I AM a grown-up

I really am, and while I'll bet back to posting about the Napa trip soon (note: anyone who knows me knows that I tell stories terribly, so it is no surprise that underwear should come up in the middle of a story about our vacation), I thought I should share that I finally have what my husband thinks are "appropriate" underwear, they should probably actually be called the "p word." I don't like saying it, and it makes me want to giggle when I hear it. Anyway, for the past, let's say 5 years, I've been a fan of the VS Pink line, and worn only a specific style of their underwear, unless I needed for something to not show under a dress/skirt. Needless to say, sometimes they look silly - the patterns are clearly made for people in high school/college, and I have not been in either of those for a long time, but they are comfy (though not granny-ish-- TMI warning - I don't wear a thong maybe twice a month). For whatever reason, I think that my choice in underwear really bothered (and I don't mean that it was keeping him up at night, but it certainly has been mentioned several times, casually).
Then, we were in San Francisco (oh, wait, I did tie it into the trip) Mark wanted to go to this one men's store (more later), but even though it was open, the doors were locked, so he wanted to kill some time, so we went across the way to Victoria's Secret (note 1: yes the people in the other store clearly saw us go in there to kill time and saw us come out, which I thought was weird; note 2: there is no way M would have gone into VS with or without me unless he was in desperate need of medical attention and they had the only emergency phone). We walked around and I stopped at a "panty" (see, you giggled) table, and he immediately teased me about my current selection of undergarments.
Anyway, a couple of weeks or so ago VS was having one of their "sales" online, so I went ahead and bought a whole stack of new undergarments, which means that I will have to donate my old ones to goodwill (not really, I would never do that, but when we were little, we had a neighbor who brought some hand-me-downs over to our house and there were underwear in the bag - so weird!!). I didn't replace all of the underwear, a) I have a lot of pairs and b) it is a recession, which means that I may not have all grown-up lady underwear, but at least I've increased the average age of the drawer. :)

Whoopsy - Valentine's Day

I never bloggered about what M and I did for Valentine's, which is probably extremely uninteresting to almost all of you. We actually wound up having two Valentine's dinners. We had decided that we were going to be trick the restaurants, and instead of going to a fancy place on Saturday, when they have their special, easy-to-prepare, feed-a-lot-of-people fast, Valentine's menus, we made a reservation for Aureole, one of our "we have to try this on a special day" places. The obvious plus side was that it was under-crowded, which I'm attributing to the economy and the over-crowdedness of Saturday. The downside was that we couldn't go all out on the alcohol side without regretting it at work the next day.
The meal itself was amazing - we tried the 5 course tasting menu, and it wound up being more like 8 with the amuse bouche, the sorbet, and the fun truffles we got after dessert (and all ladies received a white chocolate pumpkin-coffee cake for breakfast). The amuse bouche was a take on sushi (I feel horrible that I waited to blog, for I do not remember the deliciousness of all the courses).
Now for a description (all caps means I pulled it straight from the Aureole website).

First Course: JAPANESE HAMACHI SASHIMI
SEA URCHIN, CUCUMBER, YUZU CITRUS, BABY RED SHISO, HITACHINO BEER (this was amazing and my first time to have sea urchin - sooooooooo goood)

Second Course: POACHED FARM EGG
WINTER BLACK TRUFFLE, WHITE CORN GRITS, PROSCIUTTO DI PARMA, TOMATO POWDER (clearly my favorite, it tasted like the most refined eggs benedict ever - except with grits!)

Third Course: hmm - all I remember was a delicious fish course, which had an unbelievable sauce

Fourth Course: PRIME NY STRIP LOIN with BARLEY GRAINS, PORCINI MUSHROOMS, CREAMED SPINACH, CARAMELIZED ONION JUS - (yumm, and surprising, since the spinach was pureed and painted onto the plate)

Sorbet: GREEN APPLE-FENNEL GRANITE CARDAMOM CHANTILLY (so much better than it sounds - I promise)

Dessert: A delicious date cake

I need to take a break now, and tell you about our dinner the night of Valentine' s day in the next post.

