lizzie and christmas.

4 days of having a 3 year old will wear you right out.

and unrelated part 2 of this post:
the journey of our first christmas tree.

1. north carolina

2. fragers hardware, where we picked it up. hello beautiful!A quick stop by the grocery store, with a new bench we purchased from E.M. We thought this was so funny - it looked like we were having a little photo shoot for our first christmas tree. and well, maybe we were.

Welcome home, little tree!!

Funny story about this tree, it took a while to walk it 10 blocks and we got a lot of funny looks, what with TH carrying a tree and me carrying a bench. Not to mention we were trying to hide from any church neighbors since we bought all this on Sunday. Hahaha.

what our house looks like this week.

i hate the cat. i love lizzie, but she drains the energy right out of me. honestly, i've never worked so hard. right now she's "asking" me "could you get me another cookie?" and now "i told you, get me another cookie". the girl doesn't quit.

we've gone to museums, to the zoo, made cookies, played with her dolls, read books, walked around the neighborhood, pizza and milkshakes, playground, legos, etc. and she still has so much energy. the old lady in me just wants to sit around all day, so i'm glad she's here to force me out of the house.

back to the cat. the cat is up in my face 24-7, requiring my attention, and i guess i'm just not a cat person. lizzie, every time she sees the cat, cuddles up to him and says "ohhhh baaaaabe". it's hilarious. the cat likes to hide out in lizzie's little fort and if you walk by it, you WILL get scratched or bitten and then I get a little upset.

needless to say, i'm having fun, but rest assured that i'm not having children anytime soon and i'm never ever having a cat. i've always been a dog person anyway.

ok, gotta run to get lizzie a cookie.

the ring cycle.

do you have any interest whatsoever in the following?
1. opera
2. norse myths, influenced by greek tragedy
3. lord of the rings
4. public radio
5. getting the chills

then please please PLEASE, listen to this podcast. i've now added "see the ring cycle" to my list of things to do before i die. amazing.

i am home!

hello people of the blog. i wish i had kept a journal in atlanta because i really feel like a lived a thousand lives. 6 days is a long time to be gone, and a long time to be working 15 hours every day.

highlights from the trip:
1. the atlanta aquarium: home to whale sharks and the largest saltwater aquarium in the WORLD. and the coolest jellys that make an awesome wallpaper on my iphone.

2. apple cider: i swear it was a little spiked, because then this happened:3. the day i discovered baja fresh was right around the corner from our hotel
4. downloading netflix to my iphone
5. my 2nd trip to the atlanta aquarium
yeah i really liked the aquarium, and if you ever go to atlanta, you should drop everything and GO.

and now just finishing up this day and then i have a week off from work. and i get to hang out with this little munchkin while her parents skip town for a bit. we have so many fun things planned for our 4 days together! she called me last week to ask if we could sing her favorite song together and left a voicemail with her singing. my ovaries exploded and i melted into a puddle of motherly desire.

short weekend.

hotlanta, here i come.

heading to atlanta for a conference. its one of our big ones, and i'm excited to see all my work friends. while i'm down there, hoping to check out the coca cola factory, the aquarium, and the dali exhibition at the high museum of art.

if i'm still alive at the end of next week, please send me a good pat on the back for making it through. these meetings are always pure crazy.

on procrastination.

it's getting worse, my procrastination.

i used to push things off for a week or so, maybe a month, but with my hectic schedule and newly married life, i have failed in so many departments. and i think i can chalk it up to some major procrastination.

we have been in our apartment for 9 months. it never really reached its potential because i am much more indecisive about decorating than i thought i'd be. so it just doesn't get done and i sit around every night wondering what i should do about it.
result: our lease is almost up and i think we'll be moving in february, so now there's not really a point in decorating and buying the perfect ottoman.

which is why i'm terribly happy that christmas is coming so i can just decorate our place with christmasy things until we move. problem solved.

the only picture i took in nyc last weekend.

on the way home from queens, where abby and travis had their reception (at the gorgeous metropolitan building), we saw this picture in the long island city subway. omgah i just laughed and marveled at the humor and brazen boldness of other people like me. they are just like me, except they have the genius idea to draw moustache on a poster that will make people smile for a few weeks.

i'm glad for people like that who improve our public spaces with art, or humor, or life. whatever it might be. it makes me so very happy to feel connected in a strange way to other humans.

Jónsi.

Yes, he is wearing a feather cape and full head dress. Yes I want to wear this every day.
*via dcist*

We went to see Jónsi on Monday at the 9:30 club. Jónsi is the genius behind Sigur Ros, and has now branched out on his own to continue along the same route as the Icelandic band, Sigur Ros. Amazing theatrical and extremely emotive masterpiece. I've been putting this post off for the last couple of days because I'm still processing what I experienced.

Jónsi has the ability to channel your emotions and bring an entire room of people to tears and silence of the "hearing a pin drop" type. Plus, he is perfect for our generation of ADD music listeners. You see, I get bored at most concerts and so I must be carefully entertained by the artist. Jonsi holds your hand with his haunting melodies and pairs it with moving animation in the background.

