Entryway Dilemma SOLVED!

After a few weeks of incessantly moving furniture around & driving John crazy, I finally solved the entryway dilemma. John had this old piece of furniture that he wanted to throw away. I grabbed it & put it upstairs. Voila! It's the perfect entryway table. I think it's supposed to hold records, but I put magazines in it. Whatever. I love it!

IU-Ouch!

Yesterday I had an IUD put in. Five year birth control, or as I've been saying, 'Baby free until 2015!' At my last yearly appointment, my doctor recommended I get one since I have no immediate interest in childbirth. Plus, a lot of my friends have gone off the pill as they're trying to get pregnant & they've all said how much better you feel once you're off the pill.

I've been on the pill continuously since I was 17. 17! That's 17 years. The pill has worked for me, but I wonder what will change now that I'm no longer taking it. Will I lose weight easier (please, god!); will my PMS decrease; will my mood swings be less severe? Also, and most importantly, all of the scary side effects of being on the pill go away, i.e. stroke, blood clots, etc.

So yesterday was the day. I had to take an antibiotic in the morning, to be super preventive about possible infection. I should have known the day would be bad when I saw the list of possible side effects. My favorites are: 1) hearing voices, 2) hallucinations & 3) heightened suspicion. Heightened suspicion! Fortunately, none of these things happened to me, but I did feel really crappy all morning.

Male readers: stop reading here.

I go to the appointment knowing it wouldn't be a walk in the park. I was told it would be like a pap smear, albeit more uncomfortable. More uncomfortable? Hah! It felt like inverted childbirth. Seriously, it's the most painful thing I've ever gone through. I think I passed out; I definitely screamed. Apparently I have an "unfriendly cervix". Of course I do. I'm in the 1% of people who this is super painful/difficult for. Again, of course I am.

For comedic effect, the regular nurse was out yesterday & the fill-in didn't prep the room correctly, so in the middle of having a piece of plastic forced through my non-compliant cervix & shoved into my agitated uterus, the nurse had to step out to get supplies. Really? REALLY? I thought I was going to die. In hindsight, I wish I had taken someone with me, so I'd A) have someone to corroborate my story & B) have someone to laugh about this with, you know, in a week or two when it's funny.

After what felt like an hour, but was realistically probably only 10 minutes, it was done. My doctor felt so bad. She hugged me & told me she passed out during hers, too. Then she told me that that was just a fraction of how much childbirth hurts. No, thank you!

Summer Soundtrack

A couple of years ago, Tiffany introduced me to The National & Yeasayer. While I didn't immediately love Yeasayer, I fell head over heels for The National & they have since become one of my favorite bands. Now both bands have new albums out & they are AMAZING.

I've had the Yeasayer CD for a month or so now & I cannot stop listening to it. I love it. It's 100x better than their last album. If you hated their last CD (Carolyn), All Hour Cymbals, you might like this new one, Odd Blood. It's a lot more mainstream/coherent & there are more vocals. Some of the songs remind me of Depeche Mode, mostly just the sound of his voice. Even John likes it & he typically hates anything I like, especially hipster, Williamsburg bands. He said it reminds him of Erasure.

I just got the new National CD, High Violet (thanks, Tiff!). I've only had it a week, but I'm already feeling it. God, I love The National. So far, I'm really into Track 1, "Terrible Love" & Track 4, "Little Faith", but the whole CD is good. Of course it is.

Go forth & download!

Weekend Wrap Up: Birthday Edition

Thursday (Birthday):
Carolyn took me to lunch for my birthday, then I came back to work & had cake with my co-workers. Per everyone's suggestion, John took me to City House for dinner. OMG, so good! We shared the octopus pizza & the belly ham pizza (with egg). The belly ham was our favorite, but the octopus was surprisingly good, too. This is hands-down my new favorite restaurant.

Friday:
I somehow managed to get up at 4:45am, after drinking way too much at dinner the night before, for Running For Pancakes. More surprising, I ran most of the 3 miles. When I got to Pancake Pantry, there was a birthday card, a Happy Birthday sash & a short stack of birthday pancakes waiting for me & Mary Katherine, who's birthday is the day before mine. Best running group EVER!

