Thanksgiving: A Recap

Wednesday:
Lunch & shopping with Carolyn. Ate at East Side Las Maracas (not to be confused with the new Belle Meade Plaza location), had 2 margaritas & decided to spend my $100 store credit at Bed Bath & Beyond. I bought a can colander & 2 wooden spoons. The margaritas seriously inhibited our decision making abilities.

Thursday:
Made Loveless Cafe hashbrown casserole recipe, which turned out really well, I must say. Went to my Aunt's house for lunch. Ate, drank, ate, ate, took picture for Xmas card, ate, went home. Attempted to watch Eagle vs. Shark, but turned it off about 30 minutes in & sealed it back up in it's Netflix envelope. Completely unwatchable. Watched TV until I fell asleep, which was probably around 8:30pm.

Friday:
Black Friday. Woke up (sans alarm) at 4:30am. Tried to go back to sleep. Couldn't. Decided to make the best of it & hit the early bird sales down the street @ West Nashville Shopping Center. Went to Old Navy first. Tried on 100 pairs of jeans. None fit. Moved on to pajamas, (always fit). Then moved on to the toddler section to score some deals for my 3 year old niece. Spent $66 on pajama pants, tank & ballet flats for me & a fleece, fleece pants, jeans & 2 tops for my niece. Not bad. Then I went to Target, where I had 2 $30 gift cards & a $15 store credit. I bought 2 more curtain panels for the living room, a set of curtain pull backs, 2 bath mats & shower curtain rings. At this point, I had 2+ hours until I was supposed to meet my mom & sister in Cool Springs, so I decided to go to the Bed Bath & Beyond in Bellevue to finish spending the store credit I failed to spend on Wednesday. I bought a set of bamboo bathroom accessories that I ended up returning. Not having much luck at Bed Bath & Beyond lately....

Side note: my car has been having trouble starting for a month or so now. I took it to Firestone & they said it was the battery, so they put in a new battery. It wasn't the battery. Took it back to Firestone & they assumed I needed a new starter, but didn't put one in because my car started every time they tried it. Grrr.... So for weeks now my car randomly doesn't start. It's been progressively getting worse. It took forever to start on Friday, so I called my dad while I was driving to Cool Springs & he said he could fix it if I'd drive it to Smyrna. So left Cool Springs, drove to Smyrna & rode back to Cool Springs with my mom & my sister in my mom's car.

Once in Cool Springs, we go straight to Macy's because the early bird sale was only until 1pm. I had an $80 store credit, $30 mixing bowls to return & coupons coming out of my ass. I made out like a freaking bandit. I got the last $20 hand towel I needed & a $140 Martha Stewart 7-quart cast iron dutch oven all for $54!!! God bless Black Friday.

Later that night we headed over to Delaney & Austin's for our 2nd Thanksgiving. I got home from Smyrna too late to make the dessert I was supposed to bring, but luckily I had already bought a bottle of wine & then we stopped & got some beer. The meal was fan-freaking-tastic. Delaney is hands-down the best cook I know. Her desserts were out of this world. 4 words: caramelized apple pecan pie. Seriously, I ate enough dessert to induce a diabetic coma -and I'm not even diabetic. Not yet, anyway....

Saturday:
I spent the majority of Saturday morning online designing our Xmas cards. Then John & I went to lunch & he had to go help someone move or something, so I went back to Bellevue to return previously mentioned bathroom accessories at Bed Bath & Beyond (yes, for those of you keeping count, this makes my 3rd trip to BB&B in 3 days). There's a Michael's next door to BB&B, so I headed in there because I had coupons & needed some frames for a bunch of Etsy prints. Again, made out like a bandit. Spent $40 on easily $100 worth of merchandise. Came home & started putting up the Xmas tree. Got the tree assembled only to realize that none of the Xmas lights work. John came home, went to Lowe's, bought more lights, ate at previously undiscovered Indian restaurant on Charlotte Pk & then came home & continued trimming the tree. Watched TV, finished book 4 of Harry Potter series & went to bed.

