The One Where Heather Turns 21

My future sister-in-law Heather turns 21 this month.  I like parties and I like Heather so we threw her a 21st birthday party this weekend.  We played King’s Cup (they call it Circle of Death) a few times and it reminded me of awesome times with Amanda G. during college.  I loved that game and Heather’s party brought me back.  I think it also brought Clif back too because we both acknowledged “old school” rules, which was funny.

Anyway, we had cake:

We had friends:

We had Captain Kirk.  I wish I could explain more right now but I slacked at blogging/putting pics up back in April.  I *WILL* and it will be epic.  Consider this a prequel/having seen “Empire Strikes Back” before “A New Hope.”  Just trust me. When I tell the Kirk stories, they will be worth it.

So at some point last night, Jay & I decided it would be a good idea to balance on the papasan chair and take a pic. BAD IDEA.Especially when one party has gained weight (aka me).

I ended up with this bruise.  It was worth it but it freaking hurts even now as I type this.  It was worth it though for eating the extra pizza bites and having so much fun.  Happy Birthday, Heather!!!

Poolside Blogging

So I’m blogging from my apartment complex’s pool right now. Jay and I decided yesterday to invite a few friends over to bbq for the 4th of July since this was the first year I’ve ever not had plans. Usually I’d go to my great aunt and great uncle’s house for the best family 4th of July party ever and go spend some quality time at the Bing family party but since I’m spending my first 4th in Raleigh (last year we drove up to NY), I didn’t really have any plans. So now I’m staking out a table, grill & lounge chairs two hours early while Jay prepares his world famous “Jaygers”. I’m literally the only one here so I feel kinda silly and pretty bored lol. I was supposed to go swimming at the gym at 9am but those plans got messed up when we had the brilliant idea to save a spot amidst the fierce crowds of the pool. Yeah, good plan Jay and Colleen. Meh.

At least I’m still so slow with the iPad touch screen that it took me 15 damn minutes to poke out that last paragraph lol.

So while I wait for Clif, Sara, TJ and Kristin to arrive, I’ll run down what’s been going on. Jay & I finished the 2nd season of True Blood and started the 3rd. We are also trying to download season 4 of Dexter so we can watch that before Comic Con too. TB 2 was pretty awesome and by “awesome” I mean “Alexander Sarsgaard or however you spell his last name is hot and good choice Alan Ball giving him more screen time.” I would like to see a season where Tara isn’t acting crazy though bc I liked her a lot in season 1 and I’m super excited for the Sam storyline they’re setting up with his family (keep in mind that we’ve only seen the first ep of 3 so far so no spoilers).

I went to the beach with Sara and Kristin yesterday. We left at 7:30am to try to avoid the crowd at Wrightsville Beach but by 9:45am when we finally got there, parking was already nonexistent and douche bags were already out in full force. We drove around for 45 minutes and still no parking which sucked. We did get a spot at long last only to have some giant asshole come up to Sara and start screaming at her to “get out of that spot” and “leave” so he could have it. It was a public parking spot but in front of someone’s house that he must’ve known & been told he could park there. I was all for saying “fuck you, we got here first” but with crazy people, who knows so we left. We were so angry after that exchange that we decided to drive down to Carolina Beach and test our luck there. That luckily worked out way better for us and we had a fabulous time. Although I was wearing a strapless bikini top with string ties on the bottom and unfortunately I got slammed by a wave and had several, shall we say, wardrobe malfunctions. I pulled the top up quick enough for only Sara to get a good view and was relieved until I realized a split second later that all was definitely NOT right. Somehow the bow had come untied. Oh but not only untied but completely come undone. It fed thru a little tube of fabric - like the strings in a hoodie - and the knot that stopped it also came undone so i couldn’t even do a quick fix. I held myself together/up and did a small walk of shame out of the ocean. I’m glad that again, Sara was the only one who saw anything and it wasn’t the front lol. Kristin was a rockstar and able to fix it after about 15 minutes of trying. So that’s my embarrassing oops moment of the day!

Ok, my wrist hurts from my ghetto way of typing & Jay should be here soon to relieve me so I can get myself together for a half hour before they arrive. I hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July or if you’re not American, a wonderful Sunday!

