Wine Fest Fun

This past weekend I went to my first Wine Festival.  It was pretty fun.  For $25 we received a small wine glass and got to taste samples of as many wines as possible.  A couple of people there were literally speed drinking wine as fast as possible.  We went a little slower.  Normally I drink mostly red wine.  But in the heat (we were dripping with sweat most of the time) on Saturday I tasted a bunch of interesting white and fruity flavored wine.  I'm not normally a fan of sweet wine but I had a few tasty fruit ones.  There was some awesome sangria as well.  I ended up purchasing a bottle of Traminette.  The man described it as tasting like a grapefruit with sugar on it.  That was pretty accurate.  But it wasn't in a gross sugary sweet kind of way.  It was mostly just refreshing.  The worst wine I had by far was some dessert wine that was chocolate orange flavored.  It was not enjoyable to me at all.  I had a hard time getting it all down and pretending I wasn't about to gag as not to offend the man serving it to me.

We also took our own picnic with us which featured bread, crackers, cheeses, pimento cheese, chicken salad, hummus and chocolate chip cookies.  It was a good break in the middle of the alcohol consumption.  Basically a good time was had by all. 

And now just for fun...to show how B and I have matured over the past few years.
A picture of us at a beer fest 4 years ago....

And now from the Wine Fest looking much dryer and not wearing beer themed t-shirts that we just purchased on a whim...

Do you like wine?
Red or white?
Fruity?
Arbor Mist?
Have you ever been to a wine festival?  Beer festival?
Does anyone have a good Sangria Recipe?

Surprise Party Fail=Un-Surprise Party Success

How to Attempt to Throw a Surprise Birthday Party and then Quickly Switch it to an Awesome Un-Surprise Birthday Party....

1-First and most importantly if your friend keeps really busy with travel, babysitting appointments, and family gathering and/or is a super sleuth....just go ahead and throw in the towel on a surprise party. You will never be able to surprise him/her.

2-Plan way in advance. Probably like 4 months.

3-Set up a decoy situation stat so that your friend does not schedule babysitting appointments, travel and/or family gatherings for the time that you want to throw the party.

4-Train your friend's boyfriend/husband/roommate/special friend in the art of deception. Give him test runs. Question him repeatedly. Teach him to make up lies on the spot. Put him under a hot light and don't give him water. Get him ready to con.

5-Plan the date of the party.

6-Make sure people can come.

7-Send an Evite.

8-Tell people to come early.

9-When the surprise is discovered by the birthday girl just suck it up, buy some balloons, make a cake and move forward with plans. When the bday girl arrives, yell "un-surprise" at her and carry on with the party.

Happy Birthday Curly J! We will try again in say 10-15 years.
 
*To hear Curly J's take on her Un-surprise party go here.

Awesome Stuff I Bought on Etsy....Volume 1

OK I am seriously boring today.  Work has been hard and I have nothing interesting to say.  Literally nothing.  I tried to con B into doing a guest blog for me but apparently he had nothing to say either.  So I've decided to start a new series about things I've bought on Etsy.  If you don't know what Etsy is, it's a website online where people sell things that they've made.  There's tons of stuff on there.  Check it out.  So anyways I have bought a few things on there.  In January when B turned 30, I decided I wanted to give him 30 presents.  This got kind of hard.  But anyways I decided to make some of the presents be from our dog, Hobie.  What is Hobie in to?  Well Hobie is in to eating grass, playing rope bone, peeing on mailboxes, staring out the window and chasing squirrels.  I decided to go with the squirrel theme and I found the perfect gift for Hobie to give B.  I present to you Item 1 of Awesome Things I've Bought on Etsy...

Squirrel T-shirt from isotope on Etsy.

I think he loved it. 

So, what do you think of the squirrel t-shirt?

Do you know what Etsy is?

Have you ever bought or sold anything on Etsy?

Does your dog/cat/pet squirrel give your husband/boyfriend/special friend presents?

Office Thursday-The Post Where I Blab on a Little More about The Office and My Other Favorite TV Season Finales...

Ok if you have been reading this blog recently it might have become apparent that I watch a lot of tv.  But seriously I have Tivo.  I fast forward through a lot of commercials and I do other stuff while watching tv like baking, making dinner, making earrings, blogging, etc.  I also even walk my dog sometimes or go to the gym.  So there.  Plus it's summer, TV is essentially over for like 4 months.  I will be spending time outdoors and with real people as opposed to my tv friends.

Ok, onward.  I focused much of my tv energy this past week on my 2 dearly departing shows, Lost and 24.  However, there were some other awesome tv finales.....

