but I thought I'd spare you a look at my pasty, mosquito bitten feet. So you'll have to use your imagination...

Weekend Recap

2011-04-12T22:07:00.045-05:00

Friday after work we came home from work and worked out. The hubs went to the gym and I went for a little jog around Town Lake. Later that night we met up with some friends for a late sushi dinner. Saturday we went to the Bluebonnet Air Show with Christine and Parker and his family.

Parker's grandfather was a P-51 pilot and told us about all the planes and even hooked us up with VIP passes! It made me wish I'd spent more time listening to my grandfathers' stories about the war while they were still alive

We had such a wonderful time and saw so much cool stuff! And Christine and I totally got hit on by an older gentleman who rolled up to us on his scooter and offered us a ride.

We headed home and then down to the UT campus for a sweet date. I took Darryl to my favorite Thai restaurant that I used to eat at every Sunday night because the cafeteria at my dorm was closed on Sunday nights. I came to the realization at this point that DARRYL HAS NEVER TRIED THAI FOOD. Whaaaaat? How have I been with this man for 8 years and we've never eaten a meal of Thai food together? So I helped him figure out what to order and he actually liked it! Then we went for a stroll through our Alma mater, the whole time remembering all that used to be there. Lots has changed on the Drag but the campus is basically the same. We saw Tim McGraw and opener Luke Bryan. This was also Darryl's first big country concert.

Look how good our seats were? Darryl did good!

When Tim came out at the beginning of the show, he came out right in front of us and sang "Something Like That" right in front of us! He did such a great show and sang all my favorites! I might have fawned over him a tad too much because I turned to Darryl and said, "Wow, he's so hot!" he responded "Yeah, you've mentioned that a few times...." Haha, whoops!

Sunday I headed down to San Antonio to meet up with Elizabeth for brunch at TRE. We had a lovely time and they had such a fun selection of mimosas! Both the food and the conversation were well worth the drive, Elizabeth always is so good at making me laugh.

After that it was chores and errands and blogging to finish up a super fun and super busy weekend!

A Southern Low Cal Meal

2011-04-11T21:07:00.017-05:00

Yummy lettuce, parsley, and green onions from my garden.

Not sure why this photo loaded sideways, but you get the idea....

On my fabulous, tender, organically grown lettuce from my garden, I made homemade spicy ranch dressing. Low fat of course. It's really easy, just buy the packet from the grocery store and mix it up but use fat free mayo and 1% milk. It tastes SO MUCH BETTER than any fat free or low fat ranch you can buy in a bottle at the store.

The other bowl has crawfish etouffee served over brown rice. I made an adaptation on Emeril's recipe. The main changes I made was I only used 2 tablespoons of butter instead of an entire stick and I added an extra tablespoon of flour to thicken it. And instead of adding water, I added chicken stock and seasoned the whole thing up with Tony Chachere's seasoning. Darryl said he couldn't even tell the difference with the missing butter. Added it all up and it only came out to 5 WW points! WIN! Also, whenever I make etouffee, something happens to the leftovers in the fridge overnight that makes it so much better the next day. Can't wait for leftovers tomorrow!

Yard Makeover

2011-04-10T18:44:00.002-05:00

Our yard's grass situation was looking sad. We had some drainage issues last year and it took a serious hit. So we embarked on this yard project to help it out. We've never laid sod before, but we did our best...

The hubs rented a tiller and tore up the dirt....

We tried to preserve some of the grass that looked like it was revivable....

Success!

Now we water....

AND I found this neat rock with fossils in it in the yard while we were working on our project.

Hooray fossil rock!

T-Minus 1 Month to Italy!

2011-04-07T21:34:00.001-05:00

In just one month the hubs and I will be biking through the Tuscan countryside, stopping in at the various wineries.

We'll be lounging by the sea in beautiful Capri....

And we'll be watching twilight fall on the Vatican from the balcony of our room at the Rome Cavalieri...

Can't wait to explote Europe and celebrate our second wedding anniversary!

Wedding Porn

2011-04-06T21:27:00.000-05:00

A couple gems from Carli at Inked Fingers of Janet and Ben's big day! Can't get over how lush and green everything was.

Abs for Summer

2011-04-01T19:21:00.004-05:00

So I've been doing a lot of situps lately, not sure if it'll make much of a difference since I'm not doing much cardio with it, but still, strengthening my core. Summer's right around the corner and if it gives me a flatter tummy or less love handles (oh lord, love handles are so my nemisis) for swimsuit season, I'm not going to mind at all. The other day I realized I'm super picky about lady abs, is that weird? They can't be too skinny or too muscular. I hate seeing all the skelators with concave stomachs and weird belly buttons running in their sports bras on Town Lake. I mean, good for them, they are slim, but I wouldn't want my body to look that boyish. Then there's the other extreme, ladies with a visible 6 pack. Or 4 pack. Or 2 pack. I want a no pack.