Tags: 4th of July, Carolina Beach, Dexter, True Blood, Wrightsville Beach

Life’s Like an Hourglass Glued to the Table

I promise I have been working on a real actual blog post (actually 2 of them) since last Thursday but with going home to NY this past weekend and then a new girl started at work yesterday and we had an in-service today, I kinda lost all of my “free time” for finishing blog posts lol.  BUT stay tuned within the next day because I promise to have it done AND I am working on a Toy Story 3 review post too.  I decided I’m not going to post that one til Fri though (most likely) because I want to give people more time to see it.  OHHH!  If in case you didn’t know already, I choose a wedding dress on Saturday!  I went to Fantasia Bridal in Rocky Point, NY and if you’re reading this from Long Island, definitely check that out because they are so fantastic there.  They give you suggestions but don’t force anything on you at all.  I cannot recommend them highly enough.  I really love my wedding dress and I wish the wedding was tomorrow so I could show everyone my dress haha.  The best part is that the sample size fit me, so I won’t have to really lose any weight.  I can’t gain any lol but I won’t have to extreme diet either.  YAY.

So thus said, I’m doing one of those every-so-often PostSecret posts.  This one from last Sunday really made me cry like it was the second-to-last-scene of (SPOILER ALERT) a certain Pixar movie.

I really hope whoever sent that Postcard in gets her perfect father-daughter dance.

P.S. CONGRATULATIONS to my dear friend Rachel & her husband Will on the impending arrival of their baby girl, who Facebook tells me will be named Hannah.  <3 Love you guys!

Tags: Fantasia Bridal, PostSecret

June 5 was a fun day

I am not even going to ruin the end of this weekend by talking about today’s flying issues; I’ll save it for tomorrow.  However, here’s a picture of me and Jay from before my grandparents’ 55th anniversary party yesterday.  We had a great time, as always with my family parties.  It was actually a really awesome party and I hope our wedding is just as fun.  After the party, Jay and I headed over to the Media Junkyard luau at Kolkie’s house.  We brought along both of my sisters, Katelyn and Christie, and Kate’s boyfriend Jeremiah #2.  Kate, Christie & #2 left after 45 minutes but Jay & I ended up staying until almost 2am.  Can we say exhausted? haha, but worth it.

Memorial Day Mimosas

Last weekend, Jay and I were thoughtfully given a bottle of champagne to celebrate our engagement.  Luckily, it made it back to Raleigh in one piece and tonight, we decided to pop it open before dinner for a toast (Zoe was actually quite intrigued by the “POP” & not at all scared).  We toasted to a weekend of not doing anything at all.

After we ate, we decided to make mimosas.  Well, a real mimosa for Jay (champagne & orange juice) and a poinsettia for me (champagne & cranberry juice).

I’m still sipping mine as I write this post while beginning to watch this season’s Supernatural that have been saved up on the DVR since September, but it’s delicious.  I heaped praise on the cake from last Saturday (I’ll have to post pictures ASAP) but I love and am so grateful for the champagne!

P.S. I really don’t want to go back to work tomorrow!  Now that I’ve had time to relax, I have a ton of stuff to do around the apt.  I could use another 3 days off lol or a job where I can work from home so I can do things like redecorate in between doing work haha.

P.P.S. Last night, Jay had his first attempt at biscuits & gravy for dinner (we had a breakfast-for-dinner night).  He wanted a picture of it documented so he could show his Grandma Ruth it, since she’s a biscuits & gravy master.

An Evening with Chef Jay

One of the things that most people don’t know about Jay is that he loves to cook and create his own dinners.  His best creation to date is “Jay-gers,” which are awesomely delicious stuffed hamburgers.  He also makes superb chicken-dish creations too if you prefer chicken to beef.  Last night, Jay made his newest burger creation for me and Clif, which he dubbed the “Anti-Edward.”  It has something to do with the crazy amount of garlic that the burger involves, I guess.

Anyway, after the Jay-ger, this is the second best burger Jay makes.  I figured I’d document the cooking process from start to finish.  There’s a very big reason I rarely ever eat dessert and it has nothing to do with diet purposes.  It has everything to do with reasons like I ate two of the Anti-Edward last night and was too full to eat anything else.  I wish we had a big enough place for Jay to cook for everyone reading this right now (that’s right! All 6 of you lol).  So here’s in layman’s terms the basic way to make the Anti-Edward:

Shape the ground beef into patties (duh).  Note the Lysol wipes in the background indicating that you should start on a clean surface.

