merry christmas

merry and blessed christmas to all my friends and family!

we have been eating and enjoying family and eating and watching movies and eating and playing the wii and eating. oh, and drinking tasty bevs. and did i mention eating? it's been a fabulous christmas so far!

we'll post pictures and share more stories at a later date.

happy birthday, hubby

i like this post that baldman's sister posted in honor of his birthday. so i'll just re-post it.

happy birthday, sweety. i love you.

christmas party

on saturday the hubby and i went to a costume christmas party. we had to dress up like our favorite christmas movie characters. baldman went as flick from a christmas story. he wore his coat and a scarf, gloves, and hat. and he constructed a big pole out of christmas wrapping paper empties*. and he pretended to get his tongue stuck on the pole. he was a hit of the party.

i got some amazing polyester pants, a yellow sweater and created a dickey out of a black turtleneck and went as cousin eddie from national lampoon's christmas vacation. i even went so far as to have a little "package" because of that hilarious scene when he and clark are grocery shopping and he's sticking out everywhere.

well, first of all, my costume didn't look exactly like what uncle eddie wore, and i didn't really know anyone at the party. so most people didn't know that i was in costume. so for, like, the first 1/2 hour - 45 minutes i was hanging out not only in costume, but also with a penis! and NO ONE said anything to me about it! not only that, but i could see people checking it out! i felt like such an ass, so i finally went to the bathroom and took it out.

after a while, people caught on to the fact that i was in costume. and eventually i brought up the subject of my "little christmas vacation package." turns out, most people noticed. but they didn't say anything about it! i made a lot of jokes about it and it ended up being a fun time.

there were also 2 other cousin eddies, one other flick, and someone dressed as the leg lamp from a christmas story. come to think of it, most of the people who were dressed up were either santa (sexy, lady santa of course) or from vacation or a christmas story. either we're unimaginative or people of our era all have the same favorite movies.

i stole these shots from someone's facebook page.





*wrapping paper empties are affectionately called "ha-ha's" in the reid family

gringo star plug

my talented cousins make up two of the four band members in gring star. they're amazing and you should check them out live if you've not done so previously. (or buy their album. whatever.)

gringo star was recently approached by tommy hilfiger asking them to put their song all y'all in an ad of theirs. the boys (as we in the family call them) were a little reluctant to "sell out" to advertisement, but when they realized that they could fund the recording of their next album with the profits, they went ahead with it.

check out the ad:


(thanks to my brother for making the copy of this video available.)

we're ready for christmas

i finished all my shopping and put the packages in the mail yesterday (100 bucks, thank you very much). our tree is up and most of the christmas cards have been mailed. soon we'll be setting sail to colder climates to celebrate with family. woot woot!

when we were home in nj for thanksgiving my (just turned) 8 year old niece made us a beautiful picture of a fireplace with stockings hung with care. so we added that to our cozy, christmas living room scene.



mmm, doesn't that just show the warmth of the holiday?

thanksgiving in nj

sorry for the delayed post on this. i finally uploaded pictures onto flickr from our thanksgiving trip to my mom's. we had a great time seeing everyone. we were fortunate to have my sister come down for thanksgiving and then my brother and his girls come down for the weekend. so we got a good visit in and enjoyed eating, running around downtown cape may, and resting.

you can see the pictures i took from our visit here.

week's end treat

this was a tough week in our household so last night the hubby and i decided to treat ourselves to dinner and a movie. unimaginably we'd lived in columbia for 6 1/2 years and had yet to have dinner together at gervais and vine.* i'd been bugging baldman for a while to go and last night was the night!

of course, it did not disappoint. we enjoyed garlic-parmesan fries with spicy aoioli, marinated manchego cheese with thyme and garlic, ensalada de la fresa balsamico (mixed greens with balsamic strawberries, candied almonds and gorgonzola), and the roman pizza (pesto, goat cheese, roasted red peppers and olives with marinara). my mouth is watering just typing this.

after dinner we retired to our couch to watch rudolph the red nosed reindeer online. i'd not seen that probably since i was in elementary school.

the only unfortunate part about the night was that sometime during the movie my throat started hurting and hasn't let up since. i've turned into a little sicky since last night. but at least we were able to enjoy our treat before this came along.