Nurse Newlywed

This weekend is going to be somewhat of a long one. In preparation for Mark's recovery from having his wisdom teeth taken out and a weekend of soft foods, we bought groceries to make some soups we'd been wanting to make for ourselves (nothing fancy - potato & leek and split pea). Then, last night he decides that we need to make a soup, because otherwise, what is he going to have for lunch. I started to explain that he might not want to eat after surgery, but gave up after deciding that it would be easier if I didn't have to make dinner while taking care of him.

Nurse duty today started when I left work at lunch to pick him up at the doctor's office. When I got there he was still coming out from under sedation, so the nurse (or technician, or whatever) brought me back to sit with him while he came to. She handed me an ice pack to hold against his face to help with the swelling.

Aww, he looked so cute and helpless. For about ten minutes, then he started coming back to full consciousness, which meant that he noticed that someone was holding ice against his neck and pushed it down. As he drifted in and out for a few minutes, I kept putting it on and he would wake up and push it off. Well, whatever. Next thing you know, he's telling me (more garbling) that he's ready to go, but of course the nurse is nowhere to be found. A couple of minutes later, she comes by, checks to see if he can stand, and then sends us on our merry way.

We hail a cab and sit in midtown traffic until we get to the apartment, where it becomes urgent that I stop at the desk and get whatever package came that morning before we go upstairs. Once upstairs, M tells me hi is hungry, so I ask if he wants me to make him a smoothie. Luckily, all he wants is a pudding cup, so I give him his painkiller and antibiotic, then realize his mouth is still numb, so he's dribbling orange juice on his shirt, the sofa, and the floor. I grab a towel and set it near him, next to the comforter, and his pillow. Then I gather all the electronic accoutrement of a good recovery (xbox remote, tv remote, and plugged-in laptop) and arrange them strategically near him, along with dog treats in case he needed to bribe Sasha. I feel guilty, but rush to get back to work, just a little more than two hours after I left, which really isn't that bad.

I commiserated to one of my co-workers, whose husband must be like M, because she knew exactly what I was talking about. Taking care of M is great, until he's decided you've stopped taking care of him and are now nagging him, which is when he gets cranky. The crankiness will usually go away, but then the cranky line moves, I cross it, he gets cranky, and then I get annoyed and stop being helpful, which is seen as uncaring and witchy.

We usually close up shop early (between 4 and 5) on Fridays, so I got to come home after not being away for too long. He seems good so far, not in too much pain, though the xbox controller may have to have the battery pack switched out before too long. We've only crossed the cranky line once, but I was being a little to naggy, and he apologized, so we're off to a good start.

Vacation Planning

So, obviously not keeping up with the plan to blog at least once a week. Work has been a little bit crazy. The woman who was the office manager person type got it into her head that I was hired to replace her (despite all protests to the contrary and new, higher-level assignments for her), so she gave notice today. It worked out pretty well for her, she'll still be part-time from home while she looks for another job that she likes better. It is unclear as to what my new duties will be.

In other news, we are planning our first "real" vacation. Our excursion will start in Vegas, where we'll spend a couple of days, at a casino of M's choosing, based on his Harrah's points. From there, we'll fly to SFO and drive out to wine country, spend a few days there, then drive back to San Francisco to visit all the friends that have settled out that away. Our couple-friends up here were going to come, but their own wedding plans and other commitments mean that they are going to wind up using all of their vacation days on those, and we'll have to make the trek on our own. Boo.

The New Year's Resolutions!

As everyone else has been releasing their New Year's resolutions, I thought that I should put some together, as well. Note that I hadn't finished putting them together when I started writing this, which is surprisingly similar to what happens every year at Lent.

