Merry Christmas!

After an extended nap amongst the presents, Linda woke up to tell you something.....



Merry Christmas, ya'll!

Treat Yo Self!

I'm pretty obsessed with the Parks & Recreation phrase, "Treat yo self!".  I've been walking around saying it for weeks & shockingly convinced John to work it into our Christmas card this year.  Special shout-out to Agnes for her photoshop skills.  Thanks, Badness!

In case you're still out shopping, don't forget to pick up a couple of things for yourself.  Maybe something sparkly.  I've got a Pinterest board to help you out if you need inspiration.  Treat yo self!

If you don't watch Parks & Rec, first of all, shame on you, secondly, here is the 30 second clip explaining this phenomenon I've thrust into your lives.  You're welcome.

Weekend Wrap Up: Party Party Party Edition

East Nasty Christmas party.  ENFL!

OPI for Sephora Only Gold For Me top coat over OPI O'Hare & Nails Looks Great!

Baldwin stitches home removal kit.

Post-run bagel love.

Linda, working on her winter tan.

Tis the season....  for coordinating Christmas outfits.

Team Paulson!

Best burger IN THE WORLD.

Chocolate chip-bacon-pecan cookies

More photos & info on Flickr! & Instagram.

FRIDAY

I left work early & did some Christmas shopping.  Back at home, I settled in to watch Christmas Vacation & paint my nails.

SATURDAY

Jaime & I ran 6 miles in Shelby Bottoms.  This is my longest run in almost a year.  It felt good!  I ran all 6 miles & no knee pain afterwards.  Score!  That night, John & I donned our coordinated Christmas outfits & headed East to Dave & Alexis' annual Christmas party.  We had fun, maybe too much fun...  Someone drank too much Christmas punch & ended up pulling her dress down to show a recent nursing school grad her mole removal wound site & the one remaining internal stitch that's NEVER GOING TO COME OUT.

SUNDAY

Sunday got off to a rough start.  I popped in Love Actually & watched that while I alternately chugged water & coffee.  John finally woke up, so we went foraging for food & I stumbled across what may be my new favorite burger.  It's the regular burger at Sportsman's Grille, but with a fried egg added to it.  OMG, y'all.  O-M-G!

Back at home, John & I made a million batches of chocolate chip-bacon-pecan cookies & watched The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.  I wanted him to see the original Swedish version before we go see the American version that comes out this week.

Preston Leatherman, aka My Christmas Hero

This video makes my life.  This kid went to two local malls on Saturday & had a friend record him lip syncing to Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" throughout both malls, including store windows.  It's amazing.  I especially love how completely ambivalent the vast majority of shoppers are to his over-the-top dancing & singing, like they see it every day & could care less.  This is why I love living in Nashville.

Follow Preston on the twitter here.  Website & bio online here.

Weekend Wrap Up: I Might Have A Sugar Problem Edition

Claudia & I getting our post-race drink on.  What, like you don't drink at 8am?

Clue!  Question:  why is "Clue" in quotes...?

New lipstick (recommended by Mary Katherine):  Loreal British Red.  J'adore!

Salted chocolate and caramel cookies!

The Cookie Swap spread.

This is what I ate for lunch yesterday.  Oh, & champagne.  And 20 mini quiche.

Book Swap!

More pics and info on Flickr! and Instagram

FRIDAY

I finally watched Crazy, Stupid, Love.  OMG, ya'll.  O-M-G.  Mary Katherine had warned me that I needed to be ready for Ryan Gosling's jelly, so per her instructions, I watched it alone while John worked downstairs.  I was watching it, it was cute, Ryan Gosling's hot, blah blah blah, & then the 'dirty dancing' scene happened & I was like, "Oh!  Oh, I get it.  Holy sh*t!".

SATURDAY

At 6:45am on Saturday, I drove to Bells Bend with my friends Claudia & Anthony for the second Yazoo Barely a 4K Beer Run.  It was fun, but it was cold & the entire run was uphill.  My calves are still locked up.  After my 9am Yazoo drunk (not really), I went Christmas shopping with my mom in Green Hills.  That night, John & I drove to Smyrna to hang out with Katie & Rollum.  We ate Jet's Pizza & played Clue.  It was awesome!

