Friday, Friday, Friday!

Friday was totally low key, it was AMAZING! I did a little bit of work and then watched HGTV and a very cool show on the History Channel about acids! Jeremy and Marc went to Lenny's sub shop for lunch and brought me back an Italian which was sooooooooo good! I miss Lenny's a lot... definitely going to take advantage of the one up by Emmy's more often!

Friday night, we went to a new restaurant in Hernando called Buon Cibo-- it was Panera/Atlanta Bread Company kind of food for the same kind of price, and it was surprisingly good. Marc had a Cuban sandwich (that he said was nearly as good as the ones he used to get in Miami) and a cup of roasted red pepper soup (which was delicious, and much less of a bisque than we expected!), Jan had a Chef's Salad, Jeremy got a ginormous meatloaf sandwich with house chips (also delicious!), and I had an apple/walnut/bleu cheese salad and a cup of coconut chicken soup. My salad was good, but I would have preferred for the apples and walnuts to be chopped so I was able to mix the flavors a little more, but it was sopping with dressing which is just the way I like it! Jan loved her salad because of the addition of pickled onions which were very well done! The whole thing was apparently started by a chef who used to run a restaurant in Memphis, and it's a nice little startup, so I hope it lasts. There aren't a lot of healthy, affordable options in the area and this is a decent alternative to Sonic!

To end the night, we decided to watch the original Tron which we got Jan for mother's day! It was a lot of fun since the Clarks hadn't seen it in ages and I'd never seen it! It was an interesting story line, and how awesome to see young Jeff Daniels-- The Dude was a suave looking youngster! I also got interested in the timeline from the original Tron and Tron: Legacy.

Congrats Heather!!

Our friend Heather (Rob from running group's girlfriend) finally finished her MBA! We're all pretty excited, especially since this means she can relax a little and start coming out with us! To celebrate, we threw a surprise party at Nandan and Anu's with some really great food, drinks, and company-- an excellent Saturday night, and somehow nobody died from Nandan's crazy concoctions. This time there was black vodka with double habanero and cinnamon infused, and regular habanero and anise infused plain vodka. I stayed clear of BOTH! Sadly my camera died just before the sake bombs (and about an hour before we left), but here are a few pictures we managed to get!

 Ikebana-style celebration!

 Rob is pretty fascinated by Charlie Sheen-- clearly!

 Heather was totally surprised!

 Anu, Tracy, Heather and I wait for Nandan to finish making the sake bombs

 Nandan attempted this in paper cups first; we're not sure why!

Me and Heather

Ravioli Time!

We wanted to have dinner with John and Paige, so we decided on a house dinner on the front porch-- probably the best thing about getting along so well with our neighbors! Jeremy invited Nandan and Anu over and we had a make your own ravioli party!

Paige gets excited about her first ravioli!

Jeremy's up next!

Curried potatoes, butternut squash, spinach, bacon, gruyere cheese, ricotta cheese, and walnuts were on our ingredients buffet-- YUM!

Nandan and Anu sample the options

John takes a gander

Paige and I toast to a lovely evening-- that's the kurta Nandan brought me back from his last trip to India. Ignore the random lady in the background...

Violet was obsessed with Jeremy's marathon medal

AND my high heels! We had to distract her just to get her to leave them here!

Dinner

 Marc carves the turkey

 Turkey, shrimp, and smoked Boston butt!

 Chili and Oyster Stew

Sweet Potato Bake, Cheese Soup and Green Bean Casserole

Wonderful day

Our weather here was perfect today and I couldn't have been happier-- we had our first "people over" party today and it ROCKED.

Menu:

Chicken (Drumsticks)

Pomegranate Syrup Glazed Leg of Lamb

Hot Rub Ribs (a la Central BBQ)

Garlic Honey Hamburgers

Wasabi Mashed Potatoes

Grilled Corn on the Cob

Chips and Salsa

Ciabatta Bread with Olive Oil

Bacon Macaroni and Cheese

Green Bean Casserole (Paige)

Mediterranean Salad (Michael)

Brownies

Apple Crisp

Sangria

Pinot Grigio

And more beer than you can shake a stick at

It was pretty great, even if it DID almost start by me being stupid and burning the tips of my fingers off with the meat thermometer probe... I have to get the pictures converted on Jeremy's computer since the camera was being ridiculous, but it was a great day filled with friends and food and great weather.

Long day, yummy night

Yummy night...

BBQ, shrimp cocktail, artichoke dip, Scottish tablet, English tea, black mission figs, more tea.

Not all in one sitting, but it's definitely been a rich night!

The first day of after school was EXHAUSTING! I feel like I've been up since 4a and am only just now getting rid of the headache I've had since lunch. I'm going to wrap up the tea and go to sleeeeeep!

The rest of the time

I didn't take as many pictures as I normally do, we were all still a little worn out this week! But, here are a few from our last couple of days together.

Sarah baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies-- they weren't the prettiest!

