oh, and also...

I should have mentioned this yesterday, but the oft-requested photo updates are available. I've got all the before-during-and-after shots of the house here, and finished up some fun stuff from 2008 here. I've also got a new gallery for 2009 here (including photographic proof of the Red Lobster adventure, and photos of the canister labels). Oh! And I also made an album just of food pictures. Look in there for some glamorous Cobb salad shots, and a not-very-appealing photo of the Much Vaunted Samoa Tart. Holy mother!

recipe for an excellent birthday

1. Start by having a not-great week leading up to the Birthday. Have some kind of not-completely-sickness funk dragging you down. Take a sick day on Thursday to rest, and then don't feel any better the next morning. One good thing happens Thursday... presents arrive from Future MIL: Sleeping Beauty and Snow White special edition DVDs, plus some delicious snackies. Eat four lemon cake balls then take a nap.

2. Take your assigned birthday personal day on Friday. Sleep in and be lazy, eventually go to the new southern restaurant near your house (Southern Bred) with Jon Burr. Eat so much homemade cornbread and rolls that you can only take like four bites of (delicious) catfish. Run some shopping errands (the joys of antiquing with J.Burr!) and then go home and take another nap. Birthday week = naps galore!

3. When your fiance gets home and takes an envelope out of his pocket, snatch it away and open it. The contents: about a dozen individually designed blue and white labels for your dry goods canisters. Each is perfectly matched to the contents of the canister (Vanilla Sugar is lacy and feminine, All-Purpose Flour has a gingham backdrop and Bodoni Bold Italic typeface). Some labels have witty commentary: Wheat Noodles (What do we even use these for?), Dark Brown Sugar (Now with more molasses!). Try not to cry that you get to MARRY this incredibly talented man who thinks of the perfect thing that you didn't even know you wanted. (He also found you the first-ever issue of Martha Stewart Weddings on ebay, which apparently is missing from your collection).

4. Meet Suz and Bryan (coworker + husband who feel like old friends) at Watanabe for dinner. Sushi! Bibim bab for the boo! Witty conversation and a warm booth on an alarmingly cold and rainy night! Perfect. Climb in bed at 10:30 and only feel 40% guilty for bailing on the Bomb show (that guilty level will raise to 65% when you're told the next day that they had a special birthday dedication lined up for you. Hmm, maybe that's more like 85%).

5. Amble out of bed Saturday morning. Bake a German chocolate cake for Dad (setting aside one cake round for yourself) and a dozen deviled eggs for Patrick. Magically get it all together and still make it to Bombay Palace in time for lunch. Feast on vast amounts of yellow and orange sloppy foods and rices.

6. Head to Casey and Trent's for presents and cake. Unprecedented: you get EVERYTHING YOU ASKED FOR. A sewing machine (used, simple, still with manual, exactly as requested)! The Bride's Instructional Manual! A box of silly goodies from your mom, plus some much-needed cash monies. And the highlight: Grandma Jansen's recipe box. This part makes you cry. Pull it together then eat some cake (and yes, it's the best German chocolate cake you've ever made. A triumph. You'll get an email from your father a few days later with the subject line "HFSGCC," in which he suggests you are receiving a Lifetime Achievement Grammy for this cake, which he has eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner for three days straight).

7. Hustle over to the fairgrounds for the Nashville Rollergirls vs. the Tampa Tantrums. Back story: Tampa humiliated the Nashville girls in Tampa last year. Additionally, the first home bout of this season (a double header against Jacksonville and then Austin) was a total bloodbath (Nashville lost each game by over 100 points). The point: the Nashville girls are gunning for a victory. The conclusion: probably the best bout you've ever witnessed. World-class skating and a relatively close game the entire time. Scream yourself nearly hoarse by the time Rambo Sambo scores 21 points in a single jam. Bounce around the gym for a while, ripping with adrenaline and greeting all your friends who came out. Then head to the Melrose Pub for some delayed sandwiches and crowded, noisy conversation with your nearest and dearest. Bedtime by midnight: perfect.