The Office-While this was not my favorite Office finale ever, it was still enjoyable.  I mean it was going to be pretty tough to top Niagara, the wedding episode, which was my favorite ep of the season.

I recently conducted a non-scientific poll with myself and have come up with my favorite moments of the 6th season of The Office.  I'm positive I left something super awesome out.  But these are the ones that popped in my head when I was thinking of favorites without actually watching any of the episodes again.

JMJE's Top Five Office Moments of Season 6

Andy wheels Michael, who is hidden inside a cheese cart, into the conference room so he can spy on Jim and David Wallace...
Michael: You know when they say it's so crazy it just might work? Well, I don't believe that. I say go for the air-tight plan and that is why I am having Andy wheel me into the conference room inside a makeshift cheese cart. It is just elegant.

Erin gets upset when Michael tells her that Andy and Angela used to be engaged...
Erin: [moans, pulls hair over her face]

Michael: What are you doing? What are you doing?
Erin: In the Foster home, my hair was my room. [exhales, prolonged exclaiming]

Michael tells Jim that he's dating Pam's Mom....
Michael: I have recently taken a lover.

Jim: Well, that's great. Congratulations. Who's the lucky lady?
Michael: Pam's mom.

Essentially the whole wedding episode but especially Jim's last line.  I also really enjoyed the whole dancing down the aisle thing and the getting married on the boat thing...
Jim: I bought those boat tickets the day I saw that You Tube video. I knew we'd need a back-up plan. The boat was actually Plan C. The church was Plan B and Plan A was marrying her a long, long time ago. Pretty much the day I met her.

Kevin, Jim and Michael trying to convince Pam to go to the hospital to have her baby.  I also really like how Jim calls it an "awesome" baby....
Jim: You know what? Let's go. We got to go to the hospital.

Pam: Okay, I'm not going. I'm not... It's fine. [Jim, Michael and Kevin try to help her up] Okay, come on, come on. No! I am not going! I am not going, okay!? I'm not going today because I can't do it, I don't think I can do it.
Jim: Hey, are you kidding me?
Michael: Are you kidding?
Jim: If anyone can do this, you can do this.
Michael: You can do this. You can do this.
Jim: Pam, I'm scared. I'm real scared.
Michael: I'm scared, too.
Kevin: I'm petrified.
Jim: The best news is, we're going to have a baby today.
Michael: Yeah.
Jim: A really awesome baby.
Onward to other Season Finales......
 

How I Met Your Mother-Doppelgangers.  I really enjoyed this finale; probably one of my favorite Finales of this year.  Plus I really felt for Barney when he kept encouraging people to read his blog ("it's gotten a lot better" he told them repeatedly).  I freaked a little when it looked like Ted and Robin were going to make out on the couch.  I just can't handle them together again since we know she's not the Mother.  Ted's blonde hair was awesome.

Modern Family-This show is also really funny.  I love all the characters but especially Manny, Phil and Luke.  According to me, it has been a great year for comedies.  My favorite line from this episode was Luke saying, "My dad says the greatest singer who ever lived is Peabo Bryson."  I might be a weirdo but for some reason I found that hilarious. 

Parks and Recreation/Community-I know many people don't watch these shows.  But I loved both the finales and will be starting a WATCH P-REC and COMMUNITY campaign later on in the summer.

Grey's Anatomy-The most intense thing ever.  I literally had heart palpitations while I was watching it.  Still, it was good.  But I couldn't sleep that night.

Oh and on a Non Finale Note-I just watched the Neil Patrick Harris Episode of Glee.  I love him.  That's all.  I'm excited to watch the Lady GaGa one.

Alright, now I swear I'm going to cut back on tv for awhile and get out there in the real world with the real people. 

So if you like the Office, what were your favorite moments this year?
Do you like any of my other favorite shows?
Have you ever seen Community, P-Rec or Modern Family?
Did you have chest pains while watching Grey's Anatomy?
Do you heart NPH?
Should I just rent a bunch of tv shows on DVD and watch them all summer or should I go outside?
Does watching the Food Network count as tv watching or just educating myself?

PS-My brother just told me that my Lost blog posts were "creepy" and that I have a creepy obsession with TV.  Is he right?  Do I need help?

Office quotes from.... http://www.officequotes.net/

ODE to 24 and Peanut Butter Brownie Pie

One of my favorite TV shows, 24, ends tonight. So I thought I owed it a proper tribute. If you have not watched 24 and you plan on it then maybe don't read what I wrote below or you will be majorly spoiled. You probably won't understand it anyways. I wrote this before I watched the finale so hopefully 24 didn't do something terrible to me in the finale like kill Chloe or something.