My friends Lauren & Karen took me to lunch, then I decided to take the rest of the day off. I treated myself to a little birthday shopping, then went back home & took a nap in preparation for round 2. Carolyn, Katie & Alexis came over around 7:00 & we went down the street to Tequila's. Many margaritas later, we went back to my house & devoured the margarita cheesecake Katie made. Delicious!

Saturday:
I basically lounged around all day until I had to start getting ready for Delaney's wedding. In lieu of everything I'd eaten/drank in the past 48 hours, I decided to take Linda for a walk around the neighborhood. Granted, she hasn't been walked since pre-heartworm treatment & it was 90 degrees outside, so she wasn't really feeling it. About halfway into the walk, she laid down in someone's yard & refused to budge. She was clearly overheated, so I let her lay there awhile. After about 5-10 minutes, I made her get up, then she proceeded to walk about a house or two, then lay back down. What should have been a 20-30 minute walk took over an hour. Linda.....

Saturday night we went to Delaney & Austin's wedding. I danced until my dress was wet & my hair formed ringlets. Good times, good times.

Sunday:
We went to Smyrna to cook-out & celebrate with my family, then we came back home because we're trying to sell some furniture on Craigslist & we had a bunch of people coming by. John ended up staying home to deal with the Craigslist people while I ran to Davis Kidd to exchange some books. John & my mom both got me the same thing, How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman, so I exchanged the duplicate & got Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast: Weeknight Meals. I've become a big fan of Cooking Light lately. Alexis gave me a copy of The Help, which I already have, so I exchanged it for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. My mom got me the follow-up, The Girl Who Played with Fire, so I'm excited about my summer reading!

As evidenced by the excessive amount of eating & drinking I did, this was the best birthday I've had in years. I guess this was the year being old & fat stopped bothering me. Who knows. Regardless, I really appreciate everyone who fed me, gave me cards & gifts, left me Facebook messages, made me wear a Happy Birthday sash, made me a margarita cheesecake & called/texted. Thanks, everybody. You all made this birthday one to remember.

Full birthday photostream here.

Black Bean Soup, Part Deux

Back in the winter, I made Smitten Kitchen's black bean soup. I liked it, but I didn't love it, possibly because I left out the toasted cumin seed crema, but I digress. I recently saw another recipe for black bean soup in Real Simple & decided to try it because it looked a little easier, faster & included roasted jalapeno salsa. Yes, please! I also decided to make jalapeno cornbread wedges to go with it. Why not?

Black Bean Soup with Roasted Jalapeno Salsa

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen & Real Simple

Serves 4

Olive oil

1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 red onions, chopped

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

Kosher salt & black pepper

2 tsp ground cumin

2 15.5-ounce cans black beans, drained & rinsed

1 12-ounce bottle beer

3 jalapenos, halved & seeded

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

2 tbsp fresh lime juice

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add chipotle chili, garlic, red bell pepper, green bell pepper & all but 1/3 cup of red onion. Season with 1/4 tsp Kosher salt & 1/2 tsp pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, 8-10 minutes; stir in the cumin. Heat broiler.

Add the beans, beer & 1/2 cup water to the pot (I added an extra cup-ish of water). Mash some of the beans with a fork or potato masher & bring to a boil. Reduce heat & simmer, stirring occasionally, until the soup is slightly thickened, 6-8 minutes (I let mine simmer about 30 minutes, while the cornbread cooked).

Meanwhile, place the jalapenos on a broilerproof baking sheet & broil until charred, 2-3 minutes (mine took longer, but they were wet). Slice crosswise &, in a small bowl, toss with the cilantro, lime juice, the remaining 1/3 cup of red onion & 2 tsp oil & 1/4 tsp each Kosher salt & pepper. Serve with the soup.