1. Put the laundry away faster. It would be really nice to see the top of the dresser every once in a while (can I add this one to M's list, too)
2. Get back down to "wedding weight." Well, maybe not all the way to wedding weight, but maybe halfway through the "eating through Greece" tour, at least pre-New York weight. Not that I've put that much on, just more than I would like.
3. Blog more than once a week.
4. Keep up with the Thursday night emails with the b-school gals.
5. Call my grandparents more often.
6. Watch out for the nagging (that one is from M).

:)

Surprise Day Off!!

While the boss is in London, the mice will play - at her request! We found out this morning that we had a half day today and a previously unplanned day off on Friday. Which is good, since we have an unexpected guest for dinner on New Year's tonight, so now the house needs to be company clean, and not just "us clean." Further muddling up the situation is the fact that we haven't had a chance to fully unpack, so one suitcase has been put away, but the other hasn't even made it to the bedroom yet. Another one for the new year's resolution books.

Along with getting back to the gym, which the hubs and I have decided to do, and started yesterday, so at least we're ahead of the game there.

Eating right is also in there, but tonight is a splurge night, and we're having a beef rib roast, cauliflower gratin (with goat cheese), asparagus, and a chocolate bread pudding. Yum.

Early Christmas

M and I opened our presents last night - we're heading to H-town tomorrow, so we thought we'd save tonight's schedule for packing (deciding to take your dad's three-wine-bottle gift set to h-town yourself is probably not the smartest idea, but we're stuck with it now).

I gave M a pair of really nice burgundy colored shoes, which he seemed to enjoy (he wore them to work today), and I received an excellent pair of black suede, waterproof boots, which are super comfy (I had to wear them to work today, too). I also wore the presents from my in-laws, which were a lovely cashmere sweater and a nice watch. Yippee!!

Time for Christmas part 2, on Christmas day, with the fam. We'll be celebrating their Christmas part 2, as well, since we won't get in until midnight and we normally open presents and do dinner on Christmas Eve. Even though we'll be missing Christmas Eve, it will still be a good time. I can't wait!!!!!

Still Alive

Yes, I'm not dead, just been in post holiday, getting sick, holiday party busy-ness mode. I did manage to recover from Thanksgiving, but slowly. Those of you who know me, know that I am a huge klutz and will immediately begin laughing when you hear that my husband attempted to teach me to ski. We had some gift cards to the local ski resort, so we wound up able to rent skis and get lift tickets for $20.
We started out on the bunny hill, and I had some issues getting on the chairlift, which was a little embarrassing, but I did manage to make friends with the chairlift guy. I was doing OK on the bunny hill, then M decided to coax me onto a green hill. Ski, ski, ski, faceplant. Get up, finish, go back up. Ski, ski, ski, faceplant. I protest that I want to practice on the bunny hill more. Somehow M convinces me to go back up. At that point, I decided that I didn't feel like faceplanting again, so I ski, ski, walk the hard part like a dork, ski, ski. Then M went down the bunny hill a couple more times, then we decided to go on different hills for the rest of the time.

Christmas is Coming!

Normally, I dislike the fact that Christmas advertisements start so early, and actually, I feel like they haven't started as early as they would have without a giant recession in place. Well, not the television commercials, anyway; I have received multitudinous emails from various retailers extolling their Christmas wares.
I think the reason I am so excited about Christmas this year is that it's our "first" Christmas together. My current mission is to make/find/buy Christmas stockings for us, which is quite a mission. In my family, we used the same Christmas stockings the entire time we were growing up, and only got a new set a year or two ago, when a few fell apart due to old age. I've started looking around, and right now I love these:

Pottery Barn

My obvious concern is that in 15 or 20 years they may seem somewhat dated. The good thing is that I have plenty of time to find/make/buy some.

