Blogolin

Forecasts call for tepid weather

2010-10-26T17:13:00.010-04:00

Hello, digital world! So nice to see you!

Here are some updates:

Dog collars - Got my first sample, and it looked good. Really good. I spent 3 weeks waiting for the rest of the samples and was then told that the buckle the factory used was patented and not usable unless I want to get the pants sued off of me. No thanks. So another road block. I gave my vendor an ultimate deadline though - figure this out and get me product by the end of the year, or give me my money back. So less than 2 months till I have my collars or I have my savings back. I'm pulling for the former.

Writing - Dragging on this one, I know, but took a step back this past weekend - birthday weekend - time for reflecting - and tried to visualize what I really want my life and income device(s) to be, and diversification kept blinking at me hard and loud. So I sat my butt down and sent another pitch to ReadyMade as well as one to Money Magazine. Not holding my breath on either, but it's a start, and I know I just need to focus on coming up with story ideas OR figuring out how to be a real writer that is given real assignments.

Lady Rogue Business Network - This one is a big, fat fail. We failed to promote the right way and reach the right people, we failed to sell tickets, and we failed to have the confidence in ourselves that we could really pull this off. Ultimately we canceled the sucker. I'm still bummed about it. We had so many great, insightful speakers, and there would have been a lot to glean from it. Hopefully we can revisit this at some point and make it shine.

And lastly, work. I really love the agency I'm contracting at - the people, the environment, even the commute is much better. Unfortunately the account I'm working on is not so lovely. They extended my contract commitment from 3 months to through the end of the year, and the plan is to talk permanent hire at the beginning of the new year. They're already treating me like I'm an established part of the team, which is awesome, except for the fact that I had a little taste of freedom when I freelanced for that month, and I really, really liked it. And when I visit that little birthday-weekend reflection place, it's pretty clear that a j-o-b is not part of my vision anymore. Not that I don't want to work. To borrow from the words of Jersey Shore's Sammi, I'm the hardest-working bitch you'll ever meet. I just don't necessarily want a job. So ... things are still to be determined.

For the best

2010-08-29T11:20:00.002-04:00

Whew, it's been a while! Sorry, interwebs, I've been busy, and I've neglected you.

So much to update! I got laid off in July. It was ... willed to happen, I think. I was miserable, and put it out there in the universe, and it was the wrong decision for my boss to make, but he did it anyway. (I think even he was a little confused as to why he did it.) The power of desire, huh?

Since then I've been freelancing (literally from the day after I got laid off) and reveling in not doing the death march every day, and then last week, I started a 3-month contract with an awesome small local ad agency! So I'm very excited and nervous and hopeful that this is a much better place for me.

Other updates:

Writing - My piece ran in ReadyMade!!!

Woohoo! So exciting! And I keep meaning to pitch some more stories, but it hasn't yet happened...

Dog collars - Gawd, these things are taking forever. This endeavor is a fight. I've been pushing my vendor to push their factory, and then I get the answer I want, but nothing happens. So then I check in with the vendor, and oh yeah, there's all these issues that he forgot to address with me 2 months ago. This is par for the course. So it's back and forth, back and forth, and I just keep fighting and pushing and keeping my fingers crossed. I should get my first sample in the next few weeks, so we'll see... The goal is to have product in stores for the Christmas holiday shopping season, which we're really cutting close at this point.

Other business venture - Sigh. This one is biting the dust, I'm sad to say. This was actually going to be my main focus when I lost my job. I figured I had 3 months of severance to focus solely on getting this project off the ground and giving it a go. Ha! No way. Other opportunities kept presenting themselves - ones that actually paid money - and this project got pushed down on the priority scale lower and lower. C'est la vie.

Finances - This category is seemingly in good shape! Getting laid off and getting severance is giving me the opportunity to basically earn dual income for several months. And throw all that into savings and at debt. Mainly saving at this point. Especially since after this 3-month contract ends, I have no idea what's next! Especially, since that puts me back at unemployed at the beginning of December. Not especially the best time to find a new job.

Lady Rogue Business Network - We've been busting it on this! Our big event day is Sept. 25, less than a month away. We have gotten a ton of amazing speakers to commit to participating, and now we're starting to sell tickets. Hopefully the response will be good!

2010-05-31T16:06:00.004-04:00

At the beginning of the year, I converted this blog from visual to wordy. Or emotional. Both are accurate, I guess. But I did it b/c I felt antsy, unhappy, unfulfilled. It's helped to get it out. Truly.

And I'm feeling it again, but it's different now. More "antsy" in an anticipating way. "Sea change" is the descriptor I keep using. I feel like it's not just me who feels this way - there's a whole lotta people out there that are feeling it too. I sense it. And it feels fitting to put this out there in the world on a day when we all remember the past and the amazing people that gave themselves so that we could live this life. And not just this life, but the life we want to make.

"Freedom." Freedumb b/c so many aren't taking advantage of it. Freed...um b/c so many just go with the motions. The motions of the ocean - they are a'changing. Freed...oommmm. Zen it.

This is such an exciting time to exist. Something big is about to go down, and we get to experience it and live through it. History. The way the U.S. at least has been operating for the last, I don't know, 200 years, maybe more - it's crumbling around us. Big businesses - that ain't security. Staying put and growing roots (which more often than not means consume!) - nope, you'll get pulled out by the hairs on your chiny chin chin. Working a crap job that requires little to no effort or brain power and pays you just enough to get b(u)y - no thank you.

Local, small, independent, revolutionary - but not in a huge way. Subtle revolutions are happening all over the place. I'm amazed and inspired every day by the people, businesses, blogs I come across that buck the norm, buckle down in the face of conformity and tell it to fuck off.

Viva la Revolucion!

Oof, this is tough

2010-05-01T16:46:00.003-04:00

I'm pretty late on the update this time around because I was waiting on some things to be finalized. And they kept changing. And then changed again. And they're still up in the air. So no more waiting to write at least - here's my not-much-progress progress report.

Dog Collars - April started off good. I've been to the 2 stores I targeted in Atlanta and the 2 stores I want to be in in Austin. All the owners really, really, really liked my collars and said they'd buy them. Yay! I negotiated hard with the factory to get the minimum order requirements lowered, and they agreed. Then they changed their mind. So my vendor found another factory that would go with my low minimums. Then they changed their mind. So once again, I'm waiting. Sigh. My vendor said they're pushing back on the factory, so we'll see....

Letterpress Class - Only a couple of weeks left! Super fun, but more labor-intensive than I thought it would be honestly. I placed a small polymer plate order - which means printing my own designs as opposed to using existing metal type (letters) - and will play with those a little through the end of class. Not ready to make product yet, but maybe soon.

Writing - Surprise! ReadyMade picked up my pitch for their August/September issue! Woohoo! It's not exactly a full-on story, just a 200-word trend piece, but it's something! So maybe I should start working on other pitches. Hmm. Gotta think about that one.

Marching Along

2010-03-14T16:02:00.006-04:00

Alright, mid-March. Time for a life update! So, let's see. I've been very busy. Too busy in fact. I got sick for about 3-4 weeks. Pretty positive my body was rejecting my 110% effort. But I've shut it up, and am now back on track.

Finances - Priorities: One - building some semblance of an emergency savings fund (which also doubles as a business-launch fund); and two - paying down debt, particularly paying back family members who have given us loans for school and house. So Priority 1 is good, good, good! I've been utilizing Wachovia's Way2Save program, diligently socking away any and all freelance money I've earned as well as the (didn't-believe-it-til-I-saw-it) bonus I got this year, and working hard to travel hack and earn miles to travel without paying for it (thanks Chris Guillebeau!). I should mention that I've been doing these things for a while now, at least a year, but I'm very happy to say that I hit the $5,000 mark! Not a huge safety/launch net, but definitely a starting point. Priority 2 ... not much progress yet, but it's now up to bat as opposed to sitting the bench like before. I subscribed to Man Vs. Debt's RSS feed, and Josh and I will start Operation Money Attack in T-minus 20.

Business Forum - Now over. Kinda happy about that. It's a bit pressuring to have this additional task looming over your head every day. But it was so worth it. I learned a ton, and even more importantly, got forced to do and think about lots of elements in order to start my business. (My second business actually.) Working on the branding for this guy now, and will have more about this in next month's update for sure.