SUNDAY

Yesterday was Cookie Swap / Book Swap.  After a lot of going back & forth, I finally decided on the salted chocolate & caramel cookies.  They were delicious right out of the oven, but became harder to eat/chew as they cooled & the caramel hardened.  Still really good cookies; I definitely recommend them.  The cookie swap was so much fun.  I ate my weight in cookies & mini quiche, but I had a blast.  Thanks for hosting, Hot Koh Koh!

Cookies!

I'm going to a cookie swap on Sunday & I need to decide what cookies to make/bring.  I've been scouring the internet & bookmarking recipes as I go.  Below are a few of the cookies that are calling out to me.

Snowball Cookies

Picture & recipe from My Baking Addiction

Snowball cookies, aka Mexican wedding cookies.  I love these cookies, which is surprising since I'm typically a big chocolate lover.  I could eat an entire batch by myself & subsequently, probably will.  I don't know, it's something about all that butter, sugar & flour.  It speaks to me. 

Salted Chocolate & Caramel Cookies

Picture & recipe from Crepes of Wrath

I'm a big fan of Crepes of Wrath & bookmarked these cookies awhile ago.  I mean, how you could go wrong with salted chocolate & caramel?  The answer:  you can't. Might be above my pay-grade though.

The Only Chocolate Chip Cookie I Will Ever Need To Know How To Make For The Rest Of My Life

Picture & recipe from For Me, For You

Okay, these?  These I've been dying to make since Kate first posted this recipe.  These are a front runner because I can make the dough tonight & then bake them on Sunday morning.  Hmmm.... 

 The Kitchen Sink Cookie

Picture & recipe from Alexis

I'm probably not going to make these cookies because of all the ingredients I'd have to buy, but I've had them & they are DELICIOUS! 

FYI -- there's a post on My Baking Addiction about how to host a holiday cookie exchange, which you can read here, if you're so inclined.  Lots of cute ideas.

Book Review: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

Publisher:  Crown Archetype; 1 edition (November 1, 2011)

Pages:  240

Genre:  Biography, Memoir, Humor

My Reading Format:  Hardcover

Available Formats:  Hardcover, Kindle Edition, Audiobook

My Review

John gave me this book as an anniversary gift last month.  I know most people who have read this book have also read Bossypants by Tina Fey.  Embarrassingly, I have not read Bossypants yet, so keep that in mind.  A few thoughts:

•  This book isn't so much a memoir as it is a collection of essays, so while it does explain how Mindy came to be a writer for The Office, it is not a complete story of her life.
• This book is super short.  Some of the chapters are lists.  I read it in like a day & a half.
• Mindy goes to great pains to differentiate herself from her character on The Office, Kelly Kapoor.  But I basically read the whole book with Kelly Kapoor's voice in my head.  I couldn't help it.
• This book is hilarious.

My Final Thoughts

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this very funny little book.  I was laughing on like Page 5 & continued laughing throughout the rest of the book.  Again, I think if you're reading this to find out how to break into the TV writing business, you'll be sorely disappointed, but if you're looking for something light & funny to read while you're sleeping on a futon at your in-laws this Christmas, this book will definitely lighten your mood.  Four stars!

Weekend Wrap Up: West Side Edition

Friday night manicure:  OPI for Sephora Only Gold For Me top coat over Essie Shifting Power.

Saturday morning ritual:  coffee drinking, Martha Stewart watching, menu planning, shopping list making.

Hilarious children's plush slippers on sale at Old Navy that I really should have bought.

Watch out Panda, there's sharks in them there waters.

My new favorite pizza:  meatball pizza from Coco's Italian Market.  O-M-G!

Community theatre Saturday.