8. Wake up shockingly full of energy for the first time in a week. Must be residual adrenaline from the bout. Clean up the house a bit and then head to Red Lobster at noon to meet Casey and Trent at the bar to watch Tennessee (lose) at basketball. Everyone else trickles in, and you all finally sit down for a seafood feast around 2. You order a pound and a half of snow crab legs and eat for an hour. Finish it off with chocolate wave cake and ice cream, and smuggle home an entire box of cheesy biscuits to share with Emma the next day.

9. Limp home after four hours at Red Lobster. What else could you do but take a nap?

10. Finalize birthday festivities on Tuesday night at Badness and Redbeard's St. Patrick's Day soiree. Gifts from Badness: ice-cream flavored Jelly Bellys in a cone-shaped dispenser, a hilariously outdated wedding planning paperback, and FOOD TV HOST BARBIE. Complete with her own chef's knife and stand mixer (that really spins!). Disassemble the whole package to poke at all the details (cameras and lights! pot holders on a rack! an oven that ACTUALLY BAKES A PIE!). Spend the rest of the evening snickering to yourself with happiness.

Okay, I'm ditching the second person format to give you the second half of this update: wedding talk. When last we met, we were still riding on the engagement high (okay, that hasn't gone away, at ALL) and had vaguely picked a date: May 15, 2010. And my best intentions were to just cruise for the next several months and then start planning in earnest in the fall. Now, you and I both know, I wasn't going to be able to let this rest. Because truthfully, there are a few important details that, if they are locked down in advance, can help shape and curb all the wild brainstorming and idea-culling of the next year: 1. location 2. tentative guest count 3. color scheme.

The tentative guest count was both surprisingly easy and reassuringly not prohibitively high. I'd be lying to you if I said I hadn't already been thinking about this for a while, so it was pretty simple to cobble together a list of our extended families plus the (edited) guest list for our housewarming party, plus out-of-town important friends. I was bracing myself for a 300+ headcount by the time I'd finishing entering everyone I could possibly think of, but was pleasantly surprised when the excel document totaled up at 223. That includes plus ones for all the single folk, all children over age 12 or so, and my closest coworkers + spouses. Hmm, that sounds almost doable!

Up next: location. I'd had an idea in my head for a long time, one that I knew Austin also approved of (details momentarily). But there were some logistical aspects to this plan that I wasn't positive about, and I wanted to be certain that we'd explored other options before we made any decisions. I started brainstorming with my girlfriends at work, and ended up with a list of a dozen or so places that would probably work, places we could check out and get a feel for. But I knew as this list went on that I was getting further away from what we really wanted. I loved the pictures I found online of War Memorial Auditorium, but I've never actually been there. We don't want to get married somewhere we've never been! There were other spots that had pros (great view of downtown) that didn't quite outweigh the cons (we'd probably have to use their in-house catering), blah blah.

So I did some finagling, and the weekend before my birthday, Austin and I went to the Farmer's Market for lunch. We haven't been there in a few months, since it was still in the midst of a vast renovation, and I was nervous about what we might see. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised. The central part of the Market Building (where all the restaurants are located) was still filled with tables and chairs (instead of booths, like it used to be a few years ago). It's open to the skylights above, and has big wood beams across the top of the dining area. I got pulled pork and macaroni & cheese at B&C BBQ, which turns out to also be a catering company (Bacon and Caviar). Austin got his same mediocre Chinese food that he loves. I chatted a bit with one of the maintenance staff, and he confirmed that the Market Building was available for event rental.

Then we walked down the Bicentennial Mall (which runs alongside the farmer's mkt) to the Tennessee Amphitheater. This is a place I've loved since it was built when I was in college. I have a lovely memory of us all going there with my grandma, and finding dozens of four-leaf clovers. It has a gorgeous view of the capitol building, and I've always thought it would be a beautiful place for a wedding ceremony.

So a few days later, I went back with Casey and we walked around some more. She agreed with me about the vision for having a ceremony in the amphitheater, then everyone walking over to the Farmer's Market for a big dinner reception. We got a reasonable quote from the parks director on renting the amphitheater, and as of this Friday, got another amazingly inexpensive quote on the event rental for the Market Building. Barring some kind of contract-signing or deposit/reservation disaster, we've picked a location!