Rethinking the Registry

So, one of the lovely gifts that we registered for was a down comforter, but knowing that we wouldn't actually be sleeping in a frozen tundra, we picked the lightest, or the 365-day, year-round duvet. We both like sleeping with a blanket, but I am seriously rethinking this duvet - it might have to be put in the closet until cooler temperatures prevail.
We've tried turning the thermostat down a few degrees, but it still gets ridiculously hot. I think that down is just too much of an insulator, especially for me, a person that sleeps next to a furnace. I really don't know how he does it, but my husband manages to exude heat, but once he gets out of bed, where he was laying is the coolest section of the mattress.

I Have a Confession

I am seriously glad that I started writing thank you's before the wedding, but am not glad that there are still so many to go. I really do not like writing thank you notes. It is a bizarre sort of torture, for many reasons, that only other brides can understand.

1) Thank you's take a disproportionate amount of time to write in relation to anything else you would ever write. Case in point: I wrote one of my final papers, which required research, citations, critical thinking in about 12 hours. Somehow, it takes about 15 minutes to write the five sentences required for a thank you note, even though there are only so many permutations of the same message to use.

2) The ever-looming "3 month" deadline. While I initially thought that three months was rather a long time to get out thank you notes, I forgot to take into account the fact that I have deep issues with procrastination, which means there is always time to do them tomorrow.

3) Men hate thank you notes even more than women, not to mention that they're not exactly good at them, and their handwriting tends to suck. I offered to write out thank you's for my husband if he typed them out, he has written three. There are another three that he "wants" to write himself (they are for his old boss/coworkers). I mentioned it on Saturday. For the past two nights I have suggestively laid three thank you cards in front of him while he is watching TV. They are still sitting there this morning. Yargh.

Football Widow

I'm not sure how many of us are out there, but I think that it is critical to find out if you will be a football widow before you get married. Not only does our television magically turn itself to football from Saturday lunchtime to Monday night, but my husband is a Buffalo Bills fan. Some of you may not understand that, but the Bills have been heart-breakingly awful the three seasons that I have known my husband. That is, until now, when they are undefeated through four games - the last time they were this good was in 1992.
The problem is that the Bills were never on television in Texas, but a quick trip to the wings restaurant or local bar with Direct TV solved that problem. We thought that there might be a few more games offered in NYC, since Buffalo is somewhat close, but there haven't been any yet, which means that it's four hours in a bar drinking $5.50 beers (one day I might get used to the price of beer here).
Anyway, my husband loves football, which is why the house went into panic mode when yesterday morning, the cable box went into error message mode. Yes, at 10 am on a Sunday, the box decided to crap out after three weeks of service. Loud expletives ensued. Calls to the support line were made. More expletives ensued when he found out he couldn't get a replacement box until Tuesday. I think we'll be ok, after watching the late games at the bar yesterday, but I think Mr. D was a little disgruntled about the lack of high definition.

Old Married Club

I dedicate this post to a-bla, because I too am an old married. You know, the kind of person who is perfectly content sitting at home on a week night, or even a weekend night. I mean, it's nice, though occasionally one party will need to tell the other party that they have to put the laptop and random surfing away and just sit with the other person.

This recently came to light when my brother (in med school) and two of his friends I actually cringed when the guy behind us at the stadium recommended a place that was "a crowded frat party," especially when the guys practically cheered. Now, Stan's is exactly the place that I did go to in Houston before Astros games, and it is nice to just go to a place where you can grab a beer (although $6 for a Bud Light is getting old quick), but a loud, body-to-body frat party just doesn't hold the same appeal as it used to. Yes, it was fun after I found a spot where I could stand AND breathe, and the music was pretty good, but I don't know if I would ever actually desire to go there.

The past weekend was much more my speed. Friday was a bit dicey for planning things, since the hubby was at work late and thought he might have to go back in, so just a quick dinner at home. Saturday, we were invited to a "Pig Party" at our friend's brother's apartment, which involved meeting some really nice people, a lot of ribs, and some really delicious pies. The kind of night that goes by quickly because you're having a good time.