Friday, August 31, 2007

Four Day Weekend

I plan to get some things accomplished over the holiday weekend. And most of them include food.

-Order in Chinese food
-Make a pound cake
-Make ham paninis
-Watch a Cary Grant movie
-Laugh at Monty Python
-Play some Sudoku and Risk
-Have a good cup of coffee, maybe with pancakes and bacon
-Make a Goodwill drop off

What are you guys doing?

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Falling for Fall

Reasons I am currently looking forward to the arrival of Autumn:

1. Being able to go to the zoo, the duck pond, fly kites, and take walks without melting.

2. Sweaters!

3. Cooking soups and stews.

4. Woody Allen's latest contribution to the cinematic world.

5. Halloween. I don't know if we'll have any plans, but I think with the wealth of vests on the store hangers right now I might dress up like her.

6. Baking pumpkin bread, finally.

7. Singing Autumn In New York and Autumn Leaves constantly.

8. And last, but not least, our one year anniversary!


Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Just J.

my name: jessica
four words: just, jerk, jam, juggle
state/city: johannesburg
boy name: jonathan
girl name: jemima
occupation: justice of the peace
something found in a kitchen: juice
something you shout: jump!
something you look for in a guy/girl: jauntiness
something that is in your room: junk. josh, usually.
place to shop at: j crew
name a band/artist: joni mitchell

saw this on marta's blog

Monday, August 27, 2007

Weekend Roundup

Friday:
-Work, boo!
-Grab Chipotle
-Eat while watching dvr'd 30 Rock
-Watch most of Hooked: Illegal Drugs and How They Got That Way
-Head to Steph & Rodney's to deliver new house presents
-Hang out for a while, visit the new house, and have great car chats with Stephano
-Go home for sweet dreams

Saturday:
-Oversleep
-Tidy up the kitchen
-Watch dvr'd episodes of Real Simple, Rick Steves' Europe and Mexico: One Plate At A Time and What Not To Wear
-Work on menu for coming week
-Watch dvr'd Ghost Hunters episode
-Shower
-Watch one of the funniest movies ever, Born Yesterday, while getting ready
-Head to Dallas for Chemistry Set show
-Catch up with Angela, see Rahim, wish Chris a happy birthday
-Rock out
-Leave very late for home, with a stop at Jack In The Box for post-partying munchies
-Watch Arrested Development
-Fall asleep on the couch

Sunday:
-Wake up on the couch
-Lay around for awhile, catching up on more of the dvr'd shows
-Watch Inside The Actors Studio episodes- The Simpson's and Michael J. Fox
-Finalize the grocery list
-Head to Central Market for specialty items
-Go to Minyard's for regular groceries
-Put up all the goods
-Munch on half a samich while watching Summer Magic
-Make dinner
-Enjoy said dinner
-Work on some photos
-Hit the hay

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Triumph

Another trip to a different Old Navy results in the acquisition of the item I have been coveting for years. I can't even say how long I have been yearning for a trench coat. Something about them just says classy to me. They remind me not only of smartly dressed women from the 40's, but women of the 70's too. I'd love to pair it with some great trousers, a basic white shirt and a vest a la Annie Hall/Diane Keaton. And a quick stop off at a nearby Target allowed me to pick up the shoes I've been debating on buying for a few weeks now. They happened to be on sale, so how could I say no?

Changes

I have a sometimes overwhelming fear of change. How do I move past this? Sometimes I yearn for change so much, but am terrified into inaction. I wish I would have some kind of epiphany, but as long as I have to be my own catalyst I don't see things changing. Oh, neuroses, why must you be such a pain in the tush?

Last night I made an unsuccessful trip to Old Navy, after a trip to Borders with slightly better results. I got my sister's birthday present, which I forgot to bring with me today to mail. I also picked up the new issue of Blueprint, but I haven't had a chance to really delve into it yet. Wandering around and looking at all the books that I would love to read makes me wish I wasn't such an incredibly slow reader. Trying to keep up with my Newsweek subscription is hard enough. I haven't really read anything of any substance from a book in months. Time to start one up again, but I'm unsure which one. Also overwhelming is the size of all the books I was coveting at the shop. 400 pages, 500 pages, more even? Probably take me a year to read just one of them.

I feel like I need some cheering up. This cheers me up quite a bit.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Absence

Sorry I haven't been around, had a family funeral in Louisiana. Be back tomorrow.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Oh, What's That You Say?

