Holiday Recap Part Deux-There's Been Another Murder and My 'Boyfriend' Turns 32!

Some of my friends and I planned a low-key dinner party for New Year's Eve (since a few of our friends were out of town and another one of them was 8 months pregnant aka probably not into club/bar hopping).  Then we decided that might be a little boring so we turned it in to another Murder Mystery Party.  You might remember the first one from here.  As long as you can get a group of people together who are willing to participate and dress up it can be a fun/entertaining night.  I purchased our Murder Mystery kit online at Night of Mystery.

So More Holiday Awards.....

Best Hostess-Mrs. Acorn-She entertained.  We will just leave it at that.

Best Sport-Our sweet pregnant friend Beezus5 who was dressed quite fashionable as a teen starlet even though she is 8 months pregnant.  Although she had to wear flip flops due to ankle swellage, she did somehow manage to have the best looking hair of any of the girls.  (No offense to anyone else's wonderful hair.  I myself was rocking a bumpit).

The bumpit is always appropriate.

Best Dance Partner-Curly T refused to let B dance alone in the corner the whole night.

Best Dressed-Everyone, especially the boys.  I wasn't quit sure all the boys would be in to dressing up since most of the male roles were former boy band members or rappers.  But everyone really brought it especially with their faux jewels and berets.  We forgot to take a big group picture so these will have to do.

Most Likely to be Super Late but Actually Showed up Semi-On Time-Shanzles!  Yay, way to go!

Best Champagne Bar-B, for actually looking up champagne cocktails, printing out the recipes and buying all the ingredients.

Best Dessert-ME!  For purchasing this lovely Raspberry Lemon Cake for my New Year's Day birthday boy.  We ate it right after midnight on his actual birthday.

And and just FYI, I won the best acting award for my amazing range of fake accents.  Yeah, go me.

My husband's birthday is on New Year's Day so I think I should also win the Best Birthday Celebrator Award by making sure he drank some water on New Year's Eve before bed so that he'd feel well enough to golf on his birthday.  Success.  I also took him out for a nice January 2nd birthday dinner since many places are closed on New Year's Day.

What did you do for New Year's Eve?

Scavenged...

In case you haven't heard, this weekend I participated in a Scavenger Hunt Birthday Party Extravaganza for my friend Shanzie who just turned 30.  The scavenger hunt consisted of 5 teams of 3 to 4 people.   These people then ran around local stores and restaurants taking pictures of things (like a Maryland license plate, a person with a cool beard, the giant horse in front of PF Changs) and collecting items (menus, brochures, pennies, etc).  There were also several extremely hard riddles to solve (ok, apparently they were only hard for me).  My husband, B was in charge of planning and scoring the scavenger hunt.  Below is my hard hitting interview with him...

Tallying up the scores...

Please give a brief description of the scavenger hunt?
B-This was your typical scavenger hunt. You had a list of items that either needed to be found or photographed.  I kept it limited to The Friendly Center (local outdoor shopping center) and downtown to try to limit the travel time.  There were a total of 68 items, including 10 riddles to solve. And the riddles were hard.  There was one that was so hard that no team got it.  Granted, I had a typo that made it impossible to figure out, but still.

How much time did this take to plan?
B-Hard to say. When you are doing something you love, you just lose track of time.  But in all seriousness, all of my hourly charges are detailed in the itemized bill that I sent to Shanzie.

What was the funnest part about organizing this?
B-I enjoyed coming up with what people had to scavenge, particularly the riddles.  I enjoyed the looks of frustration on both my wife and Shanzie's faces when I told them I couldn’t give them any details of the scavenger hunt because that would have been inappropriate.  That was all a lie though, I could have told them, but I really enjoyed that feeling of power.  Also the friendships.

Do you think you did a good job?
B-I included a Comment Card for Shanzie to fill out rating her experience.  I will wait to see what comes back, but I would say it was an A to A+.  Some comments that were overheard Saturday night during the post-hunt party...
“This was the best birthday party ever, including the time when my parents got me a bouncy castle”- Shanzie
“I am in a moment of euphoria, scavenger hunt high is so much better then a runners high”- Beezus5
“After watching you host and lead a scavenger hunt, my love for you has increased twofold. I am the luckiest woman alive”- JM
“I am an expert on Ashton Kutcher”- Curly T
***all of these where made up, except for Curly T.  She is an Ashton Kutcher expert.

Did you have a sense of fulfillment once it was over?
B-You know, I did.  It might have been because while everyone else was out scavenging, I was drinking at the bar (special shout-out to Old Town Draught House).  But I would say it was about 70% sense of fulfillment, 30% beer.

What if anything would you change about the hunt?
B-It was pretty much perfect.  But I would look to limit the driving. Both Beezus5 and Mrs. Acorn may or may not have run over a pedestrian.  (Note-No participants or innocent bystanders were injured in this scavenger hunt)

Do you think Hobie was mad that you were doing all the planning in front of him and then didn't even invite him to participate?
B-Hobie and I are cool.  He understood that with his heightened sense of smell, he would be at an obvious advantage in regards to scavenging.  He said as long as I didn’t include his bone in the hunt, he was ok with not being invited.

Which team did you want to win?
B-I had a soft spot for Team Mo-Tif-vated.  I mean, they only had three people, two of which were from out of town.  I think they did well for all they had working against them. Plus, they were the only ones to put together a team outfit.  Oh, and JM’s team.  We made a pact 2 years ago to always support each other through better and worse. I know you are thinking it was our wedding vows.  Nope, it was an OIB Olympic Games Unbreakable Vow overseen by Beezus5.

