Flowers are pretty

Every day we get off the bus, and walk by the flower shop at the Brown Palace Hotel. The display changed about a month ago and I always linger a few extra minutes looking at this arrangement. Even though they are fake, I love the way this looks with the green hydrangea. I've already priced a recreation of this look at Michaels because I want one for my table at home. I want one for every table at our wedding. Ok, I'd settle for the cake table. Other than bouquets and bouts, in attempts to cut costs, we have decided not to do flowers for decorations at the wedding. So this post is actually just a day dream. It doesn't exist. You can ignore it now. No really, go away, it's my day dream. But don't go for too long, come back tomorrow! I have another flower post that is not a day dream that you too are invited to enjoy.

Masks for Charity

Another trip to Michael's and another craft project for DG took up last week-end. Check out Erin's blog and scroll down to see Dave's mask "Baby Face" and "Season to Share".

Friday's posting has a cute video of David working too!

The Beginning of the End

In a rare but pleasant change of pace, DG and I met for the Oyster happy hour at Jax on Friday after work before heading home to the babies. DG loves the extra dirty martini's and I was having one of their house specialties of strawberry infused vodka with lemonade. They went down real nice.


Later on in the evening we met Erica at the Thin Man, a bar not too far from our house. From there we went to eat Pizza and have drinks at the P.S. Lounge, which is one of my favorite dive bars. Not only are they in the same building as the best pizza in town (Enzo's) but they also give roses to the ladies and free shots of Alabama Slammers to everyone in the bar, every time you go. LOVE that place. Filled with characters. Including the 42 year old woman who wrote her name on a napkin and insisted I come over and let her play with my hair for a wedding updo. No, she was not a hair stylist. She herself was in desperate need of a round brush. But her "vision" as she kept touching my pony tailed locks, was tendrils, french braids, and a lift in the back. I played along smiling, but french braids? French braids? I might as well play Van Halen all through the brunch too.

By 12:30, we took a cab ride home and our cabbie was only on his 2nd night on the job! Luckily he was with experienced cab riders. And the weather was so nice today, we put the sweaters on the dogs, and took a quick walk to pick up DG's car. The exercise proved to be good to clear our cloudy heads. Now for a glass of water and a nap.

Eight To Go

The states I have left to visit are in grey. However, I don't see myself in Mississippi or Alabama anytime soon. But how could I have never been to Montana when that is where Holly is from? Well I was really close once, but didn't make it. They have a Europe one too.


Soon, the world!

Rassity Frassity Failure at Cooking

For the most part, I have decided to make my blog about Positive things in my life. My dad has always told me to surround myself with positive people and I always try to look at the bright side of things. Well when I was on the phone with him last night, he said sometimes you need to talk about the negative to remember all the positives. Along with that advice and the fact that I don't want all of you to think this is the blog of "my perfect life" like an episode out of Leave it to Beaver land, here is my semi-negative entry about a total and utter cooking failure that I had last Saturday.

I spent the entire day cooking and using my new kitchenaid mixer. And when I mean entire, I mean 2 batches of protein muffins, salmon noodle casserole, 2 loaves of wheat bread, and my first stab at David's childhood treat, Divinity. When making new recipes, I am not used to absolute Failure. But sometimes I need to admit that I'm just not the best at something. I SUCK at baking bread. I have tried several times in the 10 years that I have lived in Denver to bake bread. Most recently at Thanksgiving, my mouth watered with thoughts of fluffy dinner rolls, that melt in your mouth. 20 minutes of hand kneading, 2 hours of rising and all I got were hockey pucks.

Jump ahead to this week-ends escapade with whole wheat bread. Three hours in a warmed oven, it did not rise an inch. I decided to cook it anyway and was rewarded with 2 loaves of 20lb lead weights. We tried to toast it in the morning and even slathered with jelly, it was just bad. To the garbage it went.

The Divinity was another process as I don't have a candy thermometer. 40 minutes boiling sugar on the stove, trying to figure out when it gets to "hard ball" stage. Another 30 minutes in the mixer. I'm still not sure if it got to the correct consistency. Though with this recipe, 4 days later it is gone, and not in the trash sense.

Alas, I am no June Cleaver, though David is totally Wally. And even with 10 years of failure under my belt, I plan on dusting the flour off my face and trying bread again real soon!

