Extreme Makeover, Carrie On Edition

I know we all LOVE Google Reader (how else would I entertain myself while Brian watches ESPN?) but today is the day to LET GO and actually VISIT my blog. Why?!?! BECAUSE IT LOOKS PURDY NOW!!!!! 

Nothing fancy-schmancy, but a huge improvement over the pink pepto-bismol-throw-up-fest that existed mere moments ago. And a big MUCHOS GRACIAS to the little bro for his help in making this overhaul possible. Tristan made the header happen - he even had to FIGHT Blogger to get the stupid thing to work. Sidenote - is it just me, or isn't Google supposed to be God?! Well then WHY is Blogger so freaking hard to use?! Come on Google! You make my life easy in so many ways, so stop "Waving" and make Blogger better!! And we're back - It is a miracle that I managed to change my sidebar titles all by myself. Just in case you don't feel like leaving the comforts of your Reader (booo on you!) here is the new header (with a convenient link to the brand schpanking new place). 

GET IT!?!?!??!

In other news, I almost managed to ruin T-giving by allowing my AWESOME apple pie to overflow onto the bottom of the oven. Lots of smoke ensued and the fiasco set us back almost 2 hours. Oooops! Oh and in case you didn't catch that, I MADE A FREAKING PIE, amongst other things. Details to come...

The Real T-Giving?

We all love T-Giving. There is no doubt about that. But what are we REALLY celebrating?? Wednesday Addams has an interesting take. So. Go eat some yummy food, take some naps, listen to Al Roker's annoying commentary, and WATCH THIS VIDEO. It does not disappoint. 

I'm thankful for all of you, my lovely, amazing readers. 

Mini Vacay

This past weekend Bri and I decided to head for the hills and take a mini vacation in Staunton, VA. First things first here. Is it pronounced St-ON-ton or St-AN-ton? Seriously I have no idea and I've heard it both ways. I've been going with the ON version, but I am starting to think that the locals use, AN. Ooops. 

I highly recommend a weekend trip to Staunton. It is beautiful, inexpensive, interesting, and tiny-but-not-too-tiny. To sum up the trip: we stayed at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel (SO NICE), we ate delicious meals at Emilios, Shenandoah Pizza, Mug Shots, and Mill House, we bought LOTS of beer at Queen City Brewery, we saw a glass blowing presentation, we walked around the town, we did some Xmas shopping, we took naps, we read newspapers, we overheard highschoolers going on about Twilight, we hung out with the posh locals at a shmancy bar, we visited a winery, and we finished off the trip at another brewery. All in all, a fantastic trip. 

Here are some pics to prove it...

The only pic we took together. Not so great but you get the idea

Sampler at Blue Mountain Brewery

I can never pass up a delicious plate of tomato, mozzarella, pesto, and EVOO (eat your heart out Rachael Ray)

I played in the leaves.

Ridiculously amazing glass blower. 2,500 degree ovens, eeek! That is an ornament he's making.

Me randomly outside of the hotel.

Stay tuned for vacay #2...T-Giving in OBX!

Merci Beaucoup!

Roll out the red carpet...this chica has won some awards!! 

Thanks for bearing with me oh-kind-and-generous-award givers, I am still trying to figure out how to make the little awards appear on my blog and I know it has taken me many moons (no, NOT New Moons, you crazy T-lite people) to officially thank you for nominating me. I know I am the most technologically UNSAVVY blogger ever, but I really do appreciate the kudos. Oh and I am finally mastering the art of scheduling my posts. Now I can write a few at a time and then BAM! shoot them to (all 30 of) your Google Readers randomly throughout the day. 

Sorry, tangent. 

So yes, I have been deemed worthy in the blogosphere by two very fantabulous bloggers, Shannon and Lindsay.  Fellow Phillies fan (yummm Jayson Werth) and ridiculously awesome DIY-er, Shannon, threw me my very first blog award...

How lovely! Hopefully the blog overhaul will actually make this little blog lovely enough to start looking at outside of your Reader. No crazy "rules" with this award, other than the fact that I have to pass it on, so here you go...

Kelly @ Dare to be Domestic (the orange blog header is most definitely LOVELY...swooon!)

Jacqueline @ l y m i b  (A fellow GRIT from the best state in all the land, North Carolina)

Susan @ Susan in the South (Another lovely selection...impeccable style here!)

Ashley @ I Love you more than Carrots (Certainly my most favorite blog title EVER)

As for my second nomination, I'd like to thank Lindsay , another new-ish blogger to the sphere (just like yours truly!). Drum roll please....