"Now Muriel plays piano every Friday at the Hollywood." - "Walkin' in Memphis"

The inside was SO cute!

Jeremy had frog legs!

Which, of course, he had to turn in to a sideshow :)

And his first intentional beet eating since childhood!

PEACH COBBLER!

Glittery cupcakes! So yummy!

Eggs!

Chopped Chipotles, mayo, and a few secret ingredients

Yum!

Finished product

Sooooooooooo good!

My newest deal is making chipotle deviled eggs, they're a huge hit and SUPER yummy! Here are the ones I made for the True Blood party for the premiere!

Counting Calories

In a renewed effort to lose the 20-odd pounds I've gained in the last year, I'm starting on a revised version of the Weight Watchers theory, a diet that did me fairly well when I was in college-- calorie counting. I'm not very active, I sit at a desk all day and type, and when I get home I'm so exhausted I can maybe talk myself in to a few minutes of situps. If I remember after dinner, laundry, and spending a little bit of time with Jeremy. Truth is, I'm lazy. I need to start paying attention to myself if I want to be healthy enough to have a baby in the next couple of years!

All these entries will have a Calorie subject, so you can skip them if you're not that interested, but I figure this will give me a minute bit of accountability!

Today so far I had a Fage yogurt for breakfast (130cal/17g sugar) and snacked on a Chocolate Chex Mix bar (140cal/13g sugar). I figure that since my friend Heather (who is slightly smaller) was recommended a cut to 900cal/day, I could probably get away with between 1,000-1,200cal/day. I also need to cut down on my sugar intake, so yesterday was my last gratuitous desert!

I'm going to really buckle down on eating those yogurts for breakfast as opposed to Pop Tarts which have almost twice the sugar, 16 grams less of protein, and 3 times the calories! (since a serving is ONE Pop Tart, and who eats just one?)

We have a pretty decent amount of fiber in our diets, nearly problematic at times, but we need to get more protein, less sugar, and less fats-- no more eating half a package of bacon. Which we totally did a couple weeks ago... each.

The grill is going up this week, so I'll start grilling some veggies and some chicken, and go to the farmer's market to get lamb since it's high in protein and very lean.

Talking about all this food has gotten me nibbly, so on to my Lean Cuisine lunch!

PS, I'll have more pictures up when I get home-- hopefully the rain will hold off!

Ravioli!

The next installment in "things Meg hasn't updated in forever" comes from early January, when we broke out our wedding present from Joanna and Adam-- the dumpling/perogi maker!!

We made the most fantastic ravioli with ground chicken, cheese, and prosciutto-- YUM!

Jeremy starts the dough making process

Ravioli filling in the pan

Our first ravioli!

LOTS of raviolis!

We had leftover filling, so we made a scramble out of it

while all the ravioli boiled in the pot

they were fantastic!

Been a while... again

And no, I'm not going to start in to that AWFUL song by... Creed? Nickleback? One of those bands that melts in to the background after several years...

Things have been preeeetty busy for a while, and we DID get an apartment, which has been part of the insanity, on top of the fact that we only just got internet yesterday after several weeks! AT&T-- they still suck.

We're living a couple doors up from OBC, which is a fantastic area. It's so great being walking distance from The Matador, Palate, U Joint, Nectar, and my hair salon! Sweeeet! Well, I assume it's great, the weather only just got nice enough to walk anywhere.

I'll come back with some general updates in installments so I don't wear you thin with stories, but there's been so much going on it might take a while! There are also, as always, pictures involved!

Here's my easy peasy recipe for the day, see you next time!

Udon and Beef

2-3oz sirloin tip sliced thin and in to strips

1 package plain udon noodles

Siracha to taste

1.5 tsp Sesame Oil

Sautee beef in sesame oil until med rare and top udon noodles with beef and drippings, squirt on Siracha to taste, fill bowl with water to cover noodles, pop in microwave until the noodles are soft and enjoy.

(since things have been so busy, I'm all about easy cooking lately...)

Day One

Gotta start somewhere right?

Today I did the 15 minute pilates workout (which is actually a 20 minute one, but I didn't do any of the standing stuff because I want to get my hip back in the proper place first), and my goal is to do the 15 minutes a day every day for the next week. Then, next Sunday I'll do the full 20 minute workout every day for a week. Week after that, I'll do the full 45 minute workout on Sunday, the 20 minutes during the week, and the 45 minute one on Saturday. While my ultimate goal is to do the 45 minute (full) one more often than the 20 minute (express) workout, I'd like to put my minimum at three times a week, so maybe full workouts on the weekends and Wednesdays maybe. I just really need to stay on top of it this time around. I started last summer when I moved in with Jan and Marc, and I guess because I didn't have a regular schedule post-airline, the whole thing fell through. Now, though, I'm trying to eat better and drink less soda (I've only had two sodas in the last four days! A Sprite and a Coke!), drink more tea. Cutting sodas out is kind of a concession for my beer drinking because, let's face it, beer geeks drink some pretty heavy beer. It's the kind of beer that doesn't actually have nutrition facts on the back!

