Black Tie Optional

Three of my least favorite words in the English language. We have a wedding to go to this weekend for two coworkers of mine from a previous job. I'm absolutely thrilled for them, and am looking forward to seeing some people that I haven't seen in a long time. I just hate dressing up.

Actually, the dressing up itself isn't the worst part. It's the shopping. I'm just not a good shopper for formal stuff. And I hate spending gobs of money on a dress for one night. I actually love the idea of combing consignment stores for that one awesome gown that will transform me into a raven-haired Cinderella for the evening, but the odds of finding the right dress in the right size are astronomical.

I don't have anything in my closet that will work. So, I guess it's off to the mall for me. Yeck. If any of my girls out there have any fashion advice for me before I go, please share!

Looking back, I suppose this is why my wedding was resort casual.

Does wine count as a serving of fruit?

My mother-in-law gave me a tee shirt with this saying on it for Christmas. It seriously cracked me up. Last year J got one from her that said, "My Indian Name is Runs with Beer." Funny lady, she is! He doesn't run anywhere? (Just kidding, love. I know you're reading this.)

And I have to admit, we don't get a lot of fruit around our household. I'll drink the occasional glass of orange juice to make sure I don't end up with scurvy, but that's about it. I also buy lemons when they're cheap 'cause they're fun to cook with and look so nice in a bowl on the table. You know, that "Pottery Barn staged dining room" look that lasts approximately twelve minutes at our house before one of us dumps something on the table, and it rapidly deteriorates into a "staged landslide" with a beautiful bowl of lemons at its epicenter.

Veggies, however, are a whole 'nother ball game. I have a new addiction, and it's called Rorabecks Produce and Nursery. This place is open seven days a week, and sells amazing produce at dirt cheap prices. Seriously. I got tomatoes for 25 cents a pound this weekend. And how can you not buy asparagus when it's two bunches for 99 cents??? Green peppers...eight for two bucks? They're two bucks each in the grocery store!

The quality of the produce is great as well. The only real problem I have is that I keep buying so much that some of it is spoiling before we can use it. So when I went this Saturday, I attempted to buy only what we could reasonable cook in the next week:

• Ten ears of corn for $1
• $1.11 worth of tomatoes (hmm...at $.25/lb, I guess that's quite a few tomatoes)
• Fresh green beans
• Onions (we cook w/these all the time, and they last quite a while)
• Potatoes
• Two cucumbers

We've already eaten the corn, the green beans and some of the potatoes! We vegged out this weekend, and not in a sitting-on-the-couch kind of way. Of course, my meat-a-tarian husband had to throw a little chorizo on the grill alongside the corn (still in the husk...yum!), but that's okay. He had seconds on veggies right along with me! (And I had to at least try the chorizo, right?)

And even though we've got chopped peppers, carrots and celery in the freezer from my last buying binge, I think I underestimated our potential veggie consumption this week. Rorabecks is on J's way home from work – I may have to sweet talk him into supporting my new addiction.

Honey? Are you reading this? Wouldn't grilled portabellos be super yummy in some risotto? Hmmmm?

Wink.

Knocked Up

My husband's coworker sent him home today with the movie "Knocked Up" for us to watch. I don't know why she felt the need to share a movie with us about a woman who gets pregnant during a one-night stand with a man she can barely tolerate – but I'm not sure I want to watch it again. I saw it when it came out on HBO. J was at work, and I figured it was a chick flick and didn't anticipate him ever wanting to watch it. I didn't particularly care for it, to be honest. And I can't for the life of me figure out why this woman loaned it to us.

Now, I know the coworker – both socially and professionally – and I'm sure she knows we're hoping to get pregnant sometime in the near future. By the way, she got knocked up – by surprise – at age 40. Who knows? Maybe I'm reading too much into it. She probably liked the movie and thought we would enjoy it. 

And any other day of the month, I probably wouldn't have thought twice about it. But I'm pretty sure we're out of the running for this month – no early Christmas present for us this year. And somehow I'm looking more forward to a nice glass of wine tonight than a movie about an 'oops' pregnancy. Because I, for one, am not...