Holy Moly, I'm fabulous AND sugary!! Just out of curiosity, I had to google image Sugar Doll just to see what one might look like. Here is the creepy result:

Yikes?! I'm pretty sure that thing comes alive at night and bakes batches and batches of poisonous sugar cookies and then feeds them to the Bratz dolls...

But, alas, I digress. I am very excited that a fellow blogger thinks I am cool enough for an award and I will proceed with sticking to the sugary rules that come along with the nomination.  And now, 10 interesting facts about myself (hold on to your seats!).

1. My first pets were two cats named Beavis and Oreo. Beavis passed away when I was in college and Oreo is still kickin it. I/We got them when I was 10. 
   
2. I used to have a "thing" about open doors. I couldn't stay in a room if the main door leading into it was open. 
   
3. Ham disgusts me. I can't even stand the smell of it. If ham has touched any part of what I am eating, you can forget about it. 
   
4. I have really terrible vision (my contacts are -6.75 if that means anything to you) and my eyes get SUPER red and dried out all the time. I often worry that people will think I am on drugs thanks to my bloodshot eyes.
   
5. I have incredible patience (my mom taught me this invaluable life skill) and can deal with just about anything you throw my way.
6. My feet are almost always icecubes.
7. I am a really terrible cook. I can make some random and awesome dishes, but when it comes to day-t0-day meal preparation I have a giant FAIL stamped to my forehead. Thankfully I live with a culinary genius-by-comparison.
8. One day, when I'm old enough (ha!) I want a cute little Pomchi to carry around with me wherever I go (a cross between a Pomeranian and a Chihuahua). Something like this, this, or this. I know it isn't the most brutal of dogs, but something has to even out the lab Brian plans to purchase one day.
9. When I was about 6, I broke my right arm in a terrible biking accident (i.e. I skidded in the sand and fell over like a little wimpy girl). The weird bone that sticks out on my elbow on the inside of my arm basically stuck itself out and did all kinds of weird stuff. I don't remember much of the experience other than when the doctor tried to pop things back in place with his bare hands and while I was not under anesthesia. Jerk. I was in a cast for a long time. I vividly remember getting the cast off (they used a SAW!!!) and then looking at my freakishly atrophied twig arm. It was kind of like this (remember, I was SIX, that chick is just nasty). 
10. Thanks to aforementioned terrible biking accident, I am now quite close to actual ambidextrousness. I play the guitar left handed, I play basketball left handed, I cut food with the knife in my left hand (faux pas!), and I have decent left-handwriting. Not sure why all of these things decided to make the switch to the left side, but I must have started to morph into some sort of guitar-playing basketball-shooting superstar at the tender age of six. 

As for passing on this sugary blog puppy, I think I will do it randomly and when you all least expect it. So stay tuned to the foreseeable future...

DIY C-Section

Many thanks to Shannon for opening my eyes to this amazing piece of literary genius. And I apologize for the somewhat disgusting nature of this post's title. Please read on...

Save yourself the torture and skip reading the Twilight books. I got through about half of the first one and then realized that drinking a handle of cheap vodka would probably be better for my brain. I know the basic gist of the stories (since it is REALLY hard to avoid Twilight these days), and I think this cartoon pretty much sums up the entire melodramatic teenage c section-your-own-demon baby saga. 

Need a bigger version? Click here.

Of course I had to send this to Brian as soon as I saw it, since he is completely appalled by the idea of a vampire giving his "wife" a c-section with his vampire teeth. I just threw up a little actually. Brian is an avid cracked.com reader and came across this Twilight gem. Between the cartoon above and the cracked.com article, you should be able to find out anything you ever needed to know about Twilight. Any other fantastic Twilight commentary out there?!

Overhaulin

Get ready for a serious blog overhaul around these parts. Over T-Giving "break" the lil bro and I are going to make this baby blog SHINE! He is super smart with all things technology and will be able to help me figure out how to tweek things a bit. We're probably talking baby steps here, but I hope the final product will be a vast improvement from my current template (I don't even know how to center my header, let alone make it clickable...oh well). 

In other news, Hulu.com is the best site on the internet. Sorry FB and Twitter, you just can't entertain me like Hulu can. I've also gotten a kick out of Animoto.com lately. 

In other, other news, our heat is STILL broken. I wish I could time travel back to 1920 when the sucker was installed so I could thumb through the owner's manual. According to the "Duct Truck" guy (teee heee) we are missing an entire PIPE from the boiler. How does that even happen?? He went to turn the thing on and water started spewing out of a wall across the room. Yeah, not so pretty. Looks like we are gonna have to pour some serious dough into this one UGH. 

And finally, aren't my girlfriends FABULOUS?! Of course, not all of them are pictured here, but I just thought I'd say that I LOVE THEM ALL!!!!