I say that and it sounds like I'm an alcoholic; really, I only drink on the weekends and it's only like a few drinks a night MAX. Once a month, maybe Meg and I will go crazy and have a couple margaritas instead, but none of us are in that party mode-- that was pretty much over with after college. Plus, when we're drinking beer, we're eating things like fresh salsa, crudite "pizza", hummus, and beans and rice; not heavy on the queso dip and bar food you find with cheap beer! I totally geeked out at Whole Foods last night-- their beer section makes me feel like I've died and gone to heaven. It's bad news, too, because it's right next to the cheese and olives, and then the bakery! I found one of the rarer beers from the Allagash brewery, called Curieaux, and bought the last two bottles. I also made friends with the beer guy who said if I had any special requests, he'd be glad to put them in for me or hold something I wanted! Whoooooo-- gotta love the small town touch to a chain grocery! That's why I love Whole Foods!

Speaking of fresh salsa, my first pepper is FINALLY starting to push out! I'm SO excited-- I'll finally find out what kind of peppers I'm growing! I'm also going to find a place to plant some corn and chianti sunflowers (the red ones, they are super pretty), and I've got small pots to plant basil and other herbs in that we can keep around the apartment when we move. Mom's landlord is really cool, though, and doesn't mind if I plant the bigger stuff like corn, collards, mesclun, and sunflowers in the back yard along the fence-- he thinks it's pretty cool, actually!

Anyway, I'm gonna do a few more ab rounds and then hit the showers. We had a dog food fiasco coming back from Target (the bag just split open and got all over mom's freshly cleaned car!), so I'm going to take that back along with some other stuff that I got last night but don't want as badly as an adorable cherry-blossom-and-Japanese-print apron that they have on clearance for $7, and some other kitchen towels and nice oven mitts. I think between the two of us we only have one or two oven mitts, and they're pretty old-- Target has some nice KitchenAid ones on sale for a few bucks each! After that, it's off to Rosebud for a Yelp! event; hopefully they'll let me in since Emily can't make it-- I'm on the list, and I've been to one before, and I'm meeting up with Sid and Wendy (the nice couple we met at the last event) to all go in together.

I also just spotted my copy of "Walter the Farting Dog" that Martha gave me-- I will have to find this book for Julian. He will be immensely amused.

Graduation '09

Well, all my little babies graduated yesterday-- it was a wonderful day and I'm so proud of them! I came primarily to see Caroline, Valisa, and Dustin and secondarily for T-bo, Barnish, and Lindsey. I just can't believe they all graduated already! It seems like just yesterday, Caroline was a senior in high school staying her overnight with me at Rhodes my sophomore year.

They're all off to do good things-- Caroline is going to Paris to teach English for a year, Valisa is going to take some much needed and deserved time off (the girl had her hand in sooo many pots!), Dustin's headed to DC to be an Economic genius, T-bo is headed to law school, Lindsey to DC, and Barnish back up to NY/NJ to do some financial type stuff as well. It dazzles me how much these kids have grown.

Because of eminent rain, they decided to have it at nobody's favorite rain location, the Mississippi Boulevard Church. I've been to one other graduation there and it was awfuuuull. The church gets *really* hot because so many people cram in to it, and unlike Fisher Gardens there isn't a breeze. Pretty much everyone agrees they'd rather get rained on in Fisher Gardens than stuffed in to MBCC. Plus, the lighting was awful, I tried to take pictures from the balcony and they all turned out like dark and fuzzy. And, the most fantastic thing? It never actually rained. The rain disappeared. They also forgot to announce honors societies and majors (Usually it would go, "Caroline Cancelosi, English Literature, Sigma Tau Delta" but yesterday it was just, "Caroline Cancelosi"), and they forogt to print the honors societies in the programs, and forgot to put in the Bonner Scholars' red Chucks.

Afterwards, though, was really nice-- I saw Cord, who is a TOTAL goofball and will be at UGA next year, and Ian, who I knew when he first came to Rhodes after active duty in Iraq. We caught up with Dustin, Kate and Caroline, but hardly saw anyone else. Though I did get to say hi and give hugs to Rob Dove (the world's tallest hippie counselor) and Kenny Morrell (the world's tallest Latin professor) since they were the only people I could find in the crowd.

When everything had just about thinned out, Sophia and I ran in to Leonard (from our class) and went to Fresh Slices in Midtown. I like the food at Fresh Slices, but I'm not too sure I'll be going back. It took soooo long, they don't have lemons (though they insist that lime is perfectly acceptable for sweet tea), even though all their sandwiches are over $7 and most are over $8.50, very few of them actually come with fries, and have I mentioned it took forever to get our food? I know they were busy, but we sat with empty cups for a long time (which resulted in not getting anything else because they ran out of sweet tea which is what Leonard and I were drinking-- the waiter squeezed a little out for us, but I think it was mostly because we were a little grumpy. We were hungry!) and it took 45 minutes for Leonard to get a Caesar salad (lettuce, parm, croutons, side of Caesar dressing) and almost 2 hours for us to get the two Phillys and a pizza! When we finally did get our food, Sophia was halfway through her sandwich before she got her fries! Funny story, though, we DID run in to Lindsey again-- every time Sophia and I have gone out to dinner in Memphis the last two months, we've run in to Lindsey! Chili's last time I was up, Bosco's on Friday, and then Fresh Slices yesterday!