Sunday:
Woke up with bizarre need for sugar, so decided to make the lemon bars I was supposed to make for Delaney's Friday night. Made them, used my new stand mixer, ate half of them, woke John up, made him eat one, he went back to bed & I watched some old Sex & The City episodes on TiVo. Ate lunch at Jason's Deli. John decided he wanted to go to Toys 'R Us, so again, I find myself in Bellevue. Before this week, I haven't been to Bellevue in like 5 years. I'm totally serious. After Toys 'R Us, John dragged me next door to Circuit City so he could fondle the new Blackberry Storm. Then we headed back home for the day. I ran into Target & bought Twilight. Yes, I'm going down that road. Shut-up. Then I went to Kroger. I'm making chili tonight in my new Martha Stewart dutch oven. Speaking of which, I need to start cooking if we're going to eat before 10pm....

Thanksgiving Prep

I took today off to continue getting my post-wedding house in order & to get an early start on my Thanksgiving grocery shopping. I've got 2 Thanksgivings this year. Tomorrow is my annual family Thanksgiving at my Aunt's house & Friday is my urban family Thanksgiving at Delaney & Austin's. For tomorrow, I'm making Loveless Cafe's hashbrown casserole recipe, which I found online for free on their website.

For Friday, I'm making a recipe for lemon squares that I found in my new Paula Deen cookbook. The only dessert experience I have is cupcakes & brownies, so this will be a stretch, but I need a reason to use my new KitchenAid stand mixer. I'll let you know how everything turns out.

Happy early Thanksgiving!

Weekend Plans

Last night John & I saw Quantum of Solace, the new James Bond movie. I think I liked Casino Royale better, but I still really enjoyed Quantum. Of course, we were 2 of about 20 people not there to see Twilight. I am vaguely interested in seeing Twilight, but I'd like to read it first. My book club friends read it & don't recommend it, but I'm still curious. I'll probably read it. I'm currently still working my way through all the Harry Potter books. I'm at the end of book 4. Maybe I'll take a break from Potter & read Twilight. I'll keep you posted.

Side note -- I read The Memory Keeper's Daughter while in Mexico. It was REALLY good, but I don't want to say anything about it yet because my mom is reading it now. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it.

Today my mom is coming over to help me deal with our 1,000,000 wedding presents. First of all, I can't believe how generous everyone was. Secondly, I'm a bit overwhelmed. I need to pack up everything currently in my kitchen & take it to Goodwill (I guess?). Then I need to unpack & unwrap all my presents, wash them & move them into the kitchen. I also REALLY need to clean my house. I think the last time I cleaned was the weekend before my wedding, which was 3 weeks ago. It's bad.

No plans tonight. No real plans for tomorrow, aside from some gift returns to Macy's & Bed Bath & Beyond. We also have a lot of gift cards to spend. Tomorrow might be fun actually. Today? Not so much.

What's Making Me Laugh Today

It Ain't No Big Thing

Last night I went with my friend Lauren, her husband Kelly & her brother Matthew to see Kings of Leon at Municipal Auditorium. We missed the 2 opening bands -The Whigs & We Are Scientists, but sat down right as Kings of Leon took the stage. I'm new to this whole Kings of Leon thing. I probably still wouldn't listen to them if I hadn't seen them perform on SNL a few months back. I had heard, and liked, what few songs of theirs I had heard over the years, but never felt compelled to buy a CD or a go to a show. I'm not going to lie, my new found interest in them is based solely on their looks. So what? They are undisputedly hot. And the music's not that bad. John hates them. He says they were plucked off the street & taught to play their instruments. Maybe, but again, I don't care. I really enjoyed the show last night even though I didn't know the majority of the songs. They sounded good &, I assume, looked good (I forgot my glasses, so I couldn't see anything).

Here's what was not good about last night: pleather leggings. No, not by the band, but by every girl under 21 at the show last night. Ladies, unless you're Lita Ford, pleather leggings should have no place in your wardrobe, I don't care what NYLON says.

Another low point in the show: the couple in front of me who's "sex was on fire". Seriously, they made out during the entire concert. Sporadically the guy would come up for air long enough to sing along & pump his fist in the air while pointing his finger at the band in a 90 degree angle. I noticed a lot of guys in the crowd doing this. I call it the fraternity guy/Jason Mraz/Ice Cube move. It's gay & uber annoying.