Alaskan Cruise

We are very excited to go have picked Celebrity X as our honeymoon cruise line. 1) I have never taken a cruise. 2) Alaska is one of the 9 states I have never set foot in. CHECK! 8 to go 3) They have a coffee shop on the boat. 4) We get to see glaciers. 5) We leave the ship everyday to go off into ports to hike, bike, or take dog sled rides. 6) Buffets meals AND gym 7) They have shopping on the boat. 8) Going to the theater every night! 9) 8 nightclubs on the ship in different themes. 10) There are too many cool things to list. I can't wait.

The Honeymooners

Out of the blue on Sunday, we started researching our honeymoon. By Monday morning, I contacted a travel agent and we currently have the trip on hold. We want to sleep on it for a couple of days before we purchase it, but I'm pretty sure it's perfect for us. It was originally David's idea and I wasn't too keen on it. Then I started looking on line and my mind was changed! Now I think I am more excited than he is. So where is it you ask?!? Let the guessing begin.
We will see whales.
We will hear large glaciers cracking.
Our room will be 175 sq. ft. *gulp*.
We may gain 10lbs.
We can have massages every day after we take our morning swim.
We will not be able to swim in the ocean.
We may take a dog sled ride. (Alright that gives it away.)
And the answer is....

Excessive coffee, pledging to NPR, and singing opera

This morning, Dave and I were hopped up on my favorite coffee (Das Bog-White Nights Espresso), reading the paper, and listening to NPR during their pledge drive. Dave donates every year, I would like to donate more, and especially after I just did my taxes, the write-offs are good.

But this post isn't about donating, it is about Dave's odd behavior when speaking with operators. Whether he is ordering clothes from LL Bean or talking to the person taking his pledge, Dave acts like he is a shut in who hasn't had a decent conversation in a year. Needless to say, I always mock him for flirting with the housewives taking his order, but today took the cake. He has had an opera song in his head for a week but he doesn't know what it's called. It's a common one you would recognize, but neither of us knows the name. So I hear him start to ask the pledge taker on the phone if she knows opera and I know immediately where this conversation is going. I scream from the next room "Don't you dare sing to her!", but it was too late and he started humming the song. (Which we later figured out was "La donna e' Mobile" from the Italian Opera Rigoletto.) She of course had NO idea, because she is a chain smoking, grandmother of 3, living in Arvada who has never been to the opera in her life. (I got all of this in my 3 minute conversation with her.) Dave's rebuttal is that these operators have to sit and answer the phone all day and he likes being nice to them. I'm not convinced that his version of nice isn't their version of annoying :)

Happy 100th Post!

Today is a special special day. Yes, this is my One Hundreth Post, and to observe this momentous occasion, I will hand out FREE, yes FREE hugs to anyone who asks me today. I know, get in line please. This offer ends at midnight tonight.

Buzzing in the Beehive

When I was younger, my grandmother (my dad's mom) honored her last name by wearing jewelry with bees on it, or having notecards with bees on them. Most recently I have started this trend as well, naming the blog the Beehive, calling our craft work Allbeehive, and myself loving all things bees.

In honor of my blog, my Aunt made me this great pin in the shape of a beehive, with a little beaded bee on it. How cute! Now that I am finally embracing my last name, I'm not sure what to do when I change it later this year.

Chicken Caccha-whaaa??

David made us Chicken Caccatore (I had to look up how to spell this) for our VD dinner last night. It was sooo good that I can't wait to eat the leftovers today for lunch. I made us chocolate covered strawberries for dessert and we opened a bottle of Malbec because that's what we had sitting in our liquor cabinet, also known as the top of the fridge. Even though we eat dinner together at the table every night, it was nice to sit and talk and exchange cute cards. Though I think it is important to recognize your loved ones all year round, I will accept any day that I don't have to cook!

Love is when...

Normally I do not read forwarded emails. However, I got one the other day about a group of 4 to 10 year-olds that were asked, "What does love mean?" I breezed through it, and there about 12th down on the list was one that reminded me of a recent bus ride home.