Dog Collars - Super excited! Got pricing back from the factory, and it's great! This might actually happen. (Fingers crossed.) So next step is approaching stores (as this business will be primarily wholesale for me), and committing to have the factory make samples, which is basically committing to forking over about $10,000 to have product made. So it's a big step. I hope to meet with a store owner this week, so we'll see what she thinks!

Lady Rogue Business Network - I had to miss the last meet up as I was out of town for work, but apparently it was great, and we had about 60 people come out. Sad to miss it. Plans are progressing for our workshop, and we've got tons of ideas. Action steps are next.

Letterpress Class - Starts tomorrow! Yay!

Writing - Hmm. What can I say? Something had to take a backseat I guess, and sorry Writing, turns out it was you. I did pitch ReadyMade, and here's the response I got:

Hi Shari,

Thanks for getting in touch and thinking of ReadyMade for your pitch! Rogue Apron definitely sounds like something our reader would be into... While we have our content finalized through the April/May issue, I will hang on to this for our future issues‹this also could be nice piece in our "To Do List: Food" section. I'll be in touch if we decide to run with the story, but please feel free to contact me any time!

All my best,
Alexa

To be honest, I'm not sure if that's a rejection letter or not, but regardless, I'm not currently writing the story for them.

Full disclosure - I don't think many people are reading this blog, but for you few that are, I really appreciate the support. =) I'm offering up a fair amount of transparency (numbers, etc.) b/c this blog has become less about sharing my life and more about a measure of tracking my progress. In essence, it's not for you - it's for me. That sounds sort of cold I think, but there's a small amount of fear to overcome in putting all these goals out there for the world to see, and in exchange I've realized that there's a lot of power in accountability that comes with actually doing it. So in this digitized world (and I'm not referring to just the lives we lead through social media), making promises to myself become so much more concrete and realizable by sharing them with all of you. So thanks.

Change update

2010-02-08T12:45:00.006-05:00

So I have committed myself to drastically changing my life this year - 1 month down, 11 to go. The main objective is to increase and diversify my income, while filling my life with much more meaningful and fulfilling endeavors. The progress is not bad so far, if I do say so myself! Here's the details:

- Began a month-long business forum along with 149 other enterprising entrepreneurs. By the end of February, we should all be armed to the teeth with the tools to unleash our businesses on the world. I've been doing daily assignments as well as additional reading, research, planning, and meeting-setting-up on my own. I (very naively) am aiming to have this business in action 3 months after the workshop ends, so that gives me a deadline of June 1. Eek!

- Along with the 5 other girls on the board of my local indie business networking group, we have decided to take it up a notch, becoming a for-profit venture. That means more structure, more value for members, and more awesomeness. We have a good plan for the first half of the year's meetings and events, and have started planning a day-long workshop for May/June that participants will pay $100 to attend. A yearly membership fee is still on the table as well.

- Dog Collars - ah, dog collars. I basically took about a year-long hiatus on the dog collars, and have now decided to take another shot at making it happen. Essentially I really wanted to keep the production domestic, but in doing so, I couldn't get the manufacturing to the quality I wanted, and the price point was way too high. So I said screw it, and am now giving the factory-in-China angle a go. If this doesn't work, I think it may be time to just give up on this one.

- Decided that even though my Daily Candy writing days have come to an and (thank you, Comcast - ech!), I still want to write occasionally. And be compensated for it. So just this morning I sent a story pitch to ReadyMade Magazine, and we will see what they say.

- Enrolled in an 8-week letterpress class starting in March. I hope to get a good grasp on the process and technique, so that I can design some products to take to market. Or etsy anyway.

- Much smaller victory, but something that's been in the back of my head for a while - this weekend, I put together a Facebook page aimed at cataloging any number of Atlanta DOT signage blunders that I come across. My aim is to have other people contribute the ones they find as well, gain a following, and hopefully bring all this insight to the DOT so maybe someone can finally do something about it. This is also an exercise in not planning too much. I have no back log of images and locations to keep a steady stream of posts going - I'm just putting it out there and seeing what happens. Not a bad way to do things these days.

Everything will be

2010-01-23T08:12:00.004-05:00

What's that word when you notice themes in your world? Like the universe is gently smacking the shit out of your face with something? Synergy? Maybe. I try to be aware of that stuff, but I know I'm too wrapped up in my ownness to notice too often.

I've been really itchy, ansty, feeling trapped for the last few months bordering on years. I want a change, I want fulfillment, I want to be something. No, not just want - I FEEL that stuff. Does that make sense? I know in my heart that continuing to live the same day-to-day that I am is just wrong, that nothing good can come of it. It's like I'm delaying potential and purpose.

Trying to let something out or something in, not sure which. The 4-Hour Work Week and The Art of Non-Conformity have crept up from inspiring to biblical, but still, nothing's different except for how much harder I'm pushing against my world to get out of it. Not my whole world - I guess this is sounding really dramatic and epic. But 40 hours a week of barely making enough to live somehow invades the rest of my life with fear, dread, unhappiness, waste.

In Seth's Godin's blog yesterday, he wrote "No, everything is not going to be okay" - we seek solace and reassurance and lie to ourselves, but once we shun that, we can take risks. And then last night, as I cried my eyes out during the Hope for Haiti telethon, Jennifer Hudson covered the Beatles "Let it be."

So 2010, I will make change of you. I will stop moping around in a depressed, victimized state and take risks. I may fail miserably and hopefully not go bankrupt, but at least I will try. Something's gotta give. (Thanks Nancy Meyers.)

Guest blogging

2009-12-18T12:38:00.003-05:00

Cali and I got to guest blog this week on Coffee with a Canine! Now we're totally internet famous.
http://coffeecanine.blogspot.com/2009/12/shari-margolin-cali.html

Wisdom

2009-12-14T13:26:00.001-05:00

"You must have confusion in your heart to give birth to stars."
- Nietzsche

Oomph

2009-11-03T12:51:00.003-05:00

Got this yesterday to mark my 5 years of "importance" to the company. It's plastic. And a paperweight.

Nice, huh?

Halloween

2009-11-03T12:43:00.004-05:00

Halloween meant house hopping for us this year. So much house hopping in fact that we kinda forgot to take many pictures. We got a few, so here they are! (No Cali costume this year - she wasn't feeling it.)

Josh as Lt. Aldo Raine from Inglorious Basterds

Me, not nearly busty enough, as Joan from MadMen

Eric as Marty from Back to the Future - love it!

One of Josh's former students as a pimp bear with a cat

Chris and Dana Slap Chopping it up

Merrill's Hall and Oates tribute band, the Maneasters

Merrill

Judson as Dexter in his kill/keg room

Omar and Lori

Elvis baby!

2009-10-21T14:22:00.011-04:00

Whew, it's been a while since I posted. I guess my life has been kinda boring lately. BUT it got interesting about 2 weeks ago when I got to go to Memphis for an AIGA design conference.

The conference was awesome! Met some cool people, heard awesome speakers, pseudo-stalked Stefan Sagmeister (but not in a crazy sort of way!), and had some really bad for you food. Didn't get to see as much live music as I would have liked, but it was a great trip overall!

Lunch at Dyer's on Beale Street the first day - definitely set the tone for the trip - grease, grease, and more grease. Supposedly, they've been using the same frying oil for about 100 years, and when they moved locations, they had the oil moved under the protection of security.

Rob and Chris

Awesome flaming Elvis

One of 3 Gibson factories in the country - we toured it.

First night out, which resulted in me being hungover the rest of the weekend.

Hatch Show Print samples

Hands on fun with Hatch

A Memphis elementary school choir performing at the conference - they were amazing!

Waited about an hour to eat at this place! For lunch!

Ta-da! (It was pretty good.)

Jane Grimmet and Rob enjoying it

Our very own personal conference Elvis impersonator

Beale Street Take 2

Chris and the guy he found to follow us around

Beale St.

The ducks at Peabody Place - they live there and walk off the elevators into the fountain every day at 11am and then back out at 5pm.

Graceland!

Elvis's pink Cadillac

Heh.

Front of the house.

Elvis's living room - love the peacocks!

