Deck The Halls

We have paused and given Thanksgiving it's proper recognition and now we can charge onto Christmas*!  And Christmas isn't Christmas without a few sparkles and nick knacks being put up.  It's my tradition to wait until the Friday after Thanksgiving to pull out decorations.  It just seems wrong to do this beforehand, even if there is only one month between the two holidays.  It's bad enough the stores push it, it can wait to come to my house.

I thought it would be a fun idea to put up all the decorations and transform the house while Rob was at work (with his consent), but that didn't exactly happen.  When I was living on my own and decorating my own place, I had everything up in a few hours.  But Rob and I both love this holiday a lot and we have a LOT of decorations.  I am not talking about a couple of boxes.  We take up exactly one entire closet just for the stuff we put out for Christmas.  This equates to six 20 gallon totes, a 7 1/2 foot tree, plus a few paper box style boxes for the over flow that wouldn't fit in the totes.  It's a little overwhelming. 

I woke up on Friday around 10am, got all excited about the day ahead of me and immediately got side tracked by The Hunger Games book.  (Fabulous read btw and thank you Meghann for suggesting it!)  Around 12:30, I decided I need to eat and take a shower.  At 1:30 I figured I would pop in Love Actually and start in on my task for the day.  At 3pm, I still hadn't found all the boxes.  The lights were missing and weren't in the designated closet.  This is when I realized we didn't fit in one closet.  We have some serious issues.  Rob arrived home right around 4pm and found me with half opened boxes, kind of staring around and wondering what to do next.  I unwrapped a good many things I knew we wanted to put out, but I couldn't bring myself to organize them in any sort of fashion.  I did manage to arrange the ceramic Santa's along the mantle above the fire place.  That was my greatest accomplishment. Not exactly the progress I wanted to make.  Truthfully, I was also enjoying being a down right bum. 

Needless to say, I hadn't managed the winter wonderland look I was going for, but felt much better with the idea of reinforcements.  We puttered a bit more and between the two of us got the tree set up properly.  I was having trouble with the lights which seemed to just come on for Rob at the touch of his hands so he fed them to me while I worked them through the branches.  We called it quits and left the ornaments for Saturday.

On Saturday we tinkered with some more decorations and I left the house for the first time in days so we could pick up some books at the library and go to Jo-Ann Fabrics so we could create our own tree skirt.  (Stay tuned for Holiday Sewing Adventures.)  There was still some daylight left after out errands so I decided to put up the outside lights.  Really this is nothing super fancy, just some white lights between the porch rails, but I like it.  This sounds like the simplest task, but I have a way of complicating things to make myself do this twice.  That and I am prone to be a perfectionist.  I started with the lights going straight from my bulb to socket converter with about 7 feet hanging between it and the railing.  I figured I had enough to still do the front of the porch (trying to remember back to how wide my porch was in Atlanta).  I got through all 4 strands before I realized that was way wrong.  So I went back inside, got an extension cord and proceeded to redo the whole thing.  Did I mention that it was about 40 with whipping winds and I seem to misplaced my gloves?  BUT the porch looks fabulous and is brighter than the runway at Dulles.

On Sunday I believe we finally finished putting up everything.  So instead of 5 hours, it took 3 days, but it looks lovely and we were enjoying the process, so who cares?

*For those of you who do not celebrate Christmas, fill in whatever decorating holiday that falls around this time of year that's most appropriate to you.

Black Friday

I thought it would be seasonally appropriate for me to chime in on what is being touted as the "busiest shopping day of the year".  I will go ahead and agree that it is probably the busiest day for the shopping centers aside from the final days before Christmas when people again loose their minds and decide they need to buy 300 other things to make the "perfect Christmas". 

Many people asked me if I was going shopping on Black Friday to which I replied, "Hell no!"  The reactions I got were bipolar in nature.  I either got the people that gave me the sympathetic nod of understanding or, "Why not?!" as if I was some kind of alien.  Let me tell you why not.  First, I hate crowds.  I avoid them like the plague.  There has to be a really good reason for me to deal with crowds (see this post).  Secondly, I would have to get up at 3am or earlier to wait in line in the cold and throw elbows to make sure I wasn't stampeded.  And lastly, I would have to deal with the rude people which when coupled with crowds is toxic.  I tell people I wouldn't be able to handle it and I would be hauled away and convicted of murder before the day is out.