Dear 24,

I'm sad that you left my television but I know its time for you to move on up to the Big Screen. I would just like to let you know how much you have meant to me over the years. While in regular life and usually in TV/Movie life, I hate violence, guns, axes, bombs, wars, torture, the chopping off of some one's head, hand, etc, it was somehow ok when you did it. Seriously I'm like totally a pacifist. Anyways. When I lived in Maryland you were my 2nd best friend. We spent many Friday nights together catching up. You were the first show my now husband ever convinced me to watch with him. Then we all became best friends, except of course for "The Great Is Tony Almeida Dead or Alive debacle of 2006"? Tony, I always knew you weren't dead. I didn't know you'd become kind of evil though. You did hurt my feelings a few times, mostly when you killed Michelle, Prez Palmer 1, Bill Buchanon, Edgar, even that dude who flew the plane that was carrying the nuclear bomb into the dessert (oh right his name was George Mason). I really didn't like it that time you had Jack kill his boss to thwart a giant terrorist plot or when you had Jack kill Curtis. And seriously what ever happened to the former first lady Jean Smart and her new lover Secret Service extraordinaire Aaron Peirce or Behrooz for that matter (ok I actually saw the deleted scene that showed him being escorted in to CTU). Plus there was that time that for 2 nights before the season 6 premiere where I couldn't sleep because I was so excited about the premiere and finding out what happened after Jack was kidnapped by the Chinese. But I forgive you. You did some good things too. Thanks for keeping Chloe alive (well you better, as I'm writing this I have not seen the finale). She's my fave. I also loved the season 3 twist of Jack and Tony and Gael all working together secretly. And of course I loved the Jack Pack from Season 5. I even like Audrey a lot. I hope she's doing ok. Someone who looks a lot like her appears to be a pretty good surgeon on Grey's Anatomy. And I really didn't mind Kim that much. I mean she was kind of annoying in season 1 and 2 but I love it when they bring back characters in the later seasons. Plus there was that one season where you had Desmond from Lost as a character and that other Season where you had Jin from Lost as a character and then there was that time Michelle Dessler came back to life to play that lady in the Dharma Initiative on Lost.  Weird.  So thanks for the good times. And thanks for giving my dad and I something to discuss on Tuesdays. So 24, I will miss you but I'll see you at the movies.

Love,

JMJE

PS-Secret note to B, "OOooodrey"

PPS-I made you this peanut butter pie to remember me by and because my Dad really likes Peanut Butter.

JMJE's Peanut Butter Brownie 24 Clock Dad's Bday Extravaganza Pie

Ingredients

brownie mix (plus the stuff that goes with it, egg, oil, etc)

1 8 oz container of cream cheese

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk

1 8 oz thing of Cool Whip (cool hwhip-anyone watch Family guy?)

chocolate chips-optional for decoration

Instructions

1-Prepare brownie mix per package and cook in a glass pie pan. You might not need to use all the mix. You just want this to be the bottom layer of the pie. Cool Brownie.

2-Mix cream cheese, PB, and sugar together until blended.

3-Mix in the condensed milk

4-Stir in the Cool Whip

5-Spoon this mixture on top of the cooled brownie.

6-Chill for a couple hours and serve.

7-You can decorate with chocolate chips if you want to

LOST Finale Day = Lost Cookout

My Lost cookout featured....

Locke's Boar Sliders.....

Shanzie and I went Boar hunting on Saturday but came up empty handed so I went ahead and just bought some BBQ

Ingredients-

Pork BBQ purchased from your local BBQ establishment (this is pretty easy if you live in NC)

BBQ slaw purchased from the same establishment

Mini Buns (dinner rolls)

Put them together. Delish

Jin's Foil Fish

Jin was the resident island fisherman for the first few season on Lost. And although Beezus5 has become quite the fisher woman recently we went ahead and bought fish at the grocery store.  This is B's specialty.

Ingredients-

Fish
Vegetables (Onions, Peppers whatever you like)

Italian Salad Dressing
Butter
Slice of Lemon
Minced Garlic
Mix the food together and wrap it in a foil.  Seal foil at the top and grill on medium high heat for approximately 15 minutes or until fish is done and vegetables are a little tender.

I was gonna have Kate's Island Fruit Ice Cream but instead decided to go with ...

Sawyer's "You Taste Like Strawberries" Strawberry Shortcakes
Ingredients-
Strawberries
Sugar
Angel Food Cake
Cool Whip
You know how to make strawberry shortcake. 
Plus Shanzie made a Margarita dipping sauce out of whipping cream, cream cheese, sour cream, tequila, lime juice, orange juice, sugar.

