January 2015

The weather is freaking cold outside. RIDICULOUSLY cold. The holidays are over and Christmas trees have been dumped and abandoned on sidewalks all over the country. The days get dark at 5:00pm and all I want to do is hibernate like a grizzly bear until March... or June. LUCKILY, I've managed to survive January thus far using the following techniques...

1) Goofy Hand Puppets!

2) Happy Hours... and Alcohol... lots of Alcohol... (Gotta stay warm somehow!)

 3) Friends!

4) Looking at FOOD ART on Pinterest

5) Hodge-Podge Dinner Dates! (Ex. Spanakopita, Steamed Asparagus & leftover Red Lobster Cheesy Biscuits)

6) Discovering New Facial Expressions...

7) Carbs... LOTS of Carbs!

 

8) Finding my MAID of HONOR Dress! (Blingity Bling)

Keep your chin up, readers! Spring is coming. SPRING IS COMING!

Happy New Year, 2015!

Happy New Year, loyal readers! I hope you all had a fun, safe holiday and got your tipsy face on with all your favorite peeps (WORD!)

I rang in 2015 at the abode of Mr. Handsome's bandmate, Todd. (Did I mention Mr. Handsome was a real life rock-star in a real life rock band?) ANYWAY- Todd cooked us a FABULOUS meal and made us Moscow Mules in legit copper mugs. We then watched "The Interview" together, played some Cards Against Humanity and scratched off some scratch-offs... winning a whopping $1.00 to split among the six of us.

New Years is a great time to look back on all those resolutions (realistic or not) that you made 365 days ago. My News Years Resolutions for 2014 were the following:

1) Travel a LOT!
2) Do some sort of cleanse
3) Get a new job
4) Keep track of all the books I read and write a blog post about them in January 2015

I am happy to say that I have accomplished (after this post) all but #2! I never did a cleanse. ERGO, that sucker is rolling over to my 2015 resolutions.

 Here is a list of all the books I read in 2014. I read a grand total of 24 books this year!

1) Insurgent (Veronica Roth)
2) The Heights (Peter Hedges)
3) The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (Katherine Howe)
4) Game of Thrones Book #3 (George R R Martin)
5) The Rosie Project (Graeme Simsion)
6) Calling Me Home (Julie Kibler)
7) Austenland (Shannon Hale)
8) Imaginary Girls (Nova Ren Suma)
9) Game of Thrones Book #4 (George R R Martin)
10) Where'd You Go, Bernadette? (Maria Semple)
11) Dark Places (Gillian Flynn)
12) The Fault In Our Stars (John Green)
13) All the Summer Girls (Meg Donahue)
14) Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls (Anton Disclafani)
15) Wedding Night (Sophia Kinsella)
16) Rosewater and Soda Bread (Marsha Mehran)
17) The Alchemist (Paulo Coehlo)
18) Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone (JK Rowling)
19) The Splendour Falls (Susanna Kearsley)
20) Paper Towns (John Green)
21) Beautiful Ruins (Jess Walter)
22) Eventide (Kent Haruf)
23) The Best of Me (Nicholas Sparks)
24) Looking For Alaska (John Green)

I would have to say that my top three favorites were "The Rosie Project," "The Fault in Our Stars" and "Where'd You Go, Bernadette?" I would recommend these to anyone who's a book worm like me!

I thought long and hard and made the following resolutions/goals for 2015. Here's to keeping them! (I'll check back in January 2016 with the results).

1) Do some sort of cleanse (carried over from 2014)
2) Use the Crock-pot at least once
3) Whiten teeth

Happy New Year!

Shrimp & Grits and Sweet Southern Christmas!

Merry Belated Christmas, loyal readers! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families and friends. Unfortunately I was sick for most of the festivities on the 24th and 25th, but on the 26th Mr. Handsome and I hopped on a jet plane and flew down to Charleston, SC to spend a few days hopping around the south.

We spent most of our time eating and drinking our way through Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA. (Butter was our staple food group for 6 days). We went to 2 local craft breweries and some hot & trendy restaurants like Husk, Fig & SNOB. We saw the famous Mercer house in Savannah and took some interesting walking tours of both cities.

We ate oysters, shrimp & grits, fried green tomatoes and pimiento cheese! We enjoyed the beautiful Spanish moss on the trees in Savannah and took a nap under a Palmetto tree in Charleston. We've decided that when we eventually become rich through one of our schemes, we're going to spend our winters in Charleston and our summers in Seattle. OH, what a wonderful life :)

Cheers, Ya'll!

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!