So that just leaves color scheme for the Big Three Advance Decisions, and I'm hung up. Mostly because Austin has (strong) opinions about these matters, and I don't want to push him around or rush him. I want our wedding to be a shared vision, celebrating who we are as a couple and surrounded by the people, foods and things that we love. I am not going to be one of those brides who plans the entire party with no input from her groom, and Austin's not interested in being one of those grooms who just shows up. He has an amazing sense of style, color and design, and I plan on incorporating his ideas and opinions equally with my own. The color scheme is an important jumping-off point for this. Initially he said he wanted to use Manchester City blue, which I fully support (I love baby blue too), but when I expressed my desire (nay, my requirement) to carry pink roses for a bouquet, he balked. He thinks blue and pink together look like a baby's nursery (and, if poorly executed, he's right). So we backed off a little bit, and I thought we could look at some other color schemes as well. He also suggested a palette range of greens, which I think could be really lovely, and conducive to the Farmer's Market, but I'm not giving up on the idea of some really bold and pretty blues. Portuguese blue! Tiffany blue! That aquamarine color from all of Hans Silvester's pictures of cats in Greece! So maybe we can cobble together a set of blues and greens that we both like, and I can still sneak my pink roses in there as a very seldom-used accent color for feminine details. I swear to not put any groomsmen in pink shirts (unless they WANT to wear them)!

So there you go, some birthday and wedding updates. Also, did you notice the new look of the blog? It's still a work in progress but I am at least pleased with the format of the text not only being two inches across. I think now I'm bound for one more birthday nap...

officially...

I don't remember when I became a wedding fanatic. It was certainly before I turned ten. My favorite game was dressing Barbie in a white gown and veil and inventing a ceremony. When I started doing the grocery shopping for my family, as soon as I turned sixteen, I would buy myself one bridal magazine per market run. Jonda, the nosy cashier at Food Lion, would say, "Who's getting married?!" when she ran the magazine across the scanner, and I'd just bluff it out and say I just liked the pictures. I have every issue of Martha Stewart Weddings since its inception in 1994. In college, I started keeping notes about my (fictional) future wedding in a book called Brides's All New Book of Etiquette. Some of my winner ideas from that time period include "non ruboff lipstick" and "bubble machine for dancing." I watched A Wedding Story obsessively and often planned my career as a wedding planner, which included watching the Jennifer Lopez movie at least once a month.

At some point when I was still very young, I got it in my head that I wanted to be married on May 15, the Ides of May. I apparently thought it was a lucky Irish day, although a quick google search tells me it is no such thing. But I fancied the way it sounded, the Ides of May, and looked far ahead on a perpetual calendar for a time when I was grownup enough to marry and May 15 fell on a Saturday. I decided May 15, 1999, was when I would be wed. I was confident that all minor details, including a groom, would fall into place in plenty of time.

I was 22 when 1999 rolled around, and, it turned out, way too young to get married. May 15 fell on a Saturday again in 2004, only a couple of months after Austin and I started dating, and I don't think I even noticed. Since college I've helped with and coordinated at least a dozen weddings for friends and family, and even one paying customer. Surely one of the happiest times of my life was two summers ago, when both my sisters were married in the same gorgeous, crazy weekend and I had a major hand in overseeing both events. I still collect MSW magazine and I still file away things that I love as being possible features for future wedding events. But realistically, I toned down my own expectations. I'm 31. I don't expect as much romance and passion out of everyday life as I might have when I was fifteen. Of course I had once invented a million fascinating ways in which my betrothed would surprise me with a proposal, but these fantasies, as with many of the other digressions of youth, have faded with maturity.

Five years ago on Friday was Austin's and my first kiss. January 30. It's the day we always celebrate as our anniversary. At lunch on Thursday, a coworker teased me, "Five year anniversary... sounds like proposal time to me..." I efficiently laid out all the reasons why I did not think this was likely. For one thing, Austin and I share finances now, so I would certainly know if he'd bought a ring. For another, he's not much into surprises. Additionally, both of my sisters were engaged on their five year anniversaries, and I didn't think Austin even knew that, but if he did, that was way too much pressure. No, I said, while I do think it's something that will come up soon, I think when it does we'll just talk about it, and maybe go ring shopping. I'm not expecting a grand gesture.

