Bag Lady

The only thing worse than a Monday is a Monday after a long weekend. Ugh. All 3-day-weekends should be Sat-Sun-Mon, so you can "recover" from your mini vacay with a shortened workweek. But nobody asked me. And I guess since the holiday was "Good Friday", not "Good Monday", it's probably a little bit beyond my power anyhow.

I hope everyone had a great Easter! Mine was wonderful. Maybe it was because I was super busy all day long, but it was the first holiday since losing Mom that I didn't spend in a total funk. Church and brunch with Hubby's family was very nice, as was dinner with my father and sister. I'm lucky to have such fantastic people in my life (even if Hubby's grandmother seemed disapproving that I put relish in my deviled eggs).

I'm super excited for the UPS man to come today. He's going to bring me my new Lands' End tote! I "needed" one with my married monogram on it. I got it in medium, which I think will be perfect for work (and in pink, naturally).



I also ordered a large tote from L.L. Bean last week. My madras addiction is rivaling my polka dot obsession (almost). I need to step away.



It's light enough to be girly, but dark enough to be practical (I am a dirt magnet). I know I could have ordered basically the same monogramed tote from LL Bean and gotten everything in 1 order, but Lands' End has better monogram choices (I wanted "script initials"). And I had free shipping with them, so I only paid shipping on 1 order. See, it makes sense now, haha.

Speaking of making sense, I found this beauty from The Monogram Shop that defies personal logic (scroll down and check out that Utility Tote). Now, I know I am the Queen of Cheap and I know it's not polite to imply how people should spend their own money, but wowza. Maybe I need to see it in person to understand, but that $215 tote looks nearly identical to the $25 one I have coming from Lands' End!

If I buy another tote, slap me!

Pre-Easter

Ahh, 3 day weekends. I keep thinking today is Sunday, then I remember and smile.

The game was amazing. Even though we lost, it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I got to meet Bo Outlaw and Nick Anderson, 2 of my Top 4 All-Time Favorite Magic Players. I also got to meet the team owner, Rich DeVos (our seats were better than even his!), as well as current UF players Chandler Parsons and Nick Calethes. (The complementary food and beer were great too, I can't lie). We won't be catching Boston for the 2nd seed, but even so I am incredibly proud and happy for my team!

The view from our seats.


Time Out



Retreating to the locker room after our loss



A very tiny, distant Kate on the court after the game


Today is just a lazy day, the best kind. I made deviled eggs (maybe they need a different name for this weekend; combining 'devil' and 'easter' is a bit awkward...) and yellow buttercake cupcakes for tomorrow's dinner with my family. Tomorrow we'll go to early mass and brunch with Hubby's family. I am not much of a church-goer, but I figure if it'll make the in-laws happy, fine. Plus, the promise of an omelette or waffles afterward sustains me, haha.

A very happy Easter to everyone! Appreciate the time with your families!

Sunday Babble

(I just have to say, I've received my first comment and follower this week, and I am positively tickled pink! Thanks ladies!)

You know what one of the best feelings in world is? Feeling normal after you've felt bad! I had a headache from Friday night til a bit after waking up this morning. I slept most of Saturday away. It's so nice to no longer feel I have a big ole' rubber band strapped around my head!

I need to go through my closet this afternoon and put together a box of stuff for the Viet Vets. They're coming tomorrow. I'm a bit of a pack-rat when it comes to clothes, so getting honest with myself is going to be tough. But I sure could use some extra room in my closet! And Viet-Vets/Am-Vets are such good charities. I'd rather donate to them than do a garage sale.

I'm going to attempt an Easter craft or two today, as well. It occurred to me, 'why not make some cute projects now, while I have time (aka, no kids)? Then when I have kiddos (aka, the ones who'll appreciate the decorations) there'll be something fun for them to jazz up the house.'

Project No. 1 shall be Martha-inspired glitter eggs. My original intent was to go all-out with the real eggs (cleared of their innards, of course). Well honestly, that's too much work! I found styrofoam eggs at Michael's, which realistically will hold up better through the years. I picked out pink, green, and blue glitter. We'll see how this goes: glitter, glue, and curious cats are dangerous things to have around at one time. Hopefully I can do this project without combining the 3!


Here's Martha's finished result. She used "glitter dust", which I could not find at Michael's and probably would not want to pay the price tag for if I could. I'll just be using regular glitter. I'll post pictures, I promise.

Random Musings...

* St. Paddy's Day dinner went well, despite some confussion and unnecessary drama. The smashed potatoes, steamed/buttered cabbage and especially the corned beef turned out great! I watched Martha on DVR after dinner, and although I did not brine my brisket for 2 weeks prior to the holiday, I think mine turned out better looking than hers.

I didn't add green food coloring to the 'taters. I meant to. Mom used to always do that, and in our milk too. Meh. I figure I'll do that for future kiddos, for sure. And (a sure sign we're getting old) we didn't go out for green beer either. We just sat around watching the Magic lose, drinking Smithwicks.

* I'm leaving work a bit early today to help dad pick out new flooring and bathroom tile for the remo. Working on this has taught me that I never want to build a house--too many decisions, and so expensive! And it isn't even my money I'm spending! My poor dad though, he's even more clueless on it than I am, so for his sake I try to take charge and not show how insanely flustered it all makes me feel.