I'm setting this to post tonight but I'll probably update later with my feelings on the Finale!  I'm getting very nervous.
**Update***SPOILERS
My favorite things about last night's Lost.....
-Rose and Bernard got Desmond out of the well
-Those awesome Target Commercials
-Richard "guyliner" Alpert's gray hair
-Juliette! doing the sonogram
-Jack's big leap to attack Flocke right before the commercial break
-When Jack and Kate declared their love on the cliff
-Hurley becoming the new Jacob and asking Ben to be his #2
-In my head Hurley and Ben got Desmond back to Penny so that better be true
-Juliette and Sawyer remembering each other at the Candy Machine
-Kate convincing Claire to get on the plane so she could raise Aaron
-Ben and Locke's convo before Lock walked in to the church
-Jack smiling as he saw the plane above him leaving the island
-Jack saving the island and dying
-The ending church scene where everyone looked so happy

I'm sure there's other stuff I'm forgetting.  I am a little mad that Walt was not mentioned and that Walt and Michael were not at the church.  Overal I enjoyed the finale.  I'm still confused about some stuff but sort of excited that it wasn't cut and dry and that I can go on discussing it and rewatching episodes with B, Shanzie and Beezus5 for years to come.

Fun Fact Friday-Last Ever Episode of Lost Edition

The LAST episode ever of LOST is THIS SUNDAY.  OMG.  I'm both sad and excited as well as in need of answers.

In honor of the last episode I will be having a cookout on Sunday featuring....Locke's Boar Sliders, Jin's Foil Fish and Kate's Island Fruit (that she climbed up a tree to get) Ice Cream. 

I'm also going to give myself a Lost survey down below to fill out so I can reminisce about this awesome show.......There are some spoilers from past episodes so if you haven't watched Lost yet and plan on it, don't read. There are no spoilers from the Finale as I don't know what will happen.

Favorite Ben Line?  "My name is Henry Gale and I'm from Minnesota".  J/K.  I do like that line though.  But also, "Karl. Now if you're gonna sleep with my daughter, I insist you call me Ben." and also "This didn't happen to have a number on it, did it?" (referring to a rabbit that Locke served him for dinner.)  Really there are just too many awesome Ben lines.
Favorite Love Moment? Penny and Desmond reunited when she rescues the Oceanic 6.  Runner up might be Jin and Sun's death scene.  And probably Juliette's death when she says "I love you James".  Sadzie.

Favorite Season 6 Moment?  Ok I have two.  One is from the 1st season six episode LAX when they did that crazy shot that showed the statue and the island under water.  Cool.  Second is when Charlie drove Desmond into the water and Desmond flashed to Charlie's "not Penny's boat" hand and I finally knew the Sideways and Island Word were related.
Favorite Season 1 Moment?  I really like the montage in the Season 1 finale where it shows everyone getting on the plane.  I also like the plane crash and Jack waking up in the jungle.  I guess they hooked me at the beginning.  Also "we're gonna need the boy" because I was all like whawhat what?  And of course "Guys, where are we?"  RIP Charlie. 
Least Favorite Season 1 Moment? I do not like the part in the Pilot when that dude gets sucked into the airplane part right after the crash.  It showed it several times in other episodes I think.
Best Death Scene?  I'm going to have to give that to Charlie.  Every time they show it I tear up a little.  Still.  Juliet did a pretty good job too.

Favorite Couple?  I heart Sulliet.  Come on Sawyer you gotta find Juliet in Sideways world and take her out for coffee.  
Skater or Jater?  I went back and forth a lot.  But once they were off the island I realized I was a Jater.  Plus Sawyer and Juliet need to be together. 
Favorite Total Random Subplot? I don't even know what else was happening in the episode but I love when Hurley cons Sawyer into throwing everyone a luau and being nice to people so he doesn't get "voted" out of the camp.
Moment Where I Cussed at the TV? Juliet setting off the H-Bomb at the end of season 5 and the screen turning white and me realizing I would not know what happened for 8 months.
Moment I Most Anticipated and Freaked Out About? The big "who is in the coffin?" reveal at the end of Season 4. 
New Character Who I thought would Suck but Ended up Being Hilarious? Miles
New Character Who Did Suck? Zoe
Character that We Haven't Seen In Forever that I'd Most Like to See Come Back in the Finale? Walt! and yeah Aaron probably.
Favorite Original Character? Jack! no Sawyer.  I can't choose. 
Favorite Later Added On Character? Juliet, no, Desmond, no Ben, no Richard.  Jeez.  Whoever came up with these questions is crazy.*
Favorite JMJE and Husband B Lost Inside Joke? "I did not know Boone very well"  and "Shannon!"

OK I'm sure I'll look back and this later and think about all the awesome things I left out but I don't want it to be too long. 