Elvis

Priscilla and Lisa Marie

The shooting range, attached to the garage

Some of the ridiculous amount of gold records there

My most favorited outfit.

One of the 2 planes, complete with 14k gold seatbelt buckles

See ya Elvis!

Real food real hot

2009-09-08T17:55:00.006-04:00

On a hot Labor Day, Josh and I went out to Piedmont Park to join Rogue Apron and support real food in schools. Slow Food USA has waived their membership fee this month, so join and show your support!

The start of the Poster Parade

Poster Parade

Rogue Apron's Tent City

Duane, Josh, and Lady Rogue enjoying the food and the signs

Singing the real food song

Labor Day Dragons

2009-09-08T17:48:00.005-04:00

In Atlanta, Labor Day means the freaks come out. It's DragonCon, and it's craziness. The best people watching of the year!

Vampire Obi Wan (I think?) loves some Red Stripe with a straw

Le Sexoflex getting their performance on

Josh with a sexy Matthew that I decided was dressed as Jessica Rabbit

Sooo crowded!

Matt and Judson (I have no idea what they are)

Princess Bride - one of the best movies ever!

Steam punk people?? or something like that

Josh with female bender

The Beatles

Matt and some guys in tights

Closed on Monday-land

2009-07-29T21:30:00.010-04:00

AKA "Portland"

Now let me just say I LOVED Portland. But, man, everything is seriously closed on Monday in this town. Two of the four restaurants I wanted to go to were closed. The one museum we were going to check out was closed. Even the Velveteria (which I guess is technically a museum too) is only open Thursday through Sunday! The Shangai Tours only happen on the weekends. Regardless, we kept very busy and managed to eat at least every two hours while we were there. =)

Very much enjoyed the donuts, driving around and exploring, and all the water and gardens. The weekend was actually very liquid and floral themed over all - white water rafting in Hood River, wedding ceremony in a lavender field, wine tasting, several brewery instances, many fountains, two rose gardens, walking along the waterfront.

The counter at Byways Cafe

Top of Keller Fountain. This is Josh's most favorite fountain in the world, and it's very cool.

Josh standing in it.

Front of Keller Fountain

Roses at the Portland Rose Garden

Josh's camera after I dropped it in the mud

Scenes from the Japanese Garden

Shrine

Sand zen garden

Rawrrr

Nothing like some lard after a morning in the zen garden!

Stacks of donuts at Voodoo

Oreo donut

Check out the little voodoo guy one!

Ace Hotel - our too cool for school hotel in Portland

Our pictures from the Photobooth at Ace Hotel

Dutch tacos at FlavourSpot - breakfast waffle sandwiches

Didn't I say we ate a lot?

Another pretty rose garden

Was really digging patterny things this trip:

Jayme's married!

2009-07-29T20:25:00.011-04:00

Had a fantastic time in Hood River for Jayme's wedding! A great reminder of what a beautiful country we live in (for those of us that spend a lot of time in the city), spent invaluable time with family, and got to know some of Jayme and Clayton's friends better.

Jayme looked beautiful and happy, and the getting hitched went off without a hitch (heh heh), except for a little mishap during the rafting trip for a Boulder friend.

Pictures:

driving from PDX to Hood River

Our rental car had a built-in camera holder for Josh's camera!

Multnomah Falls

Closer up

Kite boarding gear at the hotel - Hood River is a hub for this sport

Clayton, me, Josh, Jay at breakfast on the river

Mt. Hood

Husum Falls - this is what we rafted

Danny and me by the falls

Getting our gear on for the rafting trip

Over we go!

Josh helping Abe after the shoulder dislocation

Poor guy

Big group enjoying the wine tasting at Cathedral Ridge Winery the day before the wedding

Lots of wine!

Vineyard

Tried one of these grapes - it was very tangy and weird!

Clayton's parents' log cabin for the rehearsal dinner

The bridesmaids - Kelly, me, and Jen

Mom and me

Mom helping Jay with her hair

Pretty!

Jay with her new mother-in-law and sister-in-law

At the lavender field

Cute!

Lavender fields and Mt. Hood

Kissing the bride

Behind the field

Golfing at the reception

Jayme's new nephew hitting some balls

The bluegrass band

Bobbi, Paul, Aunt Susan, me

Jay and Clay rings!

July 4th-tecular

2009-07-06T10:22:00.005-04:00

We trekked out to Charleston, SC for the long weekend. Lots of relaxing, some beaching and bike time, and waaayyyy too much eating!

Terry, Laura, Mark, Joanna, and Cassidy floating off the dock

Susan and Mark playing Ladder Golf on the beach

Terry and Josh claiming victory

Josh's ridiculously large burger at Poe's on Sullivan's Island

Getting ready...

Huzzah! Whole burger in the mouth!

July 4th at the Harveys

Mark, Terry, Laura, and Joanna

Josh and me

Tuckered

Joanna, Laura, me - getting ready to head home.

Jayme's shower

2009-06-29T16:41:00.009-04:00

Went home to Philly this past weekend for Jay's shower. It was super fun with tons and tons of food. Also got to see some of my girls and their girls!

Me, Mom, and Jay

Jayme and Jen with Jen's bride and groom pet rocks

Kelly's erupting volcano - very impressive!

Some of the crazy amounts of food

Whack it!

Aunt Ilene and Steph

Kelly and Sue

NSFW - Aunt Deb, Jayme, and Aunt Wend

Mom with baby Leah

Court, Tina, Leah, me

A non-wedding posting - yay!

2009-06-26T13:49:00.003-04:00

I've been totally slack about posting updated pictures of the patio progress! I keep waiting to do it because Josh keeps planting more and more stuff. But the space seems to be pretty filled up for now. So here it is:

And in other news, we got to visit with Josh Winheld, the son of my dad's best friend, who I've known since I was a baby, but haven't seen in maybe 20 years! He's in town for a Muscular Dystrophy conference in which he's a panelist. I'm about halfway through his excellent book about living with the disease.

Official (legal??) proof

2009-06-24T21:51:00.004-04:00

We just got our Jamaican marriage certificate in the mail! We still don't know if Georgia recognizes us as a married couple though. Guess we'll find out at tax time? Check out my favorite part below: (Hint: what could a woman's "condition" possibly be before she gets married?)

And here's a link to more photog pictures:
http://www.smilebooth.com/pickpic/gallery/splash.php?gallery_id=302

More of Heidi's awesome photos

2009-05-30T15:01:00.002-04:00

Heidi posted some more pictures on her blog. You can see them here:
www.ourlaboroflovebyheidi.com/

Love it!

2009-05-25T09:06:00.001-04:00

We got in our first picture from our awesome wedding photographer Heidi Geldhauser of Our Labor of Love! Yay!

Lotsa Pictures

2009-05-24T11:33:00.012-04:00

We woke up this morning to thunder and rain, so figured it'd be a good day to finally post pictures. These are mainly pics from our guests as well as a couple we took. When we get the pro. ones, we'll post them on our wedding web site!

Vacation hats on! Waiting in the airport to head to Jamaica.

Rockhouse

Part of the hotel

Josh cliff jumping from practically the moment we got to Rockhouse

Snorkeling with Leila and Pete

A rainy but fun welcome cocktail reception that Lynn threw

Terry, Larry, Josh, and Paul

Richie, our favorite bartender

The fam

Bridesmaids rehearsing

Heather and I at the rehearsal dinner at Irie on the Beach

Josh, Lauren, me, and Kevin

Me and my girls bridge jumping the day of the wedding

Wedding

Signing the official Jamaican marriage certificate - not really sure if Georgia recognizes this or not...

Good luck, right?

The wedding party

Soaked program

Pretty sunset

Lou and Heather

Leila and Pete

The steel drum band

Father-daughter/mother-son dance

Melissa signing our guest love list book

OMG - did we really just do this?

Lori, Dominic, and me

Nancy, Brian, and Larry

Laura, Terry, and Lynn T.

Lynn and Aunt Susan getting down

Elizabeth doing that booty thang

Beyonce's got nothing on us

Go girls!

Jayme ready for some cake

Us ready for some cake

The Day After

Double rainbows the morning after our wedding - we'll take that as a good sign!