Jalapeno Cornbread Wedges

From The Weekend Baker

Makes 8 Wedges

6 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces

1 cup finely ground yellow cornmeal

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp table salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 large egg

1 jalapeno, stemmed, seeded & minced

Position an oven rack on the middle rung. Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease the bottom & sides of a 9" glass pie plate.

Melt the butter; set aside to cool. In a medium bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder & salt. Whisk until well blended. Mix together the buttermilk & egg with a fork just until blended. Pour the buttermilk mixture & the cooled butter over the dry ingredients & add the minced jalapeno. Stir with a rubber spatula just until blended.

Scrape into the prepared pie plate & spread evenly. Bake until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer the pie plate to a rack to cool for at least 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into 8 wedges.

Kim's Notes: This was pretty good. It was like a summer version of the Smitten Kitchen recipe. Truth be told, the Smitten Kitchen recipe is better, but this one is still good. It's a lot spicier, especially with the roasted jalapeno salsa. I definitely suggest trying either one of the recipes, they're both good.

Entryway Dilemma

Side Table

Nightstand

Dresser

I desperately want an entryway. Somewhere to put a table, a mirror, some books & trendy knick knacks. But alas, I have no such entryway. We enter the house through the garage, so it wouldn't necessarily be a place to put keys or mail. It would be primarily decorative, but I want it.

I have what you would think is the perfect table for the space, a half moon table with 3 legs, but it doesn't work. It's too short; not enough presence. Carolyn moved the nightstand out of the guest room to see if it worked & it wasn't bad, but it wasn't right either. I couldn't not see it as a nightstand. I have this antique blue dresser that used to be my great grandmother's. It's the size I want, but when I brought it downstairs, it was too big. We could hardly open the front door. Fail.

Having exhausted all of the furniture in our house, I guess it's time to start searching Craigslist & thrift stores. I'll report back.

Garden Drum Revisited

Before

After

You all remember my Big Lots garden drum score earlier this month, si? Well, I've gussied it up a little. I bought a new floor lamp, a new (Ikea) throw pillow & placed some books on the drum. I love the pillow & the colors in it, but I'm on the fence about the books. Are you supposed to set things on it? I've seen it both ways. Thoughts?

B & D

B
Spring semester grades are in & I made a B in my public budgeting class. Not bad considering I had a timed final & an essay on property tax due in the middle of flood week. As expected, I bombed the timed portion, but I shockingly made an A on the essay, the essay that I threw together 30 minutes before it was due. Seriously. The essay I wrote for the mid-term, I spent hours on & made a B. So either I write better when I don't care, or she gave everyone a pass because our city was underwater. Regardless, that's 9 classes down, 3 to go. One in June, one in July & my last one in the Fall. Almost there....

D
I went back to the doctor last week to have my vitamin D level re-tested after completing my 12 week booster. My levels are back to normal. Now I just go back to taking a daily 1,000 mg supplement & hoping my body absorbs it. So weird. Who knew a vitamin deficiency was such a big deal. In hindsight, I can see that I was depressed. It went away once I started the booster. I feel, & have felt for awhile now, completely back to normal. At least now I'll (hopefully) know what to look for & when to have my level checked.

It's funny, I was at the hospital with my sister a few months ago when they released her after having the twins & the nurse was explaining to her how to know the difference between postpartum & regular exhaustion. She said, "If you don't take a shower every day, that's normal; you're busy & you're tired. If you quit brushing your teeth, that's postpartum." I kind of chuckled to myself on that day & even teased my sister every time I talked to her by asking if she had brushed her teeth that day, but now I get it. I think I've learned the difference between being tired & overworked & being depressed. We'll see....

Basil Grilled Chicken

Tonight we made another recipe John picked out from Paula Deen's The Lady & Sons, Too!: A Whole New Batch of Recipes from Savannah.

Basil Grilled Chicken

Serves 4

3/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

4 skinned chicken breast halves

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

2 tbsp minced fresh basil

1/2 cup (5 tbsp) butter, melted

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temp

1 tbsp grated Parmesan

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Fresh basil sprigs (optional)

Prepare the grill. Press the coarsely ground pepper into the meaty side of the chicken breast halves. Stir the chopped basil into the melted butter. Brush the chicken lightly with this mixture. In a small bowl, combine the softened butter, minced basil, Parmesan, garlic powder, salt & pepper. Beat at low speed with an electric mixer until smoothly blended. Transfer to a small serving bowl; set aside.