Do you watch Lost?
Did you ever watch Lost?
Will you in the future watch it all on DVD?
Will you watch the finale just because you want to be in the know and it's taking up like 12 hours of tv on Sunday?
And please if you've ever watched Lost at all pick one (or more, feel free to write a super long comment) of my survey questions and tell me your answer.

PS-I'd like to give a special shout out to squirrel baby who was a wonderful character and way under utilized.
*questions by JMJE, creator of Makingstuffisfun.blogspot.com

The Office Season Finale is Tonight and So Are a Bunch of Other Ones

Yay.  The Office finale is tonight as well as Community, P-Rec and 30 Rock.  I'm pretty excited and was going to do an amazing post in honor of it but I've decided to wait until next week because I'm a little too tired from Vegas still.

Ok here are the best reasons I can come up with for you to watch these shows tonight....

Community-Joel McHale is in it.  Plus there are supposed to be some bromance issues between Troy and Abed tonight.  I think they are the new Joey and Chandler of Thursday night NBC comedies.

Parks and Recreation-Uh Amy Poehler is still in it.  And she's totally pregnant in real life so you can play the, "can you tell Amy is prego in this scene?" game.  Plus I think Rob Lowe will be back and it's nice to see him play funny after his serious role on Brothers and Sisters.  He was awesome doing impromptu pull ups last week.

The Office-I mean if you read this blog you know that it's my favorite show.  Come on.  Also the description features Andy's name and Ed Helms is awesome so this episode will be awesome.  Office finales are awesome.  Awesome I say.  Plus Kathy Bates will be back and she is totally super famous and probably awesome.

30 Rock-Last week's ep ended with "to be continued" so obviously that means you have to watch this week.  Plus Wesley Snipes is funny.  British people talk cool.  And we get so see Liz be in more weddings.  Plus who is Jack going to pick?

Ok and I have also heard that the Grey's Anatomy finale is going to be "epic".  The previews look intense.  I'm behind on that show though by a couple weeks so I will let you know later on if it truly was Epic.

Ok have a great Thursday!  JMJE out.

Airport Woes, Crazy Eyes and Vegas Awesomeness

"You have exactly 8 minutes to make this flight and it does not look good," is what the semi-mean airline lady said to Beezus5 and I as we stood at the ticket counter in Charlotte, NC.   And why were we in Charlotte?  Do we live in Charlotte?  No.  Did we buy tickets to leave from Charlotte?  No.  Did we just drive 1 and a half hours as fast as possible to try to make a flight in Charlotte after our original flight was cancelled?  Yes, yes we did.

If you don't care about my airport problems, then you can just skip the next paragraph.

Rewind about 3 hours.  I left work 2 hours early to go home and gather my belongings, meet up with Beezus5 and have B drop us off at the airport.  So I am at home making my frozen meal for a quick lunch when I hear my phone text message alert go off.  I run over to my phone to see a text message from Orbitz telling me that both my flights to Vegas have been cancelled.  I immediately start yelling and freaking out.  I get on the Internet while simultaneously trying to call the airline.  Automated phone system (which I also yelled at) tells me I have a 19 minute wait for human phone interaction.  What?!?! I don't have 19 minutes.  I need to find a new flight to Vegas stat!  The Internet is no help.  I stay on the phone on hold while simultaneously getting Beezus5 to my house.  B drives us to airport.  This airport is never ever crowded.  We go in and there are like 40 people in line at our airport counter!  I stay on hold with the airline.  The line does not move.  None.  People are super mad.  Apparently Dallas is a hub for our airline so all flights had been cancelled.  Finally a live human talks to me on the phone.  I freak out and try to get my phone off speaker phone.  I am not successful.  So I'm guessing everyone can hear as she tells me there are no flights out of my airport.  She asks me if I can drive to Tennessee or Virginia.  Um no.  She asks me if I can make it to Raleigh in 20 minutes.  Um no.  She asks me if I can make it Charlotte in 2.5 hours.  YES!  I can totally, probably, maybe do that.  So B takes us home and we grab my car and head to Charlotte (all while still on the phone getting all our tickets changed to arrive and depart from Charlotte).  Long ride.  We park and get inside and make it up to the ticket counter.  They have our reservation but not our ticket number.  What does that even mean?????  They find Beezus5's ticket number but not mine.  They tell me to run to the other airline down at the other end of the airport to try to get my ticket number.  I do this.  I'm sweaty.  I make it back.  She says we have 15 minutes.  My name on the ticket does not match my name in the system.  WHAT?!?!  One has my middle initial and one was my middle name spelled out.  WHAT!?!?!?  So the airline lady calls the help desk to try to find out how to make it match.  She is put on hold.  WHAT!?!??  She then tells us we have 8 minutes.  I'm just standing there helpless.  An imaginary clock is ticking away the seconds in my head.  Beezus5 later said that I had crazy eyes and that she was afraid to look at me.  Finally after what seems like hours (actually probably about 2 minutes) the lady gets off of hold and gets the correct info to change my ticket.  She prints out the Boarding Passes and proceeds to stare at them for like 5 minutes and tell us that our seats are not together.  At this point in my head I'm shouting "woman, you said 8 minutes ago that we had 8 minutes, give me my freaking ticket and let me go through security".   She must have heard my inner thoughts because she handed me my ticket.  We make it through security and to our gate.  Guess what?  Flight is delayed.   Well, only by like 15 minutes but still I think flight desk lady was lying to us about our timing.  We finally boarded the plane and made it to Vegas about 5 hours later.  I spent $3 on some Pringles on the plane because I realized I was missing dinner.  Good times.

