Cold As You

The cold weather arrived in full force on November 1.  My windshield has looked like this every morning:

That means the ice scraper has already been pulled out for the season.  Booooooooooo.  Gonna be a long winter, folks!! 

By the way, the weird spot at the bottom of my windshield is from the defroster being on.

Hear You Me

Just a word to the wise and/or anyone who may come to our house: we have a carbon monoxide detector hanging at shoulder-height in our hallway.

Do not try and be cute and do a "sorority composite pose" for your husband (or me or L or anyone else who may be here) against the wall that the detector is on while you are waiting on him to finish getting dressed so you can go to brunch.  If you do, it will likely cause the cover of the detector to jiggle the battery inside, which will cause the alarm to go off at full volume in your ear.  This will not be comfortable.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT!

L and I had several friends over on Saturday to watch the A&M take on OU.  L smoked a brisket and some chicken wings; I roasted carrots, found a recipe for hearty baked beans (from the Junior League of Denver's Colorado Colore) to put my own spin on, and made Hostess with the Mostest cupcakes (from Pastry Queen Parties).  A visual of our spread:

We had a great night!  The Ags came out on top (a big surprise to the 5 of us from Texas) and the food was great.  Two of our friends introduced us to a new drink called a Peach Cobbler and it was the perfect fall drink for a chilly night.  I forgot to take pics, but each drink consists of warm apple cider, a shot of vanilla vodka, and a shot of peach schnapps.  I'm not usually one for warm cocktails, but it really hits the spot on a cold night.  Thanks K and C for introducing it to us!

I Wish I Was in Dixie Land

L and I celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago.  Knowing my love for home renovation and house flipping, L planned a little 1-night getaway to Richmond, Virginia: home of Young House Love bloggers.

Okay, so I'm kidding on that last part.  I mean, we really did go there, and that really is where the YHL couple lives, but that is NOT why we went there (and I am not that into home renovation or flipping).  L and I each have lists of places we want to visit and Richmond was on both of ours, so L studied up and planned the trip out.  We got up early Saturday morning, hit the open road, and he didn't tell me where we were headed until we were heading south on 395!  He knows I love a good surprise.  While in Richmond, we opted to explore the Museum of the Confederacy and adjoining Confederate White House where Jefferson Davis lived during his tenure as President of the Confederacy.  After that, we made our way over to Cary Street to peruse the shops and then rounded out the afternoon in another area called Shockoe for a little sustenance.  Then we checked into our hotel and we were just going to relax- we had about 3 hours to kill before dinner- and take our time getting ready for our 8:00 dinner reservations… until I realized I’d left my shoes at home.  I was wearing brown cowboy boots that day and everything I brought for dinner was black.   Plus, it was a nice restaurant, so even if my cowboy boots had gone with my clothing options, it wasn't the kind of place where girls can role in wearing dirty, old cowboy boots and a dress or skirt and not stick out like a sore thumb!  So off we went to try and find the mall where Nordstrom, Macy's, and Dillards all are.  We never made it, but that's because eagle-eyed L spotted a DSW on the way (apparently that mall is not actually in Richmond; we'd been driving for 20 minutes already and it was still a handful of miles away).  L and I were quickly reminded why we usually don't shop for me together (I like to peruse ALL available options, whereas he often picks the first thing that meets his needs), but I got down to business and quickly scoured the store, which resulted in me finding 2 options to bring back to the hotel to try with my various evening clothing options.  Dinner was at The Dining Room at the Berkeley Hotel (very good, although L had a sinus infection and wasn't feeling great).  Sunday morning we got up and had a great brunch at Strawberry Cafe before heading out of town. 

Given the pitiful state of my camera, I didn't take many pictures.  In fact, I only took 3.  I give you my shots of Richmond:

Isn't that the best-looking fall sidewalk??  I love the colors of the leaves.  So picturesque.  The homes lining this street were so quaint with big front porches and siding of various colors.  You can tell they've been around for a loooong time by the architecture, the lead panes in the windows, and the fact that there's only about 3 feet between every house. 

Now, for my other 2 pictures.  As we walked down Cary St., I saw a cute little veterinary office that seems so friendly!  I mean, it's called PAL: 

And then I saw the sign on the street:

I'm all for controlling the pet population, but the way they just put it right out there caught us both off guard.  I assume all they do is spay and neuter pets, but really, I have no idea.  I'm sure Bob Barker would be happy.  In all seriousness, it looks like a charming little vet, so if you live in Richmond and own a pet, why not check them out. 

Anyway, it was a fun way to celebrate our anniversary and now we can check off Richmond on our list of road trips! 

They did the mash! They did the monster mash...

Last night was Halloween!  It's one of my favorite holidays.  I have no idea why.  I didn't partake in any Halloween decor or festivities last year because I was squatting with my parents during the month of October (Mom didn't decorate because of the wedding) and then we were driving to Virginia on Halloween day/night.  Consequently I was super excited to pull out my Halloween decorations this year!  Except then I remembered I'd streamlined my collection before I moved, so I didn't have as much as I'd remembered.  What's a girl to do but add to it?? 

I could have added a LOT.  I was very inspired by glam Halloween decorations.  But in light of the fact that while husbands appreciate festiveness, they don't understand spending the money on them the way wives do, I kept myself in check.  Here were some of my highlights of this year's decor':

Casper, who has been part of my family's decorations since roughly 1984.  He was always one of my favorites as a little tike.

A new centerpiece addition on the dining room table, contents of the bowl from Pier 1.

New candles (orange from Pier 1, black glitter- which you can't really see- from Michaels).

Also, in case you are wondering, $28 will buy you the orange spider web candles and the pillar candle and surround acorn mix from the center piece pic, along with some a 4-pack of tapers and one lone orange taper from Pier 1.  Just in case you ever wanted to know how many candles that would buy you.

Glittery pumpkins.  Sorry the picture quality isn't so great.  There's a black one right next to the orange one.

And here's my kind of lame-o attempt at a jack-o-lantern.  A word to the wise: carving with a semi-dull paring knife is just not that easy and it won't yield fabulous results.  That's supposed to be a cat and a moon.  Next year I will be purchasing a pumpkin carving kit. 

Also, we were both excited about trick-or-treaters.  Sadly, our door was only knocked upon about 5 times, and one of those was 2 teenage boys (I don't think teenagers should be trick-or-treating).  The good thing is that all the kids were cute AND none of them noticed that my cat-o-lantern's front paws were oversized (due to my dull paring knife accidentally cutting off the little foot divider for the front legs)! 

We didn't dress up this year.  However, if I had, I know what I would have been: a cat in a cone of shame.  This requires a little bit of a back story.  On Friday night, my right eye started bothering me.  Very painful, very red, and very watery.  Definite crustiness when I woke up Saturday morning.  Luckily I still had some eye drops from a similar problem from 2 weeks prior.  Obviously, eye problems of this nature means no contacts.  Due to a multi-month bout with Pink Eye 8 years ago, I also know that when people see gross eyes, they tend to cringe and not want to hang out with you.  Thus, an eye patch (preferably of the pirate persuasion) would have been necessary.  And because I've been a half-assed pirate before, I knew I wouldn't want to be that again.  What costumes do I have on hand that are easy to wear and pull off?  Obviously a pair of cat ears and a tail.  So, to make it fit, I decided to add a cone around my head.  I would have looked similar to this, except black and without gloves:

Photo from whydoesmycat.com.

Except we didn't dress up.  So no cat in a cone of shame for me.  Maybe next year???