We have a visitor...

While my parents are on vacation, I get to look after their dog Lily. Here she is...

Lily is a Westie (West Highland White Terrier), and if you know anything about terriers, you know that they are headstrong, smart, and quite fun if they are well trained. Lily is a fantastic dog!

In the video, she is discovering her duck. I have some of her toys tucked into the space underneath the bench in the office. I love this video of her playing with the cats watching on. They don't know what to think of her.

I love how the next shot shows exactly how the cats feel. Miko is clearly annoyed! She has been growling at Lily and hissing when Lily gets too close. You can see that Beans couldn't care less. This picture was taken with Lily about 2 feet away from them.

Our surprise dish - the turkey cake!

We were shopping in Williams Sonoma this week and saw that the turkey cake pan was on sale, as well as the vanilla spice quick bread cake that went with it. Here it is, step by step...

The Pan


Cool on wire rack


Trim off excess cake.


Spread icing on one half.


Place one half on top of the other and refrigerate for 30 min.


Tip cake out of pan and admire...notice ours didn't completely come together perfectly.


Decorate to hide center gap and look like a colorful turkey. (We would have just dusted with powdered sugar had it come out okay straight from the pan.)

Tah dah!!! No laughs please. It looks really ugly in the picture, but in person it was so cute! The flash makes it look way too shiny. It really looked like a turkey with colored feathers and beak.


Plus, the flavor of the cake was really good!

Turkey day cooking has begun!

Currently on my stove, I've got a pot of sweet potatoes ready to boil and my family's favorite cranberry-orange sauce in progress.

Lots of people do cranberry orange, but mine tastes really good and is super simple...

1 bag fresh cranberries (16 oz)
1 cup fresh orange juice (I use Goodflow brand)
1/2-3/4 cup sugar (I use Central Market Organics evaporated cane juice sugar)

- Rinse and remove stems from cranberries. In a medium-sized sauce pan over medium high heat, put in cranberries, orange juice, and sugar. Stir slightly to mix sugar and orange juice as the mixture warms. You will hear a popping sound as the cranberries reach cooking temperature. Boil mixture for 5-10 minutes, taking care that the pan does not overflow. Stir as necessary. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer until consistency is thick enough for you.

Remove from heat and place in a pretty serving bowl. Let cool, then refrigerate. For an optional garnish, peel and section an orange and arrange around the outside of the bowl.

I will be preparing Sweet Potatoes from Paula Deen's Savannah Country Cookbook (altered to match my grandmother's pecan topping) and a citrus salad. Chad and I also have a surprise dish that we are sure will be a hit!

Typo fixed!!!

It took about 24 hours, but the typo that I caught yesterday was fixed!

Here is the corrected page. See my other post if you don't remember what the problem was.

wha, wha, what?

Yesterday I had the pleasure of escaping the office and going shopping with my friend (and bridesmaid) Tara. She and Wade moved to NYC just over a year ago, and are in town for Thanskgiving with their families.

Tara and I met up at Ann Taylor at the Arboretum and tried on the bridesmaid dress that I picked out. It was so fun getting to try them on with her, and I found myself bouncing around the dressing room with excitement that finally there was a girl out shopping with me and wearing the same dress!

After Ann Taylor, we headed over to the Domain to walk around and scan some things at Macy's for the registry. Tara was a trooper in Macy's and said that she was having fun. I hope that she didn't say that just to make me feel good.

During our trip around the shops at the Domain, we went into the BCBG boutique and found some really cute things. However, upon closer inspection at the sizing labels, I found the most disturbing label...XXS! Wha, wha, what? XXS? really? is that necessary? When they have a size 0, that is insulting. The 00 size is even more ridiculous. I had never discovered the XXS before, so maybe I am shopping at stores that actually have sizes in the range of the bell curve that is America. Apparently really little women only buy designer clothing, because I have never seen the XXS at the stores that I shop at. (and, no, I don't shop at WalMart!)

I know they are trying to make these skinny women feel good about being small, but gimme a break!!

Typo - I found it!!!!

I admit that I am not the best writer, nor do I have proper grammar or spelling at all times. That being said, I am the person at my company who often receives notices from our clients and the public if there is a typo on our website or published written materials. It is my responsibility to handle the information and forward it to the right person to get it corrected within our documents.

I found a typo on a major company's website this morning!!!!

On the Macy's/Wedding Channel registry website (we are probably registering there), there is a typo on this page. Underneath the red box that lets you sign up, it reads 'You can also call 1-888-989-9333 or visit and in-store Registry Consultant to enroll in Registry Star Rewards.'

Ummm...did they mean 'an'? How fun! I caught it!

I did send a message to their 'Contact Us' form informing them of the typo. There is someone else out there in the world who, right now as you read this, is performing my job of informing their webmaster of the mistake. Though it is certainly not a deep issue or really all that important, I am tickled that this situation has come full circle.

Dancing with the groom...

Chad and I went to our first dance lesson together in preparation for the wedding. Lemme say that Chad is a trooper and I totally appreciate that he is willing to go to lessons.


We had a private lesson at Arthur Murray Dance School and our instructors name was Quan. The lesson was definitely beginner, but we learned the basic step for foxtrot, two-step, tango, waltz, and rhumba. When I was in college (almost 10 years ago) I took a ballroom 101 class, so I was totally familiar with all of the steps other than the rhumba. It was nice to get to practice them with Chad as he was learning them.