So why do people get all crazed up and brave the hysteria?  I think there are is a small percentage of the population that really targets the stores they want to go to and exactly what they want to buy.  A+ for you guys.  You take advantage of the sales that apply to the things you really need to get.  I believe the rest of the crowd is out there for the "good deals".  And this, I have to say, is really stupid.  There are only a few really super awesome good deals that the stores have which are generally sold out moments after opening.  The rest of the sales from what I could see were good, but not really all that different from sales at any other time of the year.  For instance, the Micheal's ad (I realize this isn't Best Buy but bare with me) that came Thanksgiving day was filled with 40% off sales.  They are always having 40% off sales.  They did have a small selection of items that were on really good deals, but it's nothing I wanted to buy.  The Bed Bath & Beyond was just a 20% off your entire purchase.  Um, ok really?  I have about 20 of those 20% off coupons and if you get the right sales person they will let you do multiple transactions.  No deal.  Saving $150 off a TV, hmm, tempting, but again, you won't have it in stock by the time I get there and well, my sanity is worth $150 to me.  The $1.39 DVDs at Wal-Mart were tempting if you really wanted to own Ice Age 2 or Lord of The Rings (non box set).  The other things I really considered was the $70 Cuisinart Food Processor that was on sale from like $150.  Clearly I didn't make it.

I shop to the lists that people have given me for what they want for Christmas.  I am not getting out of bed at 3am to save on wool socks for my dad.  It's just not going to happen.  Which brings me to another point on these sales.  The sales are on things that no one asked for or on things I don't really need.  The sales on clothes I might go for, but it would be for me and not other people, which just seems wrong this time of year so I don't bother.  I always tell myself, other people are getting me stuff for Christmas and just to be happy with that (not to mention if I still want something after the holidays the sales after Christmas are even better).  They can come out for the super dupper awesome deals, but again, nothing I have asked for is going to be in those ads.  Wait, I take that back, they might be able to use the 50% off at Borders (which goes all weekend) to get me a book.  Also both of our families (Rob's and mine) are born deal hunters and have never relied on the deals of Black Friday for their Christmas shopping.  I don't know if they ever have in the past, but certainly not as of late.  My dad has actually really gotten on the whole on-line ordering.  He says, "If I can shop from the comfort of my own home and get everything delivered to me, why would I bother standing in line at some store?"  You might see where I get my attitude from.

This opinion on Black Friday might change when I have kids and there's some Tickle Me Elmo that will break my kids hearts if they don't get it.  As far as I can tell though, that's a good few years down the road.  For the first 5 years of their life they don't really care what they get because they don't have school friends to tell them what they are missing.  Until then I will enjoy decorating my tree and eating leftovers while watching holiday movies. 

Appliance Logisitics Management

This blog title and my job title are pretty similar so you might think there might be a transferable skill or two that might make Thanksgiving Day Chaos in the Kitchen a little less so.  I have given this all of 5 minutes of thought and decided that yes, there are some skills I have that could be put to good use to determine what to cook when and where.  However, the thought of making a project schedule for Thanksgiving is a little too dorky, even for me.  But if we aren't going to use a project schedule to get everything cooked on delivered to the table while it's pipping hot, then how in the world do you do it?

Magic.  That's the best answer I can come up with.  Given the amount of time the turkey takes in the oven which very few if any other dishes can be cooking at the same time (in us single oven homes) and limitations of a 4 burner stove.  Then there is the question of when exactly the turkey will decide it's done.  Pretty much all of dinner hinges on how finicky your bird is.  Generally you can ball park the half an hour to an hour it will be done given the handy dandy decoder ring that comes on the back of all turkey packages.  But that doesn't help if you guess wrong by 45 minutes.

If you think about it, it's kind of like a race.  There is a decent warm up period where you wash the bird and get it all "happy" as Emeril would say.  Stretch the birds legs, rub it down and toss it on a rack on the oven while trying not to ooze raw turkey germs every place.  Once that oven door closes, it's like the shot is fired and you are off!  You only have 4 hours to mash potatoes, stuff the stuffing, make green bean casserole, bake bread/rolls, get the gravy going, make some sweet potato casserole, find room for all of this in your kitchen, set the table which includes finding serving spoons and dishes for everything you are making, watch 4 pots, and make 3 pies (if you have no sense and didn't do this a day or two before and if that's the case, I really pity you).  Let's not forget the how many times you are going to need to wash/rinse and reuse measuring cups and spoons unless you are crazy and have 2 or 3 sets like Rob and I do.  Oh right, and then calmly come to the table gracefully without hair full of flour or bits of potato on your clothes and preferably not sweating like a pig.  Thanks Martha Stewart.