These are too boyish, and I can see visible definition of the muscles. She looks like her belly button can touch her spine. No thanks.

These are WAY too masculine for my tastes. If you can rock these, great for you, it's hard to get this way, it requires a lot of hard work which is admirable. But it's just not how I'd want my abs to look if I could. And I admit, i probably can't....

These are just right. They almost have a little roundness in the middle but not a pooch. It's womanly and sexy. Something to work towards, yeah?

Dinner Success!

2011-03-31T20:15:00.002-05:00

Pork chops (a variation on this recipe) covered in carmelized onions and mushrooms and gravy served with a side of roasted broccoli and garlic topped with a sprinkling of parmesan curls.

New Swimsuit for Summer!

2011-03-31T19:03:00.002-05:00

Is it weird that I dream of a one piece swimsuit? Growing up all I wanted was a bikini. Now that I'm grown, I wouldn't mind throwing a one piece in the mix....not to hide my figure per se, I just think it might be a nice change. Suit is from JCrew.

How hot is this suit? I actually bought it and the hubs made me return it. It was at a time when I was a bit heavier, yes and the thought of wearing a two piece made me want to die. But we were going to Mexico and I didn't know anyone there anyways. Suit is from Victoria's Secret.

Here's another sweet option from JCrew...

But alas, this is probably what I'll invest in for this summer. I've always wanted a black suit and I suppose so long as I only have one ass instead of two, I should embrace the years that I can reasonably wear a two piece. I am doing that redic situp challenge. If it actually impacts my abs, it would be a shame for people to not see that....which reminds me, I should totally do an ab post....I'm very picky about them.....coming soon to a blog near you, Kelly judges other people she doesn't know's abs!

iPhone Pics From Benet's (Ben and Janet's) Wedding

2011-03-30T18:40:00.002-05:00

Me and the hubs, we're kinda goofy.

The Andersons

Chase and Alicia

Janet chatting with Frank the best man

Ben deep in conversation

For even more pics (way better ones too) check out Inked Fingers Blog. Carli and John shot our wedding and engagement 2 years ago and everyone loved our photos so much, we run into them at our friends' weddings all the time! So glad I chose them, it's great to have such wonderful memories of our special day and know our friends memories will be just as great!

Why Wedding Photo Booths are THE BEST!

2011-03-28T22:14:00.001-05:00

It was a beautiful wedding. Ben totally cried as Janet came down the aisle. Not like a single composed tear, but like kind of an ugly cry. Except it wasn't ugly, it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in a wedding.

Darryl and I enjoyed ourselves immensely....

As did Molly and Buckley......

And Amelia and Jason....

And Christine and Parker.....

And Cami and Chase...

And all the bridesmaids.....

And all of the bridesmaids, a few of the groomsmen, and Darryl :).

They used Magnolia Photo Booth. Check them out, they were cool!

Wedding Weekend

2011-03-24T21:14:00.000-05:00

Looking forward to a lovely weekend with Miss Janet (far right) and Mr. Ben (far left) making a Darryl and Kelly sandwich, to celebrate their nuptials!

Finally no longer a bridesmaid, Janet's a bride! Will post photos of her fab day for all to drool over!

For Everything, a Season

2011-03-22T15:58:00.014-05:00

My Spring Garden Inventory

Cilantro
Italian Parsley
Chives
Sage
Onions
Strawberries (I even have my first blossoms!)
Bush style green beans, tried inoculating them for the first time, we'll see how it goes
Lettuce
Carrots
Broccoli (granted it's so warm, it's bolted and will probably be replaced in the near future with more tomatoes)
Patio cherry tomatoes
Romeo and Juliet grape tomatoes
Early Girl tomato plants
Celebrity tomato plants

I've also thrown some flower seed packets in there, it's hard to tell what's a flower seedling and what's a weed. I've also stopped sowing in an orderly fashion. There's order with some of my plantings, the rest is honestly just thrown in there willy nilly. It's going to be a lovely spring!

