Giggle at this

My cat, the honorable Trip Aloysius, a few summers ago when I took him to the cat salon. Do you see the tail pouf? How about the chest hair? Or, my favorite, the leggings. What you don't see is his little beer gut that is normally obscured a bit by fur. Uncovered, it's a force of nature that wobbles and sways mightly. (Health note: T-Biz is currently on a diet and exercise plan to combat this comical feature.) For the record, yes, we will be doing this again. It's a) hilarious and b)practical. The dude sheds like it's going out of style.

I won!

I emerged victorious in my battle with the blonde wood. Let's reflect a moment on the state of the hallway before we got all ambitious one weekend.
Yuck. No me gusta. I must say, though, the 50s wood was a formidable component. I sanded all Thursday night and painted not one, not two, not even three coats one all those doors and trim - my friends, I painted four gol-dang coats of paint on those thirsty things before they looked presentable. It was tough, but I persevered.

Now, look how lovely! The same toffee brown we used in the side entry way is also warming up the hall walls. The trim and doors took on a bright white (Pittsburgh Paints' White Chocolate from Menard's, a steal at about $19 a gallon). The hid.e.ous light fixture was replaced with a pretty faux oil-rubbed bronze dome that lets out dappled light and makes the hall feel almost like you might be in a courtyard (can you tell it's my favorite part of the mini-makeover?). The lame travel art was replaced with what will become a giant gallery wall. Right now, we started with some cheap white frames from Target and photos from trips to Italy and Savannah, as well as one of hubs' grandpa smoking a pipe because it's just a cool picture. I'm hoping to add more family photos, while he prefers landscapes. It's an eternal struggle every time we frame something.

Not too shabby right?

No surprises here

I love the Superbowl. It's one of my top ten favorite annual events. You know why. Photo credit

The Superbowl is dip's finest hour. It's the day every man, woman and child grabs a chip, a cracker or a carrot stick and enjoys a creamy scoop of our kitchens' finest. Be it a simple sour cream, a healthy hummus or a green guac - dips make our Superbowl experience delightful.

We're heading to a friend's to watch the game and place a few friendly wagers on little details like the exact length of the national anthem as well as the bigger stuff like which team ends the night covered in confetti and champagne and smooches. Hubs is making an epic 7-layer dip. His plan is to fill the 9x13 Pyrex with deliciousness and knowing myself and the crowd, I'm guessing that dip won't make it past halftime.

What's your favorite eating holiday?

Turtle neck warmth

(Wheel of Fortune, before and after...anyone? Anyone? OK.)

Below, the scarf I finished en route to Tejas by way of MO. It's now traveling to Maryland, to my mom, making this the second most well-traveled scarf I have ever had in my possession. Congrats, purple scarf!

Below, Bingo the turtle. Bingo just had a birthday - the big 1-9. Bingo was known as Tennessee for the first 15 years of life. I got him for free when I used to sell classified ads at the paper (oh, the life of glamour I once led!). This was before I Googled red-eared sliders and discovered they live for upwards of 70 years. Happy birthday to my accidentally lifelong turtle partner!

C'mon in!

A few weeks ago, I took a three-day weekend to spruce up the small, forgotten spaces of our house: the side entry way and the hallway. You've seen the before pictures of our hideous hall, and I'll get the afters up as soon as the sun comes out long enough for me to take a picture that isn't shrouded in darkness, as the one below is.

Meanwhile, here is the side entry (it leads from our driveway to the basement and kitchen) in all its glory. Before, this was a pretty boring spot with off-white walls and a ceiling to match (no before pictures, sorry, I'm new here). I took a brighter white to the ceiling and a rich toffee to the walls. I also touched up the existing white trim to be a cleaner white.

Our old light fixture was a basic dome light that didn't play up the height of the ceiling, so we took that down and replaced it with a nice (and cheap!) pendant that brings in the red of our kitchen.

Aren't you rather amazed that our window covering matches so well? Not a coincidence, my friend. This fabric is also used in the Roman shades in our kitchen and came with the house. Thank you, previous owners! Points scored for working with what the house gave me.

Also, ignore that creepy red glow, in real life the effect is a lot more cozy-warm-so-glad-I'm-finally-inside (see below).


Hope you like the colors, you'll be seeing them again in short order!