*in the interest of full disclosure, i had been there one time without the hubby for a slow food meeting. but that was still like 2 years ago!

my new favorite food

jerusalem artichokes.

smokey, yet subtle. just like i like my men.

?

seriously though, so good.

last week i made this. then i went to the market this weekend to buy more so i could make this. deeeeelish!

smitten kitchen never steers me wrong

i made this for dinner tonight and it is fantastic. i tweeked it a little based on what i had in the fridge and cut it in 1/3 because i didn't want to spend a gajillion dollars on gruyer and then not like it enough to feed myself 12 times. turns out i couldn't made the whole thing because i really like it!

lady's weekend

the hubby's out of town. i have a six pack of beer in the fridge and publix sushi for dinner. i'm psyched!* i'd be even more psyched if the library didn't close so dog-gone early on a friday night so i could've picked up my reserved dvd of sex in the city season four.** oh well, carrie, samantha, miranda, and charlotte. i'll have to do without you for one night. i'm sure there's something on hulu that i'll enjoy instead.


*by the way, i don't mean this to sound like i'm psyched that my husband is out of town. but in all honesty, as much as i love him and his company, it's just kind nice to have my own agenda for a few days. it'll make me appreciate him that much more when he comes home on sunday.


**i missed the library because i was out shopping. what else is a woman to do when her man's out of town, but shop? those who know me know that that comment was my attempt at sarcasm. i was actually christmas shopping, thank you very much.***


***full disclosure though, i did buy myself a dress at ross.

it's not finished, but...

it's getting closer.





we've still got to paint the trim and touch up the paint around the entire bathroom, hang the towel racks and curtains, and have the grout refilled. but it sure looks good.

and it's great to shower in one's own house. that's an understatement. it's fabulous!

though, let me just take a moment to say that one of the major bright sides of this whole ordeal was experiencing the generosity and kindness of our friends in this community. we had many doors (bathroom doors that is) opened to us and for that we are so so grateful!

maybe i won't get typhoid

it's nice to know that there's a boil water advisory for the area around my office and i was drinking tap water all day. ironically, i never drink the tap water from my office. but today i had to because our water is turned off at home* so i filled my water bottle at work instead. mmmm.


*the fun of home ownership is really thrown up in our faces on weekends like those that just past. not only is our bathroom still not finished but we discovered what we think is a broken water pipe in a wall in our kitchen. good times.

i'm not gonna say i told you so,

but in the last post when i said i didn't think he'd be done by wednesday? well, i was right. the tile still hasn't dried 100% yet, so he's not laid the grout. so we're still bathroomless.

this week in bathroom rennovations

they worked all day saturday and finished up the drywall. so all the sheet rock was in and at least mudded once.





they took the day off on sunday while the spackle dried and baldman and i trudged all over columbia in search of the perfect mirror. which we found here, by the way. but it was too big to fit in the space we needed. so we had to settle on one from home depot which is just okay. i think it'll look nice though.

today he sanded and put another layer of spackling on and laid the tile. we can't go in there because if we step on it the tile will set crooked. so we had to rig up this contraption to keep the cats out.



so you will have to settle for a complete surprise when we take more photos later in the week. he says he'll be done by wednesday. i'm thinking most of it will be done by then, but that it'll be more like thursday before all the little things are completed.

of course, whenever he is finished we'll still have to paint and add all the rest of the "fixin's," like the mirror, the towel bars, shelving, etc....

update to the bathroom rennovations update

i came home this afternoon and there is no more sheet rock on the walls than was there yesterday at this time. all that was done today was spackling and taping the sheet rock that was already up there. he also fixed what he broke on our old toilet so we can use it this weekend. so, that's great; we have a toilet. but i'd really like him to move forward with getting the new stuff in, not fixing the old stuff. i'm thinking he wanted to appease the old lady because he knew someone was not going to be a happy camper after seeing the little progress over the past 2 days. and he's right about that, by the way.

they come back tomorrow at 9 AM.

bathroom rennovations update

so i left you hanging a few weeks ago when i showed you what we'd done to our bathroom.

we managed without electricity in part of our bedroom and our bathroom for a few days. our handyman came and took a look, managed to fix the electricity in our bedroom at least, and gave us another estimate to fix the new mess.