I Want to Give Everyone Involved in the Making of this Commercial a Giant Wedgie

2011-03-21T13:23:00.001-05:00

Maybe I'm biased because I don't particularly like cats, but this Fancy Feast commercial is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen. I was eating when it came on and I nearly vomited in the scene where she reads the kitten's tag and may have yelled at the TV that a cat is not an appropriate vehicle for a marriage proposal. I want to fine everyone associated in the making of this and give them a big giant wedgie (except for the kitten, I only tolerate felines in the kitten form). Note that if the shoe was on the other foot and it was an adorable cairn terrier I would be sending this to all my friends squealing "OMG LOOK AT THE CUTE PUPPY COMMERCIAL, BEST COMMERCIAL EV-ER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I'm a hypocrite, I know. What of it.

Kelly and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

2011-03-20T21:57:00.025-05:00

This past week I had a rotten day. The ins and outs of what I found so disturbing are neither here nor there. But what I thought was interesting was my method of coping:

Came home, stripped off work clothes, put on big fuzzy pink bathrobe.
Husband came home, told him about my day, cried, mascara full on running down my face.
Lots of sympathetic hugs and snuggles from him and the pups.
Ate leftovers in lieu of cooking dinner as planned, put on my running shoes and headed down to Town Lake.
Upon getting out of my car a man came up to me and asked me to use his cell phone. He'd somehow managed to lock his keys, cell phone, and wallet in his trunk and his alarm kept going off. Assessed that his story was probably legit and that he was not an axe murder or phone stealer (I have an iPhone 3G anyways, if it got jacked, good excuse to get the next model right?) and he was in fact having a worse day than me. I took pity on him, let him use my phone and wished him luck.
Ran 3 miles while watching the sun set on the beautiful Austin downtown skyline. God I love Austin.
Might have inadvertently gotten into a foot race with an old man. He kept running next to me, changing his pace to match mine. So I sprinted up a hill and he totally did too?! What. The. Heck? By that point I was out of breath and stopped to walk, he ran 10 more paces, turned around and looked at me, and stopped and walked confirming my suspicion that it was TOTALLY INTENTIONAL. And also I got my butt kicked in a race by some old dude. Was more amused than anything by this.
Totally sweated out all my anger/angst.
Came home, played with the pups more, knocked out some stuff for work and responded to some of my blog comments, at which point my hubs came home from hanging out with friends.
As I was responding to the comments, I guess I was smiling really big (love you guys that actually read this thing!) and he said "What are you smiling at?" and I responded, "Does it matter, I'm actually smiling!", he responded "yeah, it looks good on you". Love him so much, what a stellar ending to a less than ideal day!

Nighty Night Snugglebutt

2011-03-16T23:23:00.001-05:00

Love coming to bed with this guy at the foot of the bed waiting for me.

Getting My Groove Back

2011-03-15T22:07:00.001-05:00

For the past 6 months or so I have had zero workout mojo. I came to a point on my business trip to Denver a few weeks ago where I became totally grossed out with my eating, alcohol consumption, sedentary lifestyle and more than anything, stuffing my jiggly body into Spanx every five minutes.

So far, I consider myself back on track for a total of one week. One day at a time, one foot in front of the other. I'm back on Weight Watchers and am really enjoying the new Points Plus program! It really benefits those who want to build muscle and have energy to workout regularly. And the points are really generous, I find that I struggle to use all my points each day and am really racking up the activity points!

I'm back in the saddle with exercise. My goal is to workout 4 days a week and attend yoga one day a week. One day lower body lifting, one day upper body lifting and two days of cardio. I've forgotten how good cardio feels. I hit the trail down at Town Lake for a run this weekend and swam a mile in the pool a couple weeks ago. I'm also planning on checking out Zumba this week.

I know it'll take 4 or 5 more weeks to see results, but I'm looking forward to feeling better. AND I've been doing the 200 sit-up training program.

I'm fairly curious how my abs will look at the end of this 6 week program. All the trainers I've worked with have stressed how critical it is to cut carbs for a toned mid-section, but I just don't buy it. If you're eating the right kind of carbs and have a diet low in fat, you need those whole grains for energy. I've never bought into the no carb lifestyle, it's not realistic. We'll see where a sensible diet and a little sweat get me. I might even take a before and after picture.....but let's not get ahead of ourselves. What are you doing to get ready for summer?

Reasons Why I'm Loving Spring!

2011-03-14T21:54:00.000-05:00

It's crawfish season! Crawfish and beer are my favorite meal.

Parties with friends, now people are coming out of their winter cocoons and being social.

Our anniversary trip to Italy!

Tending my spring garden.

Also looking forward to bare legs and bare sholders, bluebonnets, warm (but not too hot) nights, weddings, and hanging out by the pool!