After the bridge jump

The spa at Rockhouse

Foot soak

Soaking our feets getting ready for our couples massage, which was on the cliffs in a cute little hut, much needed, and amazing - thanks Aunt Susan!

Rick's Cafe for sunset, cliff diver watching, and overpriced dinner on Sunday for those who couldn't bear to leave Jamaica that morning

The boats gathered at Rick's

Josh flip-diving at Rick's

We do

2009-05-22T09:14:00.004-04:00

Here's the video of our ceremony. Warning - it's almost 11 minutes long, so make sure you really want to watch it before you hit play! =)

We plunged!

2009-05-21T12:20:00.005-04:00

We got married on Saturday in Negril, Jamaica! It was fantastic and wonderful, and we had so many great family and friends join us in celebrating. I'll post some pictures a little later when we've got some time. Below is a video of us literally taking the plunge - check it out! (We'll post the video of the ceremony later for those who want to watch it, but it's a little long and therefore a little overwhelming for the weak signal we're getting here in nowhere Jamaica.)

Beerland

2009-05-11T09:25:00.003-04:00

Josh and Terry have been working hard on brewing their own beer. They're working on an oatmeal stout. Or porter. Can't remember. Anyway, they've been diligently doing all the stuff they need to do and are now in the bottling stage. So when we get back from Jamaica, we should have beer!

Kitchen takeover

Boiled something or other?

So proud

Recession Specials - Keep 'em Coming!

2009-05-07T14:11:00.004-04:00

There's some more good deals being offered up (and some still hanging around) so here's an updated Recession Specials Atlanta and Beyond list!

Food and Beer

East Atlanta
Blue Frog Cantina, EAV - $1 tacos on Mondays and Tuesdays
La Casita, EAV - $1 tacos on Wednesdays
Thai and Sushi, EAV - $1 sushi Mondays and Tuesdays
Morelli's Ice Cream - a free scoop Monday through Thursday noon - 3pm for the month of May - just say you're unemployed
The Shed at Glenwood - $2 Magic Hat drafts always, 4 oz sliders for $3 on Wednesdays

Highlands
Pozole, Highlands - $2 margaritas and $2 tacos Wednesdays
Noche, Highlands - $10 all you can eat tapas on Mondays
Osteria, Highlands - $1 PRB on Mondays with Karma Card
Hand in Hand, Highlands - $1 PRB and $1 tacos on Sundays, 1/2 price dinner entrees on Mondays, and $2 burgers for lunch and dinner on Tuesdays

Inman Park
Shaun's - $12 salad, pasta, and gelato dinner on Sundays 5pm - 9pm

Decatur
Corner Pub, Decatur - 1/2 price entrees Mondays

Emory-ish
Thaicoon & Sushi Bar, Briarcliff - $1 sushi Mondays and Tuesdays

Midtown
Park Tavern, Midtown - When it rains they pour, as they say, and draft beer is $1
Shout, Midtown - All you can eat Pizza and Salad for $10 on Sundays
Dogwood, Midtown - All you can eat mussels and a glass of sauvignon blanc for $20, Tuesday-Friday
Steamhouse Lounge, Midtown - $1 beer night on Tuesdays

Atlantic Station
Dolce - 50% off food bill on Mondays
Geisha House - 50% off food bill on Mondays
Strip - 1/2 price sushi rolls and egg rolls 5-7pm Tuesdays and Thursdays

Buckhead
Prime, Lenox Mall - Half Price Steaks from 5:00 - 6:15pm every day
Lola, Buckhead - Any pizza or pasta and a glass of wine or beer for $12 on Sundays and Mondays
Via, Buckhead - Unlimited pizza and salad for $10 on Sundays, 1/2 price dinner menu on Mondays, and $2 draft beer and 1/2 price pizzas on Wednesdays
JOEL, Buckhead - $6 small pizzas, $10 large pizzas, and 1/2 price beers on Thursdays

Vinings
Canoe - (Now, this isn't necessarily a cheap meal, but when you look at Canoe's regular prices, it's a bargain for sure.) $30 Local Yokel dinner - three-course fixed price meal of local ingredients; add $10 for wine pairings - available every night

Online
Restaurant.com - $25 gift certificates for $10 PLUS just google "Restaurant.com discount code" to find an additional 50-80% off depending on the time of the month (more off towards end of the month or around holidays)

Experiences
High Museum - On the first Saturday of each month from 10am to 12pm, Fulton County residents get free admission.

Cable
Call Comcast and ask them to stop sending you the Channel Guide magazine - you'll save $4 on your bill every month

General deals
Two of my all-time favorite web sites:
The Bargainist
Brad's Deals - The web site is decent, but the real deals are on the daily newsletter, so sign up for that bad boy.
Atlanta on the Cheap

Yay for big thinking and big Scandinavian heads

2009-05-01T16:31:00.005-04:00

His claim, not mine.

Tim Ferriss came to Turner today to speak! He's shorter than I thought he would be but just as brilliant and inspiring as I had hoped.

Some take-away ideas:
- There's never a good time for something truly important or life-changing. It's never convenient.
- Try to minimize unnecessary and self-imposed pain and suffering as well as try to enjoy the little things in life. Instead of worrying about what's next, take pleasure in the present moment.
- Identify what is consuming the majority of your time and how you can minimize its impact (i.e. batch repetitive tasks such as checking email.) As a result, my mini-experiment - I'm committing to not checking email at home in the morning before I head to work next week. Will be a biggie - hopefully I don't cheat! =)

And lastly, my signed book:

Thanks Tim!!!

UPDATE: So maybe 2 weeks before my wedding wasn't the best time to try not to check my email in the morning.... The first day I completely forgot until I opened my first email, and then I thought "Well, I already messed up - I might as well continue checking it." Second day I abstained completely - woohoo! Third day I didn't read any emails, but I needed to send a few wedding ones, so I just put a few out there. Fourth day I was weak. Fifth day (and my newest compromise approach) is checking, but not opening any of the emails unless they look like something pressing. So, overall I sort of improved. I'm giving myself a C+.

omg omg so excited about Tim Ferriss!

2009-04-24T11:22:00.001-04:00

In honor of Tim Ferriss coming to speak here next week:

“It’s not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.”
-Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Thought for the day.

WWE Raw!

2009-04-14T09:34:00.008-04:00

Okay, I know everyone feared that redneckedness was seeping in when I went to a car race or two and then fell in love with MonsterTruck. Well, I guess I've now gone full-on Southerner because last night I went to WWE Raw! Let me first say that the tickets were free. But let me next say that it was one of the most amazing things I've ever been to in my life!

Now, I've been out of the North for a while which means the sporting events I go to here do not even compare to Philly. No one gives a crap about the pro teams here, so the stadiums are always half-empty, and the fans are always half-assed. But, holy crap, I've never seen Philips Arena so packed out and full of energy! The fans are insanely dedicated and pumped up, and WWE is brilliant in their marketing and staging. They've basically made a soap opera for men and kids (and rednecks). The drama and story lines and plotting and betrayals and team oppositions are just as important as the actual wrestling matches. I haven't boo-ed so much since my last Eagles game a few years ago!

Check it out:

Not one empty seat

Michael Grover, Lindsey Kelso, Ryan Jerwers

Me and Lindsey looking fierce

Lots of fire and dramatics when the wrestlers made their appearances

Masked wrestler coming out

Get 'er done!

The amount of signs was insane

The Miz fighting Koffee

Battle Royal - 15-man 3-team brawl. Check out Big Show on the left - he headbutted everyone in that ring.

I didn't puke!

2009-03-17T16:56:00.013-04:00

My bachelorette party was this past weekend. Jayme and Kate came in from the west coast and Lori, Petrika, and Melissa threw me a kick-ass party! It was a great weekend - we shopped, went to World of Coke, and ate and drank lots. I laughed a lot and remember most of it. But pictorial evidence always helps:

World of Coke lobby

Jayme, Kate, me

Jayme and me with the Happiness Factory kisses

Coke art

Kate in the tasting room

This one's going to be good!

Oops wrong!

Free cokes!

Getting ready for the 4-D movie

Only about half the food that we ultimately scarfed down at the end of the night, including the best cupcakes ever

Melissa and a game/accessories for the night

1st shot of many

Petrika and me

Petrika and Lori guessing

Presents!

