Quote of the Day.

Justin: "I have an itch on the bottom of my foot, but I can't scratch it because it tickles."

5 things . . .

5 things I am thankful for . . .

1. A vacation to San Diego coming up soon!

2. Firefly sweet tea vodka mixed with lemonade. The drink is delicious, to say the least.

(photo: drinkhacker)

3. That The Hills and The City are back on! Oh Spencer and Olivia, I have missed you guys!

4. Having a hairdresser who I completely trust to do whatever she wants and always loving how it turns out. This time -- darker hair (for fall) and shorter bangs.

5. That I can see Joel McHale one more day per week on his new show Community.

(photo: nbc)

Kitchen Lighting.

I love our kitchen, but I think it could be even better with some new lighting. I am pretty sure the guy before us removed the light fixture above the breakfast room area. (He decided to change the fireplace too.) Neither renovation was a positive, if you ask me.

After several weeks of looking at decorpad, I finally was inspired to get some new lighting for our kitchen. It just so happened that Restoration Hardware is also currently having their annual lighting sale. Here are all of the pictures I saved as inspiration. All photos are from decorpad.






This last picture really sealed the deal for me. If you are really paying attention, you would recognize this kitchen from my dream home:

We decided to go with two 8" clemson pendants for over the island, one 14" pendant for over the table, and one 12" schoolhouse semi-flushmount for over the sink.

I can't wait to get them and see them in our kitchen. We found the 14" clemson pendant on ebay brand new for a great price and it shipped yesterday!

Minimum Requirements.

I mentioned here that we recently went to a UT football game. During the game, I came to the conclusion that there really needs to be some minimum requirements to be able to get a ticket. I am not talking about a high bar for admittance, but there should be some basic safeguards in place, especially for high-demand games.

As a disclaimer, I bleed burnt orange. For example, as a baby, I had a longhorn onesie. I have probably been in front of the TV for the majority of UT games my entire life (even if all I remember was my dad yelling at the refs).

In any event, we had a heck of a time finding tickets to the UT/Tech game. We were constantly scouring craigslist and would contact the seller almost instantaneously, and the tickets would already be gone. It was crazy. We finally found some tickets (after several people before us flaked on the seller). So with that background of being totally consumed with trying to find tickets (and we were willing to pay what I consider to be a premium), I was a little perturbed with the people I saw in the stadium. That led me to think about some requirements UT should have in place to get high-demand tickets.

1. You have to have at least a basic understanding of football. I am not talking about having to know all the hand signals used by the refs or the height, weight, hometown, and middle name of each player on the team, but merely a working knowledge of how the game is played. The boyfriend of the girl sitting next to me had to explain what downs were and that after 3 of them, if the team doesn't get 10 yards, the other team gets the ball. Puh-lease. I am pretty sure my mom understands that concept (no offense, mom).

2. You cannot even think about bringing a book, newspaper, or have your cell phone out during the action. Someone sitting near us was texting almost the entire game. She was paying absolutely no attention to what was happening on the field. Even when the person she was with tried to get her engaged in the game, she was having none of it and continued texting away. That brings me to point 3 . . .

3. You have to appreciate either college football or UT athletics. The same texter mentioned in number 2 sent the following message: "OMG. These people are crazy. They are yelling." (Yes, I have no shame -- I read her text message.) Are you kidding me chick, you are in a stadium with over 100,000 longhorn fans at one of the biggest games of the season. You better believe we are yelling Texas Fight!

Perhaps if these requirements were met, it would give people who are actually fans of the game a better shot at getting tickets. It's a win-win, really. People who don't understand football, don't care about UT or college football, and who would rather read a book or text a long lost friend can do so in the privacy and quietness of their own home without all the crazy, longhorn fans around disturbing them.

Dishwashing Soap Bottle.

A while back, I saw the clever idea of using an antique bottle for dishwashing soap on brooklynlimestone.com. At the time, I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for and settled on this little bottle from Crate and Barrel.


It was nothing fancy, but it did the trick and was better than the plastic bottle that the soap comes in. Recently, the little stopper fell in the bottle, so rather than figure out how to fish it out, I took it as a sign that it was time to find something new.

After some looking on ebay, I found the perfect bottle! I love how it has 8 sides!


Evidently, Schenck's Pulmonic Syrup was a concoction of Chamomile, worm-wood, catnip, essence of tansy, hyssop, hops, hoarhound, comfrey, senega, gum Arabic, licorice, elecampane, Indian turnip, lemon juice, brandy, and water. It was used to treat sore throats. (source: here).

Sounds like some very interesting ingredients. In any event, it looks super cute on the counter and makes dishwashing more enjoyable (if that is even possible).

Ikea Trip.

(Sean, this post is for you. I know you have been anxiously waiting . . .)

I mentioned in my post here that we bought something that required assembly from Ikea. We bought two Henriksdal chairs for our dining room. I love our dining room table and chairs (which we recently recovered), but the room just seemed a touch dark and needed a little updating. I kept seeing pictures of upholstered chairs at the head of the table and loved the idea.

Here is a before picture:

Thankfully, the chairs were very reasonably priced and were actually cheaper than some of the slip-cover options I was looking into.

It's nothing major, but I love the new look!

Austin Trip.

I am way behind in my posts, but last weekend we went to the UT/Texas Tech football game. We paid way too much for tickets last minute from craigslist, and then Justin pricelined (yes, I just made that a verb) a great hotel for cheap the afternoon before we left. It was well worth all the craziness trying to get everything lined up (even for a type A personality like me).