This is my Arts and Crafts Face

2011-03-13T13:38:00.001-05:00

Helping Janet with her wedding DIY projects. Crafts are not my strong suit, I'm not gonna lie, making paper cones for rose pedals was kind of a mind f***...

This is My Party Face

2011-03-08T21:18:00.002-06:00

Photo from Janet's bachelorette party bus....no clue why I was making this face or what I was doing.....

Weekend Recap

2011-03-07T20:49:00.000-06:00

Well folks, another lame weekend recap. Actually, it was a pretty eventful weekend with several good stories, but unfortunately, mucho work related, which I don't blog about as a rule.

Friday
Hopped a jet to Denver for my company wide technical meeting. It's a super cool thing they do every year. This year I was invited to present on a paper I had written on groundwater sampling technology. We arrived just in time for lunch and the opening session. I saw lots of good talks that day and got to spend some quality time bonding with my colleagues. Interpret "bonding" as you may, I'll leave it as that.

Saturday
Woke up bright and early Saturday AM for my 8 AM presentation. I felt less than stellar. Not terrible. But not like I was about to run a marathon either. My presentation went well, lots of great questions and lots of people coming up to me for the rest of the day asking me about my study and complimenting my presentation. I was nervous, I rushed, I have no idea if I made any sense, most importantly, I was thrilled that it was over. It was an amazing honor but really scary at the same time. After lunch I ducked out on a few talks and took an hour power nap, then headed back to the convention center.

That evening we had our big banquet and went out to explore the bars. Since a lot of us were hurting a tad from the night before, about half of it took it pretty easy (the other half, not so much). Hung out with people in the lobby until 2:30 AM and then called it a night.

Sunday
We went out to breakfast and then headed to the airport where our plane taxied out to the runway, then had to turn around and come back because of a mechanical problem. So they put us on a new plane. Taxi us out to the runway, turn around to come back because one of the engines had a "fatal error". You know what two words I don't want to hear on an airplane? "Fatal" and "error". So we were put on a third plane. By that point it was obvious that the pilot was hating life as much as we were. So a $100 travel voucher, a chocolate chip cookie, a lengthy discussion with my coworkers about how we could get snakes on a plane, three airplanes and five hours later, I was home sweet home. See you next year, Denver.

MIA

2011-03-01T23:14:00.000-06:00

Ooof. This is a busy time of the year for me for work. This weekend, I'm presenting for the second year in a row in front of many of my colleague's at my company's technical seminar in Denver. And that's not all. Long hours late at night on the work laptop for work deliverables, field work, etc. So let's just hit the high points of the last 7 days, shall we? Perhaps more explanation is in order for some of these bullet items, you tell me. In the last 7 days I have:

Eaten at the City Market in Luling. Ate about a pound of BBQ 2 days in a row. Coworker had to slap my hand away from me grabbing at a bag of peanut brittle and might have exclaimed "you just ate a pound of meat, stop!".
Consumed laxative tea. See item above, one pound of meat, 2 days in a row. Holy hell.
Worked in the field for 2 days. I got tired of carrying things around and it was raining, so I just started stuffing my equipment into my reflective safety vest as I walked around the site. Might have pretended I was pregnant. In the oil fields. With an H2S meter also strapped to my vest. You know where pregnant ladies belong? Standing over a poisonous gas line in an oil field. I wish someone had driven by....
Got dirty looks from the Luling locals as I waltzed around their town in camo snake chaps and a Louis Vuitton purse. I will because I can, bitches.
Was assured by friends that "Scotch doesn't really give you a hangover."
Attended a friend's wedding shower. With a Scotch hangover. Assholes.
Got the dogs new toys. New toys instigated fighting amongst the dogs, Ginger is possessive and attacked Petey. Now to teach her that all the toys are ultimately mine, I carry around a plush broccoli shaped dog toy. I stand over it while I'm cooking or getting ready in the morning. If she comes too close I yell at her MINE! I am demonstrating that I'm the pack leader and it's my toy. I have lost my damn mind.
Swam some laps after a long hiatus from swimming.
Took a drug test.
Took a breathalyzer. (Unrelated to the Scotch incident, blew 0.000, thankyouverymuch).
Successfully made bread that does not suck so bad the dogs won't eat it (Ziegenbock cheddar bread).

That's about it for now. Now I practice my presentation and start packing for the mile high city!

Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens...Dreadful Weekend Recap

2011-02-20T17:53:00.002-06:00

I've provided a photo of some happy little daffodils from my garden. I have a couple of vases like this throughout the house. These sunny little beauties are one of my favorite things about February, they pop up around Valentine's Day each year. So in case my Valentine should forget to bring me flowers (he didn't forget) my garden will.