My bouquet

Lori caught it!

Alex and Anchi

Lounging

From Petrika

The most awesome shirt ever

Me and Jayme

All the girls

Piling into the car

1st stop - the fire station. Don't ask.

Why won't they let us in???

Apparently I had something very important to tell Kate

Entertainment at the Jungle

No more shots please

Josh cooking us breakfast the next morning

Hungover!

Glad she was mine

2009-03-16T20:04:00.005-04:00

My grandmother passed away a week ago. She was an amazing woman. Not only was she the kindest person I've ever known, she was the most magnetic - she was married 4 times and proposed to at last twice as many! One of my aunts suggested writing a letter to send with her. My letter was about how she's an inspiration to me in how to live your life. She had an amazing capacity to forgive, something I definitely need to work on. She also truly loved unconditionally and always looked on the bright side - even when she couldn't get out of bed for the cancer, she'd answer "How are you feeling?" with her standard "Terrific!" Her happiness and positivity were boundless and I'll always think of that when I think of her.

Recession Specials

2009-02-24T10:17:00.016-05:00

In the wake of all the layoffs, etc. I'm starting my Recession Specials Atlanta and Beyond list! Here's to living well and saving money doing it. My intention is for this list to keep expanding, so if you know of any more tips, please send them to me and I'll add them to the list!

Food and Beer

East Atlanta
Blue Frog Cantina, EAV - $1 tacos on Mondays and Tuesdays
La Casita, EAV - $1 tacos on Wednesdays
Thai and Sushi, EAV - $1 sushi Mondays and Tuesdays
Morelli's Ice Cream - a free scoop Monday through Thursday noon - 3pm for the month of May

Highlands
Pozole, Highlands - $2 margaritas and $2 tacos Wednesdays
Noche, Highlands - $10 all you can eat tapas on Mondays
Osteria, Highlands - $1 PRB on Mondays with Karma Card
Hand in Hand, Highlands - $1 PRB and $1 tacos on Sundays, 1/2 price dinner entrees on Mondays, and $2 burgers for lunch and dinner on Tuesdays

Inman Park
Shaun's - $12 salad, pasta, and gelato dinner on Sundays 5pm - 9pm

Decatur
Corner Pub, Decatur - 1/2 price entrees Mondays

Emory-ish
Thaicoon & Sushi Bar, Briarcliff - $1 sushi Mondays and Tuesdays

Midtown
Park Tavern, Midtown - When it rains they pour, as they say, and draft beer is $1
Shout, Midtown - All you can eat Pizza and Salad for $10 on Sundays
Dogwood, Midtown - All you can eat mussels and a glass of sauvignon blanc for $20, Tuesday-Friday
Steamhouse Lounge, Midtown - $1 beer night on Tuesdays

Buckhead
Prime, Lenox Mall - Half Price Steaks from 5:00 - 6:15pm every day
Lola, Buckhead - Any pizza or pasta and a glass of wine or beer for $12 on Sundays and Mondays
Via, Buckhead - Unlimited pizza and salad for $10 on Sundays, 1/2 price dinner menu on Mondays, and $2 draft beer and 1/2 price pizzas on Wednesdays

Vinings
Canoe - (Now, this isn't necessarily a cheap meal, but when you look at Canoe's regular prices, it's a bargain for sure.) $30 Local Yokel dinner - three-course fixed price meal of local ingredients; add $10 for wine pairings - available every night

Online
Restaurant.com - $25 gift certificates for $10 PLUS just google "Restaurant.com discount code" to find an additional 50-80% off depending on the time of the month (more off towards end of the month or around holidays)

Experiences
High Museum - On the first Saturday of each month from 10am to 12pm, Fulton County residents get free admission.

Cable
Call Comcast and ask them to stop sending you the Channel Guide magazine - you'll save $4 on your bill every month

Prescriptions
Transfer a prescription (which can mean dropping off a new prescription at CVS, then promptly calling Walgreens 2 hours later to transfer it there) to Walgreens and use the following coupon to get a $25 gift card. Publix often honors these as well if a gift card there would suit you better.

Groceries
For things you buy on a regular basis, go to the web site to see if any coupons are offered there. There's usually a limit on how many times you can print it, but if you're sneaky/lucky and have a scanner, you can print it as many times as you like. Some regulars for me are:
Yo Plus yogurt
Bertolli Meals

Clothes
Any places that you shop regularly - sign up for the email lists. H & M, for instance, sends me a coupon about once a month.

General deals
Two of my all-time favorite web sites:
The Bargainist
Brad's Deals - The web site is decent, but the real deals are on the daily newsletter, so sign up for that bad boy.

It's raining clues!

2009-02-19T12:41:00.007-05:00

Jayme and Heather threw me a great wedding shower on Sunday! Since it was in Philadelphia, and since I live in Atlanta, they decided to have everyone mail me the presents and just give me clues at the shower to guess what they had gotten me.

Admittedly, I was a little nervous about this game, but everyone did a really great job with their hints and helped me guess as well.

Some highlights:
A soft pretzel tray!!!
Mom's candy poem
Shari Trivia (some of which I didn't even know the answers to)
Hangman by Tina
Natalie and Leah loving on each other
Finding out my friend Laura is pregnant - congrats Laura and Patrick!

Lots of pictures:

Heather's palm tree cookies

Jayme and Mom

The fruit basket thing that had mine and Josh's names on it

Jayme prepping

Marley in tropical garb as well

Mom getting festive

Tropical food

Plus soft pretzels!!!

Holly with Natalie and Leah, who seemed to like her just fine

Cousins

Tina telling me my fortune

Aunt Stevie reading her poem

Cynthia acting out her gift

Linda and Andrea - guess, guess!

Aunt Ilene representing

Me and Syd and her super-cute heart

HS girls! Heather, Tina, me, Holly, Heather G., and Court

Cute

Me and the ladies

Aw

Natalie helping us with the leftovers

See, pretzels are so good, it doesn't even matter if they're wrapped in plastic

And a few other pics from the weekend:

Louie loving his toys

Sleepy puppy

And just because this is amazing - found it in the mall parking lot. God bless.

Grandmom

2009-02-19T12:37:00.003-05:00

Went home to Philly this past weekend and got to spend a lot of time with Grandmom. She had her good days and her bad, and even one day where the conversations were all about sex! That's my Grandmom! =)

Mom, Grandmom, me

Grandmom and the granddaughters

Mom, Dad, Grandmom, me, Jayme, Sydney

Dad and Grandmom

Horsies

2009-02-13T12:26:00.005-05:00

Josh and I recently went horseback riding and to Calloway Gardens. We rode at Buttsmill Farm (hence the shot above). My horse kept trying to run me into trees and Josh's horse, Blackjack, was very old. But strong.

Giddy up!

Pretty shot returning to stables

Church at Calloway - Josh's dad and Nancy got married here

Self-portrait by Josh

Invitations

2009-01-29T17:50:00.002-05:00

A sneak peak at our invitations! Went to the press check on Tuesday, and they're looking good.

Bruce and Jack at Prographics - these guys are awesome.

Big bad printers

Bring it!

2009-01-20T17:55:00.001-05:00

(picture courtesy of NotCot)

Great job today Obama! Now fix it! =)

Babyland General!

2009-01-14T16:51:00.010-05:00

So the intent here was to go hiking for the day in North Georgia. We've done this a few times, but never in Helen. I've heard of Helen, GA before, knew they had an Octoberfest celebration, but had no idea it was Little Germany! Like, literally, they built it to look like a mini German hamlet. It's very cute, but obviously very touristy, and pretty much all we wound up doing there was eating and spending money on food and eating.

But first! We stopped on the way up there at Babyland General, which was by far the best part of the trip. Babyland General, for those of you who don't know, is where Cabbage Patch Kids are born. There's a magical tree that they are birthed out of, and you can go there, see a birthing (don't worry, there's pictures of one below!) and adopt an original Cabbage Patch Kid (for between $175 - $375 - eek!) My cheap-o Toys R Us one certainly didn't cost that much.

Just a warning - these were impossible to edit, so there's a lot of pictures!

Is it just me or does the receptionist look like a Cabbage Patch?

