Weekend Ready!

It's Friday morning and I am doing something that I haven't got to do in a long time- work from home. Since the New Year, the bank has been go-go-go with earnings release and 2011 priorities taking over. Today it's especially nice because I get to see Steve on Fox News Rising, filling in. It's fun to watch him deliver the news and it makes me proud.

The down side to his being on the morning show is the wake up call at 3:30am. For the past several nights, we have tried to go to bed earlier, but my body isn't ready to wind down until 10:30. Not to mention, between the hours of 9pm and 11pm is when my favorite TV shows air. I find it hard to sleep through reruns of How I Met Your Mother.

The other benefits of working from home is the satisfaction I get from being here to let the dogs out and knowing that Mabel isn't crate-bound all day. Also, I can do laundry (and sometimes blog) while I work.

Once I complete my work day, Steve and I are meeting his Uncle Jimmy and cousin Lindsay for the last night of restaurant week at Del Frisco's. Our dinner last week was a little disappointing, so I am hopeful that tonight can make up for last week's unexpectedly breaded sea bass.

Tomorrow, I am hoping to get in some gym time during the day. Tomorrow evening I am attending Jill's housewarming party. I am really excited. She has invited a lot of friends, and people that I haven't seen in a long time. Not to mention, it's been a LONG time since I have played flip cup. Thankfully, Steve has agreed to be the DD.

Sunday will hopefully be a relaxing day so that I can get some school work done and clean up the house.

Other Odds n Ends...

We have purchased airline tickets to New Orleans for Presidents Day Weekend. Looks like beignets and hurricanes will be a plenty :) There will be two pre-Mardi Gras parades that will take place Saturday and I have a long list of sites and experiences that I want to take in while in the Big Easy

I recently purchased three new books. It has been awhile since I have delved into a really good book, so I decided to start 2011 with a return to literature. On the list of current/upcoming reads are....Half Broke Horses, Those Who Save Us, and The Girls of Ames. Reviews to come...

A rainy Wednesday Morning

Good morning! It's 7:35am and I am taking my time getting to work today (I will explain later) So as you can see, I have already let some weeks slip away without a new post. I don't have an outright excuse, but grad school is back in session and it's been a busy few weeks. None the less, I still need to find time to write for recreational purposes. Here is the latest with me...

School is back in and I my Thursdays are painfully long. I am only taking one class, because as I learned last semester, I can't give up multiple weeknights and work 50 hours a week. It turned me into a zombie. My one and only class this semester is Group Dynamics. I am halfway done with my first paper- and have a LOT of reading to do before tomorrow.

Speaking of group and team work, yesterday and today are devoted to team building at work. Both days are being used to get away from our normal routines to re-group and work as a team to brainstorm for process improvements in our work as a group. So far, so good. In just a little bit I will be putting on my Bank of America volunteer shirt and heading to the Second Harvest Food Bank to volunteer with the team at a local food pantry.

Outside of work and school lots is going on. Right now- this very second Steve is anchoring the morning show on Fox. Some staff changes have meant that he needs to fill in. I would love to watch, however, we have Dish Network- the most UNRELIABLE service ever. It's a rainy morning and the cloud coverage means that we have complete loss of our signal :-/

This past weekend Steve and I took advantage of Charlotte restaurant week by dining at Primo on Saturday night. I wasn't overly impressed. My sea bass was surprisingly breaded- our shrimp appetizer was surprisingly minimal. We won't be hurrying back. Following dinner, we went to see the Broadway tour of Billy Elliot. It was a good show. Elton John's musical stylings were rousing and the storyline was engaging. If he 12 year old girls behind us hadn't screamed like Justin Beiber was on stage, it would have been a lot more enjoyable.

Sunday saw the Steelers beat the Jets for the AFC championship and earn a place in the Super Bowl. I am ecstatic! I am thinking back to the last 2 Super Bowl wins and recalling all the fun it was. Tampa was unreal- and watching it happen for the first time in my life at Dixie's was exhilarating. Dixie's will be a mad house and Dallas is too far and too expensive so Steve and I are going to host our own party here. Menu details to come...

We meet with our realtor tonight to hopefully get the house listed STAT. Saint Joe has his work cut out for him.

I had better run and get ready for a day of team work

Day tripping

I'm sitting in my cube dreaming of a vacation. Steve and I have been tossing around the idea of taking a mini vacay in February over President's Day weekend. It started with a simple conversation about places we have never been. Lucky for him, he has been everywhere. Myself on the other hand, I have a long list of locations waiting to be seen. Some of my destinations in the continental US include...


Key West, Nashville, New Orleans, San Fran, and Boston.


When thinking of an upcoming trip, we narrowed it down to Nashville or New Orleans- for purposes of limited time and weather. I had pretty much set my eyes on a fun-filled getaway to the Big Easy. Coincidentally, Mardi Gras happens to fall the following week and the parades and celebration begin that weekend. I could almost taste the gumbo and beignets....