I hardly left the West Side this weekend.  Actually, yeah, I didn't leave it at all.  I also didn't really leave my house that much.  Hello, early onset seasonal affective disorder!  On Saturday, I was supposed to spend the day Christmas shopping with my mom.  My sister has four kids & is basically a hostage in her own house, so my dad thought it would be nice if he offered to babysit all four girls so my sister could go with us.  Normally, I wouldn't mind, but a) I never get to see my mom alone & b) we were shopping for my Christmas presents.  Since 90% of the purchases made on Saturday were for my nieces, my mom is coming back up this Saturday to shop with me.  I don't mind, I could spend all day every day shopping.  Plus, I really want to introduce my mom to Jeni's Ice Cream, which we'll hopefully have time to do.

On Saturday night, we celebrated our friend Amanda's birthday with dinner at Coco's Italian Market & then we saw a play at a community theatre down the street that none of us had ever been to.  It wasn't not fun.  This was my first community theatre experience.  I did feel nice to be there & to be participating, but I didn't know this particular play & we had REALLY bad seats.  I'm not opposed to trying it again...

John had to work yesterday, so I ran 4 miles with Jaime & then we went to Target, where we AGAIN got mistaken for life partners.  There must be some way we interact with each other that reads 'lesbian'.  On one hand, it's hilarious, obvi, & on the other other hand, it's kind of nice to experience kindness from people who think we're a same sex couple raising children together.  Let's just say, I've had worse assumptions made about me.

Lastly, I watched the movie Barney's Version yesterday.  I have no idea how I even heard about this movie or how it came to be in my Netflix queue, but I really liked it.  Definitely recommend it.

Why Put Off For Tomorrow What You Can Do With A Boxcutter Today

About a month or so ago, I had to have a mole cut out of my back.  You know, like you do.  I had two sets of stitches.  One set on the outside that would allegedly fall out on their own & another set on the inside that would disintegrate.  The outside stitches weren't 'falling out' & were really starting to itch.  It had been 3 or 4 weeks, so I felt safe pulling them out.  Problem was, I couldn't reach them, so I asked John to do it. 

Here's where I went wrong:  1) no one likes to perform home surgeries more than John; & 2) John's an Eagle Scout.  I don't know how many of you are aware of this special breed of man that is an Eagle Scout, so let me give you a brief, non-related but important nonetheless, example.  When John & I got iPhones over the summer, I went to work & came back 8 hours later with about 300 apps.  John had two:  flashlight & police scanner.  True story.

Okay, I've given John the greenlight to remove (carefully!) the stitches in my back.  He disappears, presumably to sterilize tweezers & scissors.  No.  No, no, no.  Unbeknownst to me, he had gone out in the garage, you know, where you keep your medical supplies, & came back in with...  Wait for it.  A BOXCUTTER!  And a flashlight.  But, more importantly, a BOXCUTTER!  When I was later relaying this story to Alexis (a nurse) she said, "Well, what did you expect when you asked an Eagle Scout to remove your stitches?"  Touche.

Quick sidenote:  I had also seen my parents around this stitches-itching time & had my mom look at them.  Before even seeing them, or knowing if they were ready to come out, my dad whips out his Swiss Army knife & tries to cut them out of me.  Men!  You do not remove stitches with tools!

It's been a few weeks since the boxcutter incident, the external stitches have been removed (thanks, Mom!), but now the internal stitches are starting to poke through my skin.  I know, it's disgusting.  Stay out of the sun, kids.  I'm back upstairs, in the bathroom, trying to make my arm long enough to reach my back, so I can pull this stupid stitch out with tweezers.  John comes in, sees what I'm doing & disappears back downstairs.  Guess what he came back upstairs with?  Just guess.  A LEATHERMAN!  Luckily, I had somehow managed to reach around & pull the stitch out myself (thanks, yoga!), so the leatherman wasn't needed. 

There's still one last remaining internal stitch.  It hasn't started itching or poking through my skin yet.  Stay tuned to learn how John accidentally dismembered me by trying to remove a stitch with hedge trimmers.

This all happened!