But now, seriously on to the GOOD TIMES.  Because we had a lot of them.

• Everyone actually making it to Vegas on Friday night even though all of us had at least one leg of our flights cancelled
• Mo's Car decorating skills
• Miss Acorn's excitement over seeing the Kardashians in the airport in Chicago (Curly J and Miss Acorn were on a separate flight)
• Mo's House which is very awesome and has a pool and a wonderful mountain view and beautiful green guest room plus tons of photos of us from back in the day
• Mo's failed red velvet bundt cake which ended up actually just being a bunch of red velvet crumbles.  It was still tasty though.
• Everyone actually wearing their ACorn t-shirts I made at some point during the trip
• The breakfast spread which featured a cheese tray.  Cheese trays are awesome.  Havarti is good.
• The Bellagio-uh yeah we totally spent the night at the Bellagio.  You know, the one from Ocean's 11.  What up George Clooney?
• The view from the Bellagio (if you will notice we could see Paris from our room as well as the water fountain show)

• The Bellagio Water Fountains
• Our own personalized drinking cups, made by Mo Young.  (even though the puffy paint she used peeled off and she had to super glue it back on, they still looked amazing)
• Every other thing she made and decorated, which was a lot. 
• The cupcakes
• The hand-made and decorated cookies
• My roulette skillz-I was the only one who won money!  My lucky numbers totally worked this time.
• Dinner!
• The Bellagio Pool where I spent $12 on a drink.  However, it was a really good drink.
• Shucks restaurant in Vegas just because we liked the name.
• Beezus5's whistle
• Side Note-Apparently Red Bull does give some people wings
• Room Service at 3 am
• In and Out Burger
• Mo (not drunk at all) falling into the pool at her house which sadly I missed
• Our Sunday afternoon naps...ahh sweet relaxation.

Alright now Mo's Husband gets his own list for the nice things he did for us.....Thanks J!

• Let four semi-annoying girls take over his house (probably the biggest sacrifice)
• Let us borrow and decorate his car b/c it was bigger than Mo's
• Loaded the car with all of Mo's crafts, games and accessories
• Got us comped food and hotel rooms at the Bellagio.  For dinner we had 4 appetizers, 4 entrees, 4 desserts, and 8 drinks for free.  We all shared and it was awesome. 
• Turned on the hot tub for us

So overall we had a pretty awesome trip.  I think Miss Acorn enjoyed it greatly and is now super ready to get married in a month.  Our flight home was much easier.

Have you ever had any serious airport problems?

Have you ever been to Vegas?

Do you enjoy Red Bull?  I personally do not.

Do Mo Young and Husband sound like the Best Hosts ever?

Vegas Craftery and Bake-ery (by Mo Young)

Ok, I'm a little too tired from my trip for a full write up but here are some photos of the things we made for the bachelorette party.

We picked up the Bride-to-Be (Miss Acorn) at the airport in this nicely decorated car. (Thanks to Mo's Husband for letting us decorate/borrow his car.)

Mo picked up items for the Breakfast Spread featuring Miss ACorn's favorites; Entenmann's Raspberry Danishes, a cheese tray and Dr. Pepper.

Matching T-Shirts!

Mo Young also picked up these awesome cupcakes (after a red velvet cake making mishap) and then she made the cupcake topper!

Mo also made us each a personalized cup. Plus that's our hotel room view which was awesome.

We didn't wear matching T-shirts the whole time.

We had an awesome time and I'll share some more later on in the week.

Vegas Baby!-Corn T-shirts

If you are reading this on Monday, then I'm currently trekking cross country (ok via planes but still) back to NC from Las Vegas.  I probably had a wonderful trip.  I'm also probably tired as my flight this morning was at 6 am.

