Thursday, October 29, 2009

It's The Cat's Meow

Well my Halloween costume arrived today. Just in time, right? I didn't order it until Monday because we had barely even had time to think about Halloween between our Cali trip and planning the baby shower. And to be honest, I didn't even figure out what I was going to be until I was looking at costumes online. Normally I like to plan in advance and put something interesting together. You can see some of our past Halloween costumes here. In the end I couldn't come up with a brilliant idea, and Josh wasn't really offering an immense amount of input, so I impulsively told him I was being a flapper and that was that. We have decided that he will be a bootlegger. That basically consists of his "Clyde" costume from two years ago with the addition of suspenders (which he has been wanting anyways) and a bottle of booze. So, despite having a generic fringe flapper dress, I have been determined the past few days to polish up and improve my Charleston dance moves. I've been watching videos on youtube and last night I watched several dance numbers from Chicago and tried to pick up a few steps. When Josh got home I tried to teach him the basic moves and he didn't do too bad, but dancing rhythm doesn't seem to translate that well for drummers. Anyway, tonight I'm going to practice some more, mostly for my own enjoyment because it's not like I'll be able to make good use of this stuff to dance the night away at the part we're going to. I just wanted to lend a little authenticity to my costume. Tonight I'll be viewing some of The Cat's Meow and Singin' In The Rain for more inspiration. Above is my costume, although I've got a red boa and black gloves to go with it. And for fun here's a video of Ginger Rogers & Lucille Ball doing the Charleston together. I picked up a couple of moves from this. Did you know that Ginger Rogers was a Championship Charleston-er? As a matter of fact she won right here in Fort Worth, TX. :)

Monday, October 26, 2009

Stephanie's Baby Shower

So, bff Stephanie is currently growing two babies in her belly. That's right, twins- a boy and a girl! This weekend I hosted a shower for her family and friends. This was the second shower I've thrown for Steph, and this time around she wanted things to be really simple. I chose a bird theme that I knew she would love and almost everything else just fell into place. I looked through the archives of a couple of blogs I frequent, namely Oh Happy Day! and Brooklyn Limestone, for some ideas and everything came together really well, I think. I used some kit invitations that I actually found in the wedding aisles at Michael's, and embellished them with a little birdie stamp to work with the theme. I went with a light lunch-ish menu of tuna and chicken salad sandwiches, kettle potato chips, veggies with dip, fruit salad, and blueberry crumb bars. I had lemonade, iced tea and coffee to drink. Michael's also provided the grapevine wreaths that I "nested" the sandwiches in, the little birdies that matched my yellow and blue color scheme, the twig & nest combo, and the card stock to make the sandwich flags. I bought two small bunches of delicious smelling freesia for the tabletop and voila! I think everyone had a good time, and Stephanie and her husband Rodney got a lot of stuff that's going to come in handy once little Logan & Hadley get here. Here are a few pics. Oh, and the cake? It was made by Steph. Because she wanted to make her cake, and because she makes awesome cakes. If she hadn't been dying to make this particular cake design then I probably would have done some of those bird's nest cupcakes that have been around the blogosphere and back again. Or talked her into doing it. Because she's awesome. Here are a few pics. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate the soon to be here babes! Edit: I neglected to thank Josh and Holly for being super helpful with the party prep and even more so with the clean up. They rock!

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Weekend Roundup

Oh boy- I have been sooo busy! The Smothers Brothers concert was great- Tommy Smothers pointed at me! Here's what I was so busy with:

Friday:
-Sleep in, so needed it
-Clean house
-Rotate living room rug and water plants
-Plan baby shower table layout
-Put all extra chairs in living room for shower
-Josh gets home, put frozen pizza in the oven
-Shower while pizza cooks
-Out and into pjs to eat and watch dvr'd 30 Rock
-Make blueberry crumb bars and ranch dip for baby shower
-Hit the hay

Saturday:
-Oversleep
-Get up and ready
-Central Market for the last of the baby shower food
-Back home to start prepping everything
-Holly arrives for some last minute help
-Mommy to be and family show up while I'm making sandwiches
-Baby Shower time, lots of talking, eating, cake and gift opening (a couple pics to come)
-Post shower clean up with mega-help from Josh and Holly
-Beatles Rock Band with Holly while Josh is off to jam at Matt's
-Chick-fil-a run for dinner
-Watch Manhattan and Rear Window
-See Holly off, Josh comes home
-Read some Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
-Bedtime

Sunday:
-Sleep in
-Menu plan and grocery list
-Baby shower leftovers for lunch while watching Glee
-Grocery shopping
-Start laundry
-Clean and chop veggies for the week
-Composting (I'm the inadvertent gardener, things are growing in my compost!)
-Recruit Josh to help me make a big spider web in the front yard, hang my spider
-Work on a little more Halloween decor
-Shower
-More leftovers for dinner while watching White Christmas (I must be the only person who can watch a Christmas movie after putting up her Halloween decorations.)
-Finish laundry
-A little more P&P&Z
-Night-night

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Smothers Brothers

Mom and I are going to see the Smothers Brothers tonight!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

San Francisco Leftovers

Just wanted to share a few of the random photos that didn't really fit into a specific category of our visit. San Francisco/California was such a fun place to take pictures, and I can't wait to go back to explore more. If you click on the first pic here you can see the car lights winding down Lombard St. More here. I've got one more set of photos to share from our trip later. Thanks for looking at my excessive vacation photographs!