In closing, I leave you with this:

Adventures in Honeymooning

Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Day 1 (Sunday):
Landed in Cancun around 2:30pm, took looooong bus ride to hotel, unpacked, changed, hit the streets, dinner, bed.

(Side note: Our hotel was a block from Quinta Avenida (5th Avenue), which is kind of the heart of Playa del Carmen. It pretty much stretches all the way across the city & is filled with restaurants, shops, street vendors, etc. It was really nice being that close to all the restaurants & shops. It was fun just walking up & down 5th Ave every night before & after dinner.)

Day 2 (Monday):
Day of post-wedding relaxation. Laid around all day, alternating between the beach & the hotel pool.

Day 3 (Tuesday):
Woke up early to catch the ADO bus to Coba, a large ruined city of Pre-Columbian Maya civilization (thanks, Wikipedia). It was about a 2 hour bus ride. Fortunately, the bus played movies en route. Unfortunately, the movies were The Ex & Bambi II, both in Spanish.

Unbeknownst to us, the bus doesn't take you all the way to Coba. It dropped us off at a roadside hotel/restaurant & then we had to walk the rest of the way. It was only about a 15 minute walk, but it was hot & we had to walk past crocodiles. Seriously. We made friends with a couple from LA who also got off the bus. Luckily she spoke Spanish, which was very helpful as we had no idea where to go once the bus dropped us off. She got directions from a local & found a place for us to buy water & bug spray.

We get to Coba & decided to tackle the jungle together (I wasn't eager to let my new Spanish-speaking friend go). Coba is in the middle of the jungle. We didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but we could hear spider monkeys all around us.

The highlight of Coba is a 12-story Mayan pyramid called Nohoch Mul. I wasn't so sure I would climb it as (a) I'm afraid of heights & (b) I'm notoriously bad at climbing down stairs due to my complete lack of depth perception. But I did it. It actually wasn't so bad going up as long as you didn't look down, but coming down was a different story. I thought I was going to die. I slipped once about half-way down, but John grabbed my arm before I fell.

(Side note: Looking for a good leg workout? Climb a 12-story pyramid. My legs have never been so sore. It took 2 days before I could walk normally again.)

We met a weird Canadian waiting for the bus back to Playa who told us to make sure we ate at a restaurant in Playa called La Cueva del Chango, aka Cave of the Monkey. We went straight there from the bus station. It was definitely one of the best meals we had in Playa. I wish I had taken pictures of all our meals. Next time....

Day 4 (Wednesday):
Tired & unable to properly use our legs from the day before, we head to the beach. We lounged beach side until about noon, then got restless, so John decides we should walk to the ferry & go over to Cozumel for the afternoon. Sure, why not? While waiting for said ferry, we get suckered into buying a "FunQuest" snorkeling trip. I'm not really a water person, so I wasn't so sure about this, but it was actually one of my favorite parts of the trip. Who knew I liked snorkeling? We bought one of those ridiculous underwater cameras & took a shit-ton of pictures. I haven't gotten them developed yet, but I have a feeling it will be 27 pictures of John's legs & blurry underwater images.

It was dark by the time we got back to Playa. We went to the hotel, changed & then grabbed dinner.

Day 5 (Thursday):
John had heard there was a Wal-Mart nearby, so he wanted to look for that & also check out the part of Playa that we hadn't really seen yet (the "real" part). It was incredibly hot, so we didn't make it too far, but we did find Wal-Mart. First of all, all the cars in the parking lot had cardboard boxes on their windshields & the motorcycles & scooters had them strapped to their seats. Some sort of crafty attempt at a sun shield I'm guessing. Once in Wal-Mart, it was pretty much like any other Wal-Mart, except they sold sombreros. Seriously. I tried to take a picture, but John wouldn't let me. We wandered around for awhile, disappointed in the similarity between this Wal-Mart & the one down the street from us back home, then left.

Also worth mentioning is this bizarre super store literally next door to Wal-Mart called (we think) Mega Pelican. We went in there & it's the exact same as Wal-Mart. Very weird.