For this trip I decided to put myself in charge of making brightly colored matching t-shirts for myself and the 4 other ladies on this trip.  I used those brightly colored sorority t-shirts I used to see girls wearing to class all the time in college (or that I see L-Fab wearing sometimes now) as my inspiration.  Again the corn thing would make sense if you knew the bachelorette and fiance's real names.  I made Beezus5 wear this on the plane with me (ok well I'm planning on it, we'll see if she does it).

Essentially I made these t-shirts using transfer paper like I did the bridal shower apron.  I did not want to use transfer paper.  I wanted to use a stencil that I so lovingly made and fabric spray paint.  However, that did not really turn out so well.  So I went with my backup plan.

Craft Fail T-shirt #1...Paint splattered and bled through a little.  I'll figure it out at some point.

Craft Success T-shirts #2-7 (I messed up one of these too when I accidentally melted part of the transfer off)

Like my t-shirts?
Been to Vegas?
Does anyone want to buy me one of those $300 screen printer machines and ink so I can make really cool t-shirts?

Fun Fact Friday-Vegas Movies, My Dad, TV ramblings

I am going to Las Vegas this weekend for my friend's Bachelorette party!!!!  Mo Young will be hosting us for the long weekend since she lives there.  I can't give away any details yet but the trip will probably be somewhere between awesome and super awesome.

I'm not saying our trip will be anything like The Hangover but I heart Ed Helms and his song.  Plus I think that as far as Vegas Movies go, my favorite is a tie between The Hangover and Saved By The Bell:Wedding in Las Vegas.



Because I'm going to Vegas this weekend, I will be missing my Dad's birthday on Saturday.  Ooops.  Sorry Dad.  I will make it up to you  next week.  But have a great Birthday!

Ok so it's May which means MAY SWEEPS on TV, which I LOVE.  So if you watched 24, How I Met Your Mother, Lost, Community, or The Office this week I would love your thoughts on the following...And I'm totally sure everyone watched P-Rec this week per my instructions. Right?  PS these are not really spoilery things........
-If Ted from How I Met Your Mother worked at Dunder Mifflin, he would definitely be in the Finer Things Club with Pam, Oscar and Toby.  Am I right?
-Jack Bauer's method of getting back a missing cell phone SIM card from someone was GROSS. 

-As far as Lost goes, I was not super impressed by finding out who Adam and Eve are.  I mean it was kind of cool but I was just expecting a little more excitement.
-And yeah is anyone else still pretty much mostly confused about Lost?
-I really enjoyed The Boy is Mine song on Glee.  I totally forgot about that song.  Kurt's last song was really good too.
-Community totally made fun of Good Will Hunting.  Awesome.
-I love when Pam tries to take care of Michael.
-And my favorite P-Rec line of the night...."What’s a not-gay way to ask him to go camping with me?"

*****Update-A lovely article about last nights P-Rec.  Very informative.


Ok so yeah...
Have you seen the Hangover?
What is your favorite Las Vegas Movie?  Showgirls?  Fear and Loathing?  That one with the flying Elvis's and Sarah Jessica Parker?
Did 24 over do it with the gore this week?
Did you watch Parks and Recs per my instructions? 
Do I watch too many tv shows?
What should I get my Dad for his Bday?

Parks and Recreation Thursday-Why I Think You Should Watch P-Rec, Plus a Glass Of Strawberry Lemonade For You

I am pretty sure that only like 3 people I know watch Parks and Recreation.  I think this is a travesty because it is an awesome show.  

Here is why..........

1-Duh, It stars Amy Poehler.  I'm going to go ahead a do a sub-list of why Amy Poehler is awesome.

• She rapped on SNL when she was like 8 months pregnant
• She was in Mean Girls
• She is married to Will Arnett
• She does a great Hillary Clinton impression
• She is friends with Tina Fey

2-It is Funny and has gotten funnier as the series has progressed.  Yes even I was a little weary during the first season.
3-It was invented by the creator of The Office and by Mose.
4-It has Aziz Ansari in it and he is also funny.
5-It has Rashida Jones playing a character who is not out to destroy Jim and Pam
6-This dude is also very funny.  And as I side note, if anyone enjoys Gilmore Girls, he was in one of my top ten favorite Gilmore Girls scenes ever as a guest star.
7-I really like the theme song and also this rendition of the theme song.  Totally gets in your head though.

So I think you should totally give this show a try.  Maybe watch it tonight and then catch up on the first 2 seasons over the summer. 

And because Parks and Recreation leads me to think of parks which leads me to think of picnics which lead me to think of lemonade, I have made you this lovely glass of Strawberry Lemonade.  Also I just happened to have had a bunch of Strawberries in the fridge.  So enjoy this lemonade while you watch P-Rec tonight (also, The Office, Community and 30 Rock, DVR'd Grey's Anatomy if there's time.)