Whose movie is coming out tomorrow? Oh, the dreamiest of the dreamies. The most lovely, the most crush worthy-

















Oh, Mr. Firth. I don't know if this movie is going to be good, persay, but I do know that you will be fantastic. You reliable stud-muffin, you.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Marriage Meme

Lindsey tagged me for this marriage meme, so what could I do but oblige. I'm posting this on both my blogs, fyi.

Where did you meet your husband?
Josh and I met in 1997 at the movie theater we both worked at, at the ticket drop to be exact. We were both working usher shifts. His friend Andrew got him a job at the theater. I actually liked Andrew a bit, but he quit when I was out of town one weekend. When I came back to work, there was Josh.

What was the first thing you said to your husband?
I don't remember exactly, but I probably said hi. I know shortly thereafter I asked if he had cleaned a specific theater, cause that's when I found out that no one had explained to him that he was supposed to do that! I do remember that I laughed so much as we cleaned theaters together that night.

Where was the first kiss? First date?
Josh and I were friends first and sort of fell in love with each other without the other one really knowing it. He was going out with my friend, who was also a co-worker, so I never made any moves. Eventually, as we grew closer and closer through our friendship we sort of figured out that we needed to be together. So, I guess maybe when we were hanging out in his room listening to music and he held my hand could be our first date. He took my hand and held it in his for a long time, with neither of us saying anything, as we listened to the Rolling Stones' song Angie. We didn't really discuss it much later either, but after that moment we knew we had to be together and he broke up with his girlfriend.*
It took us a little while to get around to kissing. When we started going out Josh had just gotten his tongue pierced, and he had a bad case of bronchitis. Not exactly perfect make-out conditions. In fact, Josh told me he loved me before we even had our first kiss. But that first kiss was in his bedroom. I don't remember specifics, but I think While My Guitar Gently Weeps might have been playing. I guess it seems strange that I don't remember it that well, but we've kissed a lot since then. :)

Did you have a long courtship?
Brother, you've got no idea! Josh and I met April 5th, 1997. We were dating mid-March 1998, and officially boyfriend/girlfriend April 4th, 1998. We got engaged March 19th, 2005. And we just got married October 6th, 2006. I know a lot of people stop celebrating any 'dating anniversary' when they get married, but I refuse. I put a lot of time in and I'm gonna commemorate it darnnit! In fact, one of the reasons I chose our wedding date is because we now have an anniversary every 6 months. :)

Where did you get engaged?
We got engaged at a club. That probably sounds weird. Josh proposed at a Chemistry Set show at a club called The Moon, which is just a few minutes from our apartment. Almost all our friends and family were there. Including that guy Andrew (see first answer). I honestly hadn't seen him since he quit the theater, which was 8 years prior. But Josh told him about the surprise he had planned and he was so excited to come. It was the second best surprise of the night. To help distract me we went out to dinner with my cousin Angie before the show. As all our parents began to file into the club I had a sneaking suspicion, especially since I knew he had the ring. Towards the end of the show they coerced me up on stage to play shakers on the last song. This had never happened before, so I was pretty sure I knew what was coming. The song has a big build-up ending, but in place of that Josh came out from behind the drums and proposed. Everyone cheered, it was totally awesome, and when I got down from the stage they had one last surprise. The band had learned my favorite Neil Young song, Helpless. Spent the rest of the night talking to all our friends who had come out for the event and having random girls tell me they almost cried.









Where did you get married?

We were married at the YWCA in downtown Fort Worth. It's a historical building with beautiful architecture. And the rental fee you pay goes directly to their programs for women and children, so it's even more beautiful because of it.
















How did the reception go?
Pretty darn good, aside from my caterer being crazy. We got to catch up with friends we hadn't seen in a long time, danced, laughed, and even cried a teeny-tiny bit. We put a lot of work into
our wedding and people noticed- we got compliments on the flowers Steph and I did, the table runners Mom made, and the music- every single song being hand-picked by the two of us.
























How was the honeymoon?
Umm, like the most awesomest ever! We got married on a Friday and left for New Mexico on Sunday. As long as Josh and I had been together (see answer 4), we had never been on a vacation just the two of us. We spent two nights at Casita La Joya, 25 miles south of Taos, which was an absolute pleasure and just what the doctor ordered after months of stressful wedding prep. Then we stayed 4 nights in Santa Fe. We ate some of the most delicious food and saw some incredible sights, including snow on the ground! That seemed like a miracle since it was in the 90's when we left Texas. I think about and miss Santa Fe almost everyday and I can't wait to go back.
