Now in the scheme of things (war, famine, poverty) this weekend is hardly dreadful. But has anyone had a bitch of a week at work (just spread thin, stressed out, overwhelmed) and you just want to relax and get ahead on your chores and work on the weekend? These are just not the kind of things you want to deal with. And I did get to spend some lovely time with friends and at the salon. Without these bright spots I would be pulling my hair out.

Friday
Darryl went out with some friends so I happily crashed on the couch, ate leftovers and cleaned out my DVR. I love Friday night veg time. However, midst vegging in front of the TV and surfing trashy celebrity gossip sites, I managed to get a computer virus from one of the websites on my personal laptop. I had gotten a similar malware virus on my work laptop from Facebook, so not my first rodeo with this kind of virus removal (yes, I have a regularly updated virus protection program on both machines, consider yourself warned) but it was still time consuming and frustrating. While I was in the throes of removing this virus from my machine, Petey decided to mosey into the bedroom, crawl onto my bedside table, retrieve my plastic retainer and chew it up into tiny little bits, swallowing half of them. Now I get to pay $300 to have a new one made. Thankfully, Petey was fine.

Saturday
I ran some errands and got my hair cut and colored at the salon while I finished Jen Lancaster's Pretty In Plaid. To round out the day I thought I'd stop at Jiffy Lube for an oil change. I typically take my car to the dealer for everything, but I thought, it's convenient, why not.

So I'm sitting there and my oil change is taking a loooong time. The assistant manager comes in to tell me that they didn't have the right oil filter in stock so they ran down to AutoZone to grab a new one. That one was out too, so they had to go to another one. While this is all going on, unbeknownst to me, (I couldn't see my car from where I was waiting), they had left my headlights and all my interior accessories (radio, etc) and completely drained my battery. AND they still charged me for the oil change. Thanks for totally ripping me off and destroying my battery, ass hats. I left a message for the district manager requesting reimbursement for both. I mean, okay, the tech that drove my car into the oil change bay messed up, but what about ALL the other techs that walked back and forth in front of my car (it was in the bay closest to the waiting room) with its lights on and did nothing. So. Freaking. Pissed. Then they had the audacity to say that there was something wrong with my car and that it was experiencing an electrical "failure" and that they couldn't try jump starting it. Calls made to Lexus customer service (love them) who confirmed that Jiffy Lube had drained my battery. Then my husband had to come down and jump start my car. Aren't you guys mechanics? Why can an engineer and a geologist figure this out and you can't?!?

Saturday night was nice, had dinner with friends which helped me take my mind off my rage.

Sunday
Sunday morning I woke up and of course my car wouldn't start thanks to Jiffy Lube's complete decimation of my battery. I went to brunch with friends in Darryl's car, tried to jump start my car again unsuccessfully so Darryl spent some quality time being sweet and replacing my battery while I spent quality time cleaning the house. Sigh. With weekends like these, it makes me long for the work week. Hope your weekend was better than mine!

Ain't Love the Sweetest Thing

2011-02-14T06:58:00.002-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I've never cared much for the holiday but the last 2 years I haven't been able to celebrate it with my husband due to business trips and it's funny how exciting it can be when you haven't celebrated it in years! Looking forward to a hot date with my darling hubs. So for the rest of my Valentines (you my readers) enjoy one of my favorite love songs ever!

Best Birthday Week! Or Why I Will Need Bigger Pants In the Near Future

2011-01-23T20:24:00.004-06:00

This week I celebrated one of the best birthday weeks on record (and certainly a Foodie's dream birthday week). Sunday, I met up with Elizabeth a la The Waspy Redhead for brunch at Olivia. She had the the corned beef hash and eggs, you can see below her photographing her meal, which I stole a bite of, it was fantastic. We both had blood orange mimosas.

I had the south Austin croque senora. Basically a sandwich filled with slow roasted chicken, prosciutto, and cheese, served with a fried egg and gravy and a boatload of fries. I can't believe I ate the whole thing. Then we shared a bread pudding for dessert. The best friends are the ones that are already full to their eyeballs, but then agree to share bread pudding with you anyways. Could not have had a more delightful meal with a dear old friend. I can't believe we've known each other for 10 years!