Why didn't you give your wife more of an advantage over the other teams?
B-One, I put JM on the team with the only participant who could fit into Harry the Happy Dragon. (PHOTO needed.) Two, JM and I have been to 99% of the places on the list together. Three, she lost because of a key tactical error. I gave everyone 10 minutes to strategize before the hunt began, but Team Mo-Tif-Vated was the only one to take advantage.  Yes, they finished last, but still, she should have focused on the higher point riddles.  That’s Scavenger Hunt 101.

Team Member with Harry the Happy Dragon-5 Points

Would you consider the Scavenger Hunt Extravaganza a success?

B-The goal of every scavenger hunt that I have ever put together (well, this was my first one) was to get people to spend two hours taking pictures of themselves looking silly while I hang out at a bar watching college basketball.  So yes, in that regards, Scavenger Hunt Extravaganza was a rousing success.

Thanks B!  Even though my team only got 3rd place, (I mean we did only have 3 members whereas most other teams had 4 players) I had an excellent time.  Yes I think I pulled a muscle when I was trying to photo myself in front of the PF Chang horse and yes I was profusely sweating after running from the Harris Teeter to REI to PF Changs, but still, I had fun.  I would like to give a special shout out to Mrs. Acorn's husband who was willing to sprint in any direction we told him although he usually had no idea where he was going (since he just moved to this city) and of course to Mrs. Acorn for jumping into the Harry the Happy Dragon ride without thinking twice.

Team Photo-5 points

Valentine's Week-Making Stuff is Fun!?!?! (and maybe romantic)

Apparently my husband thinks I like making stuff.

After making me shower, get dressed, put shoes on, put a coat on, put in earrings, etc., I learned that my Valentine's Date was actually in the living room.  My husband had set up a craft and baking date for me.  We started out by tie-dying t-shirts.  I can't wait for him to wear his purple, red and fuchsia tie dyed shirt out for a night on the town.  I always wanted to tie-dye a shirt when I was a kid but I guess I just never got around to it, so this was pretty exciting.

I know I look 'special' in this picture.

Tie-dyeing is serious stuff that requires gloves.

The worst part was that we had to wait 8 hours before we could unroll the shirts.

Then we moved on to the baking portion of the evening.  My husband had printed out a recipe for cranberry-orange scones and purchased all the necessary ingredients.

It's ok to wear a cupcake apron as long as you have a beer in your hand.

Another great action photo of me and no, I'm not pouring my glass of wine into the batter

He did all the hard stuff.

Hobie was little to no help.

Fin.  These scones were delightful by the way.

In conclusion....
My husband is a fun craft/baking partner. 
Crafting is more fun when you drink wine. 
Baking is harder when you bake after crafting with wine. 
Baking is easier when someone else measures out all the ingredients for you and just tells you what to do.

Good Date, B!  Let's do this again next year.

Craft Room Renovations Part 2 aka Why I Baked B 2.5 Birthday Cakes...

I might have jumped the gun a bit the other day on my craft room renovations post by starting with the curtains.  I actually started with the floor.  Or should I say, Hobie and B started with the floor.

Our house has wood floors under the carpeted area.  When we moved in, we (well some people who knew what they were doing) took out the carpet and refinished the floors in our bedroom.  This time I decided we could totally do it on our own.  And by we, I meant Hobie and B.  I supervised.

I did remove all the stuff from the room (well except the bed, I'm weak).  So we had this......

Then B and Hobie got to work on pulling up the carpet.  At one point I was going to help B carry all the old carpet downstairs to throw away.  When he realized just how little arm strength I have, he decided that dropping the old carpet out the window would be easier.

So then we had a carpet less room with some beat up old hard woods underneath.  B did a bunch of stuff that involved pulling out staples, sanding, using this big machine and painting it with something.  I went and bought him lunch.  Hobie did very little to help at this point.

So that was over Thanksgiving.  The floor was looking pretty good.  One day when we are super rich we may get the whole thing redone to match the newer hardwoods in the hall and den but for now these DIY refinished hardwoods are pretty good.

By Christmas break I had moved all the furniture back in and then found my curtain fabric and decided that I hated the light green walls.  So I headed to my favorite place (psike) Lowe's and bought some paint samples.  I brought them back and painted them on the wall and hated them all.  So I went back to Lowe's and bought some more.  I finally found one I liked (it's the far right one by the way).

Then we bought the rest of the paint supplies and painted.  If I had known that I was going to paint the walls I would not have moved all the furniture back in.  Oh well.  I actually helped with the painting.  Hobie just watched (can you say lazzzzy?).  Painting the trim was not my favorite thing ever.  But I did it and there's only a few highly noticeable things for me to touch up.

So that was our Christmas break.  At one point I was all "yeah, B I'm going to paint this room by myself over Christmas break."  Then a day later I realized I didn't actually even know what supplies I needed to paint a room by myself.  So B helped me (a lot) and that's the story of why I baked him 2.5 cakes for his birthday. 

Have you ever painted a room on your own or pulled up carpet to find some decent hardwoods?

Who wants to come help me paint the basement?

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Re-purpose...The Christmas Tree Gets a New Purpose

In this time of going green, I thought I should do my part and come up with a new purpose for my Christmas tree (you know because Christmas is over).  So for this last week-ish of it's time at my house I have transformed this Christmas themed tree with Christmas gifts (well at one point it had Christmas gifts under it)...

...in to this Birthday themed tree with birthday presents under it...

My husband, B was born on New Year's Day and I like to make sure to differentiate between the holidays (no Christmas themed wrapping paper for the B-day presents) so he still feels special on his bday. So here is the birthday tree in prep for B31 (aka, B's 31st year on the planet also known by other people as 2011).

Were any of you born on/near a holiday?
Have you taken down your tree yet?
Do you know how hard it is to wrap a giant present?