he started this past monday and although we are happy with what he has done so far, it is going REEEEAALY SLOOOOWLYYYY. we're completing day 4 of total construction and loss of shower/sink and day 3 of loss of toilet. yea, that's good times. let's just say we're being creative about our use of facilities. we're holding it sometimes, going to friends' houses other times, staying later at work on a few occasions, using gas station restrooms when we can (and when they're clean), and being creative when we have to. yea, like i said, good times.

check out flickr here for the daily progress. as of tonight we have one full wall with sheet rock. the tub and surround are in. the outer walls have insulation (a first for this house!) and there is sheet rock around the door. we still have tile to be taken out and fully replaced, sheet rock to go around the top of the tub and the outer wall around the window, the toilet and sink to be put in, door and window frames, and sheet rock to be mudded and taped. hmmm, me thinks this week-long job is going to take a bit more than we though. d'ya think?

myrtle beach

myrtle beach this weekend was totally awesome! we got into mb in the late afternoon on friday and we had just enough time to check into the hotel, rest for a minute and then head out to medieval times.



we totally geeked it out big time for this one! and i loved it. the place was only about 1/3 full with spectators, so i think we got a little bit of extra treatment. i even got thrown a red carnation from the black and white night, who we were supposed to be cheering for (though he didn't win. loser.). and, by the way, our nights were totally ethnically diverse. is that usual? one was asian, one was latino, a couple were white and the "mean one" had an eastern european (?) accent of some sort. totally cool. the veggie meal was delicious, by the way; i totally suggest you try it when you go.





so we had an all around good time. totally worth the buy one-get one free price that we paid!

saturday we slept in a bit and then headed out to enjoy the beautiful weather. we started the day by stumbling upon a yummy bagel shop that had bagels which were almost as good as a nyc bagel. and the weather was so warm that if we wanted to, we really could've worn bathing suits and swam in the ocean. but we didn't prepare well enough, having left all that at the hotel. so i just rolled up my jeans and walked through the surf.



we walked along the beach, walked around in the town and looked in shops, and then headed out to brookgreen gardens for their fall harvest. we were totally tired by this point, but managed to walk through almost their entire botanical gardens and zoo. and then walk back from the zoo to the car because we waited for, like, ever for their tram which wasn't coming. in actuality, it probably would've been faster to wait for the tram because we ended up taking a wrong turn and walking a million miles longer than was necessary. but it sure was a beautiful place.





that night we rocked it out with mike ness and social distortion.



the concert was amazing! i've been to rough concerts before, where people are moshing and throwing themselves around. but this group was really beating the pulp out of each other. so we stayed up in the middle level where there was less chance of loosing a kidney. despite the roughness of the crowd, i was very intrigued to notice several children in attendance. there was even one couple who had two young boys (3 and 6 years old, maybe) and they both had mohawks. i loved that! there were 2 opening bands and then social d played for like 1 1/2 hours maybe. the time flew by and when they were done baldman and i were both like, wow that was fast. but when we looked at our watch we realized they'd really been on for a while.

sunday we were totally exhausted. cause we're old. and we can't stay up for rock concerts anymore. and we have trouble standing for 3 hours without getting all creaky and stuff. so we slept in until the absolute last minute and then quickly checked out and made it to church. after church we grabbed a quick bite to eat at a fabulous lebanese restaurant, recommended by a coworker of baldman's. if you're ever heading out of myrtle, check out habibi's, right off 501. they have a fantastic veggie plate and a lot of groceries too. we also picked up awesome feta and black olives which i've been enjoying all week!

thus ends our weekend away. we had to head back earlier on sunday to attend roller derby in columbia, but i'll write more about that at a later time.

you can view the whole flickr set of our vacation photos here. (though i mislabeled brookgreen gardens as brookfield gardens and i'm not changing it 'cause i'm tired.)

my brother's famous?

do you remember the littles? you know, the animated kids' show that used to come on saturday morning cartoons and was about, well, little people? well, my brother had a submission to one of the invention segments at the end of an episode. here's how the bro states it:

"Back in 1984, "The Littles" was a Saturday morning cartoon. The end of each episode featured a small craft, sent in by kids. As I was a genius, I submitted an idea, and they used it on the show! I was even paid $1 by ABC for my idea! Sadly, I never saw the episode when it aired. I had a soccer game that morning. We knew it would be on, and even took a small portable TV with us to the game so we could watch. But, it wasn't mean to be. The show was pre-empted by a news broadcast. Recently, The Littles has been released on DVD. Here's the excerpt from the episode in which my idea was used. My name appears at the end."

i swear that my brother told me one time that he stole that idea from an invention book. bu he denies that so perhaps i made that part up. my older brother and older sister often accuse me of making up some of my memories. but i'm not the one who always insists i remember seeing a horse in our neighbor's basement (but that's for another post someday).

anyways, i totally remember the soccer game where we took time to try to watch for my brother's invention at the end of the show. and i remember how disappointed we were when we didn't see it. i always felt like it was such an injustice. so finally, my friends, justice is served:

http://gallery.mac.com/applescriptguru#100781

roller derby!

Be a hero in the fight against sexual violence! Columbia Quad Squad has joined forces with Sexual Trauma Services of the Midlands in the fight to stop sexual assault and abuse. But it takes more than a costume to stop rape. STSM needs YOUR SUPPORT. Columbia Quad Squad selected STSM as its agency of choice for the October 25th Bout with the Carolina Bootleggers. STSM will be there in style with superhero costumes. Roll on out for a great event and for a good cause!

For more information or to purchase tickets: www.columbiaquadsquad.com

more picts from furgiuele wedding

check out my brother's choice pictures from the weekend wedding i gave you a teaser about last monday. there are some really good shots so you should definitely check it out.

if you're really committed, you can check out all 493 pictures here.

what we did this weekend

before





after




i don't know if you can see it, but this is mostly plaster. what that means is that it'll be really difficult to fix, so we're planning on having it knocked out and replaced with drywall. we also found a little bit of mold (as you can see in one picture). it's a mess, but i'm glad we did it.

of course, in the process of taking off the paneling, we somehow short-circuited a breaker. so now we're going without electricity in the bathroom and 1/2 of our bedroom. but hopefully we'll get that fixed soon. we also bought the fixtures to go in the bathroom (tub and tub walls, toilet, sink and floor tiles). depending on the availability of our handyman, we hope to start replacing this mess soon.

medieval times here we come!

the husband and i are taking a little get-away at the end of the month to spend some time together and play. it all started when baldman saw tickets in myrtle beach for social distortion. we both really like mike ness and the band and we had (or probably more appropriately, i had) been looking for an excuse for a mini vacation with each other. so we decided to take friday off work and spend an extended vacation there.

so i started looking at other things to do through out the weekend and stumbled across medieval times. i had never really been interested in going to this place, but i read erica's post about her and fuzzy's anniversary trip to mt and i just knew we had to do it! plus, the bonus is that they can swap out the meat-centric meal and do a veg one! what? cheesy make-believe, jousting and yummy veggies!? yes, please.

we'll see what other things we can cook up for the weekend. if anyone has any ideas, post them in the comments. by the way, the weekend will end on sunday night with a roller derby bout in columbia, which i will post about later.

pet day update

bring your pet to work day went well today. mokey was not happy at all, though, and she hid behind my desk all day. but she has resurfaced at home and is relatively unscathed. in total we had 4 dogs, 1 bunny and a cat in the office. it was really fun! and as far as i know no one peed or pooped on the rug!

to see pictures, check out stsm's facebook page. and while you're there, become a fan!

a preview of our wedding weekend

the best or the worst

tomorrow is bring your pet to work day at my office. i'm so psyched! i'm going to bring mokey because i think she'd handle the change better and settle in okay. i think there will be like 3 other dogs there too. it's going to be brilliant or a brilliant disaster! i'll keep everybody posted.

my moment of music knowledge

while sitting at the pizza man tonight, there was a major rock block of classic songs on their radio. "push it" came on and, in between singing along, baldman and i were having a conversation about salt n' pepper, bel biv devoe and other old favorites. i said i thought "push it" came out around 1988 and bel biv devoe got popular a few years later. baldman insisted that they were both around the same time. wikipedia backed me up saying that PI came out in 1987 and BBD released poison in 1980. who knows!? (me*)**


*by the way, the reason i knew that "push it" came out around 1998 was because in 4th grade i tried out for our catholic school's version of puttin' on the hits to madonna's "pappa don't preach." i was rejected, thank you very much. which, in the history of holy cross's puttin' on the hits, i don't think anyone had every been rejected. so they told me very nicely that i could do a different madonna song, just not one about out of wedlock pregnancy. now i think, what was the big deal!? she was "keepin' her baby"! at least she didn't have an abortion. anyways, i got rejected. but some girls in 8th grade somehow were allowed to lip sink to "push it," complete with gyrating dancing. i'm still jaded about that.