Until last week when researching travel options, Steve stumbled into a flight deal to Paris for under $300. Within minutes of mentioning it to me I had envisioned us sipping Orangina and eating pain au chocolat at a quaint cafe. Moulin Rouge and the Champs de'lysses flashed in my mind. I was falling in love with Paris...while Steve hurriedly entered our travel into Expedia.
He was asking for my driver's license number and I was already at the Louvre.
















My day dreams were interrupted

"Do you have a passport" Steve questioned


"Oh no...I had better go to get my photo taken right now, right?" I answered

"Yeah...go ahead...."

"Wait', he chimed in. "Now that I am looking at it, they tack on $700 worth of fees to each flight. Maybe this isn't a deal after all"


And with that, my European vacation was quickly brought to a halt.

None the less, since then I have been back on Kayak.com feverishly searching for a new destination. New Orleans is back in as the number one contender, though I found some really good deals to the West Coast as well.


Where will we go? What is our vacation destination? Only time (and travel deals) will tell...

Snow Day- Part 2

Greetings, from my Bunker in West Charlotte. I am closing in on 48 hours of having not left the house, but to visit the backyard with Mabel and Cody. I will be honest, I need to get out. Cabin fever has really set in, and I need some external stimuli. I have eaten the scraps of an empty cupboard....candy from our stockings, buttered noodles, and old Laughing Cow cheese.

All I wanted to do today was to get to the gym, but after the snow on Monday morning came ice on Monday night. Ice is a force not to be reckoned with. Also, the thought of de-icing my car does not thrill me.

Despite the risk, Steve and I are going to venture uptown for dinner. I need fresh air and we can both use food that is not "emergency food" that I threw together. I can't say that all of our meals have been undesirable. Last night for dinner I made Big Easy shrimp- a creole dish with shrimp, veggies, and brown rice. It was really good. This morning, I threw together a mix that my grandma gave me and made peach cobbler muffins (See pic below)

One of my biggest complaints with this alienation is the fact that our cable dish is frozen over and we have no TV. This is NOT cool. I am a TV junkie. Luckily, the DVR continues to work and record programs that are regularly scheduled. That said, I am REALLY hoping Glee is recorded tonight. I have seen all the reruns of Kendra, Bewitched, and Andy Griffith (Steve and I both have a love for classic television).

I am hoping that some sunshine will warm this place up tomorrow and melt the 2 inches of ice that cover the earth and everything else. Our continency plan for meals will work, but this no live television issue will not work for me.

Snow Day!

What a way to start a week! I am not normally a fan of winter weather, and I moved south to avoid snow, sleet, and slush, but I have to admit that waking up and seeing the ground and trees coated with pretty white powder is a nice treat. A nicer treat is knowing that I can work from home in my PJ's.

My southern pups seem to enjoy the cold and blustery weather. Both Mabel and Cody frolicked in the backyard snow this morning. They got a taste of it when we were in Pittsburgh for Christmas, but this is the first time they have experienced snow on their turf.

Steve is also home for the day. Sadly, I have no ingredients to make a yummy breakfast that this kind of a day deserves. I definitely should have been at the grocery store yesterday with the rest of Charlotte. And, we only have one roll of toilet paper...and no bread :(

(our backyard this morning)

NY Kickoff...

It's a new year and I have new hopes. Much has changed since my last blog...mostly because my life got busy and I got lazy in my writing. My first hope for 2011 is that I won't be a blogspot drop out this year. I mean, here it is a Friday night and I am in flannel pajamas...I just ate a frozen burrito and I am watching E! run old episodes of Sex and the City. It feels like my single days of 2009. I am not single, I am merely the girlfriend of a boyfriend who ate bad Chinese food for lunch and is now sick as a dog...
and speaking of canines, I have since my last blog become the devoted mother of two rescue dogs who make up the little family we have. Mabel is asleep to my left and Cody is curled in a ball to my right. It's far from an exciting night on the town, but it's my life and it makes me quite happy. I went from a fancy-free, single, fun gal to a matriarch with a household who I take care of- and who takes care of me too. It's simple and sweet.


My other hopes for the year are a little more grandiose. I have hopes for a new home, that fits our needs for space and comfort. I am not sure how difficult it will be to sell the current, place, but St Joseph has been summoned to assist. It's been a little chilly to place him underground, where he does his best work, but in the coming days he will make himself at home in the front yard.

My 5th semester of grad school begins next week. I can hardly believe I have already put in five semesters. The time has flown by! Unfortunately, I still have about 5 more to go, but hey, overall, it has been a rewarding and enjoyable experience- and it's an investment in myself.
I know that the year holds great things for Steve and I. We work so well together and we have fun. We are starting to plan a long weekend to New Orleans in February. I am hoping to spend some time at a beach as well this summer.

My biggest hopes for 2011 are to improve myself as a person. I want to be a more patient person...a person who lets go of negative and instead focuses on all the good that surrounds me. 2010 challenged me in ways I didn't expect. I learned some hard lessons in love and friendship. Some of them continue to perplex me, but I try to think rationally and respond maturely. I tend to react on emotion, so I am trying to avoid that. If my feelings get hurt, that can't be prevented, but I can prevent hurting other people's feelings. I plan to pray for God to help me act with grace at difficult times.