Strawberry Lemonade Recipe
Water
Sugar
Lemons
Strawberries

-Mix 1/2 cup sugar with 1/2 cup hot water until sugar has dissolved.  Refrigerate this.
-Squeeze 5-9 lemons until you have 2/3 of a cup of lemon juice.  Get rid of seeds and refrigerate this.
-Puree 5-9 large strawberries (leaves removed) with 1/8 cup of sugar and a little splash of water in a blender until you have about 1 cup of strawberry mixture.
-Mix the top three mixtures together.  Then add 4 cups of water.  Mix some more.  Enjoy.

L-Fab enjoyed this as she so lovingly wrote on my facebook page..."I know I didn't say it then, buttttttttttt the strawberry lemonade was really really good and I was actually looking up recipes for strawberry lemonade like 2 days ago. LoVe yA gUrLfrIeNd cya 2morrow"

And if you would like to "adult" this up, you can add a little vodka.

Soooooooooo,  Do you like Amy Poehler?  Have you ever watched Parks and Recreation?  Did you actually click on any of the 20 million informative links I put in this post?  Do you like Strawberry Lemonade?

Easy Delicious Amazing Cookie Pizza

For the Great Mother's Day Cook-out/in of this past Sunday, I was put in charge of desserts.  I was thinking of making something amazingly fancy but I opted out of that and decided to go with an old standby.  Last week I was reminded of my love for Cookie Pizza's by this post over at It All Started With Mac and Cheese.  I usually make one of these around the 4th of July and it is always a hit with my family.  My version is a little different so here's my recipe below.

Cookie Pizza

1 roll/pack of slice and bake/refrigerated sugar cookie dough

1 container (pint?) of fresh strawberries

1 container (smaller than the strawberries, half pint?) of fresh blueberries (or any other fruit you want to use)

1 8 oz container of cream cheese

1 small container of cool whip

2/3 cup of powdered sugar

a spoonful of regular sugar

1/2 lemon

1-Roll out the dough onto a pizza pan or whatever kind of pan you have.  I put foil down on mine so it wouldn't stick to the pan.

2-Cook the cookie until it starts turning brown.  I think I cooked mine  for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

3-Let the cookie cool.

4-Mix powdered sugar and cream cheese with a mixer.  Then mix in the cool whip.

5-Spread the cream cheese mix onto the cooled cookie.

6-Wash and cut the berries into bite sized pieces.  Mix the lemon juice and sugar together and toss with the fruit.  (this just keeps the fruit from browning)

7-Arrange your fruit in a beautiful pattern on top of the cookie.

8-Slice into wedges and enjoy!

Can you tell what my cookie says?

Did you make your mom anything for Mother's Day?

Mother's Day Cookout

My mom and her three lovely children......

This blog would probably not exist without my mom. She taught me to really enjoy making things. She was my girl scout leader for 12 years and during that time we made tons of crafts from dream catchers to lanyards. She volunteered at my school constantly and one year led dozens of students in making paper-mache puffins (for an author who was coming to visit our school and wrote a book about puffins-see it totally makes sense). When my brother and I were little she frequently made sugar cookies with us in the kitchen (see mom I do have a vague memory of that). I had one birthday party where we all made custom designed sweatshirts with bows and stencils. I also had an awesome perm at that time and will look for the photo. She is also a pretty solid cook and has given me many go-to recipes that I use frequently (chocolate chip pound cake, chicken/broccoli casserole, Parmesan chicken).  I don't think she ever once made us hamburger helper.  She even made eleventy billion sea glass candle holders for centerpieces at my wedding last year. Literally, eleventy billion. So, thanks mom for giving me a love of making stuff...even though it doesn't always turn out perfect.

In honor of Mother's Day, my Dad, L-Fab, B (her favorite son-in-law), and I decided to have a cookout for my Mom. I'm sure Kehn would have loved to participate if he wasn't currently living in Mexico.  My dad made steaks with sauteed mushrooms. mixed peppers and onions, and bread.  L-Fab and I made a lovely salad and a pasta with pesto and sun-dried tomatoes.  I also made dessert but we will get to that later on in the week.  Unfortunately my mom got a really bad cold yesterday and, being the good mom that she is, did not want to infect us all.  So we actually just made her a plate of all this and she ate it in a separate room.  It was a little sad but I'm sure she will be feeling better soon.

So Happy Mother's Day to my Mom and all the other Mother's out there!

And PS-Thanks to Hobie and B for my present for my first year as a Dog mom!