Wednesday, December 22, 2010

NONSTICKY

Hey good lookin', whatcha got cookin?

Soon, lots. Due to some wheeling and dealing and upgrading of her current set, my sister bequeathed to me a brand new set of Calphalon cookware:
Quite a generous gift. I have to be a good steward of this gift and learn to cook with it. So couple that set with a birthday gift from earlier this year - two stainless steel All-clad french skillets:
And guess what my new year's resolution is?

I have already learned so many things just from reading the literature that came with the new set of cookware, such as DO NOT USE cooking spray on any of these. Did you know that? Oops - I use Pam all the time on the pots and pans I do have. No more - time to fill a spray bottle with some olive oil. Also, I have learned the importance of preheating. I used to never do that.

To whom much is given, much is required. I am requiring myself to cook at least three nights a week in my pots and pans.... but not tonight. I have to pack to go home for Christmas!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

CLEVER

Still need that one gift for someone on your list who has everything? Well, if "everything" includes an iPhone or Blackberry, try getting him or her a Callet:

Cell phone + wallet = callet. It is a case for your phone that has two pockets on the back for cash, ID, etc. Pretty handy if you ask me - great for quick trips to the gym, store, etc. Just don't go leaving your phone lying around.

Also, for the person who thinks a bobbypin is not a great way to keep your headphones in check, try ordering a little case like this one, from Byrd & Belle:

Friday, December 17, 2010

GRADUATED

Yesterday was quite the milestone.

Five years ago yesterday, I graduated from Auburn University.

That was SUCH a hard point in my life. Graduation and entering the real world was just icing on the cake. Without getting into too much detail, for those of you that are new around here, I will sum it up like this: within a 30 day window, my grandmom died very unexpectedly, I found out my dad was getting remarried, I graduated and then moved back home into my newly-dating mother's house. If you want to keep going, within a year from that time, I moved to Tennessee, God and everybody got married and I had another grandparent pass away.

Yet in light of all of that, Graduation Day was such a good and happy day for me. I had friends praying that it would be nothing less. I think somehow I knew deep down inside that it would be one of the last truly happy days I had coming for a while. I can't look at these pictures without getting teary, not because of that, but just because I know how quickly these smiles faded after the cap and gown was turned in, the graduation gifts were unwrapped and I took that left turn onto 280, away from my childhood and towards my new future.

There is so much I want to tell that girl. I just want to hug her. Nothing will ever be the same, dear, but it will get better - not all at once, but piece by piece, you will heal.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

WHITE

Bunko last night was awesome because

a) another bunker announced her pregnancy
b) our hostess went ALL OUT with the goodies and decor
c) we all risked our lives to get there (not really but close)
d) All of the above

If you guessed D, you are a winner! What a GREAT night.

Good news if you live south of me: a Bunk This! southern chapter is being chartered. Erin is moving back to Birmingham and taking with her all the bunko things we taught her. If you want to join a bunko club almost as cool as mine, better get your name on the waiting list.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

CLOSED

As you know, Nashville has been under some ridiculous snow and ice lately. Snow doesn't bother me but the ice sure does. It's like driving in the rain but WORSE. I attempted to leave my house Sunday night. I hadn't even fully turned out of my apartment complex and onto the street before my car hit ice, skidded and slid 10' down the street until I smacked the car in front of me square on the bumper. PRAISE JEHOVAH there was ZERO damage to either car. Can you believe that?

ANYWAY. My favorite part of the snow and ice are the school closings. Not that I benefit one iota from them, as I, unlike 80% of my bunko club and 1/3 of my family, do not teach or work at a school. Yet every morning and every night, I wait with baited breath for the school closings to scroll across the screen because we have some of the FUNNIEST daycare names in the world.

Here we go. Can you guess which are real names and which aren't?

Children's Place Learning Academy
City Road Childcare
Children Are People
Backpacks
Jesus Only Academy
Darlene's Little Angels
Little Lambs of Good Shepherd
Minds in Motion
Patriot Pals
The Berry Patch
Academy for Academic Excellence
Educational Excellence Academy
Heavenly Host
Bobcat Buddies
Hands and Hearts
Little Country Schoolhouse
The Cub House
The Red Barn

*Update*
Expressways to Learning
First Steps
Grandmama's House
Kids Depot
Little Heroes Academy

*Please note that I am in no way calling into question the education or supervision provided at any of these daycares. Just having a laugh at the names.

Friday, December 10, 2010

GIFTY

This year, around September, I started a small list in my phone of all kinds of random things I might like for Christmas as well as things I might should remember to get others. It grew and grew and some things couldn't wait until Christmas to come live with me but for the most part, I did good. Let's start with most likely to least likely.

Despicable Me - Do you know how much I love this movie? I saw it twice in theaters. I want Gru and the Minions to be mine for Christmas!

The Game of Things is so fun! I played it with some friends and almost wet my pants laughing more than once. You draw card that has a "thing" on it - as in, things a chicken is thinking while the farmer collects its eggs; things a wife never wants to hear her husband say; things you do before you go to bed, etc. Every person writes an answer and throws it in a jar, and you take turns reading them aloud and guessing who said what. It sounds crazy, but get this game, a bottle of wine and some friends together and I assure you a good time will be had.

Jay Z's new book, Decoded - while I am a big patron of the Library, occasionally a book comes along I want to own. Assuming he won't be coming here on a book tour anytime soon, I want to go ahead and get my mits on this book, which I've heard is just as great on the inside as it is on the outside. In this case, I think it's safe to judge the book by its cover.