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Monday, October 19, 2009

Weekend Roundup

Friday:
-Work, blech
-Head to AT&T for our new iPhones, whee!
-Grab some Chipotle on the way home
-Eat and watch 30 Rock off DVR
-Target run to look for iPhone case
-Back home for some iPhone playing
-Solo Beatles Rock Banding
-Hit the hay

Saturday:
-Sleep in, but so not rested, ugh insomnia
-Search around for iPhone apps
-Eat leftover Chipotle
-Get ready
-Michael's for baby shower decor supplies
-Best Buy for iPhone cases
-Head down to museums to finish off roll of 120 film
-Back home for apple & wheat thins while watching Cosby show reruns
-Shower
-Doug comes over to work with Josh
-Quick chip & salsa dinner
-Start getting ready while watching some As Time Goes By
-Holly gets there, finish getting ready
-Stop by Misty's for a beer
-Lola's for Saboteur, Dovehunter and Descender
-Hang out with Holly, visit Lisa & Jamie
-Stop by the Aardvark post-Holy Moly show
-Get lots of love from all my boys, one more beer, and then hit the road
-Late night Whataburger and Simpsons with Holly
-Wash up and hit the hay

Sunday:
-Sleep in
-Tidy house
-Make menu plan and grocery list
-Grocery shopping
-Start laundry while Josh puts up groceries
-Eat and watch some Ken Burns' National Parks
-Chop and clean lettuce for salads
-Composting
-Finish National Parks episode
-Shower
-Work on baby shower ideas while watching History Detectives
-Finish up laundry while watching last half of French Kiss
-Into bed to start reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
-Sleepytown

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Cali Vacation Day 4: Golden Gate Park and Film Festival

On our last day in California we all got up plenty early to make sure we got a good start. We stopped for coffee and donuts and then drove in to San Francisco. That day's agenda was Golden Gate Park and then the 9th Scary Cow Film Festival that night at Victoria Theater. We walked around Stow Lake, up to the boat house and then headed over to JFK Dr. to find the Lindy Hoppers. I love all forms of dancing, although I don't really do it myself, so I was super excited to get a chance to see them dancing and snaps some pics. Then we walked around, past the de Young and Academy of Sciences, back over to the boat house. I convinced the boys to get a pedal boat and they pedaled me around Stow Lake, again while I took more pictures. Once we got back to the boat house we hopped in the car and headed off to Victoria Theater to pick up Diggy's friend and former teach, Carl. Carl has lived in the Bay Area all his life and he took us on a whirlwind driving tour of the city, pointing out interesting sites and sharing some historical and note so historical anecdotes- like areas that had suffered severe earthquake damage, pirate/indian/spanish mission stories, and where his first dope dealer lived, ha. We drove up to Twin Peaks where I got a good row of shots I stitched into a half-panoramic view, past the Palace of the Legion of Honor, stopped for dinner at a decent Italian place, and then headed back to the theater. The film festival was interesting. Diggy's film was definitely the best in my opinion. You can see for yourself here. His film ended the showing to loud, long applause and won first place along with a slew of other awards, announced days later, such as best directing, best acting, and best original score (by our other friend, Cory). We stopped by Tommy's for a celebratory root beer and then it was back to Palo Alto to try and pack for our flight in the morning. Here are some pics from our day in the park. Rest are here.

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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Cali Vacation Day 3: Shopping, Shooting and the Golden Gate Bridge

Back to vacation re-cap! Day 3 of our vacation we drove in to the city to do a little shopping. Josh and I love H&M, but we don't have one here in Texas. Emily directed me to the H&M on Powell, so after a brief viewing of the Love Parade, that's where we headed. I bought a cute gray sweater dress, gray cardigan and cream & black striped tee. Josh got a few tees, a peachy/pink button down shirt, and a nice striped sweater. And Diggy was a good sport through our long shopping trip and bought Josh a brightly colored plaid bow tie- on the condition that Josh had to wear it to the film festival the next day. We followed the shopping up with a late afternoon meal at Sears diner where Josh had 18 tiny pancakes, and I enjoyed some of the best sausage I've ever had. Then we walked down to the Ferry Building for some picture taking, took a street car back up towards where we parked and then headed over to Chrissy Field. Walked down Chrissy Field to Fort Point for more picture taking. After we headed over to the Cliff House for a couple of glasses of wine and some truly scrumptious fried calamari. Then it was time for the boys to suffer for my art so I could take some night shots of the Golden Gate. We drove over to the Sausalito side to several look out spots. It was pretty cold, and soooo windy. The boys danced and serenaded me with their renditions of Spoon songs while I shot. I had lost feeling in my right middle finger by the time I was done for the evening. We packed up and went back into the city for some Chinese food. A variety of fried rices were ordered and we had a nice meal before we headed back to Palo Alto. I was exhausted when we got back and we were planning to get up early the next day so I uploaded my pics and hit the hay. Here are some of my Golden Gate Bridge photos. The rest can be seen here.

