A New Focus

A lot can change in 3 years.

Busy Little Bees

Wow, these last two months have been ridiculously busy. I had a huge trial to prep for, and then participate in, and the Hubby has been managing the move of most of his co-workers and bosses into a new building. He’s gotten to have a great deal of input on the design and decorating of the office and it looks really, really nice. We’ve both been stressed out lately though.

We also celebrated Mardi Gras back in February. At my office, we take turns bringing King Cakes during the Mardi Gras season, depending on who got the baby in the last one. Unfortunately, someone decided they wanted some cake, but didn’t want to admit they had the baby, so they stuck it back in another piece…. I offered to bring one because I happen to live near a place with THE BEST King Cakes in New Orleans…. Caluda’s!! I mean, seriously, look at this King Cake.

Half of it was devoured before I could take a picture, but the knife is there for size reference.

I also made some attempts at cooking over the past two months. I didn’t burn down the kitchen, and the food was still actually pretty good, so I count that as a win. I did a filet one night with minced garlic on top (which I only slightly overcooked… it came out more medium well than medium rare). We also discovered our smoke detectors don’t work during this process. Ahem. I also attempted a tuna steak, which also came out a little overcooked, but overall well. I made up my own little dipping sauce to go with it, since I didn’t have the majority of the items on the recipe I was working off of. It also contained garlic, so it worked.

It was only a little overcooked, but the garlic added tons of flavor!

While I prefer my tuna sashimi-style, this came out pretty good as well!

The weather is finally starting to get nice here. I could never live up north, where it’s still snowing. Let me have this nice  70 degree weather all year round, and I’d be the happiest camper who ever camped! Even the pup loved it!

And, In honor of National Puppy Day yesterday, I’ll leave you with this little bit of adorableness:

One Week Down, Fifty-One to Go!

Made it through the first full week of 2015! Whoo! I seriously questioned whether 2015 should be a year of staying in bed, many times last week.

I did manage to use my elliptical once, and cook a new meal for myself once. Go me! The recipe really wasn’t that difficult, just some Ranchy Chicken and Potatoes, but it came out ok. The potatoes were a little undercooked, and I probably used too much ranch, but the chicken itself was delicious! And I didn’t give myself food poisoning!

Speaking of food poisoning, the hubby and I started watching the newest season Worst Cooks in America. It makes me feel much better about my (lack of) cooking skills. I have neither set the kitchen or fire, or made anyone go to the hospital (knock on wood). There is one girl on this season that the hubby said reminds him of me – she drinks half a bottle of wine, then pretends to be Julia Child. No comment.

I’m going to edit one of my resolutions from my last post (I’ve decided I can do that). Rather than just cook something new every week, I’m going to add an alternative of trying a new restaurant. One of my FILs is planning on taking me and the hubby out to a new place for our Christmas present later this week. I am very excited! What’s the point of living in the New Orleans area if you aren’t going to take advantage of all the great food and restaurants?? The plan is to go to Ristorante Filippo. It’s one of the places we’ve heard about, so hopefully it will be good!

We’ve also gotten one short trip in since the beginning of the year. Nothing very exciting – just a long weekend to Shreveport, LA, for the hubby’s job and to relax a little over the New Year’s holiday. For those of you who don’t know, there isn’t really much to do except casino’s. They supposedly have a nice boardwalk area, but it was raining and cold the ENTIRE time, so we just bought some wine and watched football/movies in the hotel room. It was much needed and actually pretty enjoyable!

Finally, we managed to get all of the Christmas decorations put up this weekend, which was both satisfying and depressing. I love having my house all decorated for Christmas, but I hate actually putting everything up or taking everything down. My calves are killing me from bringing everything up the stairs and then helping load it into the attic. Luckily, the hubby managed the heavier stuff, but still. BUT, since it has to go eventually, I’m glad everything looks back to normal.

Maybe our schedule can get back to normal as well.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Does it still feel like 2014 to anyone else? Maybe because it went by so quickly. For as fast as it went by, We did a good bit in 2014.

We traveled. We went to Los Angeles and San Diego for my birthday/Mardi Gras, where we got to be in the audience for a day of the NA LCS tournament (League of Legends for all you non-nerds out there), visit the Warner Brothers Studio Lot (unfortunately no live studio audience there), and go to the SAN DIEGO ZOO (bucket list item checked off). We also went to Europe for the Hubby’s birthday ( London , Rome , and Paris ). We checked off an EPL football match while in London.