And I wasn't even lying to myself, I swear. These were all reasonable, logical truths, and Austin is a reasonable, logical man. It's certainly one of the things I love most about him. We had planned a sushi date for Friday night at Samurai, and I was just inordinately excited about dynamite and crispy rolls. In the afternoon, Casey asked if we'd want to go out for a drink with them after dinner, and I thought that sounded like a good plan. I picked Austin up after work and we headed to Elliston Place. When we got out of the car I pulled out his anniversary gift (the newest Shepard Fairey book), and he made an embarrassed face like he'd forgotten mine. I didn't think of it again.

We feasted on sushi (Dynamite, Crispy, Sunday Morning, Jane and Sushi Burrito) and Austin opened his gift and really, it was a perfect dinner date. We took a self-portrait while sitting at the sushi bar. The waitress offered to bring our check. Austin turned to me, looked me in the eye, and said, "Will you marry me?" He held out his hand with a ring box, opened to reveal a diamond solitaire on a slender silver band.

I just stared at the ring for a full moment. Wait, what? A diamond? This is happening right now? I looked back at Austin and squealed, "REALLY?!" and burst into tears. I was laughing and crying and kissing him and said, "YES!" The waitress brought our check, looked at me like I was crazy and hustled off. I just kept crying and holding Austin's face. I had this overwhelming feeling like I'd missed something, or that I didn't understand what was happening. The sushi chefs, and then our baffled waitress, congratulated us. Once I calmed down (a bit), Austin explained that he'd told Trent on Thursday, and Trent was scheduled to tell Casey right before we went to dinner, so by then they were both going to be dying to hear from us. I texted Casey and told her we were going to come by, was that ok, and she wrote back, "Yes!"

We drove to South Street and I just kept staring alternately at my hand and then at Austin in a total state of shock and awe. When we got to Casey and Trent's house, they were both overcome with excitement. There was much hugging and tears, and a bottle of champagne. I called Jenny to tell her, and then Mom (more squealing, more tears, etc). The four of us went to Rumours together, and I got to show Shannon the ring (more squealing, some jumping up and down, and free banana cake). I called Dad (Austin had already called him Friday afternoon) and Agnes (again, the squeals) and kept trying to track down Leia. We got sleepy, and were ready to be alone, and headed home to make a list of all the people we needed to tell the next day. Before we went to bed I called Amy and Aunt Paula. I couldn't believe this was finally the time that I could start talking about our own wedding without feeling like I was fooling myself.

But really, I just kept looking at Austin, and thinking, I'm going to marry this man. It's not like any of this (other than the proposal) is a surprise. We bought a home together, we share lives and family, I've never been so sure of anything. Literally. I would marry him tomorrow at the Wildhorse Saloon if that was the requirement to ensure that I get this man, only this one, for the rest of my life.

Already, people started asking if we'd set a date. When I'd begun to think about it, as early as when we bought the house, I'd thought fall of 2010 would be reasonable. That would give us plenty of time to plan and save, and it would be far enough after my sisters' weddings to not be too much of a financial burden, too soon, for my family who traveled here in 2007. Plus we've got an important wedding coming up this summer, which will require all of my creative resources, plus some financial ones as well, so I figured we could cruise on "engaged" until June, and then start making some decisions. But Saturday morning, we talked a bit about when we'd want to have a wedding, and Austin said he didn't want to wait until the fall. He suggested May of next year. I thought, "May? Hmm." And then I said, "I wonder which day of the week the 15th is on next year." And believe it or not, it's a Saturday.

So guess what? We're engaged. And we appear to have set a date.

I wouldn't call it an epic fail...