Grill the chicken over medium coals for 8-10 minutes on each side, basting frequently with the remaining melted butter mixture.

Serve the grilled chicken with the basil-butter mixture. Garnish with fresh basil sprigs if desired.

Kim's Notes: First of all, this was good as SHIT! I'm sure it's because of the 100 sticks of butter, but whatever. We cut the recipe in half & cut the butter down even more than that. I made corn on the cob & spinach to go with it (& to make me feel better about all the butter). This was so good! It's definitely going into the rotation.

Singapore Noodles with Shrimp, Part Deux

I made this once before & royally screwed it up. For whatever reason, I decided to try it again, albeit with the right noodles & curry powder this time. Success!

Singapore Noodles with Shrimp

Adapted from The Best 30-Minute Recipe

Serves 4 (or 2 hungry Baldwins)

6 oz thin rice vermicelli
1 lb medium (40/50) shrimp, peeled & deveined
2 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 shallots, sliced thin
1 red bell pepper, cored & sliced thin
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup bean sprouts, well rinsed
3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons mirin
4 scallions, sliced thin

Cover rice vermicelli with hot tap water in large bowl & soak until softened, pliable, limp but not fully tender, about 15 minutes. Drain noodles & set aside.

While noodles soak, pat shrimp dry with paper towels, then toss with 1/2 teaspoon of curry powder. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in *12" nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add shrimp, spread into single layer, & cook without stirring for 1 minute. Stir shrimp & continue to cook until spotty brown & just pink around the edges, about 30 seconds. Transfer shrimp to clean bowl, cover, & set aside.

Add remaining tablespoon oil to skillet & return to medium heat until shimmering. Add shallots, bell pepper, & remaining 2 teaspoons curry powder, & cook until vegetables have softened, about 2 minutes. Stir in garlic & cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Stir in soaked vermicelli, shrimp with their accumulated juices, bean sprouts, broth, soy sauce, mirin, & scallions. Cook, tossing constantly, until noodles & vegetables are heated through, about 2 minutes. Serve.

Kim's Notes: I suggest using a wok instead of a 12" nonstick skillet, you'll need the extra room. We found the rice vermicelli at K&S Market. They only sell 10 oz bags & the recipe calls for 6 oz, so we had noodles left over. Also, this time we used mirin instead of rice vinegar & curry powder instead of Jamaican curry powder. Much better! And.... it wasn't hazard yellow. This was good as shit! John & I both licked the platter clean. Highly recommend this recipe.

Weekend Wrap Up

Friday Night:
John had been up for almost 30 hours, so he fell asleep around 7:00pm & I opened a bottle of wine, made pasta & watched The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (so good!).

Saturday:
Got up early & headed to Atlanta with my friend Jaime. We went to Atlantic Station first to eat lunch & hit H&M, which was a total bust. Granted, I'm getting too old for H&M, but this store in particular sucked. It only had 2 sections: club & gym. So if you weren't in the market for a stripper dress or t-shirts & tanks, you were out of luck. Speaking of strippers, everyone in there had their boobs hanging out. It was bizarre. Everywhere I looked, I saw some lady wearing a strapless dress, pulled down under her bra. I'm still perplexed by this.

Ikea. Luckily, everyone in Ikea had their boobs in check. Must have just been an Atlantic Station thing. Moving on. I didn't really need anything in Ikea, plus I had planned on spending all my money in H&M, so I primarily spent the rest of the day acting as Jaime's personal shopper. She & her husband recently moved from Bellevue to Sylvan Park & are hosting Blake's younger sister's wedding in their back yard in June, so they're frantically trying to pull their house together. Jaime had a laundry list of things to buy & look at. It was a long day, but it was fun. When we got to the register, I had a bag full of shit & was worried I had inadvertently spent $100 on knick knacks, but my total was only $26. $26! Who goes to Ikea & only spends $26? And I bought the most random shit. I bought a throw pillow, a dog placemat for Linda's water bowl, spice jars & a herb tupperware container. Seriously. So pathetic.