"Love is when you give someone a mint instead of telling them that their mouth smells like old cheese." (Jamal - age 8)

The bus is usually filled with smelly people. One night last week, Dave and I had just gotten on and we were chatting and he kept wrinkling his nose. He started scowling at the people in front of us. Then we'd talk some more and he started making gagging noises. I asked him what was wrong and he said that someone on the bus stunk and he thought it was the drunk in front of us. I immediately suggested that it was my breath, which as I smacked my lips together was perhaps not the freshest. Though I was joking, apparently the huge stink on the bus was not anyone on the bus, but in fact his very own, usually fresh as a daisy, fiance. It's rare that DG has anything against me, so he was tickled that I was actually so gross that he was repulsed. Luckily I remembered that I had tic tacs in the bottom of my purse that I had received in my Christmas stocking. I put one in my mouth, but DG told me to keep going. It was a 4 tic tac job.

I think love is when your girlfriend's breath is so bad it smells like an old drunk guys day old garbage, yet you can both have a good giggle about it, and you still love her to pieces. Seen above is last year's pic that DG sent me. Happy Valentine's Day.

Martini Saturday

After going to the gym in the morning, DG replaced the front headlight in my car. He's proving to be quite a handy man. Then we headed down to the Home and Garden show at the Convention Center. Apparently everyone from the suburbs came in as well. I wasn't doing well with the people and after walking a couple of aisles, and spending $11 on water, coffee, an apple and a banana, we ditched that joint. We went to Studio Bini to get a baby shower gift for Dave's friend and our veterinarian Amy. Getting home at around 8, Dave was lamenting that "we never do anything". So I started mixing up some martinis. After a couple of batches, I perfected my extra dirty martini, and then we moved on to my new favorite Chocolate martinis. Yum! This of course went along with several episodes from Season 5 of the Gilmore Girls. We love those ladies.

Puh-lllleeeeaaase??

OMG, Mom if you do not feed me one of those chick nuggets you are eating, I just may pass out from hunger. No really, I might fall off the couch. I am soooo hungry. It's like you haven't fed me at all. Don't make me beg. I'm about to drool on your leg.

Shoes, almost check!

I went to one store a few week-ends ago and thought I found a perfect pair of shoes to wear for the wedding. 1) They give my little sausage toes room to breath in the August heat, 2) yet don't strap in anything to bloody them up; and 3) no flip flopping. Now it may seem too early to be thinking about what shoes to wear, but I needed them to try on with my dress that she is ready to start hemming.

I had my 2nd dress fitting this week and stood in them for about 15 minutes while she pinned the dress. Now I'm not so sure that they are as comfortable as I thought they would be and they are not a good shade to match the dress. Conundrum! If I find a new pair of shoes, they have to have this EXACT same heel. Stupid meaningless decisions.

Hanky Panky

No, I'm not talking about getting felt up in the back of a Ford Escort in the middle of a field next your high school in 1988. I'm talking about my new favorite panties. Holly bought me a pair for Christmas this year from Sol in Cherry Creek. This one pair is the most comfortably sexy pair of underwear (thong) I have EVER owned. I want to wear them everyday. Gross you say, but I want to wash them in the sink every night and wear them everyday. I want to throw out every uncomfortable pair of hip binding, scratchy Victoria Secret underwear I have, and wear this one pair. Why don't you buy more you ask? Well, comfortable, hot underwear comes with a price. A price that is too much for this girl who is on a budget. That is where Ebay comes to the rescue. Holly and I got some together and saved $4 per pair. Woo hoo. Maybe the colors are not the most desirable, but flamigo pink is a sacrifice this girl is willing to take.

I Don't Care

All of the hoopla around James Frey's controversial book entitled "A Million Little Pieces" makes me want to read it more. I am reading it for bookclub right now and I can't put it down. As he repeats about every 10 pages, he was a drug addict, an alcoholic, and a criminal, so his recollection of all events is going to be skewed from what actually happened BECAUSE he was high for 15 years. And not just high on a couple of beers, high on crack, and meth, and a bottle of liquor and whatever else he could get in his body.

Few books get me from page one. Usually it takes me 70 sometimes 100 pages to get into a book and I just keep plowing through hoping it gets interesting. This book had me at hello. I want to hide under my desk and read it while I'm at work. I want to take fake breaks and go down to the coffee shop so I can get in a couple of pages. I want to take it to the gym for entertainment while I'm walking up 6 flights of stairs. I don't even want to talk to my hunky fiance on the bus ride home because it takes away from my reading time.