* I'd been wanting a pale, opaque pink for my nails. So I bought Orly's "Polo Princess" from their new spring '09 "Prepster" collection (right up my alley). Well...I am not sure I am in love. The application is less than perfection: it's kind of streaky, even with 3 coats. And it seems to have bubbled a bit in a few places. This mani definitely won't last past tonight.

* I went on Facebook last night and browsed pages of girls I went to high school with. I looked at 3 pages, and all 3 girls are expecting! Yikes and yowza! I closed out of that pretty quickly, haha, didn't want to catch that bug!

Éirinn go brách!

Happy St. Paddy's Day, y'all!

I like to think that I'm just like Scarlett O'Hara: I have a Southern mother and and Irish father!

Mom's family has been in the South for as long as time. They're from a teeny town down in the southeastern corner of Missouri ("the bootheel of Missour-uh") and have lived right over the levy from the Mississippi River for decades, if not centuries. Pre-Civil War, for sure. You look across the river, and there's Kentucky. Unlike the O'Haras, we were never wealthy landowners. Just basically poor white folk scraping together a living with a small cotton and soybean crop. But everyone knows that a true Southern "Lady" need not be rich.

Dad's family is fairly new to America, hailing from Tipperary Co., Munster, Ireland. They came to America in the late 19th century and settled in Pittsburgh and pretty much stayed there.

So when people ask what nationality I am, I say "Southern-American and Irish". Half the time, people think I'm talking about South America. If I was from South America, wouldn't I say "South American"? People, jeez. Anyhow, that's who I am. I do know if you trace mom's side back far enough to find out just exactly who we were before we were living on the Mississippi, we were French (Acadians...precursors to Cajuns). But that was 200 years ago. I don't think the French would want to claim us anyhow, hehe.

So here's to the wearin' o' the green! I am, of course, decked out today. A green bubble top, claudaugh earrings in my bottom holes, Helenite studs in my top holes, a canamara marble beaded bracelet, and (naturally) green nail polish. Zoya Irene, to be exact.

I put a corned beef brisket in the crock pot before leaving for work, and I have cabbage and potatoes to stew up when I get home. Irish beer too, of course. Hopefully dad, my sister and her hubby will come up too!

Be Mine

Happy almost-Valentine's Day! I suppose I should be focused on the fact that today is a big, bad, scary "Friday the 13th"....but considering I live with a black cat, I figure I should already be dead if superstitions were true.

We're not doing anything big for the holiday. I'm not anti-V-day, but I don't hype it up either. It's just a day to remind us the importance of love (romantic, family, whatever).

You know what I can't stand though? Those girls that are just SO against Valentine's Day. You know the ones---wearing black today, scowling at all happy couples. To me, there is absolutely NO wonder why they're single. Who wants a person with that kind ot attitude in their lives? Not me. Even when I was single on V-Day, I'd bake cookies for my family, friends and co-workers. It's showing love for everyone you care about, not just a husband or girlfriend.

So there's my thought on that.

Today my nails are Essie "Long Stemmed Roses". It's a bright glossy color that's as red as a pink can be and still be "pink".

I'm wearing ruby heart-shaped jewelry, which was given to me years ago by my high school/college sweetheart. So, um, don't tell Hubby. It's nothing to me, but I doubt he'd see it as neutrally as I do. "B" and I dated for almost 5 years, and we parted on good terms. We just grew to be different people. I still think well of him, I still talk to him mom occasionally. I'm happily married, and he's engaged to be married this June. He just happened to give me some awesome jewelry, so if I feel no negative ju-ju attatched to it, I see nothing wrong with wearing it. I just won't tell Hubby where it came from. "Oh, this old thing? Gosh, I think mom gave it to me....I can't remember...."

I love my shirt's shade of purple (I didn't want to go too OTT with a V-Day theme, even though tons of pink on any given day is not unusual for me). I have on black work slacks and black ballet flats now, but I'll change to dark bootcut jeans and my brown boots (which are SO not as comfy as they used to be, what's up with that?) before I head up for Hubby's basketball game at districts.

DH's team is the best in the district, but they're having a rough spell right now so winning it all is no longer a guaranty. The "star" flunked science so he's not playing, and the rest of the starting line up is sick. Plus they are playing our rival from the next town over, so their motivation is high. So we'll see how this goes!

Saturday will likely take us to Jacksonville to scout the team we'd play next on the bracket. There's a Ted's Montana Grill right by the high school we'd be visiting, and an opportunity to eat at our fave restaurant can't be missed. Especially for V-day. They don't have a restaurant in Central Florida, but Hubby took me there on a trip to Tallahassee. The food is so good. And the half dills they give as appetizers? Oh, so, so good.

Hubby's best friend is in town to attend the 500 on Sunday. Now, NASCAR is actually something I really enjoy watching. Seriously. Just not at the track. Daytona is so big, you get a better view on TV in my opinion. So we might go over Sunday morning and walk around a bit, and take in the "culture". Trainer has tickets, but we'll probably just drop him off and head out. Daytona on raceday is like a college football town for homecoming, times 2 (and much more heavy on the redneck).

Oh, and can I just release some energy about how I cannot wait to get my order from Preppy Mongram Gifts???! I'm not saying they're taking too long, they're within the processing and shipping timeline on their website....but I am impatient, lol! I ordered so much cute stuff. And I wannnit now! I want my monogram travel mug so I can finally start bringing my tea with me to work in the morning and not slop it all over me and the car.