*That whole girlfriend thing probably sounds bad, but he had broken up with her a few weeks earlier. She convinced him to get back together, but that he could see other people- knowing full well that it was me he intended to see. And pretty much after our first 'date', he broke up with her completely. And all we did was hold hands. I'm not some kind of high school home wrecker or anything. :)

Monday, August 13, 2007

Having Your Cake And Saving It Too

I have this here cake pedestal, and I love it dearly. I got it from Josh's aunt, but I think she got it from his grandmother, if I correctly remember them telling me about it at the time. His aunt is always trying to clear clutter, and we are almost always the first people she calls. Not always the best for our tiny apartment, but in this case it worked out fabulously. Anywho, I don't have a dome for my cake pedestal. And as you can imagine this presents a bit of a problem when I would like to use it. I can't very well toss a cake from platter to platter, all willy-nilly. And plastic wrap tends to get a bit messy. So, any suggestions for finding a nice dome to go with my pedestal? I searched eBay with all the phrases I could think of to come up with a good response, but I didn't find what I was looking for. Next I guess will be antique shops. But I thought I would see if anyone had any ideas that I hadn't come up with yet, in the meantime, as I imagine it will be awhile before I can spend a day wandering around curiosity shops.














*P.S.- If you're wondering, that is the Wild Canary Cake I made for the Taste of Yellow event a few months ago. And now I really wish I had a piece of cake!

Weekend Roundup

Friday:
-Go to work
-Spend about 7 hours sorting through old e-mails
-Realize my brains are melting from said e-mails
-Leave early to head to bank
-Open joint checking with Josh. Only took us 10 months, jeez.
-Head to Target to look for Gifts
-Stop by new Chipotle for dinner
-Chow down at home while watching dvr'd 30 Rock
-Run to other Target to look for what I didn't find earlier
-Head home and get sick
-Spend the evening laying on the bed and watching TV
-Go to bed

Saturday:
-Get up and have coffee
-Discover Pride & Prejudice on TV- jackpot! Not that I don't own it on DVD or anything.
-Alphabetize our LP's
-Hang rest of pictures in bedroom. Only been waiting almost as long as the checking account.
-Clean and reorganize bedroom bookcase
-Vacuum baseboards, door jams, and dining room wall
-Dismantle and clean vacuum brush while watching dvr'd POV
-File paperwork
-Take a shower to wash away the cleaning grime
-Watch Le Divorce and lay around on the bed
-Wait for Josh to get home from rehearsals and recording
-Grab some Sonic
-Watch Muppets episodes
-Go night-night

Sunday:
-Wake up early- 8:30, what the heck?
-Read half my issue of Newsweek
-Plan my menu and grocery list
-Grocery shop
-Sort and start laundry
-Reorganize under-bed storage and purge old winter clothes
-Finish laundry
-Clean closet
-Eat Sonic again. I know, we have a problem!
-Shower
-Work on budget plan for our banking and savings
-Watch super funny first half of final Vicar of Dibley, set second half to record
-Fall asleep watching Muppets. Up quite late, paying the price of that evening Cherry Coke.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Speaking Of Dreaming....

I spent a good chunk of my childhood wishing I could grow up to be Miss Piggy.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Tonight I'll Be Dreaming Of....




















Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Zizanie

That means "ill feeling" in French. If I spelled it right. I've been home sick today. Well, actually I was sick most of the night, resulting in no sleep. So I've been home with lack of sleep I guess. I've got a few health problems, but I don't like to enumerate. They aren't life threatening. And although these problems can definitely make me feel miserable I know that I have it pretty good. But sometimes when your problems are flaring up it's hard to remember that. Anyway, not being woe-is-me. Just wanted to say that even though I don't feel well, and even though I'll have to work on Friday to make up for today, it's nice to sit on my comfy bed and watch Woody Allen movies. Even as I sit here typing this I'm enjoying the snippet of Gershwin that loops on the DVD menu.

Monday, August 6, 2007

Weekend Roundup

Friday:
-Crawl out of bed
-Have coffee and toast
-Scrub tiles, tub and shower doors
-Clean counter, sink, mirror, and sweep up
-Tidy and dust bedroom
-Tidy and dust living room
-Clean glass coffee table
-Tidy kitchen
-Work on menu plan
-Eat Chipotle with Josh & watch dvr'd 30 Rock episodes
-Shift to the bedroom with my laptop so Josh and Grey can play PS3
-Watch What Not To Wear while flipping through back issues of MS Living
-Play Sudoku on PS3 with Josh
-Hit the hay