Chad did know the basic for two-step before we went, so he picked up the foxtrot, tango, and rhumba well. Waltzing is much more complicated once you get going, and we have yet to move out of the 'box'.

Dancing is something that I love to do when it is a partner dance, but I hate to get my groove thang on in the middle of the floor on my own. I hope Chad is able to someday feel so good about dancing that he won't mind if I want us to go out every once in a while and cut a rug.

Pacer

I found out this weekend that there was an opening for a pacer for the AT&T Austin Marathon. Now, I have been a pacer for the marathon in 2006, but it was for the 4:15 group. The opening this year is for the 5:00 group. Not that there is anything wrong with running a marathon in 5:00, but it will be interesting for me to run at that pace. I guess there will be a lot of run/walking through the hills and waterstops.

The good thing about pacing is that I will be running with my friend Jennifer Limbaugh. She and I have run together on various runs throughout the past few years, and we should have a great time!

Weekend Review

This weekend was quite busy!

On Friday night I represented my company at an open house for a new local office of an organization that I am not going to list on my blog. (I am keeping my work life separate from this blog.) The open house was nice...there was catering from Whole Foods Catering Department, so there were veggie options for me to eat. Whole Foods also selected the wine/beer list, so it was great to see that they had all Texas choices. Alamosa Wine Cellars' Viognier was selected for one of the white wines.

After the open house, Chad and I met at the Westgate Hyde Park Bar and Grill. Before my stomach virus on my birthday, I had eaten at HPB&G. I usually am wary of food or restaurants that I suspect may have caused stomach problems, but after I was sure that it was a 'bug' and not food poisoning, I decided to take the plunge and eat at HPB&G. Chad and I eat here pretty regularly, so I would have been sad to take it out of our regular lineup.

On Saturday morning we woke up early and met the Boston group for their first long run. I am going to be joining them for workouts on Tuesdays and Saturdays while I am trying to get back in shape. The group was doing 10 miles (4-5 miles for the racers on Sunday), so I went out with them to try to do the 7 mile loop. There were several familiar faces and it was nice to run with Linda from last fall. She had been recovering from major ankle surgery in January, so her pace was close to mine. We were definitely slower than the group, but we enjoyed ourselves during the 7 miles. I am pleased to announce that I made it the whole 7 miles, but it was a struggle aerobically.

Saturday afternoon we traveled to Kerrville for my cousin Crystal's wedding. Chad and I drove my dad and had a nice drive in the Hill Country. The wedding ceremony and reception were really nice, and I am impressed that Crystal did the majority of it herself. I had prepped Chad that the Catholic ceremony would probably be long and in Spanish. I think he was able to handle the time with all of the different customs and the distractions of the babies that were there. My 8-month-old niece, Avery, was sitting in our pew, so we were distracted some of the time watching her and her cute antics.

The reception was across the street, so we walked over for dinner, dancing, and cake. Our first dancing experience was interesting...we are really going to have to practice together.

Sunday morning was the EAS Run for the Water. (We drove home from Kerrville on Saturday evening and got home about 9:30.) Chad was going to run the race and I opted to spectate. The problem was I forgot to pack my running shoes! I was going to run out a few miles and be at a place where I could be on the course. Oh well! I opted to be at the start/finish line and had fun cheering on the racers with Carolyn.

After the race, Chad and I spent the day doing miscellaneous things. We went to my mom's house to jump her battery, then to Zuzu's for lunch. We weaved our way up Shoal Creek and looked at the houses in that area on our way to Benold's to check their business hours. We also scouted out Arthur Murray Dance Studio, where we will be taking our dance lessons. We scouted Marquee Rentals to see if their showroom was open or when their business hours were...they were closed on Sundays. Next, we went to Floor & Decor to get a better idea of flooring options for Chad's living room. On to Bed, Bath & Beyond for some registry scanning. We went by Ann Taylor to see if their new occasions line has hit the store (bridesmaid dresses)...they had not. We continued house hunting in Balcones Woods/Duval/Oak Forest/Great Hills areas and found some neat places. It was nice to see what was available in our price range.

The weekend was exhausting, but seemed to be good for the wedding planning.

Ready to workout again?

So, I have been tossing the idea of signing up for a training group. I don't want to race anything. I just want to get back into running shape. I don't want to push too hard right now.

There is a group called the 'Show 'n' Go' that is on the Rogue website now that is a pay-by-month type of program. It meets Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 6:00pm. This is a good thing because Chad will start training on Tuesday nights very soon and it would be nice to be on the same schedule. Also, if Chad decides to do the Thursday night class, then we would actually be in the same group.

I emailed Ruth to find out more, but it looks like the Tuesday night group is the same coach as the Spring Marathon training group.

I need some motivation to run and paying for a group seems like good motivation.

lap full of kitties...this one cracks me up

So, since Beans started his blog, I haven't posted any kitty shots.

This one I had to post. It completely cracks me up to look at their little pissed off faces in this picture. Beans and Miko were so mad that I had been carrying them around the condo with one under each arm.

When I managed to sit down with both of them and hold them there long enough for Chad to take a picture, this shot was the result. I was thrilled! I think if you click on it, a larger version will pop up and show you the true feelings behind their expressions.

some birthday pics...

...from before I started barfing. These were taken after my birthday dinner with my Dad, Rose, and Chad.

It still cracks me up that Chad and my dad wore similar outfits (on accident) and looked like twins. Rose and I both coordinated as well in black and white.

Lily and I pose together in black and white.