...so much as just an inevitability. I did not avoid that shopping binge I mentioned on Thursday. I went straight to TJ Maxx after work on Friday and basically got a new wardrobe. It added up to seven new tops, a dress, gym shorts, workout pants, a sweater, a woobie, a corduroy blazer, a Wonderbra and a picture frame for less than $200. And I didn't stop there. Hauled it to the Mills today and found a new pair of jeans, four pairs of earrings, and three pairs of shoes. The upside: I got all of this for approximately one-third of what I would have spent if I'd been paying full price for anything. Or to put it another way: it's a good time to shop right now. At the Maxx I was gleefully throwing $3 shorts and $6 shirts into my cart, giggling to myself and snickering, "Why not?! It's THREE DOLLARS." I tried on eight pairs of jeans at the Gap and luckily the only pair I liked were also on clearance. $19.99, thanks. I was handed an "additional 20% off" coupon when I walked into Off Broadway, so I made off with two pairs of flats for half-off, and a sharp pair of Puma running shoes for $40. Fair enough, right?

And I didn't go to any movies, so that's like $25 I saved (per movie) by not getting ticket, popcorn, sour patch kids, etc, right? I will accept all assurances of justification from anyone who is offering them.

I've also just been unforgivably lazy. I literally didn't leave the house yesterday, or even take off my pajamas. I slept until ten, putzed around on the computer for most of the afternoon, and watched the Kiera Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice while eating pasta with butter and parm, aka my Single Girl meal of choice. The movie was really great, by the way. It's funny how you get over how ridiculous Kiera's face is after you watch her for like thirty minutes. After that movie was over I flipped over to catch the second half of Beautiful Girls, and then the last three-fourths of That Thing You Do. That put me to bed after 1 am, what a party girl!

Today at least I got dressed, met some of my favorite girls for brunch (at Margot, which was amazing, of course), then managed to get all our groceries for the week for $70 (including detergent, when did detergent get so expensive?!). I suppose that victory led to my error in judgment that was the fateful trip to Shopryland. Having had trouble leaving Kroger for less than $200 lately, maybe I ended up just about breaking even.

But really, the overarching significance to this weekend comes in the form of missing my boyfriend like a lovesick middle schooler. I'd like to think, as a woman with a free and independent will, I could handle a long weekend of just taking care of myself. Turns out, I'm completely addicted to the luxury of always having Austin within earshot (or IMshot). I talk out loud to myself a LOT when I'm alone. I feel like I'm forgetting important things. I start to believe that all of our pets are moping around and blaming me for doing some unspeakable thing that has sent Austin away forever. I assign ridiculous significance to the most benign things, like folding (his) socks or making (our) bed. The way I'm mooning about and wishing I could hear his voice, you'd think I was still in the first blush of new love, instead of creeping up on a five year anniversary (we met five years ago, to the day, tomorrow. Crazy, yeah?).

I suppose the good side is that I'm blogging for the second time in a week. It's reassuring to know that if you give me something to complain about, my college concentration-in-creative-writing tendency towards hyperbole and melodrama reappears with a vengeance. It just goes to prove my frequent assertion that most of the time I'm so happy that there is nothing to write about. And that is okay by me.

At least the house is relatively clean, and I've finished all the laundry, and have meals planned and pantry stocked for the upcoming week. I still can't shake the feeling that I've been rather pointless when given two whole days of no obligations. After those first couple of months of seeing almost constant visual progress on house projects, this last month of laziness seems especially wrong. There are so many small and dumb things I could accomplish if I just sat down to do them, like reorganizing my vanity table or my closet. These things bug me every day but I keep refusing to waste precious sloth time on them. Austin is no help here; he is tolerant of my laziness to the point of being encouraging (Delaney: "I didn't even brush my teeth today." Austin: "Good for you, babe.").

The other thing hanging over my head is the continued shambles in which my work inbox remains, and I'm heading in tomorrow for most likely the busiest day of the month. I stayed late on Friday clearing out pressing Billing issues that had come in that day, but many more have come up this weekend and I still remain permanently behind on my bigger project of tracking cancellations. I intended to put a few hours in tonight but so far, I've just been blogging. I tell myself, there's not point in getting burned out by working from home all the time, but the truth is, I'm horribly inefficient when I'm in the office. I have the dual timesucks of working with a gigantic group of good friends, and an inbox that needs (literally) constant maintenance.