And speaking of the royal couple of hip-hop, guess who has released another DVD/CD combo? Yep, you guessed it. I guess I am going to have to start a Beyoncé shelf in my media cabinet. Last year for Christmas, I received the I Am... Yours DVD/CD, which was taped at her smaller, intimate shows at the Wynn in Las Vegas in late summer of 2009. This year, she's edited and released the full-blown show from world tour, the same world tour I could have gone to see with my sister - for free, in a box seat no less - when it stopped in DC in June 2009. Easily one of my greatest regrets. But, now I have a way to ease the pain with this newly released I Am... World Tour DVD/CD combo. And just for good measure, you ought to know that she produced, directed and edited this movie herself.
Moving out of the living room and into the kitchen, I have had my eye on some gadgets. I love fresh fruit, and this pineapple slicer and strawberry huller (both from Williams Sonoma) will make it easier to get in my mouth! And a little bird is supposed to be getting new cookware for Christmas and giving me her handmeydowns, so I might be getting a set of cookware for Christmas too! Think I could pull the famous cookware switcheroo from Bed Bath & Beyond? The only thing I don't like about this Baker's Edge brownie pan, that allows for every brownie to have a crust, is that I didn't think of it myself! And it got a coveted spot on Oprah's favorite things, so you know it's legit.

I think this SEC Champs shirt sold out overnight. Oh well. Maybe I will just wait and get a NATIONAL CHAMPS one in January, since it looks like a T-shirt is the closest I'll be to the game anyway.

I got a new bedspread a while back. It'd be nice to have shams that match it, but since I so rarely make my bed, it's not killing me that I don't have them. But it'd be good to get them before the set goes out of production I suppose. Actually I probably need new white sheets more than I need these shams.

I have seen the light on footwear. When I was in DC for Thanksgiving, my sister took me to a little store called Nordstrom Rack, where thanks to a Groupon and some luck I brought home some nice flats. Don't get me wrong, Target flats are great. But I'm not 21 anymore. And my new Via Spiga shoes prove what I suspected all along: a sturdy leather sole really makes a difference when you're on your feet for hours at a time. So even before I got the flats in DC and proved myself right, I had my eye on these for the very same reason. Since these cost almost half the amount of a face value BCS game ticket, I might be buying them for myself come January 10.

And just because it's the thing I really want most of all, BCS CHAMPIONSHIP GAME TICKETS! Come on Santa.... I got my airfare and hotel for pennies! All I need is a ticket!

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

HIP HOPPED

Calling all Nashvillians -

Do you like to dance? Do you like to pop that booty? Are you free Tuesday nights at 6:15? Do I have the class for you!

I tried my first hip hop class at the YMCA last night and L.O.V.E.D. it. I left class and immediately texted/tweeted about 5 people I know to go with me next week. It was a ball. I am so sore from dropping it low so many times in an hour, but what can I say? The inner cheerleader in me was having the time of her life.

I won't be missing this class again! Who wants to come with me?

Monday, December 06, 2010

SCATTERED

This post is going to be all over the place... just like me!

First of all - it's Home Alone season. I've already watched 1 four times and 2 once (but in two sittings). Betcha didn't think Home Alone has bigger fans than me but it does - I am getting comments left and right on my popular You Tube video. Any day now, Ellen DeGeneres will be inviting me on the show.

So, two weeks ago I went to DC to see my family.

My sister cooked most of the Thanksgiving meal, and her mother-in-law did a great job on the turkey and dressing or stuffing, depending on what you call it. My job was to eat it - and business is good, y'all.

Here we are before lunch...
...and after. Two of us are really asleep, can you guess which two?

The next day was the Iron Bowl! Heard of it? I wore these:
and then did this:
because we won!

The NEXT day, we got on a bus, put on our (my) new sunglasses and watched HA2 en route to...
New York City!
PS - The UNICEF snowflake is one of my favorite wintertime things about NYC... one of my favorite memories from childhood trips to New York.

Our big ticket item was to see Miss Kristin Chenoweth, Mr. Sean Hayes and Mrs. Molly Shannon in Promises, Promises. It was SO fabulous - I am sad it is closing. Why do bad things happen to good Broadway? Of course we charged the Stage Door to get good spots for meet-and-greet opportunities.

First came Cheno:
Then Sean, who was super nice:
Last came Molly, who was THE nicest. So grateful for our effusive praise of her Broadway debut!
After a bedbug free good night's sleep, we were up and at 'em again the next day before heading home later that night. We got rush (cheap) tickets to A Little Night Music - Bernadette Peters was brilliant! Eric, I wanted to see Billy Elliott but even the cheap seats were too expensive.


I got home Tuesday and repacked my bags for Atlanta did laundry. I had to work during the SEC Championship Game, but that was a good thing, I guess, seeing as how Auburn went 6-0 in games I had to miss/couldn't watch because of work. So y'all are welcome. Unfortunately, I am NOT working during the championship game because I am trying to BE there. Key word: trying. I was smart enough to book my plane ticket a week ago, before we won in Atlanta and Auburn and Oregon fans crashed Southwest.com trying to buy plane tickets. My $260 round-trip ticket shot up to $700. And my sister got a hotel room for us, so that leaves one small piece of the puzzle missing...

For reasons unrelated to these, I have been working extra hard at the gym. However, it looks like I could be forced to sell my body in exchange for or to finance BCS game tickets, so I guess it bodes well I am already plenty motivated.

Oh please. I'M JUST KIDDING. Or am I?

Which brings me to my last point: if any Bama fans have any tickets or Glendale hotel rooms they'd like to sell to their favorite blogger, just drop me a line!

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