Now maybe I don't care because I wasn't duped. Going into it I know that a few of the facts have been changed, but I still don't care. It comes down to a label, it was labeled an autobiography, and it should have been labeled a Memoir or based on a true story.

Mememememe

I've always said that the theme of my blog is ME. When people ask what I write about, I say ME. When my dad gets upset that I'm giving out too much personal information on my blog, I say "but my blog is about ME!" Not cooking, not art, not getting married, just ME. That being said, there is this thing going around the blog world, it's the blogger version of a chain letter. I blame DG.

Four jobs I’ve had in my life
The first three I had all at the same time. Priss by day, pumper of the jams by night.
DJ
Church Secretary
Librarian/Archivist
Project Manager

Four movies I can watch over and over
This is hard for me as there are very few movies that I have a desire to watch more than once. Yet, no matter how many times Pretty Woman comes on TNT, I seem to get lost on the couch and don't even bother surfing through the commercials.
Charlie’s Angels
Lost Boys
Shrek
Pretty Woman

Four places I have lived
Go West young lady.
Bangor, ME
Meriden, CT
Meadville, PA
Muncie, IN

Four TV shows I love to watch
Gilmore Girls
Greys Anatomy
Alias
Friends reruns

Four places I have been on vacation
There are 9 states I have never been to, and hope to check them off my list at some point. Here are my most recently visited places:
New York City
Seattle, Washington
Burt Lake, Michigan
Dollywood, Pigeon’s Forge, TN


Four websites I visit daily
I'm engaged, it's ok for me to visit The Knot now AND buy bridal magazines.
ebay.com
craigslist.com
Theknot.com
Blogger.com

Four places I would rather be right now
On the couch with the dogs
On a walk with the dogs
On a beach in Mexico without the dogs
New York City, no dogs

Four bloggers I am tagging
I'm not sure what this means, so I'll only tag the people I know.

jemangelaville.com
davegannon.com
dorkusmilorkus.com

Year of the bitch

Lora and Bert had their 2nd annual Asian New Year's party this week-end. Last year was the rooster, this year the dog, and next year, my year, the boar. We celebrated with costumes, food, and a poker party. Sara, who was born in the year of the dog brought us all tattoos of the bitch. Dave and I wore bright South Korean tshirts that my brother had given me and I wore my poop slippers. What might you ask, is a poop slipper? In what I can only guess is South Korea's version of South Park, there is a famous character that is a piece of poop, and I have a pair of slippers to prove it. As you can see from the picture, it is a face with poop hair, and a poop tail hanging off of the back.


With my brother having lived in South Korea for the last 3 years, I also have a plethora of asian food in my house, including Soju alcohol, and a can of maggots. No you read that right, maggots, a can of large brown maggots. Apparently street vendors sell them over there, like pretzels here. I believe that in spite of attempting to peer pressure everyone into eating one by chanting "MAGGOTS, MAGGOTS, MAGGOTS", that there were only 3 brave takers. Lora of course, being the first to just dip her finger into the can and fish one out, before I had even rinsed and displayed them in a pretty bowl. Later in the evening, I tried to eat one, I really did and the flavor was not bad, it was the crunch and my own mind that got the better of me.

Earlier in the day, I went to a section of town with asian markets and bakeries and got some sweets, fortune cookies without fortunes, sugared coconut strips, and sesame candies. While there, I was treated to dragon dances, drums and strings of fireworks. Do I have to start carrying my camera around with me? Gawd, it's like I'm a serious blogger or something. Too bad I can't get paid for this.

Shag-erific

The first Friday of every month, all of the art galleries open to the public with food and drink and new installations of art. It is quite fun and there are many neighborhoods around town to choose from with strips of galleries. Last Friday, Dave and I met up with his co-workers Erin and Michael to have a quick bite before heading off to DC Gallery where a retro, 60s, tiki inspired artist Shag was having an opening. Dave immediately fell in love with the picture above entitled "Valley of the Valet" which he purchased for inspiration in his office/our guest bedroom. It is such a fun picture and I especially love the martini with the mountain house in the background.