Aaaanyway, after lunch Leonard went back to grad-schooling, Fia left for home (Mobile), and I went to see Valisa. I'd just missed them at the apartment, so I hung out with Brian and Carrie for a while which was really great-- I miss those two, and I'm SO happy they got together, they're pretty darn cute. :) After that, I talked to Jeremy for a while, then went over to see the girls and change since I knew Caroline would be back. I helped them pack up a little and Caroline headed out to dinner with her parents, I kinda teared up a little sending her off-- my little headed to France! I finished helping Valisa out and helped her brother carry all the stuff down to the hallway. Her dad has a flatbed truck, so he'd built a big crate on it to put all her stuff in, which happened to be almost the same size as one of the ol' RJ bins! I hopped up and stuffed it all in with no problem and said my goodbyes to Valisa. And teared up a little again. I'll see V later this summer, though, when I go to Austin! It was nice to meet both of their families-- Caroline looks EXACTLY like her mother, I mean almost moreso than me and MY mom! There is absolutely no mistaking the genetics there! And, of course, Valisa's family is just as sweet and funny as she is.

After seeing them off, I went out with Wayne and Brunner for a drink (aka more sweet tea) and then came home and CRASHED. I just shoved everything off the bed, put on some Deadliest Catch and was out halfway through! Now, I'm going to go warm up the rest of my sandwich from Outback and settle in to watch a movie or something. I need to call AJ, but I'll give her a shout later-- I'm still a little worn out from this weekend, and I need to run up to Target to get some sunglasses and throat lozenges. Whatever I started catching, I kind of beat it back, but it's threatening to resurface!

Ciao for now!

Yeah, yeah

So it's been a few days. I know you're all dying to hear more of my ticking-clock baby lovin' or rambling about my wedding, but just in case...

Watching the kids for Meg and Michael was really great, I love those kids so much-- and Julian, what an absolute HOOT! I think I taught him how to say "touche" which should be amusing. Three year olds, not so much with the actually grasping French parlance. As much of a nutter as he is, he does love his baby sister-- "My baby!" --and apparently spent part of the afternoon trying to convince Meg that HE was the one who carried Violet for 9 months! Every minute over at the Kavanaugh household is an episode of "Kids say the darndest things", I think. Also, it was nice to see Meg and Michael. I kept Meg up late (again) talking about the wedding stuff, and family stuff, and shared my invitations with her (which she seconded and approved), and poking at the baby who ate a little and then totally conked out. We both agree that babies are hilarious.

Sunday was low-key, but I got to catch the MotoGP race from Motegi which was nice. Even though that weekend in Indy was traumatic, I really enjoyed the race, and spending time with Jeremy, Josh, and Sarah! Sadly, Nicky Hayden got put out in the first lap by Takahashi, but Pedrosa didn't end up in first so I'll take what I can get.

Monday was loads of fun, it was our last AAC meeting of the year at CPK. I got there early to sit out in the commons at Atlantic Station and work some more on the Treasury office (I'm the financial adviser now for Gamma Sigma, and it looks like I'm going to do a really good job-- I'm so excited!) overhaul, and sat and talked to Vicki for a while outside while we waited for Lizzy and Becky. Dinner was OK, the best part was the appetizer. I know a lot of restaurants "known" for something don't usually have other good food, but CPK usually does! I got a panini that wasn't really anything special (though at least the Caesar salad was good), I don't remember what Vicki got, Becky got the Thai linguine which was good, but not stellar, and Lizzy got the pesto penne which wasn't really anything special, either! We also split desserts, which *were* pretty good and we certainly didn't mind spending the money since they had a deal that 20% of our check went to the Arthritis Foundation!

Anyway, I'm starting to get a little more excited about next year. It looks like Jeremy and I will be in Atlanta (since I can stay at Palate if I can't find a job anywhere else), which is really nice. I know I mentioned getting back in touch with all my old friends and their families, but I'm also really attached to these girls at GSU! Don't get me wrong, I would be ALL OVER being on AAC for Kappa Omicron, and I know it would make Rachel and Rebecca so happy, but I feel like not only do they need really good, solid, consistent leadership and alumnae support, but that I really am a part of the chapter now. Maybe that sounds silly to other people, but they really are like my sisters-- I love them, even though I want to shake them sometimes, and I can't wait to see what wonderful things they do with their lives and this chapter!