I have Wii arm

My husband and I decided to buy a Wii this Christmas as our gift to each other. I want Wii Fit, he wants the Star Wars Lightsaber game. I want to do yoga, he wants to battle the Dark Lord of the Sith. Whatever the end use, I'm excited to get a video game system that requires at least some mobility. As much as I love our Playstation, the most exercise we get with it is a mean world tour on Rock Band.

So, we got it two nights ago. They are in scarce supply, so when my husband found one, he snatched it up. Of course, being the extraordinarily patient people that we are, we had it unpacked and ready to go by the time we were done with dinner. Fortunately the system comes with a collection of sports games, so in a matter of minutes we had created our Miis (personalized avatars that participate in the games on your behalf) and were bowling. And playing tennis. And baseball. Golf. I even boxed, for crying out loud.

Unfortunately our dog is less than thrilled with the new addition to the family. This mellow creature that seldom barks (not even a peep when someone rings the doorbell) began barking violently at us every time we sent a bowling ball hurtling down the alley. We repeatedly tried to get her to chill out and lay down, but it wasn't until she reared into my backswing and got her head clocked with the controller that she decided to leave the room. (Don't feel bad for her. She's run into sliding glass doors at full tilt and it barely fazed her.)

Anyway, we had a great night breaking in our new Wii. The only problem is, I can now barely move my right arm. I guess that's a good sign, in that I actually used muscles while playing a video game. Hopefully when I get Wii Fit I'll actually work out some useful muscles – because at this rate, all I'm gonna have a right bicep that Mike Tyson would be jealous of.

But I bet I'll also swing a mean light saber.

My High Holy Day

It's official. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. 

This year we had twenty people for dinner, including my stepdaughter who flies over a thousand miles to be here, my parents, my big brother, my mother-in-law and Granny-in-law. The other twelve people at our table(s) were friends who are quickly coming to think of Thanksgiving at our house as a tradition. Ranging in age from 26 to 80-something, it's a diverse, lovely crowd of terribly fun people.

Every year we host, I learn a few new things. Here are the things I learned as a result of Thanksgiving 2008:

• 15 pounds of potatoes is too much for twenty people. Even if you want leftovers.

• Brining a turkey is a lot of work, and I didn't notice a difference in juiciness. It did cook faster, which was nice.

• Putting a turkey in the oven upside down for the first 1 1/2 hours will make the breast tender and moist. (And if you play it off right, no one will know it was an accident.)

• I am never going to use my husband's good Wusthof knife again. I've now used it twice and cut myself both times. This time I managed to chop a carrot the size of a small log, wash the knife, and then cut myself drying it.

• Watching my parents play Rock Band with my stepdaughter was the funniest thing I've ever seen.

I'm already looking forward to next year.

Messing with tradition?

I'm contemplating a huge life change. 

This will be my third year hosting Thanksgiving in my home, and probably the tenth year I've been the "head chef." We stick with the basics for the most part – mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, turkey, gravy, rolls. Other people inevitably join us and bring their own family favorites, which is wonderful. I, however, don't generally deviate too far from our traditional meal.

This year, however, I'm seriously considering a huge change to our holiday menu.

I contemplating making macaroni and cheese as well. 

Of course I'm not talking about the artificial food-like substance that comes out of the blue box. Pretty much everything that comes out of our kitchen is made from scratch, and my macaroni and cheese is no exception. I just can't wrap my head around whether or not it deserves a place at Thanksgiving dinner. I know it's considered something of a lowly dish by some, but I really, really love its cheesy, melty goodness. (The best part? That area around the top edge of the dish where the cheese gets golden brown and slightly crunchy.)

What do you think? Blasphemy or heaven? I need some outside opinions.

They had it in red.

So, I splurged. And I couldn't be happier. When picking it out, my husband politely pointed out that all of our major appliances (and most of the small) are black and stainless. But I wanted red. And lucky for me, he loves me enough to indulge me in such matters. Thanks, J!

Oh, and I had a request to share a photo of my monkey chandelier. I found it on a trip to Key West with some girlfriends years ago. Everyone came back from souvenir shopping with tee shirts and hats. I came back with this. What can I say? I really like monkeys.