But I'm probably not going to be too hard on myself. I'm going to go enjoy a bowl of Golden Grahams for dinner, in my peaceful six-sleeping-pet living room. I'm going to resist the temptation to play another round of that damn Blox game while trying not to call Austin every ten minutes to tell him I miss him. I'm going to hit the sack early tonight because I can expect the dogs to rouse me sometime between 6:30 and 7 in the morning. I'm going to force myself to get up and get to work early and then kick absolute ass at my job that I love until it's time to go pick up my Boo and go home for penne with vodka sauce.

Clearly, I have nothing to complain about.

Stole this from Operation Pink Herring. Thanks, OPH!

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before? Bought a house!

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I only had two: get in shape and blog regularly. We did start going to the gym for a few weeks but fell off around holiday time, so I'll give myself a C- on #1. And I was quite spotty in the bloggings, but did manage to do the daily food blogging in July, so B- for #2. Mine for 2009 involve weight loss, debt management and kicking ass at my job.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Yes, Leia did, we welcomed Godson Nummber 2, Ezra, this summer. Cort, too, although I still haven't even met Paige, which is unforgivable.

4. Did anyone close to you die? My maternal grandmother, Mary Frances Jansen.

5. What countries did you visit? None. No visiting.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008? Discipline.

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? March 17: started at Emma. September 23, closed on our house. October 18, moving day.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? (I feel like I'm kind of beating this one into the ground) Buying our home.

9. What was your biggest failure? I can only think of snarky answers to this. This was kind of a winner-type year for me...

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Not at all, blessedly.

11. What was the best thing you bought? House? Again?

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? The majority of the USA, for making the right choice on election day.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? The rest of the USA, for making us worry too much before election day.

14. Where did most of your money go? Ah, that's an easy one: HOUSE. and food.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? House and new job.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008? It's terribly sad that I don't have an answer here. Maybe that Beyonce song about Single Ladies, because it's always stuck in my head.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
(a) Happier or Sadder? Happier
(b) Thinner or Fatter? Fatter
(c) Richer or Poorer? Poorer with debt, richer with equity.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Exercise.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Waste time at work.

20. How did you spend Christmas in 2008? Very low key evening at Dad's.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008? With 2607 Sandy Drive.

22. What was your favorite TV program? 30 Rock

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Sarah Palin. I just didn't know she existed this time last year.

24. What was the best book you read? The best book, or the one I enjoyed the most? Best: Atonement. Enjoyed: Eclipse.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? This was not my year for music. My greatest musical feat was my 20 hour Best Damn Songs playlist.

26. What did you want and get? Wall-E and an earring holder. And a house.

27. What did you want and not get? The house on Wayne, thank God. And a home equity line of credit, dammit.

28. What was your favorite film of this year? Wall-E!

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 31 and we had a big ice cream-themed party. With cupcakes in ice cream cones and vast amounts of sweets.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? I got nothing here. I feel quite satisfied.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008? The lack thereof.

32. What kept you sane? The boo.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Clive Owen, sweetie.

34. What political issue stirred you the most? More just a single man: Obama. He stirred me.

35. Who did you miss? Both my grandmothers, very much, especially at Christmas.

36. Who was the best new person you met? Not gonna pick on this one. The entire staff of Emma, for starters.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008: I'm learning to work hard for what I want to deserve.

******************************

Happy new year, everyone! Hope everybody had a safe and fun holiday. We went party-hopping, with a stop at the How I Became the Bomb show at the Basement. Yesterday I heard a few Guilty Pleasures songs and got a little twinge of not wanting to miss them (again), so when the Bomb opened with 'Freedom 90' I couldn't have been happier. Awesomely hilarious. And I got to feed Teresa her birthday cupcake, so the night was a success.