We ate lunch at this place across the street from Mega Pelican. Don't remember what it was called but it was sooooo good. The menu was completely in Spanish, so we weren't too sure what to order. Our waiter spoke enough English to explain what some things were & to suggest what to order. We started with shrimp tacos, then had another shrimp dish with mushrooms, truffles & rice. It was one of the best meals we had all week. And one of the cheapest.

After lunch, we went back to the hotel, changed into our bathing suits & hit the beach. For dinner we decided to try a restaurant recommended by Fodor's. We're not really the kind of people who go by what travel books recommend, but this was different. This restaurant was in a cave. Alux Cave Restaurant & Lounge, to be exact. The dinner was good, not great, but the atmosphere was definitely worth it. We got a little tipsy from a surprisingly good bottle of house red & hung out in the cave lounge for awhile before heading back to the hotel.

Day 6 (Friday):
Our last day. All week, John had been trying to figure out how to get to one of the hundreds of cenotes located all around Playa. A cenote is an underwater cave that you can swim in. They were literally everywhere, but you kind of had to have a car to get to any of them. Well, we finally found one that a bus went to. It was called Aktun Chen. We get there & it's more of a guided tour type thing that actually turned out to be really fun. We had to wear hard hats & everything. We had a guide who took us all through this enormous cave filled with cenotes. You couldn't swim in these, but that was fine as I wasn't really excited about swimming in a cave in the first place (read: snakes).

After the cave tour, there was this weird animal sanctuary kind of thing that you walked through to get back to the entrance. There were deer, parrots, toucans, wild pigs & monkeys. Monkeys, of course, being John's favorite part. He really "connected" with the monkeys. He got one to shake his hand. What's funny is while the one monkey was shaking John's hand, another one simultaneously grabbed John's pompadour. It was hilarious. I tried to snap a picture, but missed it by seconds.

Back at the entrance, there was this lone greeter monkey. For whatever reason, this little guy really took to John. He climbed on John's arm & wouldn't let go. Seriously, he wouldn't let go. Our bus was leaving, so I tried to pry the little guy off, but he bared his teeth & made this scary monkey sound. I've seen Outbreak, I wasn't going to get bitten. We didn't know what to do. Luckily one of the guides came over with a banana & the little guy jumped down & ran to the banana.

So we get on the bus, not really sure where it will take us as we took a taxi into Aktun Chen. Well, the bus didn't go far. It dropped us off on the highway outside of Aktun Chen. We were told a bus to Playa comes by every 15 minutes. What kind of bus? We didn't know. How do you get said bus to stop & pick you up? We didn't know. How much did it cost? We didn't know. So John stands out on the highway looking for a bus with some tell-tale sign of going towards Playa. Sure enough, about 5 minutes go by & a bus pulls up that says "Playa del Carmen" on the side, so we hop on & ride back to Playa. So bizarre.

For our last night in Playa, we weren't really sure what to do or where to eat as we had eaten so well all week. We knew we wanted Mexican food, but didn't want to end up at one of the cheesy tourist spots. We got lucky. We found the perfect place. It was sooo good. A perfect last vacation meal. We had to get up early to catch our flight, so we ate & then headed back to the hotel.

(Side note: All week we watched this hilarious channel called American Network. It was really telling of what Americans must love to watch. All it ran was Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, Montel, Judge Judy, Judge Joe Brown & then random half hours of CBS news. Luckily I found another channel that ran continuous episodes of Melrose Place, Beverly Hills 90210, The OC & Gilmore Girls. I was in TV heaven. And they ran Spanish subtitles through all the shows, so I got a pretty good week long lesson in Spanish.)

Day 7 (Saturday):
The only thing worth noting here is that on our flight from Cancun to Houston, Rosalind Kurita was 2 rows ahead of me on the flight. You kind of have to know the inner-workings of my job to know why this was so weird, but trust me, it was incredibly bizarre & highly uncomfortable.

All in all, it was an incredible honeymoon. We both loved Mexico & would definitely go back. However, we are thinking about going to the Pacific side next time, which I hear is completely different & a little better. Viva la Mexico!