Some of these things can be done the day before or by innocent bystanders, but they always seem to be really into the game on TV while you are frantically chopping away at the carrots and potatoes.  However, even with all your prep work, that final leg is like a give it your all to win the race finish.  Things are moving in an out of the oven like a revolving door at Macy's on Black Friday, dishes are getting added to the sink as if it should be bottomless and people start to hover in anticipation while things fly to the table.  It's amazing it all comes together (usually) in the eleventh hour.  I do remember one Thanksgiving where my mother had everything on the kitchen table and we ate the whole meal before we realized the stuffing had been left in the microwave.  You win some, you loose some.  More for leftovers later.  :)

So while we are all racing to the finish this Thanksgiving, remember to set a good pace and just finish strong.  Graceful would be a plus, but getting the turkey on the table is all that really matters in the end.

Bound to Forget Something

Here we are just a few days away from the most complex cooking days of the year.  Of course it results in the most delicious comfort food, but it's not exactly a simple meal to pull together.  I am sure years ago it used to be, but we are the Foodie Generation.  We like different and interesting takes on the classics which usually adds a layer of complexity to cooking.  A lot of times it means just adding some extras to make the dish "yours".  Now remembering to get all those "extras" is a feat in and of itself. 

Rob and I are splitting our holiday cooking with friends of ours that are coming over to celebrate.  So before grocery shopping this week, Rob and I looked at the portion on the meal that we are responsible for and took an inventory our pantry for select items.  We even went so far as to check, ok, got the stuffing*, but what does the stuffing take.  I think 9 times out of 10 that's where people get tripped up; remembering every ingredient that goes into a dish.  It's not a lot of fun to find out on Thursday or even Wednesday that you actually ran out of vanilla last time you baked and haven't replaced it or you are running low on flour and various other kitchen staples.  So we triple checked our list and tried to think of everything.  I was determined to have ONE trip to the grocery store.  Rob was a hero and went after work to deal with the mob and got everything on the list.  Sweet!  That night we made enchilada lasagna for dinner which called for onions.  I went to our onion bag and came to a very sad realization that we only had three small onions, two of which I would need to make dinner.  Dang it all to fudge! 

Needless to say, our one trip out wasn't exactly a success, but it wasn't a total failure.  I had to run to Target today to get some household staples knowing all weekend was going to be a zoo at any shopping center.  Thankfully, Target has decided to start carrying groceries including bags of onions.  Wohoo!

*No, I do not "make" stuffing.  If you are a super foodie you can go harvest your own fruit bowl and exotic breads and make your own special creation, but my Thanksgiving prefers Stove Top.

The next challenge in Thanksgiving cooking: Appliance Logistics Management

Cats

Why we can't leave drawers open

Or paper on the floor

The Jean Quest

For a long time now, I have been on a quest to find jeans that fit me.  The last time I bought jeans that actually fit, I was in DC the first time, roughly 2006ish.  I have despartely been clinging on to the handful of jeans that really fit, but two of the four pairs have holes in inappropriate places and are wearing thin.  Another pair was essentially ruined in my first craptastic job rotation with filing cabinet grease of all things.  I have one last pair that is acceptable to wear in public, so needless to say, the options are getting slim.

Of course, if you looked in the drawer were I keep my jeans, you might say to yourself, "But you seem to have plenty of jeans in here."  And you would be right, but half don't actually fit and the other half have been accounted for above.  I bought 3 pairs of jeans from Old Navy when they were on sale and appeared to fit me really well in the dressing room.  And they did.  And then I washed them and wore them.  They fit every place except the waist.  And you might be thinking, "Doh!  She shrunk them!"  Not at all!  They seem to loosen up after wearing them and so the top really doesn't fit unless they are sitting at my hips which then puts the crotch of the jean about 3 inches lower than it ought to be.  Sigh. 

As best I can figure the jeans fads took a turn for the worst right after I bought my last pairs.  They went from what I will refer to as my "normal" to super ridiculous low rise, show your hoochie coochie, half inch zipper jeans.  Umm no thank you.  That fad hung around surprisingly longer than I expected.  They got rid of every resemblance of my "normal" and put in these impostors that claimed to be the same fit, but came with an annoying gap between the waist and the back of the jean.  This was the problem with the 3 pairs of jeans from Old Navy and in fact is still a problem today with all the pairs of jeans I try on.  Apparently at some point people's asses just morphed into their backs and eliminated the need to have jeans that accommodated us freaks with a waist and a rear end.  Today, the latest fad is the Skinny jean.  Note to all fashion designers - this has been your worst idea ever.  EVER!  Only a fraction of people actually look good in Skinny jeans, but the general public is unaware of this.