Sunday:
I needed to run on account of all the crap I ate on Saturday, I'm talking to you, Ikea cinnamon bun, but the rain ruined that idea. So I made brownies. Why not? I didn't do much aside from grocery shopping & brownie eating. John is working away on turning the downstairs into a mastering studio, so he worked on that & I worked on clearing out my TiVo.

Pepper Steak

From Paula Deen's The Lady & Sons, Too!: A Whole New Batch of Recipes from Savannah.

Pepper Steak

Serves 4-6

1/4 cups vegetable oil

1 1/2 lb round steak, trimmed of fat & cut in strips

1 cup water

1 medium onion, sliced

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/4 tsp ground ginger

2 medium green bell peppers, cut into strips

2 tbsp soy sauce

2-3 tsp sugar

1 tbsp cornstarch

2 tomatoes, cut into wedges

Heat the oil in a large, heavy pot. Add the meat & brown for 5 minutes. Stir in the water, onion, garlic salt & ginger. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat, & simmer for 15 minutes. After 10 minutes, add the peppers. Stir together the soy sauce, sugar & cornstarch. Pour this into the pot & stir until the liquid thickens. Place tomato wedges on top of the meat & bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes longer. Serve over rice.

Kim's Notes: We cut this recipe in half & only bought 3/4 lb of meat. Whole Foods didn't have round steak, so we bought london broil, whatever that is. This was pretty good. I'd call it southern beef teriyaki. And... no butter, shocking for a Paula Deen recipe. I think if we make this again, I'd like to add minced garlic & either a jalapeno or some sweet peppers, something to add a little fire, which, of course, would basically make this fajitas, but whatever.

Movie Review: The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

Last night I watched The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, starring Robin Wright Penn, Alan Arkin & Keanu Reeves. Co-starring Winona Ryder, Julianne Moore, Blake Lively & Maria Bello. Robin Wright Penn plays Pippa Lee, a young, somewhat trophy wife, to Herb Lee (Alan Arkin). The movie begins with Herb & Pippa having just left NYC for a retirement village in Connecticut.

In the opening scene, a toast is given where a longtime friend of Pippa's says he's known her for 25 years, yet knows nothing about her. Starting here, & then throughout the rest of the movie, Pippa reflects back on her life, telling us her story. Young Pippa is played by Blake Lively, who I have a newfound respect for.

I've always had a soft spot for smaller, independent films & this is definitely that. I really liked this movie. The storyline is good, plus Robin Wright Penn. She just doesn't make a bad movie. Also, it's only an hour & 1/2 long, so it's not a big time commitment. Highly recommend this movie.

Weekend Wrap Up

Friday:
Given the day off to volunteer. Went to Mike & Chrissi's in Bellevue to finish demo & to move everything into storage. That night I was too tired to figure out dinner, so I bought a bottle of red wine & a package of Nestle pre-made chocolate chip cookies. This is seriously what I had for dinner. I watched (500) Days of Summer & really liked it. Granted, I was high on sugar, but it was good. It was kind of like an updated version of High Fidelity. Plus, Zooey Deschanel.

Saturday:
I had a final on Thurs night that was a timed, online exam. Upon completing the exam, I was emailed an essay question that I had until Sat at noon to answer. I did this at about 11am on Sat. Hands-down, the worst paper I've turned in thus far. Whatever.

Post essay, I went to Centennial Park to run off the ENTIRE BATCH of chocolate chip cookies that I ate on Fri night/Sat morning. Seriously, the entire batch. My friend Ashley had a booth at TACA, so I walked over & talked to her for awhile (& got quite a sunburn).

Sat night we went to Tequila's with Ali.

Sunday:
Went to Smyrna for Mother's Day to watch my twin nieces get baptized. Spent the rest of the day at my parents house reaffirming my decision to never reproduce.

