Random, but funny.

I randomly came across this video and could not stop laughing (and watching it over and over again). Keep watching until the end. The best part is the reaction of orange kitten that was fighting. I can just imagine him thinking "what the heck?!"

Good Gracious.

The game wasn't pretty, I don't understand what happened the last 30 seconds, and I missed seeing Colt and Jordan work their magic like normal, but Texas won the Big 12 Championship game in a nail-biter. It came down to the last second (literally).

What a great game (I can say that now that it is over, and I have recovered from my 3 heart attacks). Hook 'em horns!

(photo: chron.com)

Happy Birthday, Justin.

Happy birthday to my wonderful husband. He is the best husband in the whole world (even though he is the hardest person to buy for). He got an early present with all the snow Houston had yesterday! And I am hoping UT will win the Big 12 Championship game tonight in honor of Justin's birthday!

Early Presents.

So they're not really Christmas presents, but I am very excited about two things.

(1) When I get home from work tomorrow, an electrician will have spent the whole day changing lighting configurations in our kitchen and bathroom. I can't wait to finally share pictures of the changes and new light fixtures previously blogged about here and here.

(2) After a very long and diligent search, I bought a replacement for my everyday purse. It will be sad to see my other bag go, but she lived a good long life. And, let's be serious, this new beauty will make the transition a little easier.

I am off to prepare a response to a ridiculous motion for contempt, do my work self-evaluation that always takes forever, and to change all my stuff over to my new bag.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I have a lot to be thankful for this year. In honor of turkey-day, here are 15 things I am thankful for:

1. My terrific husband. No one could ever love me like he does.

2. Riley -- the cutest and sweetest dog in the whole world (who is snuggled right next to me).

3. Our great home. I can't believe we've already lived here for 2 years.

4. My mom. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful mom. (This is our first Thanksgiving apart!)

5. My job. Even though I wish it wasn't so crazy sometimes, I really do love what I do and being challenged each day.

6. My great friends who keep me sane.

And some less "serious" ones:

7. Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper.

8. Taylor Swift's album, Fearless. It has been on repeat in my car for weeks now.

9. Starbuck's tall non-fat no whip 1 pump gingerbread latte.

10. Decorpad.com. I have been so inspired by the pictures on the site.

11. Ann Taylor's most recent coupon code. Enter the code "turkey" between now and Friday and get 40% off your entire order!

12. Butternut hot chocolate. (I can never find it in the store, but we have it at work.)

13. Etsy.com. There is no better time waster!

14. The cheap bar menu at Mockingbird Bistro.

15. Elastic waist pants. I am sure I will be needing them tomorrow. And on that note . . .


I hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving.

I need a vacation.

I meticulously worked on a grocery list over the course of the past 2 nights. I even went so far as to type it up and sort the items by aisle (rather than the usual haphazard list on the back of an envelope or other piece of trash found at the bottom of my purse).

I thought having a "nicer" list would help me better deal with the crowds at the store. My version of hell is a crowded supermarket with lots of those extra-large, kid-friendly carts shaped liked cars.

Anywho . . . about 2 hours after making it back from the store, I realized I forgot to get cornbread mix for the corn casserole I am making for Thanksgiving. I then realized I forgot to get corn or any of the other ingredients for the corn casserole. Ugh. I have no clue how I forgot to include those items on the list. The recipe is sitting out in plain sight on the kitchen counter. So much for a well thought out list.

But the good news is, I am planning to work very little over the course of the next 5 days. I left my laptop at the office and brought home only minimal work. I am keeping my fingers crossed things go as planned, and that I get a little bit of a vacation! I have a to-do list a mile long, which includes making up for lost time on the blog. I have been keeping a running list of post ideas, so stay tuned!

Under the Weather.

I have been battling the flu and bronchitis for the past 2 weeks.

I hope to be a better blogger soon.

The Banquet.

We recently had a dinner party at our place. Justin liked to refer to it as a "banquet." Whether it was a banquet, dinner party, or get together, we had lots of good food and wine and even better company.