Saturday:
-Wake up at 7:45 to cat fight
-Break up cat fight, make sure Marvin is okay, and go back to sleep
-Wake up and have some coffee
-Take bed sheets off, move mattress, and dismantle bed frame
-Pick up truck from Pop-in-law, take pics of his garden while there
-Load up bed frame
-Deliver bed frame to Bro and pick up his bed frame
-Stop by Linens'n Things for bed risers
-Get home, unload frame, put together new headboard and attempt to attach to bed frame
-Realize we'll have to drill new holes in headboard legs to accommodate risers
-Also realize our drill is total crap and won't work for this
-Eat leftover Chipotle
-Go back to Pop-in-law's, drop off truck, pick up car, borrow drill and get sack of okra
-Get home and finish assembling everything and make the bed
-Go grocery shopping
-Watch TV and play PS3
-Eat chicken tenders and mac & cheese!
-Play Sudoku
-Eat ice cream- vanilla with chocolate syrup, oh yeah
-Climb in bed for some Laugh-In and Newsweek
-Fall asleep

Sunday:
-Wake up
-Decide to try and fly kites
-Attempt to fly kites, but not windy enough
-Do the dishes
-Grab some Sonic- onion rings, mmmm
-Watch dvr'd American Masters on Les Paul
-Change clothes and head to Target
-Shower, shape brows, use clay facial mask
-Blog about Pop-in-law's garden
-Have buttery, garlicky spaghetti for dinner
-Play more Sudoku
-Have rest of ice cream
-Try to catch up on Newsweek reading
-Fall asleep to An American In Paris- yes, again.

Friday, August 3, 2007

Happy Martha-versary

Tonight I thought I would pull out the MS Living issues I have for August, including the July/August issues. Not that it's a lot, just 4 issues not counting this year's. But in doing so I realized that it has been 10 years since I started reading Martha Stewart's flagship publication. If you do the math that means my first issue of Living was from July/August 1997. And if you bother to do any extra math, it means I bought my first issue when I was 16. My first issue is still to this day my favorite. I will always keep it, and even considered tracking down a copy for the most recent favorite things swap (but it proved a little too difficult since I thought of it late in the game). And from that first issue I fell in love. I almost couldn't believe it as my eyes went from the pages of the 'collecting' article's glossy photos to the rustic green jug vase on my window sill that I had inherited from my grandmother, and back again. Frankoma pottery isn't rare, especially in the southwest, or expensive. Still the mere idea that I owned something featured in the magazine was inspiring. Hey, remember, I was sixteen. And from the moment I read through the feature on zinnias they have been my favorite. This issue also introduced me to Ina Garten as she laid out a delightful summer harvest party before me. So, for the past 10 years I've been dreaming of living the Stewart style life. I'm not quite there yet, but I can still flip through the pages and be inspired. Inspiration...it's a good thing.

Thursday, August 2, 2007

And Then I Don't Feel So Bad

I'm so excited! I finished packing up the box this afternoon and shortly I'll be at the post office shipping off a few of my most loved odds and ends to my partner for Jihan's Favorite Things Swap- Summer '07. I really hope that my partner will be as excited to open the box as I was to fill it with goodies. And I hope the goodies I chose don't disappoint. I can't wait to receive my package either, but it's always more fun to give than to receive. At least that's how I justify my Christmas budget, ha.

Josh and I are looking forward to this weekend so very much. We don't have any plans, aside from doing a few things we need to do and a lot of things we want to do. For the first weekend in a month or more we don't have any obligations to family or friends. We're going to finally(!) switch bed frames with my bro & his wife so that we can get our new headboard put up. I will probably do laundry and grocery shop. But aside from that, we are free. I plan to watch some of the quality television that I've been dvr'ing, but haven't gotten to watch yet. Josh plans to play a lot of PS3. These both require the same television, but compromises can be easily reached. Especially when we play the sudoku game he downloaded together. And Saturday night I'm going old school and making chicken tenders and Kraft macaroni & cheese. I've been craving some of our not so healthy, but oh so yummy meals of yore.

This has been a long week, and today has been a long day. I'm so thankful that when I leave work today I don't have to be back till Monday! What are you thankful for today?

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Un Americaine en Paris

The past two nights I've drifted off to sleep to the sounds of An American In Paris. This is one of my favorite musicals. I love the songs, I love the dance sequences, and I like to think that it's going to help me in my French lessons. That last part is probably not all that true, although it may keep me motivated to continue so that someday I can be an American in Paris too! I find Gene Kelly dreamy in this role, and I always wish I could dance as beautifully as Leslie Caron. I also get such a kick out of Oscar Levant. I think he has some of the best lines of the entire film. This movie can always brighten my day, put a smile on my face, and a song in my soul.