Tonight at work was SLAMMED. Thankfully, Matthew and Derek helped out in the dishroom, I don't know how we would have made it through otherwise! As a result, I'm able to keep my commitment for the collections payment this month for sure, and I can buy a bathing suit to take down to Florida with me! Huzzah!

Oh, and Jeremy and I are going to (most likely) split my gas to go down to Florida this weekend. I'm really excited, I miss him so much I almost can't stand it sometimes!

Off to bed with this tired girl! Ciao for now, pals!

Old friends and new babies

I went over to Meg's tonight for what was supposed to be an Atlanta Area Slacker's Club* meeting (*AASC was formed as a counterpart to the AARC-- runner's club --as we do not all care for that running thing the crazy people we love do), but much to our pleasure ended up being a smaller gathering than expected!

I took over Sweetwater 420 (the Atlanta Area staple!) and some of Blue Moon's summer brew Honey Moon (which tasted only slightly different than Blue Moon, but is still on my list of recommendations) and about 2-2.5lbs of raw fruit-- strawberries and three kinds of apples. While a couple ounces may have been siphoned by Meg and convincing Julian to eat his apples by bribing him with strawberries, I. ate. the. whole. thing. Yipes. On the upside, I don't feel particularly munchy, so apparently 2lbs of fruit does the trick...

We lit up the citronella torches, but were still getting bitten by mosquitos so we moved inside and watched "You Got Served" for the reason I bought it-- there's good dancing and it's total cheese. Julian went just about straight to bed, but Vi stayed up a little longer being fussy. If this is the fussiest she gets... I can only hope mine is like that!

Meg's sister Della stopped by and we all talked for a while about vacations, Austin, parenting, and assorted issues, and after Della left Meg and I stayed up even later talking about wedding stuff (I found my invitations! They are preddy!), sewing, and pregnancy.

I really hope we find somewhere to settle in nearby; I would still absolutely love to live in Austin, but I would be very sad to have caught up with Caq and Meg and their families and leave just as suddenly. Dill's parents moved out to Austin even after the triplets were born, nothing's set in stone. Besides, I don't know that I want to really own a place until after getting past the newborn-type age-- I mean, taking care of a house AND a baby could be a lot of work!

Well, it's 2a so it's about to be past my bedtime! I've given myself a 2a curfew so that I don't get back in to that 4a bedtime, wake up at 2p deal-- I realize it makes me feel really horrible and tired all the time to do that cycle!

Tomorrow is transplanting potted plants and watching the kids for Meg and Michael, which I'm excited about. Hopefully I will feel productive at the end of the day!

Weekend

Friday was low-key, but really nice. We had initiation for our spring pledges (hoorah new Alpha babies!) and a little pizza party after with birthday cake for India. Unfortunately, Alison couldn't be there because they were still taking care of some things with her father's estate. She got back tonight during LC, and is doing as well as can be expected-- possibly better. She's an amazing young woman, it breaks my heart she has to go through this.

After the pizza party, Vicki, Becky, and I went out and signed our gifts for the girls being installed as alumnae on Tuesday. I really wish I'd had an alumnae installation ceremony, I feel like I missed something there. Initiation was nice, though, because it made me think of Natalie (my new member educator) and Lindsey Hughes, our president at the time who initiated me. It's a really nice ceremony and definitely made me tear up a little! On the way home, I made a wrong turn and ended up at Magic City. That would be the strip club they talk about in the rap songs. Ohhhh yeeeeah.

Saturday was lazy, but I did go see Arcadia at GPC, which Alexandros was in. It was really nice, it's only the second time I've seen Alexandros since I've been back (the other when Jeremy and I went with him to lunch and Slumdog Millionaire), and we went to R. Thomas in Buckhead for my (much belated) birthday dinner and it was aawesome. I had a coconut curry linguine with shrimp and salmon. So. Good. They do all organic and locally grown food, it was quite delish. But pricey, definitely pricey. Also, the chai was perfect! I'm super picky about my chai, so I was happy it wasn't an absolute loss.

Tonight was LC, where we discussed some difficult things and I prepared myself to be the hard ass. I also did an arrangement for Alison of some roses and carnations I picked up at the Farmer's Market that looked pretty nice, actually!

That's about all. Clare was married yesterday, and though I wish nothing but the best for her, I'm still not convinced her new husband and step-children are that best thing. I would not have been surprised at the outdoor ceremony if it weren't for the fact that it was a product of him insisting they not be married in a church, which I find strange. I know Jeremy and I aren't getting married in a church, but that's mostly a convenience for our guests sort of deal, not anything to do with religion.

Ah, well, c'est la vie. All we can do is hope and pray that her life is as happy as she deserves for it to be and that he doesn't continue to be as sketchy has he has been to know...

This week: work, hopefully Memphis at the end of the week, and if Memphis is in the books then I will hopefully figure out why Jan and Marc's internet isn't working!

TGIF?

(this was supposed to go up last night but the internet stopped working as soon as I was done with it!!)

Soo, back to my Memphis trip, which was more action-packed than I give it credit for... and Friday it is!