Justin and Sean planned a delicious menu (with a little assistance from moi):

Tuna tartare with avocado
Figs with goat cheese and almonds

Bacon and corn chowder

Beef tenderloin with a bacon and shallot broth
Fingerling potatoes with creme fraiche and chives
Asparagus
Brazilian cheese bread

Chocolate pots de creme with cherry whipped cream

Here we are with stuffed bellies.

You can read Meagan's recap of the event (and her whole Halloween weekend) here. And since she requested pictures, I aim to please:

Meagan & Jeremy (and baby H)

Sam & Bennett

Me & Justin

Sean (not sure what kind of facial expression this is)

Kevin (clearly winning the award for the best dressed; and no, he doesn't have socks on)

The boys (sans Bennett and Jared)

And last but not least, the girls.

I am saving myself the embarrassment and am not posting pictures on the blog of us playing Wii.

ShopStyle.

If you've never checked out ShopStyle.com, you don't know what you've been missing. ShopStyle compiles clothes and home items from tons of different stores and puts them all in one convenient place to browse. You can sort by item, color, brand, price, etc. I use it mostly for furniture, but it has tons of great stuff. The website is awesome when you are looking for a particular item (e.g., nightstand) because you can just go there rather than having to go to a bunch of different websites.

Tonight, I was looking for floor lamps. I came across a couple I liked:

at costplus world market for under $150.00

at ballard designs for under $100.00

at z gallerie for a pricey $299.99 and 20% off
(probably my favorite one, but of course, the most expensive. I also didn't find this one on ShopStyle; hopefully they will add Z Gallerie soon.)

This next one was too hilarious not to include. My apologies if you have an affinity for massive and expensive (and slightly frightening) horse floor lamps.

at unica home for . . . wait for it . . . $7,196.00
(and no, that is not a typo -- it is in fact over seven thousand dollars). It is 7.5 feet tall and weighs 435 lbs.

Trader Joe's.

I big puffy heart Trader Joe's. The only problem is there is not one in Texas. So we usually load up on stuff while we're in San Diego. We came home from our trip last year with 3 bottles of 2 buck Chuck wine packed in our checked bags. We didn't take the same risk this year and settled for safer, less breakable items instead. Here are the delicious food products we brought home (thank goodness for expanding suitcases):

We also got tea tree shampoo and conditioner and some body lotion. Their body lotion is awesome -- very moisturizing, but not greasy and it's crazy cheap. I wish I could get them to ship a gallon to me (and, while we're at it, a massive container of the shortbread cookies with chocolate filling too).

Maybe if this whole lawyer thing doesn't work out, I can open a Trader Joe's in Houston. It would certainly make my load a lot lighter on my way back from San Diego!

San Diego Recap.

We recently got back from our annual trip to San Diego. As always, it was too short, but it was great to spend time with my brother-in-law and my best friend and her husband.

We got in on a Thursday afternoon and headed straight for In-n-Out after dropping off our bags. Let's be serious, this was one of the most important stops on the trip.

We then cruised to Mission Beach. It was sunny at first, but then quickly got cloudy. I didn't know that happened in San Diego!

After Mission Beach, we headed to old town San Diego. I was amazed by the massive succulents.


On Friday, we met some friends for lunch over by the USS Midway.

Justin had been eying an antique map store in La Jolla, so we went there for him to peruse some maps of Texas. He found 2 that he liked -- now we just have to frame them and find a good spot to hang them in the house. And no trip to La Jolla is complete without stopping by the sea lions.

One poor sea lion had a fishing net around his head. They were doing a news story while we were there about trying to rescue him. If you look closely, you can see the plastic. He is the one laying right in the middle, facing the water. I am happy to report that a few days after we left, they were able to remove the plastic. Here is an update.

The views are absolutely gorgeous:

After running to Trader Joe's (I love that place so much, it is getting its own post), we headed to dinner at the Wine Vault. They have a delicious 3-course prix fixe menu on Friday nights.