The big 25 Celebration

New Years Eve

I know it is only mid-November, but I am starting to get stressed over what the heck to do with myself for NYE. The past two years Brian hosted a party at his apartment just off of Cary Street and we attended the Carytown NYE celebrations that were just out his back door. This year we obviously don't have that luxury and I'm not so sure about what to do. The fam is planning a trip to NYC for just after Christmas, but we don't plan on staying to ring in the new year there. I feel like the world is my oyster (ok well more like the East Coast...or a place within driving distance of VA) and that I should start planning something now. The last thing I want to do is sit in front of the TV and watch annoying media personalities talk about absolutely nothing. 

And now on to some resolutions. I know this is kinda jumping the gun, but I'm sure there will be an UNBELIEVABLE amount of resolution posts on blogs at the end of next month and I would like to get mine out of the way now. So here you go:

1. Run the Monument 10K in under 60 minutes. 

2. Paint away the rest of the annoying colors in the house.

3. Blog at least 3-4 times a week (sorry, no daily blogging for this little lady. I've got to leave something to your imagination right?!)

4. Learn to freaking cook finally. Baby steps on this one...maybe 1 new or interesting dish a week.

5. Reunite with my best friends.

6. Go to a Phillies game in another state (outside of PA).

7. Learn about good wine and start drinking more of it.

8. Purge and organize every room in the house.

That's it for now, but I'm sure there will be more to add to that list. I can do all that in a year right?! I would hope so. 

Now I leave you with pics from NYEs past, enjoy!

Hello 2008.

Fine in 2009.

Cheers to 2010 being as fabulous as 2009!!!

And we're off

I've had a seriously difficult time packing for my upcoming trip to CT for work. I even had a minor freak out and ended up at TJ Maxx, Marshalls, & Target tonight from about 7-9pm. I don't really know what I was looking for in these places but after trying on half my wardrobe I was just NOT satisfied and needed to hit the stores. Thankfully my bags are packed and I'm ready to roll. And can I just say that people in the stores tonight were SO ANNOYING. You would think that on a rainy Tuesday night people would stay home but no, they just had to be out and about yelping in the shoe aisle about how "right darn purdy those there boots be." I just wanted some peace a quiet to sort through my wardrobe malfunction please! I did end up walking away with two cute "casual" dresses to wear throughout the conference. I really have no idea what to expect over the next few days, but I imagine it is going to be quite interesting (read: international conference of law enforcement...and I've heard these guys know how to party - yikes!). 

In other news, I am blatantly disgusted by the fact that MTV will be starting a show called "Jersey Shore." It looks horrible, scary, annoying, and totally intriguing. The guy in the preview boasts the fact that it takes him 25 minutes to make his guido oily greasy mop into something "respectable." Oh and they are all fistpumping around with pit stains filling the screen left and right. Puke. No doubt I will need to check this out and report back later...

Yikes! I'm going random again...

- I kid you not, I slept two FULL nights worth of sleep last night (yes about 13 hours). How on earth was my body physically able to do that?! I was up at 5:00am on Sunday morning for a work event, but I didn't think I would be THAT tired. Hopefully I am able to sleep tonight...

- The rest of my November is looking pretty full. I am leaving for CT on Wednesday for a conference (hosted @ the MGM Grand, whooo hoooo!) and won't be back until Sunday. Then Bri and I are off to Staunton the next weekend and then it is time to stuff my face with turkey and cranberry sauce (the kind in a can - I HATE chunks in my cranberry sauce). Where did this month go?

- It really bothers me when I change the radio station and I hear the last 5 seconds of a song I really like. It makes me feel like I have really bad luck :(

- It took me a really long time (I'm talkin years...) to realize that the little arrow on the gas indicator points in the direction that your gas cap is on. Who knew?!?!

- Ashlee Simpson, Britney Spears, the Geico Cavemen, and bad drivers: please stop going out in public. I am sick of all of you. 

- Modern Family is the best show on TV these days. Go watch it on Hulu NOW!!!!

In other news, I had full intentions of updating the blog this weekend while I was away in VA Beach for work. However, my hotel did not have wireless internet regardless of the fact that it is 2009. Thankfully I was able to draft a few posts and hope to have them ready for your curious little eyes later this week. 

And now I leave you with this picture from Halloween; please note the super cool t-shirt:

(I was hoping to spare you the picture of his bottom half but it is just too funny not to share...)

Hipster-rific.

Office decor

I really want this print for my office but I can't decide which color to go with. What a great phrase to work by, ESPECIALLY considering this lil ole blog's namesake!

Any suggestions?

Check out sfgirlbybay's Etsy shop for all the lovely options!