Friday morning I was supposed to go see Amy (Career Services) to look over my extended resume and pare it down so that I could go see Sandi on Monday and start looking for jobs. Since the lights had come on in my car the night before, I decided to cancel the appointment until I'd talked to Jeremy or Marc about what could have gone wrong. I kinda figured it might be the belts since I knew they were getting worn, and Jeremy confirmed my suspicions so I took the car up to Jiffy Lube where they were shocked and awed that I was able to make it there because apparently it was the belt that connects to the alternator that had been ripped. to. shreds. Now, as much as I like this Jiffy Lube in Southaven, I'm a little irritated that nobody mentioned that I might want to charge up the battery as it had taken a SEVERE draining getting me the last mile home and the five miles up to the Jiffy Lube for reasons that will come up later...

After that, I went back to the house and tried to get organized a little bit, then ended up leaving late for Heather's birthday dinner so I just met them up there. We ended up going to Majestic Grille downtown, and it was really good! I met some girls I hadn't yet, and met one in particular who was... very unique. Melissa, you know who I'm talking about. I sat with Melissa and Allie, I hadn't met Allie except for a couple of Facebook messages about the Strikeout Shirt I ordered-- she rocks my face off. She's SO funny and outgoing! Yay for new AOIIs! Well, she's not a "new" AOII, but I haven't met her so she's new to me ;)

Melissa and I split the calamari, which was a totally new take on it to me. They have a cornmeal breading and fry it up with jalapenos! It furthered my spicy food kick for the weekend, which started with Buffalo Wild Wings and finished with salsa at Los Compadres! But, I'm getting ahead of myself... I had a bacon bleu cheese burger and it. was. aaaaweeesome. Highly recommend it. Everyone else seemed pretty happy with their dinner, and the only complaint I had was that the waitress seemed like she'd never had a big party. She did her best, and the unique girl gave her a little bit of trouble (for which she got put in her place by a waitress who also happens to be someone she needs to respect a little bit more), but things were a little slow and two plates had to be sent back to be re-made which weren't delivered until we were all ready to go. Probably better to go in a smaller group.

Afterwards, I ran Melissa by Joe's in Midtown to pick up a bottle of wine for Heather (they sell McWilliams, our tier 1 wine at work!) and pick up something for myself for going to Ashely's (which proved difficult as Memphis liquor laws say that you can't sell anything under 5% alcohol in the same store, thus nixing my usual search for the elusive 420) and when I got back out to the car.... it wouldn't start!!

Ugh.

So, I'm thinking who I can call at this time of night (as it was after 10p at this point) and I remembered that Ashley (who was going to meet me for a drink and instead had some friends over and invited me to come out) told me that Wayne was at her place, so I called Wayne to come give me a jump and see if we could get it all together. Heather came and picked Melissa up to head back for Rites, and I waited. Wayne showed up, hooked up the jumper cables and everything lit right up! Of course, as soon as we took the jumper cables off... not so much.

There was a minor panic attack.

Oh, and my phone died.

And there was a big theory floating around that it was the alternator. After I'd spent $130 on the starter. And $140 on the belts.

Then there was another minor panic attack.

I managed to have a little fun. And another minor panic attack (regarding our roadside assistance program which, by the way, DOESN'T COVER ME apparently). Ashley's friends were a lot of fun, and even though we have differing political views, we're all very moderate and open to discussion so it didn't turn in to a hate fest which is the whole reason I stay away from political discussions these days in the first place. It evolved in to a trivia contest regarding presidential knowledge and the parallels between the Lincoln and Kennedy assasinations. There are quite a few and they are all pretty creepy, look it up. We stayed up way too late and I fell exhaustedly asleep at Ashley's since I didn't have a way to get back to Southaven. Thankfully, one of her friends had a compatible charger so my phone was sufficiently charged for me to try for a tow, talk to Jeremy, talk to Marc, and get everything set to get the car back down to Southaven.

The good news is that it was just the battery, in case you haven't figured that out yet. Marc charged up my battery and replaced the leads and it worked good as new and just in time for me to hit up the hockey game!

The Kings played a great first period, but after that they totally wussed out. They did, however, beat OKC in the next game and so they're on their way to the semifinals! They actually don't even play until the end of the month, so if it looks like there are two games in a row I may go back. I forgot how much I miss the games, and the other off ice officials-- they're my own crazy little family!

I went right home and talked to Jeremy for a while, then went to bed! I'd intended to get up and go to church with Marc and Jan; while I'm not much on church, I know they'd like me to come meet everyone. However, I was so exhausted from Friday and Saturday that I slept in waaay late.

That's all for Saturday, and in to Sunday-- coming up, I get another hamburger, Sophia and I go to Target, and I practice public speaking.

Final Cylon!

I'm starting the first half of season 4 today, so I'm generally on schedule to get all caught up by tomorrow night and then by Friday night! For those of you just joining the geek party, this would be Battlestar Galactica.