Monday was fairly uneventful, I made shrimp masala and D and I went to the gym. Tuesday I went to dinner with Christine at Gloria's and had their trio of ceviches. Wednesday was my actual birthday and my parents sent me these pretty flowers at work and D had his own waiting for me at home. We didn't get to go out to celebrate because I had a client in town, but my client is extremely pleasant, as are my coworkers, so it was hardly "work" to go out with them. And I was able to convince them to go to Fonda San Miguel where I had my favorite margarita in all of Austin, the Silvercoin Margarita made with watermelon infused Patron Silver, Cointreau, and lime juice. For dinner I had zucchini stuffed with corn and cheese and smothered in red sauce and for dinner we all shared some of their amazing Tres Leches.

Thursday we had dinner with some of Darryl's coworkers and their wives. We grilled steaks and had shells and cheese and a spinach kiwi salad and lots of good wine and conversation. I really enjoy hanging out with this group of people, they're all really smart and funny and the food is always GREAT! Friday night I picked up something on the way home, but we ended up meeting 2 other couples (including Christine) at the Daily Grill for late night happy hour in honor of my birthday. These 2 couples are definitely 4 of my favorite people, I was so glad the 6 of us were able to spend time together. I specifically only invited them because I wanted to make sure to have lots of time with them.

So, Saturday rolled around. Note that I have only been to the gym once this week. Yes, it's time to ring the fatty alert again because Saturday night we had dinner at Vespaio. Darryl had the filet mingon with pancetta mashed potatoes and broccoli and I had the seafood mixed grill which included grilled shrimp on cheesey polenta, a crab cake with an arugula garnish, and a grilled fish on a broccoli cheese casserole. For dessert I had espresso and tiramisu.

Darryl had a molten chocolate cake with chocolate gelatto. Everything was absolutely amazing!

A bit of advice if you want to have a fabulous date with your honey at Vespaio on a Saturday night. Get there EARLY! They don't take reservations, so we got there at 6:30 and were told we'd have a 45 minute wait. Even though we arrived so early, we snagged the last 2 seats at the bar. Their food really lived up to the hype. Often times we go to these fancy pants restaurants and Darryl moans and groans because he claims he could get just as good of a meal at the Outback Steakhouse and can't see paying that much for food. Vespaio was totally worth it, I heard nothing but good things from his side of the table. By the time we left at 8:30, the wait for a table was over 2 hours long.

And thus, I ended my birthday week un-freaking-believable food binge. Now, with my friend Janet's wedding in 2 months (and me in a bridesmaid dress) it's time for major healthy eating and exercise. It's okay, I had a GREAT week of last meals!

Let's See How those Goals are Going, Shall We?

2011-01-10T18:49:00.001-06:00

1. I will go to the gym at least one day a week during my lunch break. Fail. Not. Even. Close. I did MOW instead. Yes, that sounds like a great excuse....

2. I will abstain from alcohol except for during my birthday celebration and a couple other celebrations already on my calendar. There will be no heavy drinking on Friday nights. Fail. Drinking a beer now. But I have not been drinking heavily, soooo better than nothing?

3. I will run at least 3 miles every Saturday morning. I had every intention of going this weekend, but it was raining, and Cedar-y.

4. I will swim one mile a week. I can't even qualify this, fail.

5. I will go to Body Pump one day a week. See explanation for #4.

6. I will give up TV every other week. Success! Also proof that I can only exhibit willpower in one area of life at a time! Hooray! I'm totally going to keep doing this, a week flies by and it's great to have more free time to do more meaningful things, I recommend it! Just don't try to be disciplined about anything else at the same time. ::Sigh::

Weekend Recap

2011-01-09T18:48:00.000-06:00

Friday
Spent my lunch break with my coworkers delivering for Meals on Wheels. Afterwards we grabbed a bite at Tam's Deli. They're known for Vietnamese cuisine and are very affordable. I had some yummy vegetarian curry, an egg roll, and one of their famous cream puffs for dessert, totally worth the hype. After lunch my husband called to tell me some good news he'd received at work (what news he got exactly is private, sorry readers, not my news to tell) but I was so happy for him! Friday night I came home and freshened up my hair and makeup and then headed downtown for a sweet dinner with my husband at Parkside on 6th street. I've always wanted to try this place and we were meeting some friends at a bar for a birthday party and had intended to just stop for a slice of pizza or something on our way there, but I saw that there was no wait for a table so we went in! I tried their Tex and the City cocktail, which was a mix of whiskey and jasmine liquor served up. We shared some lump crab fritters and I had a Cesar salad for dinner and D had a cheeseburger and fries. I totally recommend this place for happy hour. Afterwards we headed up to the Treehouse Pub for a fab surprise birthday party for a friend. We had a blast chatting with everyone and playing Foosball. But I had to get up early the next morning so we left early.