Wedding Slideshow

I didn't realize this when I posted the link to my wedding pictures, but the photographer made a slide show & put it up on her blog. Here's the link:

http://www.shutterbelle.com/blog/

Just scroll down to her Monday, November 10th entry titled: Kim & John's Wedding.

Honeymoon Pics

It took me all morning, but our 200+ honeymoon pics are up on Flickr. Enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16828091@N04/sets/72157609206342533/

Oh yeah, we went to Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Playa is on the Riviera Maya, about 30 miles south of Cancun.

Wedding Pictures

Our wedding pictures are online, via Shutterbelle Photography:

http://www.shutterbelle.com/baldwin/page1.htm

If the link doesn't work, go to the Shutterbelle Photography homepage & click on Your Albums, then under Weddings/Events click on Andrews/Baldwin Wedding.

A lot of people at the reception have pictures at the end, so you may want to start at the end & work your way backwards.

I'm married!

Honeymoon pictures coming soon.

1 Day To Go.....

One day to go until I'm Mrs. Baldwin. Today has been pretty non-stressful, surprisingly. I didn't sleep well last night & I've been awake since 6:00am, but whatever. Everything is done. Tiffany & I went & got our nails done & went to the mall & got tights for tonight. We even went into MAC & got new lipstick. We're getting ready now. We have to be at the church at 4:45 for the rehearsal, then dinner at Loveless. I'm going to eat the shit out of some fried chicken & hashbrown casserole. Probably not the most waistline-friendly place to have your rehearsal dinner, but whatever. I need comfort food.

I'm getting married tomorrow!

Who Dares Wins

How I Became the Bomb released 3 new songs yesterday. The songs are available exclusively on their brand spanking new website:

http://www.howibecamethebomb.com/

Also, the songs are free. So you have no excuse. Go to their website & download the 3 best, free songs you'll ever hear.

You're welcome.

2 Days To Go

2 days to go. Here what's on my plate today:

Clean house
Do laundry
Pack for honeymoon
Buy paper for programs
Pick up Tiff from airport
Mexican lunch w/ Tiff & Carolyn
Buy book for honeymoon
Find/buy lingerie that doesn't make me feel dirty
Take down Halloween decor
Buy frames from Micheal's

I got my brows & nether-region waxed last night & overhead another client say something about "her husband" & realized I'll be able to say that soon. "Sure, just let me check with my husband." "Oh no, these hamburgers are for my husband."

Bachelorette Party

My bachelorette party was Sat. night. We all met at my house, then went down the road to Cinco de Mayo. After Cinco, we ventured to the East Side & had more drinks at 3 Crow Bar. Many drinks were had. It was a good time. Here are some highlights:

M.A.S.H.
How Well Do You Know John Baldwin
Top Shelf ritas
Random cowboy with uncanny similarity to Heath Ledger (RIP)
Sarah putting her head through Carolyn's dress

My photostream here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16828091@N04/sets/72157608632199949/

Katie's photostream here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/becalmed/sets/72157608619869716/

Halloween

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. I have more Halloween decor than Christmas. I even have Halloween pajamas. I spend all year thinking of a costume, which usually doesn't come together until hours before whatever party I'm attending. Not this year. I put out all of my Halloween decor, but I just didn't have it in me to dress up this year. I didn't even watch any scary movies. I always watch, at the minimum, Halloween & The Shining. Not this year. I did go buy some candy yesterday in hopes of getting trick or treaters at the new house. No such luck. We had 2 trick or treaters all night. So now I have a house full of uneaten Halloween candy. Great.

On the upside, John made tacos & we watched a documentary on Waverly Hills Sanatorium, so at least we did something kind of Halloween-y. Today is going to be a busy day. We've got Jessica & Brian's wedding at 3:30. Prior to that, we've got to buy the alcohol for our wedding. I've also got to clean the house & try to get it ready for visitors because my bachelorette party is tonight & everyone is meeting here before we head out. I am really excited about my bachelorette party, although I am a little scared about what's been planned for me....

Allright, I've got to get back to cleaning (and eating Halloween candy). Check back in a day or so for bachelorette party pics. Happy November!