Finally slept well last night, it always takes me a couple days to adjust after Jeremy leaves. I'm glad I thought to move the mattress on to the floor this time, it was way more comfortable than my pilates mat-- though I'm not sure how Jeremy could stand to sleep on the futon mattress, it was super hard! Anyway, got up about 10 and have had a pretty decent morning-- talked to Jeremy, got out the strawberries, waited for the mail to come, and now I'm watching some BSG! I think once I see who the final Cylon is, I'll get some cream and sugar and do berries and cream.

Work the last couple night's been alright, no six dollar nights but no really amazing nights, either. Enough to squeeze by, I suppose. I find it really hard to go to work these days, I'm just really tired of being a waitress I guess. At least at the airline, when I was at the counter or the gate there was a solid routine and I felt like I was getting something done-- waiting on tables, I just bring food out, take empty plates away, open the patio, lock up the patio. A little pointless; I'm not really doing anything or making a difference or using anything I've learned in any real way.

But I'll stop moping; I'm trying to tell myself it'll only be for a few more months, or that maybe I'll land a better job, just to stick it out. Hopefully Jeremy will get an idea of where he'll be and I can start trying to find a job-- though it is a little hard doing it six months out... gotta start somewhere, right?

OK, I'm gonna go ahead and get the cream and sugar since I've almost eaten all of my strawberries! That would be almost two pounds, for the record.

So much to say

Jeremy left a few hours ago to head back to Daytona after a very fun-filled week, the greatest accomplishment of which is that my car is finally legal!

He came in Wednesday, and we went and hung out at work (which was a total loss, with two tables) and after work went out to pick up the exhaust manifold from an AutoZone in Lilburn which was an adventure in itself... It wasn't just in Lilburn, it was out in like NORTH Lilburn (which is a big haul, for those of you who don't knwo) and we ended up getting home at like midnight. We were home around 1230a and went straight to bed.

Thursday, I had to go out Ptree Industrial to the Hyundai dealership to pick up the last gasket we needed and then ran all over the place on the way home to pick up other stuff. I spent so much money this week, and even though I needed to do it, I'm just still kind of in shock because it was a great feeling having a cushion! But, I won't have to pay any tickets, so I guess it evens out :D

Thursday night, we went and got Jeremy fitted for his tux and got the wedding party set up after a trip to Sears to look at tools and multimeters; I got an idea of what I can buy him for birthdays and Christmas and Valentine's for the next few years, which is kinda nice since he's so hard to buy for. I'm hoping I have enough money left to get him a gift card to Target for the webcam-- he misses talking to Valerie, and I know he's dying to talk to Ana, too! After Sears and Men's Warehouse, we came back in to town for a Single Malt Scotch tasting at Palate. I'm not big on Scotch, so it was more for Jeremy. I had a glass of wine and a snack. The tasting was a lot of fun, our distributor (Bill) is very educated on the industry and has been doing this for years. After that, we went to El Tesoro to try and catch Bo and grab one last snack before we went home, and had the Oaxaca with serrano peppers and other spicy things-- I was very happy Jeremy said it was the spiciest thing he'd had in a *long* time! He loves spicy, but he's still stuck on this green chile pizza he had in India, so I keep trying to find something that has comparable spice! We came home and watched the season finale of Burn Notice, which wasn't quite as action-packed as I'd expected, but it set up a really interesting premise for next season, which thankfully starts in June! This is why I love watching shows on USA!

Friday was a little less hectic. I went to register the car, where I dealt with this woman who wouldn't give me the sticker for my plate because I didn't have the same address or the same last name as my mother! GAH! I've been doing the registration for both of our cars for the last seven years, and never in my life have I had the same last name as my mother. We went through this ten minute thing about how I needed to be her power of attourney or have the same last name and address or get this paper notarized saying I had permission before she finally admitted I could pay for the tags, get the receipt, and they would mail out the sticker on Monday-- yes, this means that the car is registered. The sticker is a formality so that the cops don't have to bother with looking it up if they have better things they can do. I was waiting to get pulled over so I could say, "Sorry I don't have the sticker, officer, but I don't have the same last name as my mother." Ugh. You would think by now, people wouldn't be stuck in that mode. I mean, there are women who don't change their last name when they're married (like my mother, who was a published author and poet at the time), there are divorced parents, there are parents who have re-married after a divorce or death of a spouse-- it's just not uncommon to find a child who doesn't have the same last name! Plus, does that mean if I found someone with the last name "Sizemore" I could waltz in there and take their registration?

When I got home, we killed a few minutes, and then hopped on the bike (Jeremy brought up a helment for me) and went to lunch with my godmother, Gail, who's going to be doing our wedding service. I hadn't seen her in a while, so it was really great not only to have her meet Jeremy, but to hear a little about the old neighborhood and how everyone's doing. We went to Top Spice, which was sooo yummy-- they do Thai and Malaysian food, and the lunch is way more affordable than dinner. Jeremy had, I think, the Spicy Basil Leaf, and I had the Beef Rendang which looks a little unappetizing, but was very good. Plus, we got to knock off another restaurant in town for Jeremy!

