You drilled where?

This week is not going well. First, Limey has had the dental week from Hell. He has a massive infection in his tooth and had a triple root canal done and then undone. Yes, I believe because he is English his teeth are revolting against their Americanization. The poor guy. They had to drill a freaking hole into his jaw bone AND remove a piece of his gum. I get sick to my stomach when he talks about it and I will never be able to kiss him again. We have to go back today because things are still painful.

Second, a husband hopped up on Vicadin and grumpy from pain makes you consider divorce or homicide.

Third, today is Limey's 30th Birthday! We had things planned from today on to celebrate. Sunday is also our First Anniversary. I was really looking forward to it but things are going to be just as bad this weekend.

Fourth, we took all 3 cats to the vet because they had ear infections. Oscar didn't have a cage so Limey was holding him and the little butthead peed on him! I have been shampooing my car everyday. I am so paranoid. The whole trip was a disaster, cost a fortune, and I know have to chase them around with eardrops and gloves so I don't get clawed to death.

To cap things off, I'm leaving again on Wednesday. I'm leaving for a month. We will be having a pity party all weekend.

p.s. What is the acceptable amount of time to put up with a grumpy injured husband before you can return him to his mom? Apparently a side effect of Vicadin is Asshole-itis.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

So easy I could do it

I read Eddie Ross' blog everyday. I love me some interior design blogs and this one in particular is my favorite. He provides great tips on how to decorate on any sort of budget. After the thrift store/flea market finds my favorite posts are about holiday decorating. This job he did for a client last Christmas is my favorite. Plus the house itself is nice to look at. I am very picky about Halloween decor and my mom went BANANAS with it this year. Very embarrassing. She's lucky I had to come home unexpectedly this week to save the day. All the items she bought this year are very country craft meets little kid. I had to put an end to that. Too help replace some of the more embarrassing objects I decided to make Eddie's Fiendish Feather Wreath. I had some downtime after the funeral so I got crafty with my mom's best friend Connie.

I followed Eddie's instructions but added a few things of my own.

1) Stop at the Dollar Tree. Look for black boas and dark spray paint (I added that step). The dark spray paint helps hide some gaps since I couldn't find multiple boas on a budget. It took me about half an hour to find where a dollar store of any sort was where my parents live and of course it had nothing so luckily next door was a temporary Halloween store and they had a large selection of feather boas. Connie chose a 6ft thick boa that had LED lights. She pointed out that it would add a little pizzazz to please my mom. The boa cost $7.99.

2) If like me you struck out at the dollar store head to JoAnn's, Michael's, Hobby Lobby etc. Buy a foam ring for dryed flowers. A few extra feathers to fill in gaps.

3) Go home and drink a glass of courage, in my case a nice crisp chilled white, while reading Eddie's blog one more time to make sure you understand the directions because it just seems too easy.

4) Realize that you are so un-crafty you don't have a hot glue gun and improvise with black thread tying the boa in place.

5) Finish the project in 15 minutes and then proceed to tackify the thing with glittery silver skulls to appease the more flashy parents.

6) Impress friends and visitors so much they all want to make the same wreath and you plan to buy boas on sale after Halloween for next year. Actually, planning smaller wreaths (minus the skulls) in every window like with Christmas wreaths.

I spent a smidge under $15 without using coupons or planning for this. I feel like I could have made it for under $9 if I had planned better.

Make sure to check out Eddie Ross' Etsy Store. Everything under a $100 to help Eddify your house. I've already started planning Christmas gifts.

p.s Eddie if you happen to read this I swear I am not a scary stalker. I'm a nice stalker. Just kidding. Sort of.

Stop bragging

via Google Images

Could you please stop posting pictures of tights, boots, and jackets? Could you please stop talking about "bringing out the Fall/Winter clothes"? And seriously, don't even mention the leaves! You Northerners are killing me with the Fall talk. Even you Carolinians, Texans, and Georgia people are making me miserable. It is 88 with 72% humidity and sunny today. It is supposed to be 94, 93, and 94 for the next 3 days. I am so incredibly jealous of all of you. Limey is leaving me next weekend to go to Boston. Really. He'll be there in prime Fall weather. It will still be 85-95 here that week. I might cry. I would like to say I was putting clothes into storage but our closets stay the same year round. The only addition is in January and February we can wear pants and long sleeve shirts at the same time without melting. On our especially cold days we can even add socks. When i moved down here I saved all my winter clothes thinking "oh, I'll need these in a year when I move." Ha. 4 years later I now have one surviving bin that holds a few North Face jackets and a couple sweaters for visits to Columbus or Boston. The only thing that makes me not hate you bragging bloggers is that in January when you are over Winter I can post pictures of us boating in the sunshine. Tonight I am turning the A/C to 62, we having Chili, and I will make a  Hot Caramel Apple Cider.

I'm spoiled

I really am spoiled. I'm so grateful to have great family and friends. My birthday yesterday was nice. Nothing too wild since it was a Thursday but everybody I know called me and I got some great special deliveries from FedEx. Some of the highlights.