We fished in Grand Isle. I went to the Schlitterbahn Water Park. I held a penguin for my birthday (another bucket list item!). We celebrated weddings and engagements. We worked (and worked and worked and worked). The hubby re-did my closet. We got a new car. I’m sure I’m forgetting so many things, but I think you get the idea. It was a great year, but now it’s over.

Now it’s time to look forward to 2015. I’m not very good at keeping up with my resolutions, but this year, I’ve talked to the hubby about some of them, and he is on board with helping me.

Resolution No. 1 – The hubby and I will try to cook something new/different once a week/every other week (I’m not sure if once a week is realistic yet, but we’ll try). We received all kinds of cool stuff that we have yet to use. Did I mention I got casserole dishes for Christmas from my mom and nanny, which I’m way too excited about? I also got a few cookbooks for the crock pot from my sister. After watching Worst Cooks in America, I kind of want to take some cooking classes as well. So I need to get on that.

Resolution No. 2 – I will keep up with the laundry. I’m failing in this wifely duty. I told the hubby to keep on me about it – not just complain when it hasn’t been done in… a week, we’ll say.

Resolution No. 3 – Use my camera more. I bought a beginner book to kind of help me, but my best chance of getting better is to go out and actually use it. I’m sure the hubby and Lou won’t mind me using them as test subjects, right?

Resolution No. 4 – Keep up with this blog more. I enjoy it when I actually keep up, so I’m going to try to do better.

Resolution No. 5 – A constant one that I never keep up with: actually use my elliptical. I feel so much better about myself when I actually exercise. Plus, it’s guilty-pleasure Netflix time without feeling quite as guilty.

Resolution No. 6 – This isn’t actually a resolution, but more of a promise to myself. I will get on the hubby about making some repairs to the backyard and house. There are things we’ve been putting off that really, really need to be done. So, yes. And, finally,

Resolution No. 7 – pay off a bigger chunk of my student loan. I don’t have much, so we’ve been focusing on the hubby’s massive loans first. However, I would feel better if I didn’t still have mine hanging over our heads.

I  wonder how many of the above I will actually keep? Here’s to a great 2015, everyone!

Our Grand European Adventure Part 3 – a.k.a. Dog in a Bathtub

I know you’ve all been waiting impatiently for the last installment of the Hubby and my grand European adventure, so here it is! Paris!

It’s been a while, and I’m trying to actually get this posted, so this will mostly be a few of our favorite memories and pictures from Paris.

                  View from our apartment

Our apartment had a window in the roof where you could see the city. Every night, the Eiffel Tower would light up and sparkle. It was really pretty.

Pysche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss – one of my favorites.

Venus de Milo

I can’t remember the name of this one, but David and I loved it.

We saw many other pieces of art besides the sculptures, but they are always my favorites. We went to the Louvre (obviously), but also the Musée d’Orsay. I’ve always liked Degas, and found a few others I like as well (unfortunately, I can’t remember their names at the moment…).

They have living lawnmowers in Paris.

Yes, we did add a lock to the bridge. No, I am not sorry. Yes, our names may have smudged off in the process of locking it.

The best way to take a break from sight-seeing? Feeding birds in the park, of course!

If you can’t tell, it’s the Eiffel Tower… so perty.

We waited in line FOR-EV-ER to go up the Eiffel Tower, but the view was fantastic.

Unfortunately (or rather, fortunately), I did not get any pictures of our ’90s dance party in the apartment that night, complete with GRAPPA(!!), wine and twerking. There may have been some cat-calls through the window to guys standing on the corner below us.

Spaz-tastic Wifey

Today, I became resigned to the fact that I will never be able to deal with food without making a mess. It’s just a fact of life that I (and everyone around me) will just have to accept. Today was just one, small example.

I had a nice little container of Camellia Brand White Beans and Rice to heat up for lunch (yum!). I had waited patiently for lunch time to roll around, and raced to the kitchen as soon as my phone showed 12:00. (My computer still read 11:57, but I didn’t care.)