After that, we came home and got in the car and went to little Fernbank, where we briefly went through the exhibits (they're pretty old and kinda small-- they do have one of the Apollos, though; I think it's VII which was the last unmanned mission?) and then out in to the Forest and Nature Trail which was greatly expanded from the last time I was there with Dill! The chickens are still there, and they have a beautiful black and white rooster who looks very French countryside and prances around, and the old rust-colored hen was still there chatting to herself. We went on about a 30 minute walk, which was very pleasant and quiet and it was very beautiful outside! Post-Nature Trail, we hopped up the street to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History where we saw their cool new exhibit on fossils and the dinosaurs, which included fossils you could touch and moving models of how they think the dinosaurs would have moved! The exhibit was really cool, especially if you're a geek like us!

Around 7, we headed out to the ASO for the first time in I don't recall how long! I used to go with Gail all the time, but when I started having my own performances I stopped being able to go to theirs. I said something to Valerie that night about how happy I was Ana liked music so much, it reminded me of the ASO for Kids program they used to do (still do!) on the weekends. We went to all of them, even right after my mom had Casey. He was about seven weeks old and she'd tried to get rid of the tickets but couldn't, so she went thinking that since it was a kids concert, she'd just step out if he started crying. Instead, when the first violin started their warmup note, he turned his head around and watched the entire thing in complete awe. I think babies and small children are naturally drawn to music, possibly because of language, and if you really encourage that connection they'll grow up close to music. I played an instrument, but I was always more of a dancer-- Casey can listen to anything once and play it.

Anyway, we went to see Jennifer Koh, who is a really extraordinarily talented Korean violinist-- apparently she's being billed as the Korean Midori. The ASO was as fantastic as I ever remember them being, and we were second row orchestra right, so we were right in front of the low strings (which was kinda cool since Jeremy plays cello). The first piece was absolutely perfect, they played the intro to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and it was just stunning. The second piece, which was the one written for Koh, was... interesting. She was stunning, the orchestra sounded fantastic, and the ASO singers (several of which are church friends of my mother's) sounded great, but I just don't take well to choral pieces written for music (if that makes sense) especially when it's modern English poetry put to the music. The third piece was another special commission, more poetry to music, which was supposed to be "celebratory" according to the composer and ended up more like a joyful dirge. Thankfully, there was a solid turn-of-the century piece at the end and we all left feeling good about the night. We went and got some late night snacks and then went home and finished Lucky Number Slevin (which was fantastic, by the way) and hit the hay.

Saturday, we rode the bike up to North Georgia and rode through Red Top Mountain and Kennesaw Mountain, and through part of historic Marietta. There was a little confusion on the way back, and we ended up halfway to South Georgia, but we weren't too far gone before Jeremy finally figured out I was trying to get him to turn around because he'd missed 20E! It was a nice day out, though, so neither of us was too put out, it just took a while to work my shoulders back in to place after nearly five hours on the bike!

Last night, we just went and picked up a pizza at Kroger, and ran through Krispy Kreme, and then came back and packed and watched some HGTV and FoodTV. Oh, we also watched The Relic, which was supposedly based on a Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child book and pretty much NONE OF IT was related to ANY book I've read by Preston/Child, much less Relic or Reliquary. It was also made in 1997, but looked like it was made in '91, with Tom Sizemore and Penelope Ann Miller looking all sorts of mis-dressed and running around yelling and screaming. It was good for cheese, but nothing terribly special-- I wouldn't recommend it.

I should be going to bed...

Work was slow tonight, but I got a lot of things done behind the bar, for which Jill was very thankful. I got over 100 sets of silverware rolled, cleaned up the stainless tops on the dessert case and the wine coolers, cleaned off the dessert plates, reorganized the coolers, coffee cups and the coffee plates/app plates (which are the same size and never separated properly) and other such organizational stuff. Hopefully it'll pick up again soon, once it's not so cold. It's been running about 33 during the day with a windchill down to 25 at 20mph. Brr!

I picked up more boxes which made Mewsette very happy. I have never seen a cat who loved boxes as much as mine does! She keeps hopping in one and looking out like, "Hmm, how's the view from here?" and deciding she wants to try another. I told Joe it's like Goldilocks and the three boxes with commentary. I assume she's found a box she likes now as I haven't heard from her, but I'm positive she'll move again before the night's over!

I also forgot to mention that Saturday is also Miss America. It's going to be awesome.

I served a Caprese salad at work tonight and now I really want one... it's the perfect salad, really.

Suppose that's all for now; I need to go to bed, but House Hunters is in Rome and it's a lot of fun! I mean, they're paying more for a 550 sq.ft. attico than most people pay for a three bedroom two bathroom house, but they're in the city center and there's a farmer's market right across the street! Well, they haven't bought that one, but it's totally nice! Even if it is appx. $369,000 USD...