Thanksgiving Weekend! What a joy it is that the pilgrims unknowingly gave us a few days off work to stuff our faces with carbo-licious delicacies. Because of the conference last week, I haven't set foot in the office since noon on Tuesday. I've had a much needed break filled with shopping, running, sleeping, eating and seasonal merriment!

Before attending two different feasts on Thanksgiving, Mr. Handsome and I decided we better prep our bodies for the binge with a 13.1 mile run. Our 4th Annual Tofurkey Trot (equipped with official race bibs) was a success!

On Friday morning my mom, grandma and I had brunch at Bayou Bakery (lots of beignets + grilled cheese) then headed to the Kennedy Center to see "Little Dancer," a new play about painter Edgar Degas's ballerina models. It was a little long (3+ hours) but we had a grand old time!

As of Friday afternoon, I have successfully accomplished 90% of my Christmas shopping. (Not too shabby!) Included in my purchases were these two beautiful hand-knit stockings for me and Mr. Handsome. We spent Friday evening decorating the apartment with all of our Christmas decorations. FA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!

Tis' the Season!

Food & Beverage Conference

This past week was probably one of the most stressful times of my life. I flew down to Dallas and put in a 70 hour work week for my company's Food & Beverage Conference in Arlington, TX. Despite getting very little sleep and running around like a beheaded chicken, it was definitely a successful, fun event!

We treated attendees to delicious spreads of local delicacies/nightly amenities and had some great guest speakers come and talk about the state of the industry. We dined at trendy restaurants, had some fun with celebrity chefs, shared our updated operating procedures and ate and drank to our heart's content! (We even had a Grade A cow make a special appearance for a presentation on steak cutting)

After 4 months of hard work and careful planning, I was ready to finally celebrate my birthday with coworkers after the conference was over on Thursday. We popped champagne and ate lots of cake and seafood to commemorate the event.

Now I can finally relax before the start of the holidays! Which, after all, are the MOST Wonderful TIMMMEEEE of the YEARRRR!

Thanksgiving Countdown

Countdown to Thanksgiving?... 12 DAYS!

Start dieting now, hungry readers. It's going to be a joyous, pie-filled day!

"Hoppy" Birthday Brewery Tour

This past weekend was an extravaganza of hops and malts and delicious brewskies! For my 27th birthday (which is exactly one week from today) Mr. Handsome took me on a romantic getaway to Charlottesville, VA for a tour of Virginia's finest breweries/cideries. Over the course of 6 hours we traveled to 5 breweries/cideries and tasted 46 different alcoholic beverages. (These were 2-3 ounce pours, folks. We didn't fall off any bar stools!)

The 5 establishments we visited were Devil's Backbone, Bold Rock (Cidery), Wild Wolf, Blue Mountain and Starr Hill. Because we're educated nerds, we carefully rated each beer/cider we tried and ranked our top 3 favorites at every location. Rankings were based on color, aroma, taste, after taste and name creativity. Here was the breakdown of beers by brewery...

N = Mr. Handsome Rating
H = Hilary Rating

Devil's Backbone
Spider Bite
Pumpkin Hunter (N#3)
Chengdu Weizenbock (H#2)
Pilot Brau Pilsner
Bravo Four Point IPA
Vienna Lager (H#3)
Gold Leaf Lager (N#1)
Schwartz Bier (N - Honorable Mention)
Striped Bass Pale Ale
Pear Lager (N#2)
Eight Point IPA (H#1)

Bold Rock
Virginia Apple
Virginia Draft (H#1) (N#1)
Crimson Ridge Volume #1
Crimson Ridge Vintage Dry

Wild Wolf
American Pilsner
Blonde Hunny Ale
Wee Heavy (H#2)
Alpha Ale
Dry Stout (N#2)
Folktoberfest
Primal Instinct
Howling Pumpkin Ale (H#3) (N#3)
Strawberry Schwarzcake
Kick It Hunny (N#1)
Area 151 (H#1)

Blue Mountain
Classic Lager (N#3) (H#3)
Kolsch 151
South Street 365 Shandy
Wallonia (H - Honorable Mention)
The Steel Wheel ESB
Hibernator (H#2) (N#2)
Full Nelson
South Street Bar Hopper
Local Species (H#1)
Original Nitro Porter (N#1)

Starr Hill
Starr Pils (N#2)
The Love (H#2)
Boxcarr Pumpkin Porter
Northern Lights IPA
Grateful Pale Ale (N#3) (H#1)
Monticello Reserve
Double Platinum (H#3)
Snow Blind
Sabbath (N#1)
Shakedown Imperial Chocolate Cherry Stout