Premies

Baby with adoption certificate

Kinda creepy - preemie in an incubator

Checkup area with the stork

Hope, Judson, Matt, and Tupes

This was the cutest thing - these girls had brought their Cabbage Patch Kids in for a checkup and were anxiously watching to see if they were in good health.

The base of the magic birthing tree

The doctor getting ready for a birth

Lifting back the lettuce flaps...

Thankfully, it wasn't a "branch" birth - his joke, not mine

It's a girl!

Realized after we took these that it looks like these guys are smoking, but really it's just lollipops!

And on to Helen:

Christmas

2009-01-14T16:47:00.007-05:00

Some pictures from Christmas: We went with Melissa, Allen, and Dominic to see the lights at Centennial Olympic Park. FYI - they're not that exciting! =)

Dominic and Elmo all bundled up

Dominic, Allen, and Melissa in front of the giant fake tree

Then we went to Lynn's for Christmas Eve. We had a nice gathering - Larry and Nancy came, Josh's grandmother was there, Terry joined us, and Paige and Dan joined us as well. The dogs were very happy to have so many people to give puppy dog eyes to in exchange for food.

Lynn, Terry, Paige, and Nancy

Jean, Josh, Dan, and Larry

Turducken!

Lynn's tree

Cali loving Nancy

My iPhone from Lynn!

Lynn and Paige

Bailey getting into the spirit

New Fear Year

2009-01-07T16:34:00.003-05:00

So I usuallly try to only post about happy fun things and perpetuate a positive attitude, but there's been a lot of crummy stuff going on lately. Some family members are now or have been laid off / taking pay cuts / not finding work, which is always tough. And thank god, no one I know personally has been touched by violent crime, but it's now at two degrees. Friends of friends have been robbed / attacked / etc.

But what's inspiring me actually getting this out on (virtual) paper was an incident late last night. One of the bar-restaurants we go to sometimes, The Standard, was robbed at 4:30 in the morning as they were closing, and a worker was shot in the head and killed. This is just tragic and unnecessary. Offical AJC article is here. But gist of it is, the bartender and a girl who worked there were closing up when 4 armed gunmen threw a brick through the front door, came in, and made the bartenders lie face down in the office while they took money. The girl somehow hid, but the robbers shot the guy, who was only 27 years old, twice in the head and twice in the legs and then took off. He died a few hours later at the hospital.

This is the third or fourth incident I know of in the last month that has been in the East Atlanta general area. It's getting out of control.

UPDATE: Yay for the community - there were so many donations that the reward for finding the murderers went from the standard $5,000 for a "heinous crime" (as opposed to $2,000 for a normal one) to $21,870!

Work holiday party

2008-12-22T11:17:00.008-05:00

I was slightly dreading our annual Cartoon Network holiday party. It's always super fun, but as you may or may not know, work has been - how do I put this lightly - trying for me lately. So I wasn't sure I wanted to spend several hours trapped in a big room with all these people that I already have to see on average 40-50 hours a week.

But we went. And it was really fun! Honestly, I drank several Vodka Sprites and failed to sample much of the food, so I really can't tell you any distinctive highlights besides Josh carrying around a fake turkey and riding a giant tricycle through the dance floor (he is a bold one, isn't he?), but as always, there's pictorial memories:

Matt, Josh, Lori, Banks

Lori and I and drink #2?3?

Josh and Banks

Clint, Matt, me, Josh and aforementioned fake turkey

Josh and me

Lori, me, Grover

Grover and Ryan

Aww, TCS plus one - Paul, Lori, Lauri Clay, me, Matt Leho, and Petrika

Take 2

After party at the Independent - Lori and Banks

Melissa came and met us!

And here are the pictures from the photographer in the ... photography (?) area of the party ....

Jerome, me, Jon, and Josh - those guys were visiting from France

Matt, me, Drew, and Siobhan

Petrika, where are you??

We are one serious family!

Oh, haha, no we're not, we're hilarious!

Overall, a very fun night, and I'm glad I went. And glad I'm not working this week! Ha!

Follow me!

2008-12-22T11:15:00.003-05:00

New feature on my blog - you can be a follower (see right panel)! I think this means you may get an email notification when I add a new posting, but I'm not really sure. Try it out and let me know! =)

We're engaged and that means we have parties

2008-12-05T17:15:00.005-05:00

My parents threw us an engagement brunch party over Thanksgiving weekend in Philly. It was really nice. And of course, there was MORE family and MORE food. That's pretty much what the weekend was about. The whole thing was slightly overwhelming, but really sweet and great to have all those people together and wishing us well!

I don't have that many pictures of the actual party because I was busy saying hi to everyone and then bye to everyone (I seriously think that's all we did for 3 hours!), but here's a few and some I stole from Heather:

Bells on! (for Mom)

Chocolate chocolate cake - excellent! (We continued to eat this at every meal including breakfast the next couple of days.)

Lots of delectable delights

Omelette station

Thanks Mom and Dad - it was great!

Cutie!

Michael and Dad

Babies - eek!

Court, Erica, little Leah

High school girls plus additions

Last night - Tacconelli's pizza for Aunt Susan. This place is kinda crazy - it's a total dive in Fishtown, and you have to call in and reserve your dough. Once all the dough is reserved, they won't let anyone else make reservations for dinner. The white pizza is totally worth the trip though!

What's left after scarfing down 3 pizzas

Say pizza cheese!

Happy and fat

Turkey (and Mac n Cheese!) Day

2008-12-05T17:00:00.007-05:00

Thanksgiving this year, for the first year in as long as I can remember, was not at my mom's. It was at my Aunt Ilene's. And it was yummy (I actually ate some food because there was mac n cheese this year - thanks Aunt Sue!) and great and family-filled, but unfortunately, my great uncle was in the hospital, so it was less family filled than it should have been. From what I hear, he's doing better every day, so I'm giving thanks for that.

Josh and I had a great and exhausting trip up to Philly. I had been looking forward to a soft pretzel for weeks leading up this trip, and told Josh every day in the week before it, "5 days till soft pretzels," "4 days till soft pretzels," etc., you get the point. And then we get off the plane, and Jay's Pretzels stand is closed! What?! So Josh calms me down and says, don't worry, we'll get one on the way home. And my dad picks us up and we drive downtown to get my Aunt Susan from her hotel, stopping no less than 3 places on the way to get soft pretzels, including the Philly Soft Pretzel Factory, and guess what - apparently pretzels are not made on Thanksgiving! It was traumatic. I mean, I think the Pilgrims totally would have chowed down on soft pretzels had they existed then. Anyway, I ate my fair share of squishy dough the rest of the trip, so it's all okay. But I really think holidays are no reason for no pretzels.

Here's some pics!

Thanksgiving night drinks - Aunt Susan, Jayme, me at the Ritz downtown - cool hotel because it's a converted bank (notice the columns in the back)

Jay and Clay

Cool bar at the Ritz

View of City Hall

My little Natalie - okay, Heather's little Natalie

Heather, Lou, and Natalie

She likes to get the whole family involved in the dance parties

Friday night dinner at Aunt Stevie and Uncle Roy's (Aren't they cute?)

Yum - lots of food!

All the redheads! Sami, me, and Robbie

My favorite new thing

2008-11-07T16:44:00.002-05:00

This makes me happy:
Puppy Cam

2008-11-06T10:20:00.001-05:00

Stole this off someone's Flicker page. It's just beautiful.

OMG I'm so old

2008-10-27T19:55:00.007-04:00

It was my *sigh* 30th birthday this weekend. I tried to divert attention from that by having a Halloween party instead.

Pictures:

Our meat locker inspired house that Josh worked very hard on decorating

The bloody bathroom

Lots of food and candy

The yummy cake Josh's mom brought

We were "Till death do we part"

Judson and Laura who we gave the "Best Couples Costume" honors to

Matt as Hare Kare

Our neighbors, Madison and Taylor

Trish dressed to match Cali

Tom and Jaime - the preppiest boys I know in real life

John, managing the Tropics from our kitchen

Matt and Matthew, aka Peter Pan/Robin Hood/Prince Vallum and Nurse Joker

Cali as birthday dog with the balloons Lori brought

We heart NY

2008-10-27T19:15:00.007-04:00

My cousin Marissa was getting married in NY, so we decided to make it a longer trip to visit some friends, see some sights, and try and get Josh some work.