**this is really a big deal that i know a music fact that baldman doesn't. not only does he know a whole heck of a lot about all types of music, but i know absolutely nothing about music. he always laments at what a poor partner i am to him in this respect, so he's always trying to school me. well, guess who got schooled now!? boom!

keepin' it real:

fall weather

i woke up this morning to darkness and the sound of the soft ping-ping drizzle of the rain on the metal shed outside our window. on a morning like this you definitely want to roll over and stay in bed, which i got to do. thanks to working late tonight i get to go in later this morning.

i had a list of things i wanted to do this morning, most of which included going outside. so i guess this is as good an excuse as any to sleep in, eat a slow breakfast in the semi-darkness, and have a chill morning.

and by the way, congrats to theresa and chris!


carter, born october 3 at 7:15 am. 9 lbs 4 oz

2 unrelated thoughts

1) why can i not make pudding? i've tried numerous times over many years and always end up with soup. tonight i have a very tasty chocolate soup.

2) friday night i was at the mall to get my hair cut. as i was walking through the parking lot i was walking behind a boy who was probably about 10 years old. he had no shoes on. i guess "no shirt, no shoes, no service" isn't a policy in south carolina? or maybe it just depends on if i was entering in the lexington county or richland county side of the mall.

ny, again!

i've been absent from the blogosphere for the past 2 weeks because i was out of town again. i was in a wedding in good ol' teaneck, nj over labor day weekend. i was honored to be able to stand for* one of my closest friends, anthony. it was pretty cool how they did the wedding- they had 2 women on his side and 1 man on her side.


here's the bridal party. standing next to me is another great friend from nyu, maria. i'd not seen her in over 4 years. you may guess that anthony is one of three sons in his family. his twin brother was his best man and his younger brother was also an attendant.


the married couple exiting the church

it was great to catch up with many of my nyu crew at the rehearsal and dinner on friday, and at the wedding on saturday.


maria and anthony at rehearsal dinner (where the food was so delicious!)


around the table at the rehearsal dinner: me, my sister rachel (who did a fantastic job with the 2nd reading), heather (the bride), anthony, maria, paul, and dierdre.


melissa and baby ann at the wedding reception


it was awesome to meet maria's kids.

in addition to the wedding festivities, we got a few bonus visits with friends. the first visit was with andy, erica and ariel. we met them for lunch at a cool cafe in williamsburg, which was even cooler because i used to live in w'burg. it was strange to see how much has changed in the 9 years (!) since i lived there.



andy had to take off to pick up his cab (yes, in addition to being a musician, he's also a cabbie) but we got to go thrift store shopping with erica and ariel which was a blast. we'd not seen ariel in 7 years so it was totally cool to see what a smart, funny, confident young woman she is turning into. there were 2 guys sitting in folding chairs on the sidewalk outside the restaurant we ate lunch at. they had signs that said "free advice" and ariel cracked all of us up when she walked straight up to them and asked advice on how she could get one of her arms to be more muscular than the other arm. they told her "life weights every day just on that one arm."



the last bonus visit that we had was with emily and her hubs, kevin. we met up for church at the new catholic center at nyu. the center we used to attend was torn down and now st. joseph's is the parish for the students in the village, so it wasn't too nostalgic for me going there. but when the president of the newman club got up at the end of mass and started talking about the thursday night activities they were planning and the fall emmaus retreat, i lost it. newman club was such a special and important part of my life for 4 years. and we brought emmaus retreats to the newman club. so it was really emotional to see that some small part of the legacy lives on. i would've talked to the president girl after mass, but i know she would've been like "who's this blubbering old lady." so i skipped it.

after mass we met up with melissa, tim, baby ann and my sis for dinner at cafe asean for dinner and dessert at rocco's. so good!



i have to give a big shout out to my sis for putting me and baldman up for the weekend. it was great to just hang out with her in a low-key and fun way! and thanks for taking care of us and supplying us with yummy food all weekend!