I feel it's important to state that I had never really had a problem finding jeans that fit until this roller coaster fashion wheel of jean designs began.  I haven't really gained or lost enough weight in the last 10 years to really affect how jeans would fit me.  In fact I am still wearing the jeans I bought way back in 2004.  Desperately clinging onto them and hoping that will power will stop them from wearing too thin for wearing in public.

On occasion when I have been in high spirits or have had enough to drink, I get this bright idea to try on every pair of jeans I can.  Rationale, there has to be SOMETHING out there that fits.  Those trips resulted in a lot of anger and no where to direct it.  Today was another one of those such trips.  I felt pretty optimistic as I had insider information on where someone found jeans that fit really well.  Sadly, that turned out to be a giant bust for me.  Like all the other pairs, they fit everywhere but the waist.  I said screw it, I am here (mall), I am going to give it a go.  I tried on another 20 pairs of jeans, different brands, different stores, and finally I had a pair that fit.  Like honest to god fit.  They were long enough, stylish, and had NO GAP!  Holy crap!  Who was the genius behind this invention?  Not Your Daughter's Jeans!  Right, ok, so I don't have a daughter who has jeans to be some kind of bizarrely jealous of, so that part is not quite right. But they fit and I don't give a flying fig!

They were a little more pricey than I am used to paying, but I said, well, I could buy another 3 pairs of jeans that almost fit or one pair that definitely fits and I will wear for another 5 years (if my last purchases are any indication).  So I was kind of cursing myself for leaving my Macy's coupons at home, but I said, whatever, just buy them.  I think the universe was trying to give a general approval of my purchase since when I actually checked out, the sales person gave me some random 25% off (they were not on sale, I checked after).  Umm THANK YOU!  I was tempted to go back and buy another pair, but I didn't want to repeat the Old Navy mistake at a larger price (ugh).  I will make a final decision on purchasing more after a few wears.   For now I will rejoice in what is most certainly the end of my quest!

Purses Galore

I recently bought a fabulous purple purse at Shecky's Girls Night Out kind of on a whim.  Meghan and I were wandering around the show and we came to this booth that had all kinds of purses for sale.  We were both drawn to two different purses, but decided to check out the rest of the vendors and come back later.  We figured if they were still there it was a sign we ought to own them.  When we returned to the stall we found both were still there and immediately made the purchases.  As an added bonus, because we were so polite while two really cranky ladies were harassing the vendor as she was ringing us up, she threw in a purse hook for each of us.  Sweet!

I was so thrilled with what I bought, I had to show it off to everyone at work.  I also emailed the guys I used to work with on the flight line for fun.  They have had a history of teasing me over my purse collection and I thought they would want to know there was a latest addition!  Their favorite was my "shinny bucket" which they always told me was really a weapon or some sort of mirror device to check my teeth after lunch or be forewarned of people sneaking up on me.  It also went against the rule of No Fu Fu on the Flight line!  I got numerous emails back with all sorts of comments regarding my taste in purses.  In fact one of them requested a group photo of my purses so they could see the brilliant collection all together.

I happen to like my eclectic collection and each one of them has some sort of story behind them.  The first couple I ever bought were more of less the functional kind.  One black one (in front) and one brown one (back right).  I branched out with a blue one (back right) because it is my favorite color and I thought the purse was cute.  I acquired a few from gifts and beauty purchases and carefully hand picked the rest.  Those particular ones (Shake Your Coconuts - back left, Red clutch - right center, Patchwork - front center, Swirl Cyclone - front right, and the Purple - back center) all were purchased because they made me feel giddy in some way or another.  After some thought, I have decided this is pretty much my main criteria for selecting what I buy.  The only other thing that gets factored in is price, but that weighs in less if I am head over heals in love with one.  So far that hasn't been an issue as I happen to some luck finding great deals.

I hope to expand upon this collection as time goes on with all kinds of fun options for a carryall.  I just received a $30 gift certificate for completing a survey for eBags.com and I am overwhelmed by the choices.  I have found a handful that I would be really happy with, but picking just one is going to be hard.  But it will be unique and it will make me happy!