I haven't been to New York for a couple of years, or up North in a while for that matter, so the whole trip was very comforting and exciting.

We went to the Banksy animatronics show - The Village Pet Store - about the exploitation of animals - great, great exhibit!

Kid riding the captured dolphin

Bunny using makeup that is tested on her

Some dogs

Caged gross Tweety

We also visited the Marc Jacobs accessories store and McSorely's, which has been around since before Prohibition, for some dark beer for Josh and some light beer for me.

We also visited Canal Street and got some fun sunglasses. And there were chickens there. (We did not purchase any.)

Then the wedding! It was at the Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers which we could see the Statue of Liberty from. It was superfun, and everyone danced all night. And Marissa looked beautiful!

Getting ready (sporting our Canal Street shades)

Marissa and Jimmy

Cousins - Steph, Alyssa, Meredith

Dad and Jayme dancing

Dancing

The girls

Mom and me

Nope, there wasn't karaoke

The NY Stock Exchange building - right next to our hotel on Wall St.

The next day we went to Little Italy and ate a lot.

Fam

Eating canollis

Pretty tarts

The No Time Update

2008-10-14T16:55:00.006-04:00

Again, I've been slack and haven't updated in forever. And I've got no time to do it now either. Leaving for NY in a few hours, so here's the real quick down and dirty of what I've been up to:

Josh took me to the Counting Crows/Maroon 5 concert:

Who cannot love someone who sings:
She's talking in her sleep/It's keeping me awake/Every word is nonsense but I understand ??

We went to the North Georgia State Fair. Lots of livestock and Republicans, but still fun. And great photography ops!

And we went to another really fun Rogue Apron event, this time a soup line.

We bring disaster everywhere we go!

2008-09-11T16:11:00.008-04:00

First we went to Jamaica and left just as Tropical Storm Fay was attacking the island. Then we head to the South Carolina coast, and Hanna almost evacuates us. We must have angered the gods. Anyway, we were lucky and only had one day of mild rain. The rest of the time, it was beautiful and sunny. Not in much of a writing mood, so here's some pictures:

Pretty Charleston where we stopped for lunch...

... and a drink at this gorgeous rooftop bar at the Pavillion Hotel

view of the Customs House from the rooftop bar

Cru Cafe where we had super yummy food

My mac n cheese - sooooo good

The house where we stayed in Edisto - these cars were only about half of the ones there the first weekend

Right on the beach!

A blowfish Mrs. Harvey found

Playing on the beach

Walking the doggies

One of the alligators at the not-worth-the-$10-entrance-fee Serpentarium

Apparently the only open-air venomous snake pit in the US

Box of crabs for a low-country boil

Cooking

Get ready!

Yummy

Skylar's hungry too

2nd day in Charleston - cute firehouse

Cute fountain

Cute pier

Pretty beach shots from the house in Edisto

Ditto

Meeting Jayme and Clayton in Savannah - we went to Paula Deen's resto, Lady and Sons, for lunch

Such good buddies

Yummy and fattening southern food

Clayton, Jayme, me, Josh

Biking on Hilton Head

The wine from Italy that Jayme brought us to celebrate our engagement - how sweet!

On the beach

Awwwwww

DragonCon

2008-09-11T16:09:00.004-04:00

One of the weirdest events I've ever been to. This is like ComicCon, but way smaller and way geekier. And happens to take place in Atlanta. Our friends, Le Sexoflex, were filming a music video there, so we decided to be groupies and check out all the craziness.

Pictures below courtesy of Google Images because my camera battery died!

Scouting Trip

2008-08-25T12:26:00.009-04:00

Josh and I took a trip to Negril, Jamaica a couple of weekends ago to scout for wedding stuff. It was sort of an impromptu trip as your passport needs to be valid for 6 months from your date of departure from Jamaica, and mine is fast expiring.

We had a really fun and busy time, and we LOVE LOVE LOVE Rockhouse where we decided to get married!

Here are some pictures from the trip:

View of some islands near Cuba on the way there - the water is ridiculously clear

The beach and boats at the place we stayed

Hooray beer!

On the beach where we stayed

Weird fruit for sale outside Rockhouse

Standard room block

View from studio room

Pool area

Clear amazing water

The oval deck, where the ceremony will be

Pretty cliffs/sun decks

The restaurant (to the right)

Premium villas and the cliffs that we jumped off of

Standard villa

Glass bottom boat cruising by

Tasting cake

Cliffs at Rick's

And this

2008-08-01T13:04:00.003-04:00

I completely forgot to include 2 other good things! Josh's dad and Nancy got a new dog! Meet Max:

He's very tired because he's only 1 and he was very busy playing with his new sister Gretchen.

This is how he lays:

AND I got to see my Grandma when I was home!

Ugh, I'm so bad!

2008-07-31T14:44:00.012-04:00

I did it again - I'm totally slack. For anyone who does actually read this (anyone, anyone?) I apologize for the lack of posts. To be fair, life HAS been busy lately.

Okay, let's see - I'll do this blog-style and go backwards chronologically in this post, so you're seeing the most recent stuff at the top.

Last night, Josh and I went to one of the coolest events I've been to in Atlanta in a while. (I love when this city surprises me with its under-the-radar super effort.) It's called Rogue Apron, and it's essentially an underground supper club. The whole point is to basically bring back the social aspect of dining, so you're not going to a restaurant with the same people you always do, talking to only each other the whole time, and then leaving. Only new person you talked to the whole evening - your waiter!

So the way this works is they send out an email newsletter once a month announcing the type of cuisine the monthly event will feature. First, I don't know, 50 people or so to respond get to go. The location is not disclosed until the day before the event, and you're asked to donate $20 a person or volunteer in some way. We opted for the paying. Last night's event was called Mama Mediterranean, and it was hosted by this Italian guy who actually caters for a living. (I got the impression this is unusual for hosts.) Half his house was literally a kitchen. The amazing food included some sort of lamb skewer, falafel balls, eggplant yumminess, mushroom and sausage pizza (my favorite), and biscotti with fruit for dessert.

Some pics:

Everyone eating in the backyard at the picnic tables the host built for the event!

Dave from East Atlanta Brewery who partners with Rogue Apron and created a pale ale and bitter for the evening.

Our dessert choices

Next, in reverse chronological order, is that we set a place and date for the wedding! Finally!! Can't even tell you how excited we are!

So check out where we will be forever shackled to one another next May:

The Rockhouse Hotel in Negril, Jamaica!

Aside from being one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, they are also good - the Rockhouse Foundation helps Jamaican children in need.

So we've now got lots of planning ahead of us!

And the last thing y'all have missed out on by me not being studious in my posts is my trip home to Philly a couple of weekends ago to surprise Courtney at her baby shower. First I got picked up at the airport by the best ever airport picker-upper Heather! She met me with the cutest little fake niece I've got, Natalie, AND a soft pretzel!

Heather and the cutie-pie

Natalie hijacking my phone

Apparently it didn't taste good enough to keep

Saturday was the shower at Court's mom's house. She did an awesome job decorating, and practically the entire house and backyard were pink.

Mom to be!

Mom and Grandmom to be!

Heather G. and her newbie, Trip

All the girls ... and one little guy

Erica, Heather G., Trip, and Tina

Me, Heath, and Miss Natalie

Opening presents

More presents

Cute cake!

And that's it! You are now officially up to speed on my life!

Almost finished!

2008-07-08T21:08:00.003-04:00

Josh has been working his butt off, and has most of the bricks down! Now it's just the cut edges and then on to the landscaping. Yay!

Fireworks Mania!

2008-07-06T16:33:00.007-04:00

Happy July 4th (weekend) ! I hope everyone had lots of fun celebrating and not working!
Went to several parties, drank several drinks, and took several naps (which I NEVER do, but thoroughly enjoyed).

Some of it captured on film:

Petrika prepping for the 4th

One of our lovely and not at all skeezy hosts, Merrill

The Redz

People

Ryan and Petrika, firework technicians extroadinaire

Josh in disguise

Here we go...

How patriotic

Impressive, huh?