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Monday, October 12, 2009

Weekend Roundup

Friday:
-Work, yuck
-Head home and look at past October issues of MS Living while waiting for Josh
-Make Mac & Cheese for dinner
-Head over to Matt & Ashley's brand new first home with a bottle of Cava to celebrate
-See the new house, recap our CA trip and hang out
-Back home for some late night taquitos and Beatles Rock Band
-Hit the hay

Saturday:
-Sleep in nice and late
-Whole Wheat Cinnamon-Oat Pancakes and coffee for breakfast
-A little TV while I finish uploading vacation pics to flickr
-Shower
-Head to Michael's and Home Depot for Halloween decorations
-Grab some Chick-fil-a
-Some solo Beatles Rock Banding while Josh works on cleaning up his media files
-A little joint BRB
-Watch Groundhog's Day while playing Beatles Trivial Pursuit
-Bedtime

Sunday:
-Sleep in, rapture
-Clean house, with Josh's help
-Make menu and grocery list
-Get ready
-Get groceries for us and Grandma Dorothy
-Drop our groceries at house
-Deliver groceries to Grandma and visit for a few hours
-Grab some Sonic on the way home
-Eat and watch a couple of Simpsons episodes
-Shower
-Start thinking about Christmas ideas before I even put up the Halloween decorations
-Nighty-night

Friday, October 9, 2009

Cali Vacation Day 2: Muir Woods, Overlook, Beach and Sausalito

Second day of our vacation started out with Muir Woods where we had a lovely hike, saw a chipmunk, some deer and teeny tiny birds amongst the giant redwoods. Very beautiful and peaceful. From there we went to Muir Overlook, where we had a great view of the Pacific and saw ravens the size of a cat! Oh, and some sort of groundhog or similar hole dwelling vermin. Then we drove down to Muir Beach where, despite Josh's complaints about getting sand in his shoes, we saw starfish and anemones. Then we drove back in to Sausalito and had dinner on the bay at Scoma's. We split a dungeness crab and I had fish and chips with some truly amazing tartar sauce. Capped the meal off with some tiramisu and a boozey coffee. We drove back across the bay to San Francisco and drove around the city at night, stopping up at Coit Tower so I could take some night shots of the city. I had fun taking some pics out of the moving car window too, which I'll share later. Here are some pics from our outdoorsy day in the bay area. The rest can be seen here.

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Thursday, October 8, 2009

Cali Vacation Day 1: Winchester Mystery House

We tried to make an early start on Thursday, our first morning of vacation. We stopped by Keeble & Schucat so I could get some 120 film, Philz Coffee for a cup of joe and pumpkin muffin, and then we were on our way to San Jose. I was super excited to visit the Winchester Mystery House and it didn't disappoint. Beautiful and strange, the house tour was great and the behind-the-scenes tour was really interesting. After leaving Winchester we went back to Palo Alto and grabbed lunch at a deli that is owned by Diggy's friends. We stopped by the apartment to put up some of the snacks we'd bought and then walked over to the Stanford Theater to see The Trouble With Harry. This is one of my favorite Hitchcock films and it was so fun to see it in the theater. On our way back to the apartment we saw a guy get hit by a car (but he was okay), and two guys arguing in front of an Apple store. Weird. We went by Trader Joe's to grab a few more snacking supplies. Back at Diggy's place we started our project- I had talked him into alphabetizing his DVDs, ha. We put The Birds in about halfway through our work and finished the movie while snacking on our fancy cheese, crackers, olives, salami and a little wine for Josh and I. Fun day! Here are some photos from Winchester Mystery House, you can see them all here.

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Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Rainy Day Music

We left the sun behind us in California to come back to the cloudy, damp weather that seems to be becoming the norm around here as of late. Which of course calls for some John Coltrane.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Three Years

Today is our third wedding anniversary. I love you Joshy!

Back

We're finally back from vacation. We had a wonderful time, although things got a little rough Sunday night, and have sort of trended that way ever since. The film festival was great, but my purse was ruined by a spilled drink in the theater. Then upon getting back to Diggy's I realized that I'd had tomato sauce on my shirt since dinner and no one had noticed or thought to inform me of this. We had to get up super early yesterday to get to the airport for our flight and that all went smoothly, or so we thought. For while things seemed fine on our end, little did we know that our luggage was having some problems of it's own. It decided to take another flight, so wasn't there to meet us at the airport. The agent said it'd be delivered around 7:00 PM, and if it hadn't shown up by 9 to call them back. When we got to Stephanie's house to pick up our car the battery was dead, so we munched on Twizzlers while we waited for AAA to come give us a charge. 9:00 rolls around and no luggage, so I call and the agent on the phone says the flight wasn't getting in until 10:30, so they won't know anything until then. Call it a day and go to bed, only to oversleep this morning when Josh hits the off button instead of snooze.

So, yeah. I know everybody says this, but I could really use another vacation to recover from our vacation. On the plus side they claim that our luggage did arrive and that it should be delivered today. Perhaps that's a sign things are on their way up.