Heinie Time

Assume the position

So there I was, looking for a picture to post, when I noticed this couch series. There seems to be several themes here. 1) laziness (where's christy? have you checked the couch?) 2) consistency (where's christy? have you checked the couch?) 3) redundancy (where's tica? have you checked christy's back?) Honestly I wish I could say these were from a years worth of pictures, but it was probably about 3 days.

Let's Get Physical

I work out 2-4 times a week. I have my favorite classes at the gym that I take during my lunch hour and a Saturday morning aerobics class that I try to go to when I can get out of bed. My favorite classes are a Super Sculpt on Mon., Advanced Step on Tues. and Booty Camp on Thurs. I'm that girl that has to work out, a lot, or I might as well just start strapping the food I eat to my belly because it will end up there anyway.

Tuesday night Dave got us tickets through work to go watch the Avalanche (hockey) play the Minnesota Wilds in the Denver Newspaper Agency's box seats. These events are great fun and fully catered. Free booze, huge spread, yummy dessert cart. Did I mention the dessert cart? Beyone the chocolate mousse cake, cheesecake, tiramisu, bags of sour kids, and gummy bears there was a 6 layer carrot cake...whoa. Needless to say, I did not deserve a day off from the gym today. So I took a class I wouldn't normally go to, Ski Conditioning, which is really just a core class on a Bosu ball.

Funny moment #1 - Listening to Push It by Salt-n-Pepa, and recalling my first experience at the age of 16 when Joy and I got dropped off at Shaharrazod an underage dance club in Wallingford, CT and danced to this song. This foray back in the recess of my mind was the only thing that got me through those burning lunges.

Funny moment #2 - Simulating sex on the exercise ball (good exercise for butt and outer thighs) to Rob Base, "I'm gonna Rock right now, my name is Rob Base and I came to get down, I'm not internationally known, but I'm known throughout the microphone, I get stupid I mean outrageous, stay away from me if you're contagious"....Do I need to go on, or will you be singing this all day? NOTE: I did not need to look these lyrics up, I know them by heart.

Funny moment #3 - The intructor repeating over and over again, "Get on your knees, with your ball in front of you" while Nelly was going on about how hot it is and he's going to take his clothes off.

And here I thought I lost my pride when I got beat up by the chihuahua yesterday.

What's that on my leg...HEY!

Monday was a typical crazy, nothing goes right Monday. No big deal, brush the day off, here comes Tuesday. Tuesday is going to be good I tell myself as I am drying my hair. I am ready early, an unheard of event. Then I start looking for my keys, which I am so adamant about putting on the key hanger. Hmmm, no keys, well now I am going to be late for the bus. That's ok, there is a new woman at work, and she will be there with the door open, I won't need my keys. Run out the door to catch the bus and in my subconcious, I hear the next door neighbor yelling at his chihuahua Deliana, and I hear her yipping, but it's all in the back of my mind as I am at a fast trot going down the middle of the street laden down with a huge gym bag and 20lb purse. Next thing I know, there is a tugging on my pant leg and I look down to see a silver Yo Quero Taco Bell dog attached to my leg. I giggled over the thought of it and say heeeey, as in 'hey you silly dog'. The owner finally made it down to get her and I look down at my leg to see that she has torn my stocking, and I can feel that she has bit me, but I tell him no problem, because I've got a bus to catch. Get down to the bus pull up my pantleg and find that for a small dog, she's drawn blood and taken a bit of a chunk. Well the good news is that I caught the bus, the bad news is that when I got to work, as luck would have it, I was locked out of the office.

I should have prefaced todays story with my phobia about dogs that are not chained in their yard. This goes back to living in Whitefield, NH when one day at the young age of 5, I was walking home and the nasty kids next door, sicced their mutt on me. They scared me, I ran, the dog jumped on me, and I fell and skinned both knees and ran home crying. Living in Indiana, I used to run in the middle of corn country, so everything was in mile grids, no sidewalks. All of a sudden one day a dog came at me out of no where. Needless to say I tripped and fell in a ditch, all the while holding my diginity by a string as I screamed at the dog to GO AWAY.

Now, according to Seni (11 yr old neighbor), they want to buy me new hose and pants which is completely unnecessary (and ridiculous). I just want them to take Deliana to puppy school. Gibson and Tica have offered to go rough her up, but I think I need to just feed her treats every time I see her. Works with kids, should work with dogs too?