Saturday
I met some friends at the Natural Gardner for an organic vegetable gardening class. I learned lots of good information, I've realized how much I do wrong, no wonder my gardens are so "meh" each year. I shall sally forth fortified with this new knowledge. If you live in Austin I cannot say enough good things about the Natural Gardner, it's the only nursery I regularly visit and if you get there early on the weekends, the staff is super happy to chat with you about what you have going on in your garden and help you troubleshoot. Afterwards I came home and worked in my own garden and planted leaf lettuce, carrots, and onions. I added compost and a mineral mixture I got at NG. Unfortunately while I was listening to the class (which was outside and surrounded by cedars) dust clouds of pollen were blowing all over me. I had noticed problems Friday while we were doing MOW, but I was able to shake it off without medicine. Saturday afternoon I felt so terrible, even after taking medicine, that I had to cancel my evening plans. The idea of getting off the bed and getting dressed up was too much for me. I took a shower, did laundry, and just laid in bed. D had some friends over and made fajitas for dinner, I wasn't that hungry but he makes such good fajitas I couldn't resist having one. Saturday was lame, I went to sleep super early while all my friends were at a fun birthday party, sad panda.

Sunday
We woke up at 5:30 AM because our power went out and our house alarm gets all angry when that happens. I had slept through the huge storm, but I was glad that we got so much rain. New seeds need to be watered 2x a year and rain water is the best water you can provide! The garden seems to have survived the storm very well. Now my challenge for the rest of the week is to keep my beds covered with ground covers and to keep the soil temperature above 35 degrees. Also, I totally want a soil thermometer, I wonder if I could use something else around the house to the same end?

I ran over to the Domain and checked out the sweet sale at Sur La Table, if you love cooking of just cooking gadgets, you should run over there and stock up, I came away with all sorts of goodies. I did my grocery shopping and came home and whipped up some raspberry lemonade popsicles a la Waspy Redhead. I deviated from her recipe a bit, so I hope they turn out well. Next I made some dough for these cookies I saw on Smitten Kitchen. The dough is currently chilling in the fridge, I have to let it chill for 3 hours? I die. I'm planning on filling them full of raspberry preserves. Next I started a pot of beef ragu from this month's issue of Real Simple which I plan on serving for dinner tonight over pappardelle. It's simmering on the stove in my favorite Le Creuset dutch oven and sipping a beer by the fire (I'm a tiny bit spoiled, no?). Unfortunately, for the life of me, I cannot get the bowl of my electric mixer off the base. This is a reoccurring problem and D has to pull it off for me every time after watching me groan and grunt and strain to try and get it to unscrew. So there it sits still on the stand, full dough residue. I was hoping to whip up some Parmesan and thyme crackers tonight to serve with some blue cheese butter along side my pappardelle, but alas, that will require me to remove the bowl twice and D is out until dinner time. Maybe later in the week? Hope you had a fab weekend!

Ruminations on Day Two Sans Television

2011-01-03T22:39:00.000-06:00

I know, I know, I am the whiniest person to ever go two days without TV. You'd think I was dying or something? Four hours ago, I was certain I was, I don't know what happend. I got up from my desk to walk to the car at 5:30 and immediately felt woozey. I didn't think it was a low blood sugar thing, since I shamefully had Mexican food for lunch and strawberries for a mid-afternoon snack, but I was afraid I'd pass out on my way to the car. Then I got into my car and operated an automobile. Not my most responsible moment, I know, judge me. I got home without incident and put on a pot of water for dinner and then went to the bedroom to lie down. I seriously had the spins on the bed, you know, the kind when you've had one too many martinis and you just want to die? But instead I'd had zero martinis. This was bullshit.

Long story short, I managed to not pass out on the stove (which is good, because we have a gas stove, and I would have burst into flames) and whip up dinner and about 30 minutes after eating I felt like myself again. I missed TV alot tonight because when you're sick, what do you want to do? Curl up and watch TV and do nothing. But no, like a jackass I was trying to read the January issue of Good Housekeeping. Not as good as TV.