We were up and wearing our burnt orange at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday for the big UT/OU game. The group consumed massive amounts of breakfast casserole. The one below, is one of the three we made.

On Sunday, we went to Point Loma. The weather wasn't overly cooperative. At our friends' house, it was sunny outside, but when we got to Point Loma, it was cloudy and chilly. The tank top and shorts weren't such a good idea. But there was great scenery, nonetheless. How cool are those rock formations? (click to see the detail)

We also saw the Point Loma lighthouse.

More gorgeous views:

After Point Loma, we went to Urban Solace for dinner. They serve "fancy" comfort food. It was delicious. Then we wrapped up the evening with some Scattergories.

While the views and weather are always nice in San Diego, the best part of the trip was hanging out with friends and family we don't get to see nearly enough. We had a great trip and are already thinking about our next time out there.

Pumpkin Muffins.

One of the best parts about fall is baking with pumpkin. In about late August (when it is still 100 degrees here), I start thinking about pumpkin delights. I have a couple of go-to recipes: pumpkin bread (recipe to follow) and fall harvest bread (with diced apples), but I tried a new one this past weekend and had to share -- pumpkin cream cheese muffins from Annie's Eats.

They are delicious! I love cream cheese/powdered sugar frosting. And I also love crumb topping. These muffins have the best of both worlds -- cream cheese filling and a crumb topping. Genius!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Yield: 24 muffins

Ingredients:

For the muffins:

3 cups flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. ground cloves

1 tbsp. and 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

4 eggs

1 ¼ cups vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

2 cups pumpkin puree

For the filling:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

For the streusel topping:

½ cup sugar

¼ cup and 1 tsp. flour

4 tbsp. butter, cubed

1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and whip until smooth. Form into a log on plastic wrap or foil, making sure that the diameter is small enough to fit into the well of a muffin pan. Wrap the log up tightly and freeze until slightly hardened, 1-2 hours.

To make the muffins, combine the flour, spices, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Mix well and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, sugar and pumpkin puree. Mix until well combined. Add in the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined.

To make the streusel topping, combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Mix together with a pastry blender or two forks until crumbly.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two muffin pans with paper liners. To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well halfway with batter. Remove the cream cheese log from the freezer and slice into 24 equal slices. Place a slice in each muffin well. Divide the remaining muffin batter evenly among the muffin cups, on top of the cream cheese. Sprinkle the streusel topping over the top of the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool completely before serving.

[My cream cheese never hardened in the freezer, so instead of slices, I had dollops that I spooned on top of the batter. They turned out fine, so next time I am not even going to worry about trying to freeze the filling. I also added about a teaspoon of vanilla to the batter.]

5 things . . .

5 random things . . .

1. I love the American Cancer Society's Holiday Shopping Card. Details to follow about the goodies we have bought for 20% off. The card certainly doesn't save you money (at least not for me). Rather, it acts more as an enabler.

2. I don't want to have a find a dress for my work's holiday party. I know it is pretty earlier to start thinking about it, but it is always hard to find something that is dressy and cute while still being classy and somewhat conservative. These dresses from Banana Republic are cute, but I think they would be too short.



3. I like this blog: www.elementsofstyleblog.com.

4. I dislike it when people ask you to be open and honest and then get overly defensive when you do. (and no, I am not referring to any close friends, family, or Justin.)

5. I love these recycled bottle glasses from etsy. How great are these?

San Diego Teaser.

I have been a bad blogger recently. Sorry! I haven't had time to go through all of our pictures from our trip to San Diego and do a full recap, but here are some "teaser" pics in the meantime:

Back Home.

Sorry for the lack of posting -- we just got back tonight from our vacation in San Diego. We had a wonderful time visiting friends and family, but are tired and not overly excited about having to go back to work tomorrow. I will be back soon with pictures and highlights from our fabulous vacation!