Broiled Mustard & Brown Sugar Glazed Salmon Fillets with Dill

Tonight I pulled out my handy Cook's Illustrated Best 30-Minute Recipe cookbook & decided on the broiled mustard & brown sugar glazed salmon fillets with dill & garlic mashed potatoes. So good!

Broiled Mustard & Brown Sugar Glazed Salmon Fillets with Dill

Serves 4

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

3 tbsp cider vinegar

3 tbsp whole-grain mustard

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

4 salmon fillets, 1 1/4" thick

Salt & ground black pepper

1 tbsp minced fresh dill

Adjust oven rack 6" from broiler element & heat broiler. Line broiler pan bottom with foil, set broiler pan rack on top, & spray rack with vegetable oil spray.

Stir brown sugar, vinegar, mustard, oil, & garlic together until sugar dissolves.

Pat salmon dry with paper towels & season with salt & pepper. Lay salmon skin-side down on broiler pan (spaced about 1" apart). Reserve 2 tbsp of glaze in clean bowl for serving, then brush half of remaining glaze evenly over salmon.

Broil until all but very center of fish has turned from translucent to opaque, 10-12 minutes, brushing salmon again with remaining glaze halfway through broiling.

Drizzle reserved glaze over salmon & sprinkle with dill before serving.

On A Lighter Note.....

Photo inspiration by Kate/For Me, For You

Inspired by For Me, For You, I recently bought this on Amazon for $4.44 ($7.42 total with shipping). I don't know about the rest of you, but it never occurred to me that you could buy nail polish on Amazon, especially nail polish that's a good $2 less than if you bought it in a store.

I bought from the seller, XPRESSURSELF & had a good experience. I got the nail polish in 2 days & it was exactly what I ordered.

The color is brighter in person than it looks in the picture. For someone as fair skinned as I am, it may be a better pedicure color. But I like it. It's definitely eye-catching.

House of Krause

Our good friends Mike & Chrissi Krause lost their house to the flood. Unfortunately, they live in one of the Bellevue neighborhoods that was totally wiped out. I've worked with Mike for the past 3 years & I've gotten to know his wife Chrissi through him. Chrissi has been cutting my hair this past year as she makes her way through Paul Mitchell. Some of you may remember Chrissi from my bridal showers, bachelorette party, etc.

Mike & Chrissi were in Florida this weekend for a wedding & came home to this on Sunday. They couldn't even get to their house until Monday because of the water. When the water receded, they found their house filled with 6 feet of water. Their garage, living room, dining room, kitchen, master bedroom, closet & 2 bathrooms were completely destroyed, not to mention Chrissi's car, which was parked in the garage. They were able to salvage most of their clothes, but that's about it. All of their furniture, laptops, electronics, kitchen appliances, washer, dryer, etc. are ruined. They also lost things like their wedding album & family bible.

It was heartbreaking to see all of these things wet, out on their front lawn. I helped Chrissi log everything onto a legal pad & then add it to the trash pile. Then we cleaned everything we thought could be salvaged & boxed it up for storage. While we were doing this, the guys were demolishing the inside, while another team of girls started packing everything in the house that wasn't destroyed.

Today I think they've got a team coming for more demo. They've got to rip out everything that got wet, so it doesn't mold, i.e. drywall, molding, hardwood floors, carpet, etc. We're all going back later this week when they actually move out. They'll need help packing, loading the moving truck & taking things to storage, not to mention, general moral support.

I'm not going to lie, yesterday was rough. I've been through major disasters before, but this is the first time people I care about were so directly affected. It was surreal to see their neighborhood. I don't care what you've seen on the news this week, you haven't seen this. I was not at all prepared for what I saw & it was hard not to cry as Mike drove us back to his house.

Also, the sense of community that I saw yesterday is nothing short of amazing. Lowe's was there giving every house a case of bottled water; women were walking through the neighborhood handing out drinks & sandwiches; neighbors were helping neighbors -if you needed a tool you didn't have, all you had to do was walk next door. People were also going to door to door asking who needed help. Volunteer state, indeed.