Limey got me this laptop case in Blue Rhapsody. I haven't really been liking Vera too much lately but I was plessantly surprised by this. First, Limey picked this print all by himself! I've never seen it so I'm very impressed. Second, the print is really cute! It has a nice mixture of purple, greens, and blues. Very current. I really like it. Some of the other current prints are little old looking but don't be put off by those. Check Blue Rhapsody out.


He also got me this little guy. I'm not crazy about the touch screen though. It is frustrating to get used to and I'm convinced I'll ruin the screen within the first year. It shows fingerprints like crazy so I'm getting a cover this weekend. Don't expect to see me with an iPhone ever.



Lastly, my present from my parents. Airfare to Chicago February 26-March 2 for Limey and I.

How lucky am I? I'm so thankful. I appreciate my birthday but now I'm excited to buy presents for Limey for his birthday and our anniversary a few days later.

Happy Birthday to me!

I am 26 today! It doesn't really feel like it is my birthday. This year flew by. In fact my early twenties seemed to excelerate every year. When I was 21 and finishing my three degrees in college I did not expect to be 26, living in Florida, married for almost a year, and unemployed. My life plan was to do a year of AmeriCorps and then move to a large city somewhere by myself, have a career, and just now consider being in a serious relationship. I couldn't fathom getting married before 30. It is crazy how different things are 5 years later. I'm going to celebrate today by drinking a full strength Double Gulp Dr. Pepper at lunch and then a bottle of Bubbly tonight. We're going to celebrate this weekend with dinner at Ruth Chris and a day on Captiva with some friends.

Scatter Brained

A few random thoughts:

-I haven't had any caffeine today so I am a bit discombobulated. I finally kicked my coke zero habit. I haven't bought any diet soda in about three weeks. I drink it when we are out to eat and Limey brought me home two fountain sodas with take out just out of habit. We've also only had take out three times in the past two weeks. This is a major improvement for us. I really, really, really, really miss the cherry coke zero at home and the fountain drinks but I'm glad to be over the caffeine headaches.

-My birthday is tomorrow!

-Limey's birthday is in a month so I've started thinking of things to get him. He loves gadgets so I'm thinking this SodaStream Pure sparkling water maker. We both love sparkling water so I thought he would like playing with this. The other thing I am thinking about getting him is this NetFlix Roku. Or another option is a Blu-Ray player that streams NetFlix and Pandora as well like this or this. These would make great Christmas presents for any gadget lovers too. Is it wrong to get Limey a gift that we will both use?

or

-I made the huge mistake of buying Kitten (his official name now) toy balls with bells in them. I thought it would be cute. BIG BIG mistake. Do you know how annoying it is to have a hyperactive kitten batting bells all over the house at least 6 hours a day? He then flings them behind furniture and in baskets and obsesses over getting them out. I woke up this morning to jingling and I chased him down in the kitchen and threw the toy away. I felt bad when I saw his sad face but I just could not handle it anymore.

Manicotti shortcuts

I wanted to make Manicotti last night but I was convinced it would be a mess. A friend emailed me this recipe with a few easy shortcuts. They made it super easy.

1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 small onion minced
1 egg
2 teaspoons minced fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4 cloves of garlic minced
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce
1 1/2 cups water
1 (8 ounce) package manicotti shells
*I added chopped black olives, red pepper flakes, and some fresh basil from our plant. Just to pump it up a bit. You can hide lots of veggies in this.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Saute onions and garlic until softened. In a large ziplock bag, combine ricotta, spinach, onion, garlic, and egg. Season with parsley and pepper. Mix in 1 cup mozzarella and 1/4 cup Parmesan. In a separate bowl, stir together spaghetti sauce and water.
3. Spread 1 cup sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Cut a small hole in corner of bag and pipe uncooked manicotti shells with ricotta mixture. Arrange in a single layer in the dish. Cover with remaining sauce. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 55 minutes, or until noodles are soft.

The key steps were NOT boiling the pasta and using the bag to pipe the filling in. If the pasta had been cooked it would be fragile and slippery. They were easy to fill this way and didn't make a mess.

A love/hate relationship

It seems that most people have a TV network that they are loyal to. I personally prefer NBC to any other network. I like their news shows, comedies, and dramas. Lately though I've only been liking their news shows and Thursday night comedies. I can't even put into words how much I love The Office, 30 Rock, and Chuck. I love me some Jack McCoy on L&O and Limey did seriously suggest naming a child McCoy Ford. I've had to take a break from NBC dramas. I hate Heroes, L&O:SVU (just manhater Olivia Benson actually), and anything Jay Leno. I played the field with ABC and Fox for awhile until I got serious with ABC. I broke up with NBC prime time Fri-Wed nights and fell hard for ABC. That is until that abruptly cancelled two of my favorite shows. The absolutely amazing Pushing Up Daisies and the awkwardly bad but good Men in Trees. I vowed to never ever watch ABC again. That lasted until the following Sunday when I had to watch Brothers & Sisters. Then they bought Scrubs. I literally blocked ABC on our TV. Yes, I banned ABC in our household because they extended Scrubs sad, pathetic, unfunny, over stayed life. They seriously thought Scrubs was a better choice than Emmy winning Pushing Up Daisies? I hate you, ABC. You hear that? Yes, I did write you 3 angry e-mails because I have nothing else to do with my time. If NBC (the station that gave UNfunny Jay Leno a daily prime time spot) was smart enough to dump Scrubs, why would you jump on that? I hate you, ABC. For so many reasons but I just can't turn my back. Here I am Tivo-ing a show on your network every night. Not Dancing With the Rejects though because I HATE "talent" competition shows. If you didn't have the best chick dramas around you would be dead to me. I have already started preparing myself for you to cancel Brothers & Sisters abruptly in the middle of a season without resolving any storylines.