People again

The remains

Day 2 of Patio Progress

2008-06-24T08:19:00.002-04:00

Josh hired one of our neighbors to help out and got all the crush run laid out and the beds made. Looking good!

The patio is getting closer

2008-06-21T15:55:00.002-04:00

Josh spent about 6 hours today tilling the lower part of our backyard. It's the first major step towards our soon-to-be patio!

We're going to be so famous!

2008-06-16T11:48:00.004-04:00

This past weekend, Petrika, Siobhan, and I tried out for a game show! It's called "Hole in the Wall" and will be aired on Fox. Have you ever seen those Japanese game shows that they usually dub over in really hilarious English? There's an event in those called Human Tetris, and that's what Hole in the Wall is based on.

The casting was NOT very crowded, so hopefully we have a chance of making the cut! We'll find out in 2 weeks whether we're going to Burbank or not.

In the meantime, please enjoy out amazing outfits:

Strawberry Jam in an extremely crowded casting waiting room

Our counterparts - Ben, Larry, and Brian from Cartoon Network On-Air who also auditioned

Petrika taking the measurements process very seriously - the spandex suits and helmets must fit just right

Siobhan barely fitting in the smallest person mold!

And for those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about, this is Human Tetris:

Catching up

2008-06-16T11:35:00.004-04:00

Okay, I've been super bad about posting lately. Sorry, sorry. So here's a quick run through of what y'all have missed! In no particular, order:

My parents came to Atlanta and completely surprised me for Mother's Day! It was a great weekend!

Me and mom

The mothers looking at wedding magazines

Cali and Bailey being exceptionally cute

Josh and I went to the GA Renaissance Festival. Maybe not the best choice we've ever made.

Pyrotechnics guy - he exploded 100 firecrackers taped to his body, which sadly was really not that impressive looking

Forgot to mention, we went on "Pirate Plunder Weekend". I don't really know what else to say about this one.

Oh, there was also 2(!!!) weddings there that day - pretty positive these were some of the groomsmen from one of them.

What else have we been up to? Allison came to visit from Chicago. Only got to see her for a night, but had lots of fun and finally got to eat at Top Flr! Went to a happy hour low-country boil (our favorite!) on a rooftop, which had a fantastic view of Atlanta (which we're blocking in the picture below). And I'm sure there's been lots of other momentous events that I can't quite place at the moment.

Yay!

2008-06-06T15:16:00.003-04:00

Josh's site is finally up!!! Check it out:
http://joshmeister.com/

Engaged!!!

2008-04-30T21:09:00.005-04:00

So the big news is.....we are ENGAGED! We're getting married! So weird! But so exciting and awesome!

Okay, backtracking....
Josh and I went to Asheville, NC last weekend. We decided about a month or so ago to do the weekend trip, and then Josh planned it out from there. And he did a fabulous job.

Although there were just a few complications at first. We stopped to get gas. Then we stopped b/c I had to use the bathroom. Then we stopped because the car was billowing smoke. Ugh. Yeah. Super fun. So after two auto parts stores and two hours of Josh being super-mechanic, we were up and running again!

We got to Biltmore House, which is absolutely beautiful and also the largest house in America, around 1. FYI, the house was built in the late 1800s by 27-year-old George Vanderbilt as a summer house. Crazy. Anyway, we booked our tour of the winery and our tour of the house, grabbed some lunch, and then checked out the gardens. Then Josh suggested we walk to the top of lawn #2 in front of the house. (The lawns are each a good football field in length.) There's a little arbor situation with a statue at the very top. When we got there, he got down on his knee and asked me to marry him. It was amazing and wonderful!

So now we're engaged and getting ready to start planning a kick-ass wedding!

Here's some pictures from the weekend:

The car after it stopped smoking, pre-mechanical magic.

Driving the ridiculously long (3 mile) driveway to Biltmore

Biltmore House from the end of the first lawn

My ring and Josh's dirty car-greased hands

We're engaged!

The statue at the arbor

View from the house up to the arbor

Bad picture of our super cute hotel, the Princess Anne Hotel

Another bad picture of the hotel

Trying to hike on Sunday before we were rained back into the car

Boca Boca

2008-04-10T11:30:00.008-04:00

These are a bit late, but I've been busy people.

Pictures from my quick trip down to Boca Raton to visit Grandmom. Aunt Wendy and Sydney were there too!

Syd, me, and Grandmom

Sydney and Aunt Wendy

Grandmom and Marty

Syd loving her corn at the flea market

Me and Grandmom

Farmers market at the flea market

Dogs everywhere, rejoice!

2008-04-10T11:30:00.005-04:00

So after 2+ years, yesterday I finally finally received real actual finished samples of the dog collars and leashes I designed!

Well, not completely finished. But damn close! They're not exactly the correct sizes and they'll still need a Fifi Runn label. But that will come.

Next steps are having Josh shoot them, designing a sales piece, figuring out which stores I want to try and sell them to and then doing a full production run - lots of work ahead of me, but yay!

Tornadoes - Not Just in Kansas Anymore

2008-03-15T12:13:00.007-04:00

Atlanta was hit by a tornado last night. Not the suburbs. Not the outskirts of the city. But the actual city. Downtown. Which tornadoes are not supposed to do.

They kept saying it was going to be a bad storm, but hello? we live in the city - I really didn't think it would be much worse than some strong winds, a couple of downed trees, and some power outages.

Luckily all our friends are fine and our neighborhood was pretty much completely untouched, but downtown, about 3 miles from us, got hit hard - the Dome, CNN Center, the OMNI Hotel, Philips Arena - as well as a lot of the neighborhoods between us and there. Pretty scary.

Here are some pictures from the local news station:

Cotton Mill Lofts, where some of our friends live.

Another view of Cotton Mill Lofts

Windows blown out at the Equitable Building.

The outside of Philips Arena - pretty ripped up

A building downtown

And pictures I took driving around this morning:

House in Grant Park

Another house in Grant Park

Windows gone at a business on Memorial

Blown out windows and knocked over sign at another business on Memorial

Another view of that building

Driving down Memorial

Tree down at Oakland Cemetary, Grant Park

Workers cleaning up trees in Grant Park

OMG Serenbe is so cute!

2008-03-09T18:22:00.024-04:00

Lori and I spent the weekend at Serenbe, which is about 35 mins. south of Atlanta. It's a bit hard to explain the concept of Serenbe, but I'll give it a try. It's a community of (wealthy) people - artists, doctors, executives - who wanted a simpler, more considered life. They built the community with sustainability and friendships in mind. And there were no sacrifices made in terms of good food or good living. There are 3 restaurants, The Farmhouse (at the Inn), The Hil, and the Blue-Eyed Daisy. All of the restaurants feature organic food as well as food grown at Serenbe Farms under the tagline "farm to table." So it's all really fresh and good.

We were supposed to stay at The Inn, which is so adorable, but there was a problem with the reservation, so they wound up putting us in a house - A HOUSE! - in the community. It was huge and gorgeous. Take a tour with me if you will:

Other than sleeping in comfort, we (in no particular order): ate a lot, drank a little, went on a hayride that included the tractor sliding down a hill in a muddy section (unplanned), fed the animals (including 2 new-born black sheep!), jumped on a trampoline, pissed off some very large cows, walked a labyrinth (sort of), shopped at the reminiscent and yummy Harris & Clark gourmet grocery, and toured a bunch of the seriously amazing $800,000 - $1,000,000 houses.

Here are pictures:

Me and Lori outside - you guessed it! - Guest Services at The Inn

(Distant) view of the cows and horses at The Inn

Grounds at The Inn

The garden at The Inn

The Labyrinth at The Inn

Bumble House (second one in)

Kitchen of Bumble House

Back of the house

Lori in front of the Blue-Eyed Daisy

View of the little shopping area, aka "The Hamlet," in the community from the roof-top deck of the Modern House

The donkeys (minus one who somehow was in the same pasture as the horses)

Feeding the goats

Sam, the pot-bellied pig

The week-old baby black sheep

Serenbe Farms

Things I love at Serenbe:

How smart is this? Public trash/recycle bins

Adorable sign for this rental property

Entire-tree-turned-into-a-gate at the Stables

Pillow that was at the Bumble house