Olive oil.

Add garlic salt. Lots of garlic salt.

Flip!

Jay really likes using olive oil…

Great Value Texas Toast.  Trust me, it may be from Wal-Mart the best brand.

Add cheese.  This is cheddar but I tend to prefer American or Monterey (or Pepper) Jack.

Put ‘em together and whadda ya get?

The Anti-Edward.

Add some of the necessary dinner accessories.

And finally, an evening with Chef Jay is never complete until he makes you play a board game.  My favorite is Blokus or Sorry! but last night’s choice was Jumanji.

Another Sunday, Another PostSecret Post

I do have a real blog post coming but I keep getting lazy and writing like 3 sentences then doing other things like watching “Bones” or playing with Zoe.  Oops.  But now I’m all done with “Bones” so I guess I don’t have an excuse.  Jay, my work friend Josh, and I went to see Kaki King play at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro the other night.  All I can really say is, “Damn.  She’s talented.”  Jay’s got all the pictures and videos on his computer, so he’ll post them up on Facebook and all that jazz.  Seriously though if Kaki King ever comes around to your area and you’re musically inclined, totally check her out.  I spent yesterday and today laying out in the sun by the pool to prepare for summer. Woot!

Anyways, it’s Sunday and that means I checked out PostSecret.  This postcard made me laugh heartily:

‘Nuff said.

Tags: Bones, Cat's Cradle, Kaki King, Lost, PostSecret

2010’s awesomeness has extended to September

So what could make 2010 even more awesome?!  LADY GAGA IS COMING TO RALEIGH!! Yayyy!!  [List of tour dates here].  For the record, I am excited. And she’s coming on a Sunday which means that I won’t have to worry about the post-work traffic drama to get there in time.  AND she’s going to be at the RBC Center, which is a 3 minute drive from where we live.  HOLLER.

Jay, Clif & I watched “Up in the Air” last night. Clif and I liked it a lot; Jay said he liked it too but found it sorta depressing.  I’d definitely say it’s worth checking out.  Jay & I went to see “Cop Out” on Saturday, which was really funny.  Tracy Morgan is hilarious.  I’m glad he got off of SNL where comedy goes to die lately.

Anyways. 5 more days til people start arriving in Raleigh for Jay and Jack’s 30-hour Podcast for Autism Speaks.  We’re having a joint birthday/engagement party Friday night, most likely at Buffalo Brothers, which wasn’t my first choice (it’s not as fun as last year’s Flying Saucer) but it IS super close to the hotel and since we didn’t know when people would be rolling into town or what people’s car situations are going to be, we figured it was probably best to have it somewhere close to the hotel.  It’ll be fun though - I promise - because everyone will be together and because there will be beer.  I’m nervous that there won’t be a lot of room or people won’t have fun but I always get anxious before I host something because I always want people to have a good time.

Finally, we are super close to locking down a date for the wedding.  We are down to two places for the reception hall, both of which have this date open and they’ll hold it until April 3 when we go look at them (I’ve been to both already for previous things so I know what each looks like), so things are settled on that end. We just need to hear back from our priest to make sure he’ll hold the date without us having to meet with him ahead of time.  Fingers crossed.

Okay, back to work. I’ve had heartburn and a terrible stomachache since Saturday night so I’m going to go back to chugging liters of water at a time.

Tags: Autism Speaks, Jay and Jack, Lady Gaga

Once More With (My) Style

This one is more along the lines of how I would style it verses yesterday’s picture of how the hairdresser styled it.  I had asked her for “around the shoulders with layers” and she put her own flair in it.  I was on and off about it last night to be honest but I love it now that I have control of it.

Okay now back to trying on dresses for Hawaii in 19 DAYS while cleaning and dancing around to Lady Gaga (STFU Amanda my pookie).

Precious You Are

While Jay was recording two back-to-back Married Man Podcasts this afternoon, Zoe and I had some bonding/naptime:

Now, she’s sitting on my back doing her best Little Mermaid impression I guess:

Jay’s jealous that she likes me better than him tonight