Here's what I accomplished tonight without watching TV:

Cooked a meal without dying. I use cooked loosely. I reheated some bolognese I made and froze a while back and poured it over some penne. The hubs went back for seconds though, it did not suck.
Went to the Domain with Darryl to exchange a Christmas gift.
Got a new battery in my watch and got my ring cleaned.
Had my butt sniffed by the dog that hangs out in the jewelry store. Is it just me, but shouldn't I expect to browse the Rolexes unmolested? Also, what is a dog doing in a place that sells Rolexes. Ah, Austin....
Went to Lowe's, bought a new carbon monoxide detector because A) ours broke this weekend and B) Darryl was in the middle of a home improvement project that involved natural gas when I got home.
"Helped" Darryl not find stuff for his project at Lowes.
Blogged
Talked to my insurance agent on chat
Watched YouTube videos on how to install a weave for my hair
Watched miscellaneous YouTube videos on how to do hair and makeup
Sat by the fire, Darryl's project involved him installing new fire logs (mostly I think he was sick of dealing with my weekly demands for real wood fires)
Washed the dogs....much to their dismay.

Only five more days of this....on the other hand, I've been meaning to get that watch battery changed for 6 months now. AND we won't be dying of CO poisoning tonight, so maybe this whole no TV thing is working? ::shudder::

Television Experiment

2011-01-02T18:35:00.000-06:00

I'm trying a new experiment where I only watch TV every other week. Today is Day 1 of my TV off week. All my shows will DVR, they'll be there for me next week, I can watch them if they're on my iPhone and I'm doing cardio and watching them at the gym but otherwise, they're off limits. My goal is to stop the mindless lying around and increase my productivity. How have I done so far? Well, I'm bored. I'm bored when I watch TV too, but this kind of bored is more boring-ey. Here's what I did today:

Slept late until husband cooked me pancakes for breakfast.
Ran 3 miles and change down at Town Lake
Went to the Container Store for my bathroom organization project
Went to Whole Foods for lemons, came out with lemons and a big bag of other groceries and flowers (pink snapdragons, like the ones we had lining the pews in buckets in the church where we got married)
Sidedressed my cauliflower and broccoli plants with fertilizer (still not producing, looks like we're heading for a fail on those this season)
Trimmed a roast, marinaded it, and put it in the crockpot (Char Siu pork, yummmm)
Cleaned the kitchen
Read half of Real Simple's January issue
Took a shower to get the pollen off me from my run
Cleaned out the cedar pollen from my nose with my new neti pot
Took some vitamins
Ate some leftover homemade broccoli cheese soup
Ate some fruit
Listened to some podcasts
Emailed the podcast hosts about their show
Wrote this blog
Checked Facebook
Played with the dogs

Whew, I am super bored. But the thing is, there isn't anything actually on my TV that I'm missing out on. There are no shows on today (besides football, which since my Fantasy League is over, I'm less interested in), so why is sitting here not watching TV so painful?

New Year Workout Mix

2011-01-01T22:09:00.002-06:00

I've been updating my running/swimming workout mixes to freshen them up with some new material for 2011. When I'm lifting in the gym I like to rock out to classic rock or rap on Pandora, but when I run the trail I like to have a pre-set running mix. Swimming's a toss up, sometimes I just enjoy the silence of the pool and the sounds of my body moving through the water. I'm also a ridiculously loud breather, I have to turn my swimming MP3 player up full blast to hear it over my own breathing. But I digress, the purpose of this post is to share my new running mix. I like to put lots of feel good songs in my running mix, because running is pleasant, I'm on the trail, I'm looking at happy exercising people, it feels nice, so my music should be also. The swimming mix is still in the works.

Four Winds-Bright Eyes (warm up)
Beautiful Day-U2
AC/DC-Shook Me All Night Long
Ben Harper-Steal My Kisses
Bob Marley-Three Little Birds
Taio Cruz-Dynamite
Florence + The Machine-Dog Days Are Over
Wyclef Jean-Sweetest Girl
Led Zeppelin-D'yer Maker
Far East Movement-Like a G6
Taio Cruz-Break Your Heart
Katy Perry-Firework
Ke$ha-We R Who We R
Plain White T's-Rhythm of Love
TI-Live Your Life
3OH!3-Double Vision
Foo Fighters-Wheels
Jay-Z- Young Forever (stretch track)
Bob Marley-Redemption Song (stretch track)

January Goals

2010-12-30T17:23:00.002-06:00

I don't set New Year's resolutions, I mostly set monthly goals because 30 days is about all I can withstand. And I limit it to five, so here they are for January:

I will go to the gym at least one day a week during my lunch break.
I will abstain from alcohol except for during my birthday celebration and a couple other celebrations already on my calendar. There will be no heavy drinking on Friday nights.
I will run at least 3 miles every Saturday morning.
I will swim one mile a week.
I will go to Body Pump one day a week.
I will give up TV every other week.

Here we go, lots of clean living for the next 30 days and that TV thing is gonna be tough. What are your resolutions or monthly goals?