one

Today marks one year since the Mr. and I said "I do". What a crazy, lovely, beautiful journey this year has been.

Originally, we had some cutesy anniversary plans: a cake from the bakery that catered our reception [we had centerpiece cakes, so no top layer to save], a bottle of champagne, and dinner at the restaurant we ate at the night we got engaged. However, Evan started the process of quitting smoking about a week ago, and he's having a rough time of it. [He's using Chantix, and it's hard to tell what is a side effect and what is just withdrawal symptoms.]

Since Ev is sick, we decided to put the celebration on hold... then we'll have two things to celebrate. We're going to Nashville in a few weeks, so we just might do something nice there [involving cake and champagne, for sure]!

So tonight, we had some pasta and cupcakes, and I went to hear Michelle Obama speak at the Obama for America Lexington HQ. [Evan was feeling too under the weather to go]. It was a perfect ending to a not-so-perfect day. I think there's a bigger lesson in that. It's the little moments, ya know?

What a year. Thanks, babe.

unread book meme

These are the 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users.

Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish. Add (*) beside the ones you liked and would (or did) read again or recommend. Even if you read them for school in the first place.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karennena
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights*
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice*
Jane Eyre*
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Iliad
Emma*
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault's Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver's Travels
Les Miserables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela's Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People's History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter*
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid (& translated in part from the Latin)
Watership Down
Gravity's Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

What about you?

christmas in may

You may remember that I planned to knit my mom a set of dishcloths for Christmas, but only got two done in time. Well, I finally finished up the Fall and Spring dishcloths! I finished the Spring one last week, which was perfect timing since I went to see my mamacita for Mother's Day this weekend.



Here are the specs (these are also on Ravelry, obviously):

Pattern: Spooky Pumpkin Face Dishcloth by Rachel van Schie
Size: one size
Yarn: Lily Sugar'n Cream Solid in Hot Orange, 1 skein
Needle Size: US 6
Start Date: April 5, 2008
Finish Date: April 24, 2008

Pattern: Tulip Dishcloth by Rachel van Schie
Size: one size
Yarn: Lily Sugar'n Cream Solid in Hot Pink, 1 skein
Needle Size: US 7
Start Date: April 26, 2008
Finish Date: May 5, 2008

Yay, two more FOs down!

Is it wrong that I kind of hoped my mom forgot about them so I could try to pass them off as Mother's Day gifts? [We got her a gorgeous red, orange and yellow Asiatic Lily instead.]

this can't be good

I've blogged before about how much I heart The Office, and how my life has sometimes mirrored the situations on the show. But, you know, they work in an office, I work in an office. Bound to happen, right?

Nope. I think I am absorbing some things on the show via osmosis.

Case in point: after watching last week's episode (Did I Stutter?), I started talking like Dwight Schrute in my sleep.

You see, Sandy sometimes sleep in our bed, and she sometimes sleeps in her bed; she likes to mix it up. However, when she is tired, she has a hard time jumping up into the big bed, especially if I'm on the edge, blocking her entry path. So she has started this annoying habit of getting down in the middle of the night, and barking or growling to signal, "Bitch, I want back up". I then roll away from the edge or sit up, giving her a better runway, so to speak.

So, Evan and I finally got around to watching The Office on Sunday. That night, Sandy got down for some reason (get a drink, meet the neighbor dog, raise some hell... I don't know). When she came back at some ungodly hour (3? 5? I don't know), I vaguely remember counting down for her, all Dwight-mind-meld style, "5...4...3...2..1."

Like I said, this can't be good.

happy earth day!

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtfully committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

- Margaret Mead

[appropriate for a primary election day as well. Despite tonight's net result, I hope that holds true over the next month or so!]

how to turn 28 in style

As promised, here's my guide turning 28 and celebrating all weekend long.

Step 1: Take a Friday off work. For purposes of birthday shenanigans, a half day will do. Run silly errands (get bangs trimmed, go to DMV, etc.).

Step 2: Go somewhere unashamedly girly for lunch. In my case, I met Jodi and my mother-in-law at The Garden Cafe at Flag Fork Herb Farm, in a circa 1800 cottage. After lunch, we browsed the grounds, where they have plants, antiques and gifts for sale.

Step 3: Do something creative - paint your own pottery with a friend. (See previous post).

Step 4: After grabbing a quick dinner, meet back up with friend from Step 3, this time all decked out in '70's garb. Head over to the Maker's Mark "Studio 54" party.



Saturday

[Break in birthday activities, including errands and tasks such as attending the local Democratic Party Legislative District Convention.]

Step 5: Be surprised by a friend, who comes bearing ice cream cake [from DQ, natch] and socks that proclaim "Birthday Girl".

Step 6: Eat a lovely dinner cooked by one's husband, and use the "birthday choice" rule to pick out a movie for the evening. We just got Apple TV, so I had lots of choices for HD movies in the iTunes store. We watched Feast of Love, starring Morgan Freeman and Greg Kinnear. Verdict: Good, but a little too depressing.

Sunday

Step 7: Get all gussied up and head off to the horse races at Keeneland (with my in-laws and Jodes). Win on the first race and parlay the winnings for the rest of the day! Given the yucky weather, we were able to get a table in the Equestrian Room, which you normally must reserve in February or some nonsense.



Step 8: Meet everyone back at your place for ice cream cake and the Masters.

The end!

...we interrupt this blog...

... to show you some pics of my crafty goodness from last weekend! I do have lots to share about my birthday weekend in all its glory (hint: it involved a Studio 54 party), but I was just so excited to have some FOs in the craft realm that I had to share.

Last Friday, Jodi and I went to The Mad Potter, a local paint-your-own-pottery studio. I had gone to one a few (four?) years ago, and had a blast. We actually talked about doing it last spring for my pseudo-bachelorette party and just never found the time, so what better excuse than my bday?

First, we picked out what we wanted to paint, which was pretty hard with five walls full of selections. Jodi picked a pencil cup, while I painted a small bowl and a paw print shaped ornament. After getting some instructions, we started painting our little hearts out!



The paint looks totally different after it's fired in the kiln. The blue on her cup actually matches that deep blue on the "Go Cats" bowl.

I decided to paint my small bowl as a ring holder, since my current plan of on top of the microwave, on the coffee table, or on on the nightstand probably isn't so good.

This is what I came up with:


before...


... and after

The Mad Potter folks told us that it could be up to a week before our pottery was done, but they called me to pick it up on Monday after painting it on Friday. Yay! Overall, it was so much fun, and fairly inexpensive; we only had to pay for the pottery, not studio time or paint.

I have one more crafty thing to share [even though I didn't make it]. Last weekend, our local Whole Foods had their Earth Day celebration. I came home with this:



If you brought in an old t-shirt, they sewed it into a reusable bag* for you! I have approx. one bajillion t-shirts from races, so I picked one that had sentimental value but is not really the cutest. I didn't even think about this, but since I took a long sleeve shirt, they were able to use the sleeves to make the straps. [Here's a Martha link on how to do something similar.]

Well, that's it! I'll be back soon with more on the birthday blowout.

*I still totally heart our Envirosax, but they're not machine washable. I plan on using this puppy for meat and other potentially messy stuff.