*when we arrived at the church on friday for the rehearsal the photographer asked me if i was "standing for the groom." i had no idea what she was asking.

roller derby

last night baldman and i went to watch our first every roller derby game (or bout as they call them). it was so fantastic! we saw our local team, the columbia quad squad versus the nrv from virginia. man, those are some tough girls. we took a few picts but they're not the most clear because of the constant action. but check it out!


the columbia quad squad are in black and nrv in pink. in this pict you can see the girl with the red helmet sneaking up the outside of the lane. she's what they call the jammer (and she's on the quad squad). she'll score points for her team if she passes opposing players. boy, was she a zippy little woman!


this is pretty much what it looked like the whole time. just a blur.


it's actually a fairly complicated game. you see the number of referees that are out there? it really takes some careful watching to see who is illegally hitting each other and how many people the jammers are passing.


here you can see the opposing team's jammer (with the star on her helmet) sneaking by.

the quad squad took the game. i think they have a pretty good record. but someone in the crowd told us that the other local team, the richland county regulators are better. we'll just have to check that out ourselves. i definitely think that the hubby and i will check out more games in the future.

cupcake

oh, cupcake. how i love you. thank you for opening a new store in our city. your delicious goodness is pleasing to my soul. here's to many more evenings of spending time together.

yoga

i went to my 3rd ever yoga class tonight. because my husband works at the university i can now go to one of the gyms and attend whatever classes i want. so two nights a week i'm trying to go to yoga. it's been great. i really like the focus on breathing and feeling good about yourself. and tonight's class really kicked my butt (which i know i need)!

and it speaks to how how small columbia is that at both classes this week i have known several people.

i found it!

a site to watch the new season of project runway! woot woot! well, it worked for episode 1, so i hope it'll work for the remaining episodes! we'll "make it work!"

sick day and movies

i left work early friday because i'd had a sore throat since thursday night (still have it, thanks for asking) and i just wasn't feeling too hot. before i went home i stopped off at the library and picked up a bunch of movies to keep me company while i was resting.

so i'm just going to say it. i watched the sex and the city movie and loved it. i laughed. i cried. i thoroughly enjoyed it. i've never watched an episode of this show in my life. ok, maybe i've seen one episode at some point. and it's not that i had a horrible opinion of the show. i just didn't think i'd like it that much. but you know what i really liked about it? these days we see woman always hating on each other. they're always fighting each other about something (usually men) and jealous of one another. i love that here is a healthy view of women in friendship. they support each other. they love each other. it was sweet.

i also watched cars, fantastic 4, license to wed, and we went to the theater last night to see district 9. cars was cute. fantastic 4-not good. license to wed-awful. district 9 was really good. but i had to stomach my way through not vomiting from the jolty camera.

they have lasers

check out my hubs and his sis on we have lasers!

an ode to trees

baldman was so inspired by the scenery yesterday that he wrote this little tune:

lake jocassee

yesterday we spent a day on a boat!

our friends, the dells, found themselves in possession of a boat for the day. well, actually it's a pontoon. but, same thing to me. anyways, they were kind enough to share their good fortune with us and some other friends. so we spent the day yesterday on lake jocassee in the way way upstate.

i can't tell you how much fun we had. it seems like it's been a really long time since i had such a completely enjoyable day. the weather was beautiful, the scenery was spectacular, the company was fabulous, the food...oh the food. yums. and one of the best parts, i didn't have to do anything. we literally just showed up on friday night and the rest was taken care of. what a treat!

thanks, dells et al. for such a great adventure! i'd be up for doing it again soon!

here are some choice shots, but you can see the whole set on flickr. and, please, no comments on those of us in bathing suits.


"the captain and maryann" with the rock wall behind them




the lake and mountains


hiking to and through waterfalls


dogwood sliding down a waterfall


one of the many waterfalls we saw


he's on a boat, motha' f'ers!


hiking the treacherous terrain up the waterfalls


zach and lindsay swimming


swimming by our fabulous pontoon