Like this song, where he had a storm raging on the screen behind him that kept building and building through the song until it was a full blown tornado with branches blowing all around on the screen, with crazy flashing lights that seemed like lightning. And it WORKED. I didn't even know the song was called tornado, but I found myself feeling really sad and broken for people who experience devastation from natural weather events. Does that even make sense?:

I love Jonsi. He makes me want to wear an Indian head dress as a fashion statement, which is really saying something for his convincing powers.

new shoes!

i went on a shoe rampage last night. added 3 more pairs of shoes to the pair i bought on saturday. i am in LOVE with these. for a recovering shoe addict, i've been really well behaved for the past year or two. not a lot of shoes i wanted to spend money on or take the time to break in.
well, i don't know what got into me last night, but i purchased 2 new pair of flats and a some black boots. my favorite are the kate spade knockoffs that i will wear EVERYWHERE in the next couple of months. just wait.

fail.

i typically like to focus on the positive things in life, but let's talk about something that i hate for one sec.

the budget.

we created a budget - no scratch that - I created a budget that we started on November 1st. It was fine and great and everything was going swell. Then TH decided he needed to improve it by adding subcategories and sub-subcategories, and well that was all fine and everything until he spent EIGHT ever-loving hours on his laptop all day sunday working on the new budget.

so i am mad at the budget. the budget and i are not on speaking terms right now. it took my husband away from me on one of our only Sundays at home in a long time. so guess what i did in retaliation? i went out and blew all of our food category on cheese, canned pumpkin, icelandic butter, and a fall-inspired wreath. HA! teach you to mess with me, budget.

...and if you think it's a problem that all i have to eat is cheese, pumpkin, and butter, then we should probably get to know each other better.*

*yes, this means i am OFF the cleanse. hello again sugar! i missed you.

this is the new face around our house.

kristin wiig cracks me up. we like to get in pretend fights just so we can make this face at each other. and i told TH the other day the next time I find something he says or does unfair, i am protesting. I will inflate a giant rat, bang on pots and pans, and march around the living room.

we have really exciting lives. haha.

new york, new york.

i have a huge nyc shaped hole in my heart.

i will probably never stop missing it, with its beautiful neighborhoods*, its ridiculous food**, its bagels spilling out of every bakery, its pizza making schools...its cobblestoned...wait - did i just PIZZA MAKING SCHOOL?

yes.

Pizza a Casa. For $150 bucks you can spend 4 hours with the pizza expert, learning how to make the best dough, working with a regular oven to get the best crust, tomato sauce, etc. I cannot think of a better way to spend 4 hours, unless maybe we're talking about eating cinnamon rolls while shopping. cause i like that too, quite a bit.

Who wants to make pizza!?



*our hotel was so beautiful!:
the andaz in wall street. priceline for $120!!

**this trips new york eats:
kossars
the doughnut plant
baked by melissa
lowcountry
wall and water
best pizza near penn station - arome

hello new york!!

taking the bolt bus to nyc early friday morning. i'm THRILLED to be coming back to the city i love so dear.

on eating.

last night i made a stir fry with so many vegetables, i almost cried of happiness. and then i put it next to some millet that was so mushy i almost cried of sadness. oh, you diabolical grain, i WILL figure you out.

and you too, lentils.i'm on day 11 of the cleanse. i haven't broken any rules yet, but haven't been super diligent in drinking all the vegetable juice and eating of the sauerkraut. it's hard, people, but with some planning i'm learning how my body likes to be fed, and that feels pretty good.

willpower is the name of this game and i'm just proud of myself for getting almost halfway through this. and i'm learning it's not about cleansing, necessarily - this is also teaching me how to cook new things, how to eat healthy, and how to be creative with food. it's tough sometimes to find time to cook and teach yourself the hard things, like how to make good beans, how to make a soup, how to steam Kale just perfectly.

so, i'm heading to NYC this weekend for a wedding, and I might have to cheat the cleanse a little. shhh...don't tell. but you try to go to NYC and not eat a bagel or a sweet.

my favorite thing about today.

Lizzie's story, from my sisters blog (private). Lizzie is my 3-year old niece, who I get to babysit later this month while my sister is on vacation. and by babysit, i mean hang out with and have a super fun time with a girl who's idea of a good time is painting your nails and eating cookies. Hello!

Guess What

Setting: Lizzie and I are playing Guess Who.

Lizzie: Are you wearing earrings?
Me: No, Lizzie, ask something like "Are you a woman?"
Lizzie: Are you a woman?
Me: No. Are you a man?
Lizzie: ARRRGHHH!!!!
Me: What??
Lizzie: Which ones are the womans? The boys or the girls!?

do you like my hat, shannon?

this is from the rally last saturday. hannah did a good recap on her blog, but i noticed that there is something a little funny about this picture. doesn't the capitol dome look like a little, teeny, hat? i'm so stylish.

sick day.

guess i had too much fun this weekend. woke up this morning with bad stomach (mal estomago), so taking a day away from work. sitting at home in my jams, sleeping and watching movies, and trying to not dream about bread.

i had really odd dreams about tornados and escaping from avalanches and old boyfriends. i kind of don't want to go back to sleep!

hope i feel better tomorrow - it's a big week with work, and we have tickets to see Oklahoma! tomorrow, and then we take off Friday for NYC to celebrate abby and travis getting married! so excited for friday.

i didn't get much into the halloween spirit this year, minus the pumpkin we carved into a DC flag and the s'mores party at the hamills complete with errant trick-or-treating teenagers. and now it is november, my favorite of all months. hooray.