Now today we were supposed to go to a brunch party but it's been canceled and I'm so glad. If I can just hang in there long enough for Castrillos to open, we're gonna have a good day. Tonight we've got a little dinner party planned (third in a week, wow) and I'm excited to see and catch up with Mike Mc, the oldest and dearest of friends. Tomorrow morning Austin leaves for a weekend in Kansas, and I'm going to spend the next four days working frenetically (first of the month at work is a rough time) and trying really hard not to shop. I can feel a shopaholic binge coming on and I'm just going to avoid it by staying home all the time. I swear. I bought Beedle the Bard yesterday, maybe I'll somehow get so sucked into it that I can resist the wild call of TJ Maxx. Although I will most likely venture NEAR a mall to see some movies. Who wants to go with me to see Bolt? Looks so damn cute.

Happy new year, y'all. This one's gonna be a great one, I can feel it.

belated, as usual

Dad says I should just write a bit, every day, until I'm caught up. Right now it's been so long that it's daunting to try and get in here and cover everything. Today is the last day of work until Monday, and it's pretty quiet. I've still got some Christmas-present-related projects to work on for my personal self, and will probably get some of it done tonight.

We've got a week's worth of good food at home, starting with Italian Sausage Soup with Tortellini tonight. Yum! The recipe has like 170 positive reviews on Epicurious, that's a good enough endorsement for me. And tomorrow night we're doing Austin's favorite rigatoni with (um) Italian sausages and mushrooms. Yes, it's poor menu planning on my part, so many sausage dishes in one week, but really, who cares? I'm also going to make a treat just for us to split on Christmas Eve: jasmine rice pudding. It's a ridiculously elaborate recipe but what else would I do with my time tomorrow? Will report back.

Let's think, what else haven't we covered? Thanksgiving, for one. It was a triumph, as hoped. I think we ended up having 19 people over to eat, and with lots of help we pulled off a major feast. I'm sure I was a high strung maniac in the weeks beforehand, but honestly, it couldn't have turned out better. I was having especial difficulty focusing on a dessert plan, but ended up making Raisin Cream Pie (per Austin's request), Caramelized Apple and Pecan Pie (best of both worlds), and Pumpkin Cheesecake with a Maple Marshmallow Topping. Yum! I'm getting closer and closer to a comfort zone with pies/pie crusts, and the apple/pecan pie came out really amazing. Special shoutout to Austin's mom, who was a HUGE help and also great company the whole weekend.

Then two weeks later we had a massive housewarming party, which also came off pretty danged well. I'd guess we had about 90 people come through the door, including lots of kids and babies! Which is fun. I only ended up making about half of the snacks and treats I wanted to make, but it still went great. VIP to all my kitchen helpers, and to DJB for the BACON WEAVE, which was slightly more popular than even my freaking adorable godsons. What's up with that?

What else is happening? We got the fireplace serviced, and just got firewood delivered on Sunday, but have had two consecutive nights of failed attempts to start a fire. We'll figure it out, it just might take a while. I lost the battle of wills re: a Christmas tree, so we're going without for the first holiday in our new home. But it's fine, honestly. I'm just looking forward to several days with no obligations and a chance to get caught up on some work without distractions. Or, more realistically, play Mind the Blox while halfway watching movies we've seen a million times before. For like 8 hours straight.

Other house updates: kitchen cabinet doors are installed, we got some nice matching towels for the bathroom (thanks, Joan!), and finally found and installed curtains in the living room (thanks, Brian!) so that we can sit in that room in the early morning without going blind. The early stages of the man room are coming together, and we moved the big entertainment center down there and put a much smaller one in the upstairs living room. Brian and Austin hid all the boxes that were cluttered in the office before our party, so that room *looks* finished, even if that is sort of an illusion. Joan also got me an earring holder that is PERFECT in the bedroom and holds literally exactly as many pairs of earrings as I own. I bullied Dad into hanging our new mirror over the mantel right in the middle of the housewarming party. And Kim, god bless her, brought us back a set of matching runner rugs from Ikea for the hallway. So basically little things are coming together, the small details as we settle in. We're hoping to start framing one or two pieces every month, and slowly start getting things hung on the walls, and then maybe we'll be ready to tackle the bigger projects of man room, garage and laundry room once the weather warms up.

I will try to check in again over the next 5 days of sloth. Why wouldn't I? But if I don't, have the best holiday ever, wherever you may be.

Fairy Alphabet

I remember this so clearly that I wonder what it must have meant to me when I was four.