Swip swap swak

I think I found Amanda's lovely blog via A Practical Wedding (the only wedding-related blog to remain in my reader post-big day). So, when she announced her second annual Valentine's Day swap, I e-mailed her right away to hop in on the fun. I started crafting a pretty swell little gift last night, but I thought you might like to see my first attempts:
Yikes, right? Don't worry, these koozies won't be making their way into any unsuspecting swaplet's mailboxes anytime soon. I'll be keeping them safe in my koozie drawer (yes, really. An entire drawer.) where no one will judge them.
But, I'm pretty sure there is a future here, I just need thinner yarn and more knitting prowess. Everyone loves koozies, right?

A full weekend

Hubs and I spent last weekend flitting around to visit my far-flung sisters.
Friday:

• After work, we pile in the car and drive toward Kansas City. My youngest sister, E, goes to school near KC so her apartment was our first stop. Sadly, the roads were really slushy and small college towns in rural MO apparently don't plow as diligently as regular cities. So, we spend the night holed up, watching Dolly Parton's Straight Talk, counting the nuggets of advice she gave (for the record, it's 18, none of which I remember today).

Saturday:

• Breakfast: Hoping to stuff ourselves to the point that we wouldn't need lunch at a ridiculously expensive airport restaurant, we head to a cute diner for a hearty pile of carbs. We order biscuits the size of our fists and drown ourselves in gravy and coffee. Then, we drive to KC to catch a flight for Austin, to visit middle sister L.
• Lunch: We managed to skip, in preparation for what was to follow.
• Afternoon flight: I finish a soft aubergine scarf for my mom, which was perfect because silly me thought it would be 70 degrees in Texas. It was cloudy and in the 40s mostly, but in hindsight, it might have been that cold, yucky weather that allowed hubs, L and me to survive the barrage of food we encountered. I wear the scarf the rest of the weekend.
• Happy hour: After we land, my sis takes us to our hotel and we enjoy a delightful complimentary happy hour in the lobby. And Goldfish. Yum.
• Dinner: We head down to 6th Street for margaritas and Mexican food at Iron Cactus. Here, our party of four (we added L's roommate to the group), managed two appetizers and three entrees pain-free. I discover I can eat Serrano peppers and not even realize it (like running, I'm learning to be a spice-eater).
• Drinks: We meander down the street, stopping at a few places before settling on Union Park and its frozen mojitos. Delicious! And, the frozen-blendedness got rid of my least favorite part of mojitos - the big, soggy mint leaves.
• Back to the hotel: L works at the hotel we stayed at and her coworker kindly sent a bottle of champagne and some snacks up to our room! Hubs and I might have sipped some bubs while watching the roast of Jeff Foxworthy on Comedy Central. Gangsta, right?

Sunday:

• Breakfast: L brings us kolaches from Shipley's. Kolaches are breakfast sausages, cheese and jalapenos wrapped in a savory doughnut. I eat one and a half.
• Brunch: La Taverna has amazing food and $1 mimosas. We eat a hearty brunch and I think I see a girl I went to high school with.
• Shopping break. I discover a tiny bottle of perfume and fall in love because it smells like fancy suntan lotion.


• Snack: As you well know, hubs and I adore cheese. Especially in a melty state, on a nacho chip. We went to Doc's on Congress for queso. The bar had garage doors and a patio; if it wasn't freezing, it would have been a great place to sit in the sun!
• Lunch: Right on the lake, Hula Hut has a weird mix of Mexican and Polynesian food. Hubs and I order Mexican martinis, which are really just margaritas with a splash of olive juice. I make the nearly disastrous mistake of ordering shrimp rolls - shrimp, cheese and bacon fried in a wonton wrapper. We power through.
• Yarn-buying break. Since I finished my mom's scarf, I needed more yarn to start a new one for our return trip. Knitting during flying trumps reading.
• Drinks. At a posh outdoor shopping center, we spot this: and head to Joe DiMaggio's to take advantage of their happy hour and high-end cocktails. Our stomachs are ready for the grand finale.
• Dinner. At North. Oh, goodness. A five-course Italian meal that blew me away. And the light fixtures at this restaurant were super cute.

Monday:

• Breakfast at the hotel. Just fruit and yogurt for me, thanks. I'm lucky my jeans fit this morning.
• Flying back to KC. I realize I've reached the point where we fly so frequently (to visit people, for the honeymoon, etc) that I don't get nervous during take off. Hooray!
• Lunch: We land and decide the eating doesn't need to end; we are still on vacation. We consult the Garmin, which points us toward Smokebox BBQ near the airport. With a nice waitress and dark red BBQ sauce, we were able to end our trip on a high note.
• We get home and declare that we'll both be hitting the gym ASAP.

How was your weekend? Did you do any major artery clogging like we did?