We got into Austin on Saturday and went to the Salt Lick for some delicious bar-b-que with some friends from my office. After we recovered from our meat coma, we headed to the game.

Thankfully it was an evening game, but it was still hot! The game was great (and was even better since we won)!


After the game, our friend Chris picked us up and took us to Tiff's Treats. They make cookies and deliver them warm to your door (with milk). Pure genius! They also have a pick-up location, which is where we headed. I hadn't had them since I was in college, and they were just as tasty as I remembered.

We then met up with Jeremy and Meagan at Kerbey Lane. Yes, that's right -- we had some delicious cookies and then went for some dinner/breakfast. You have to eat the cookies while they are still warm (and drink the milk while it is still cold).

Here are me and Meagan waiting for our table:

And the boys (Justin, Jeremy, and Chris):

Sunday afternoon on our way out of town, we met up with Chris, Jeremy, Meagan, Zach, and Carrie for some great food at Matt's El Rancho.

Good food, good football, and good friends make for a great weekend!

Dream Home.

Sorry I have been MIA -- I have been in Minneapolis for a mediation. Thankfully, my trip was uneventful compared to this recent flight from Houston to Minneapolis.

Anywho . . . I came across my dream home tonight via decorpad. Check it out here. This house is decorated beautifully. I won't even tell you how many times I have watched (and drooled over) the slide show.
I would move right in and not change a thing! Love the lighting, the furniture, the master bathroom, the pool, the elevator wallpaper . . .

Ikea with Justin.

We made a very quick trip to Ikea last night. It would have been even quicker, but Justin was playing around on the Ikea carts. They move in all directions -- not just forward and backwards, like typical shopping carts. And, in Justin's words, "they glide."

While I was looking at the inventory, he ran off to find a cart. I looked over at the end of the aisle at the exact right time, and saw him coasting by on the cart. He then rode the cart down the aisle to where I was standing. It took him some extra time to position and shimmy the cart and himself just right -- once he got the cart, it wasn't until we had to put our items on it that he finally hopped off.

Here is his helping me pick out one of the items that we needed:


Stay tuned for what we bought at Ikea. Only one of them is currently assembled. Pictures to come soon!

Texas Fight.

This College Gameday video with Mack Brown cracks me up:



"We don't freestyle Texas Fight, big boy." Love it!

(I am currently keeping my fingers crossed. I just found some "reasonably priced" tickets to the UT/Tech game on craigslist and am hoping the seller calls soon!)

Football Fashion.

One of the things that got my attention during the UT and Wyoming game yesterday (besides UT's slow start) was the Wyoming coach's outfit. Don't get me wrong, I know a football game isn't a fashion show, but his outfit was downright terrible.

(photo: espn)

First thing, what's up with the necklace? You can't see it in this picture, but there was also a tag on it in the back. Is a big necklace some Wyoming tradition?

The other thing, the mismatching khaki colors of his sweater vest and pants are a disaster. I get that yellow and brown aren't the most flattering colors, but the varying khaki shades selection was not a good move.

He is a new coach at Wyoming, so maybe it will just take him several games to adjust his wardrobe to the new team colors. But, he did just came from Missouri, whose colors were yellow and black.

Oh, and Hook 'em!

Slumdog Millionaire.

Don't ask me why it look so long for me to see Slumdog Millionaire, but we finally watched it Friday night. It was a great movie, and I really enjoyed it. There is probably no one else out there who hasn't seen it yet, but if you haven't, I definitely recommend it.

(photo: wikipedia)

One question I had though -- did anyone else find it odd that all of the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire questions were in chronological order of his life? Obviously, it makes for a better storyline, but it bothered me just a bit.

Physique 57.

It's official. I am getting my butt in gear and getting back in shape. Working tons recently has not resulted in the best eating and exercising habits. But that is about to change.

So this morning I came downstairs to do my Physique 57 videos that were delivered earlier in the week. Justin came down a few minutes later and sat on the couch and proceeded to comment on my moves ("your back is not as straight as theirs is") and laugh at the lady's motivational sayings ("push out the fat").

He works out at the gym at his office and plays volleyball in a work league during lunch. I wish I worked closer to him so that I could go over to his gym when he worked out and sit around and make comments like: "that's all you can lift?" "doesn't the treadmill go faster than that?" "your serve wasn't as good as that other guy's."

I hope to have positive updates on my progress of getting back in shape. I can say that Physique 57 kicked my butt this morning.

5 random things . . .

I am back am back from Kentucky! The dispute was successfully resolved in our favor (big time), in case anyone was wondering. I am too tired to put together a coherent post involving paragraphs and correct punctuation, so here are 5 random thoughts:

1. Justin lost his wedding ring when I was out of town. (It sounds shady, I know.) Hopefully it will turn up soon. It wasn't super expensive, but of course, it has a lot of sentimental value. It makes me sad seeing his left hand without a ring on it. But back off ladies, he is still taken!

2. Why when I order several different things online, the majority of the packages come on Tuesday, the day after I go out of town? At least I had 3 fun packages to open when I got home.

3. Having a key fob / push button start for my car is awesome 99% of the time, but is a royal pain the butt when the batteries die in both key fobs at the same time.


4. I wish shopping for a new pair of jeans was easy.

5. Firefly sweet tea vodka is delicious.

Labor Day.

Happy Labor Day!

(photo: here)

I guess it is only fitting that I am headed out of state to resolve a labor dispute today. I will be back Thursday. Maybe Justin will do a guest-post in my absence, but I wouldn't count on it.