Halloween, Philly, and Sleep Deprivation

What a whirlwind weekend. With Halloween and our insane less-than-24-hour Philly trip, the weekend seemed extremely long (and really amazing). Here is a brief re-cap of our Halloween extravaganza...

DIY-ing it: Strawberry, Vanilla, & Chocolate Ice Cream with Sprinkles on the side!

We used pillow cases as the "dress" part of the outfit and then went crazy with glitter, the hot glue gun, and lots of ribbon. The red splotches all over me are plastic strawberries that I found at the craft store (they sell a wide variety of fake fruits in case you ever feel the need to make some sort of fake fruit inspired decor...). To make things more obvious we also created "name tags" out of foam paper so we didn't just look like blobs of glittery goodness. 

With Deuce around, we were a Banana Split (certified organic of course).

A more detailed view...I wish I was stylish enough to figure out how to re-wear those amazing knee-high stockings, but somehow I don't think they are "work appropriate".

We even carried around pints of ice cream as our "purses". We ended up using them as cup holders. I also had about half a can of hairspray and glitter spray in my hair. My house is also completely covered in glitter - so festive! All in all Halloween was quite successful. I even managed to make some delicious Halloween treats and pass out candy to little kiddies. We finished off the night by "trick or treating" to each others apartments for drinks (I'll spare you those details, although I highly recommend the concept). 

And this, my friends, is where the photo-taking stops. Brian and I caught a cab home around 12:30am on Halloween night so we could scarf down some pizza and get ready for our Philly trip. Unfortunately I was unable to find my camera for the trip (the photos above were stolen from Facebook :) so I will share the details of this trip with you in a timeline:

Sunday, 1:30am: Bedtime

Sunday, 4:00am: Wake up to the most annoying alarm clock EVER.

5:00am: Catch train to 30th St Station in Philly

5:00am - 10:00am: Attempt to sleep on train - FAIL. (oh but we scored WORLD SERIES tickets on our way up thanks to Brian's friend from college. Whoo hooo the day just got better).

10:00am: Arrive at 30th St, eat yogurt and granola, drink large latte (decaf, I promise)

10:30am: Board SEPTA train to sports complex

10:45am: Arrive at sports complex area for Eagles tailgate

10:45am - 11:30am: Walk around the MASSIVE tailgate attempting to locate Brian's uncle

11:30am - 12:45pm: Find Uncle Vince, drink a few beers (yuck-o), and eat yummy tailgate foods. Meet two random men with son's at U of R (thanks to my Richmond hoodie). 

1:00pm: Meet up with Brian's bro and friend from college and walk to Chickies and Pete's to watch the Eagles game.

1:00pm - 4:00pm: STAND at the bar and watch the entire Eagles game. Eagles DOMINATE Giants. Life is good.

4:00pm: Walk back to sports complex and wait in LONG LINE to get into bar connected to the Phillies stadium. Rejoice over the fact that we have TICKETS TO THE WORLD SERIES. 

5:30pm: Finally enter bar and snag a table since we haven't had a chance to sit down since the train. 

5:30pm - 7:30pm: Fight off headache and fatigue but enjoy the fact that I am sitting down at a table with a waitress. 

7:30pm - 12:00am: Watch GAME 4 of the WORLD SERIES and have a great time until the 9th inning. Then things went downhill and I think we all know what happened...

Monday, 12:00am: Fight crowds to get back to SEPTA and make our way to Media, PA. 

12:30am: Board wrong train. Cry a little.

12:45am: Decide to catch a cab to 30th Street and pray that there is another train to Media. 

1:04am: Last scheduled train to Media departs - we MADE IT even though it didn't actually leave until 1:30am. 

2:00am: Roll into Media and realize that Brian's brother has fallen asleep and won't be coming to fetch us. Throw minor hissy fit, get cranky, and yearn for a bed.

2:15am: Get saved by Brian's dad so we don't have to walk through the dark and scary forest. 

2:30am: In BED. Hallelujah. 

6:00am: Up to catch train back to 30th Street

6:30am: Definitely do NOT fit in on the train with all the happy working-types heading into the office. Get a few questioning glances.

7:30am: Board train back to Richmond

7:45am: Forced to move to another train car for some bizarre reason. wtf Amtrak??! I was happy NOT being in a car with a screaming baby thank you very much. 

7:45am - 12:00pm: Train back to Richmond. Sleep attempted. Baby screams the entire way. FAIL. 

Needless to say it was a long weekend, but totally worth it since we got to go to the WORLD SERIES. We are pissed that the Phillies lost, but it was such a great experience. And thankfully I had today off from work thanks to election day, so I am happy to report that I am all caught up on sleep. 

Carrie on!