Tonight, I will be watching these on Tivo while feeling very, very ashamed for falling for ABC again.



Eastwick tonight 10pm EST. This looks promising. I love Rebecca Romijn and the original movie, The Witches of Eastwick. I'm a little worried about Lindsay Price though. Not a big fan. Nor do I like the guy cast as the Jack Nicholson character. I don't find him attractive at all.



This looks hysterical. Julie Bowen is great and her brother character on the show cracks me up.



I am going to give Cougar Town a chance but I have a feeling I won't like. I love Courtney Cox but this seems a bit off.



Lastly, I had to put this out there. Is there a better show? I love Nora and would die to have her house. I'm counting down the hours until Sunday night.

You're killing me Smalls

I watched Rookie of the Year this morning on AMC. It is a great movie but it isn't anywhere near as good as The Sandlot.
I own the Sandlot on VHS and have seen it roughly 82,361 times. I had a serious crush on Benny "The Jet" Rodriquez. My second favorite movie as a tween was Little Giants. Best love story ever. Someone mentioned Devon Sawa a few months ago, about seeing his peen in some movie. I giggle just writing that.
Devon Sawa is 31 now. He was born in '78. I just can't picture him after nineteen.

The childhood movie I have to watch every year is Hocus Pocus. Best Fall/Halloween movie ever. It doesn't feel like Fall without it. I thought the guy that played Thackery Binx was cute but I couldn't believe what show he is in now. He's McGee on NCIS! He looks completely different.
I hope you enjoyed my recap of my favorite movies when I was a tween. Plus the boys I had crushes on. There were only 13 boys in my class at my Catholic grade school (k-8th grade together) so we HATED them by the time we started liking boys. They pushed girls down in the parking lot and told us all we were ugly so we were forced to daydream about marrying JTT, Devon Sawa, and Brad Renfro.

Jeans will be the death of me

I have a serious battle with jeans. I've never found a pair of jeans that I think are perfect. Here are my problems:
-I'm very tall -5'11"- mostly legs
-From mid-thigh down my legs are much thinner than my waist and butt. For example pants that fit my legs are about 2-3 sizes too small in the waist so then things that fit in the waist look really baggy from mid-thigh down.
-Low-rises look silly on me. Just something about them look exaggerated when I wear them so I'm at high risk for butt crack exposure. Very embarrassing.

I've wasted a lot on money on jeans. I've tried Nordstrom, The Buckle, denim bars, boutiques, etc. I've had a few different designer pairs that I spent a ton on and then decided I hated a month later. Since it is always warm here we really only wear jeans a few times in January and February. So I've put off buying new jeans for 3 years. Let me tell you, it wasn't pretty when I cleaned out my closet. I went on a jean shopping frenzy. Limey was spazzing a bit about the size of packages arriving. I didn't want to spend too much at the size I am now because hopefully I will fit into my old jeans/need new ones back in a single digit size soon.

My new favorites are:
-Gap Perfect Boot. These fit the best. The waist band is very flattering and make it impossible to have muffin top. The darkest wash is also nice enough for dressier occassions but are still comfortable. The rise is great for lots of movement like sitting and standing repeatedly without worries of butt cleavage.

-The Long and Lean's new design is also fantastic. They fit a lot better in the seat area and waist. The style is much trendier and flattering now. They are definitely too loose in my knees and calves but they still look nice.

I also loved the Real Straight and Always Skinny but they were unfortunately too short for me in Long so I'm going to order them in Tall but they may then be too long. Gap's new jean material is lighter weight than before, has a bit more stretch, and is much more modern looking. It also prevents the severe stretching out like their previous jeans had. I tried the styles I mientioned above plus the Sexy Bootcut, Curvy, and wide leg styles. All styles fit better in the waist and seats than their previous styles and were very, very flattering to my rear. They felt a lot sexier than Gap jeans normally do.

I hope my reviews of the fits might help someone else looking for jeans. I would recommend giving Gap jeans another chance. I was thoroughly impressed with prices and quality. Jeans vary by person but Gap has a great return policy and you don't have to spend $175 for a pair of jeans that you may get sick of wearing in a few months.

p.s. Who has seen or heard of skinny denim leggings? Citizens has a style but I wouldn't want to spend that much for something like that. Any other brands you have heard of or have experience with? It seems like something that would work well for me but it might be a bit too out there for me. Our Nordstrom is pretty small and doesn't have a huge selection of denim so I have to rely on online shopping.