If anyone reading this knows Mike & Chrissi & wants to help, they would greatly appreciate gift cards to big box retailers like Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Kroger, Publix, etc. They could also use restaurant gift cards as they'll likely be eating every meal out for months.

Lastly, if anyone wants to help, there are tons of ways to do so. Outside of Tennessee, text "REDCROSS" to 90999 to make a $10 donation &/or make a donation directly to The Community Foundation. Locally, you can volunteer for Hands on Nashville. If you have people in your neighborhood affected, I suggest walking down there & offering help via manual labor, bottled water & food. A little goes a long way.

Photostream from yesterday here.

Weekend Wrap Up: Nashville Is Under Water Edition

Photo courtesy of Tennessean

Friday:

John & I cashed in our Gabby's Burgers Groupon. OMG. Soooo good! And, they only use grass fed beef. You know I love that. Seriously, best burger. John said he liked it better than Brown's Diner, which is really saying something. Gabby's hours & seating are sketchy, but deal with it. The burgers are worth it. Post burger, I watched Changeling, which was really good. Does Clint Eastwood make a bad movie?

Saturday:

TheOtherSituation2010 begins. Rain & flooding of apocalyptic proportions. Having heard that most roads were impassable, I stayed home & decided to put off all my errands until Sunday. Hah. Little did I know.... Not being able to drive & having no food in the house, John & I walked next door to Korea House for dinner. Seriously, how do we not have our own booth there yet? The Baldwins & inclement weather are keeping that place in business. After dinner, we swam home & watched Sherlock Holmes. So good! God bless a movie starring both Robert Downey, Jr. AND Jude Law.

Sunday:

Awoke at 5:30am to a text from my dad that said, "tornado warning." Great. Got up & watched the news for about an hour. Decided our house was not, in fact, going to get sucked up in a twister & went back to bed. Woke back up around 9:00am because it sounded like the rapture was upon us. Walked downstairs & found the lower level of our house underwater. Freaked out & woke up John. We went out into the garage, which was completely flooded & tried to figure out how to divert the water out of the house. John heads down the street to Lowe's to get sandbags. The second he leaves, our power goes out. So I'm sitting at home with Linda, watching what appears to be end times, with zero access to the outside world via news or internet.

John gets back with a Camry full of sandbags & figures out how to divert the water into the front yard instead of into our house & garage. This is where it comes in handy to be married to an Eagle Scout. Major crisis averted. Now what?

Out of boredom, we go down the street to Target. We head back to Electronics hoping to catch some local news coverage, to no avail. Apparently Target can only air 'Target TV' on its television sets. Nice. Thanks, Target.

Our neighborhood friends, Mike & Amanda, also without power, come over to keep us company. Mike & John played some ridiculous game assuredly intended for 10 year olds. The power came back on around 6:30pm. Mike & Amanda went home to check on things & we drove around to assess the damage. RIP, Pep Boys, RIP.

All in all, a pretty scary day, but no permanent damage to our house. Lots of our friends have serious damage & potentially destroyed homes, so sending positive thoughts their way. Stay strong, Nashville.

Full flood photostream here. More official, Tennessean, pics here.

Book Review: At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream

Last week I read At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream: Misadventures in Search of the Simple Life by Wade Rouse. Jessica loaned it to me for some much needed light reading.

This is a memoir about Wade & his partner, Gary, leaving the big city (St. Louis, not NYC) for the country, a la Thoreau. It's exactly what you expect it to be: gay guys screaming about raccoons; crying about their lack of tanning beds & Starbucks; & shocking the local townsfolk, but it's still really funny.

In the middle of all the cliches, Kenneth Cole shoes & tight tank tops, there is the story of a man who decides to leave it all behind in order to follow his dream of becoming a writer, and, in the process, learns a lot about himself & redefines his relationship with his partner.

By no means, is this book life-changing. It's light & it's funny. It's not David Sedaris funny, but it's funny. I definitely recommend it for a good beach/vacation read.