Surprisingly, there was no line at the microwave. I had the whole kitchen to myself. Which was a good thing, in hindsight.

The directions on the container said to peel off the metal lid. Ok, sounds easy enough. It’s always that last part of the lid snapping off that causes problems.

Somehow I managed to get beans everywhere. On me, on the table, on the wall. Yeah. Good thing I was alone.

I had just finished cleaning up the last of it when a co-worker walked in. I thought I had gotten away with my mess, until I walked back to my desk (with what was left of the now deliciously hot white beans that hadn’t been spilled), and saw this:

I have to walk around with this all day…

It’s ok though. I’m going out for wings tonight.

New Orleans Fall…

The weather has been absolutely beautiful the last two weekends here in South Louisiana. Sunny, cool in the mornings and warm (actually, pretty hot) in the afternoons. We don’t really get much of a fall here, so I was determined to take advantage of how nice it was!

Usually the hubby and I are so exhausted by Friday that we don’t really leave the house on Saturday and Sunday if we can help it. There are some weekends we don’t even change out of our pajamas, until it’s time to put on new pajamas. Sweatpants and t-shirts are the uniform (except, of course, when the Saints or Fighting Tigers are playing – then it’s sweatpants and a jersey!).

My original plan for two weekends ago involved convincing someone to go to the zoo with me. I thought it would be pretty easy because, really, who doesn’t love the zoo? My mom had another idea – how about a graveyard tour? It was something mom, sister and I had been wanting to do, and had just never thought about it in time. Although it wasn’t the zoo, I decided it would have to do.

Now, for those of you who have never been in a New Orleans graveyard, the first thing to understand is that everything around here seems to be haunted, so you can get some good stories. Also, because we are below sea level, all of the tombs are built up instead of buried underground (apparently early settlers tried the whole burial underground here, but bodies started popping up out of the ground or something).

I was surprised at how bad the condition of some of the tombs were, especially since some were kept up so well. It went with the “haunted” theme I guess.

Tomb of Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau…

Also, Nicholas Cage built a huge pyramid tomb right in the center of the graveyard. And women kiss it to leave lipstick marks. Yeah.

Anyone want to kiss it? No? Thought so.

This past weekend, the hubby and I decided to joint S-FIL and FIL on a fishing trip. Our beloved Saints weren’t playing until Sunday night, so we figured we’d spend the beautiful morning before fishing. Unfortunately, the hubby started feeling bad so he didn’t enjoy the trip as much as hoped. We still caught a fair amount of trout and some drum. I also won for “weirdest” catch with a small jellyfish and a stingray.

Unfortunately, I didn’t trust myself to not drop my camera in the water, so I didn’t really get any pictures of the fish or the sunrise or the beautiful bayou scenery that makes up South Louisiana. You’ll just have to take my word for it that it’s gorgeous out there.

 

What do you like to do when the weather is nice?

 

Our Grand European Adventure Part 1 – a.k.a. It’s Me!!

So yes, it’s been a little over a month, and I’m finally getting around to posting about our trip. The hubby and I have been super busy, so don’t judge…. I was in the process of typing this up and apparently had a lot to say, so this post will just cover our first stop: London, England.

We started out our trip with a looooooong overnight flight from New Orleans to London (by way of Newark). It was the hubby’s first flight that long, so we came well prepared with movies: all of the Harry Potter movies, in fact. The flight really wasn’t that bad, except that the hubby didn’t eat most of the meals they were serving. Poor Hubby was absolutely starving by the time we landed.

(Side Note No. 1) We also made a huge mistake that I highly recommend anyone traveling overseas from the US take note of: just because you get to fly with a free bag doesn’t mean you should pack the biggest ones you have. Apparently you still have to lug the stupid thing all over the city. We had two large bags and two carry-on size bags, as well as my “travel purse.” Since I’m a little on the petite side, poor hubby had to carry the two large bags up and down flights of stairs while we navigated the Tube (The London underground trains) to get to the apartment where we were staying.

(Side Note No. 2) Let me also take a second also to mention, AirBnB is awesome! It’s the first time we used it, and we were thrilled with all of the places we stayed in. Also, the money we saved not staying in overpriced hotels made us happy. I highly recommend it for travelers, if you don’t mind not having complimentary breakfast, that is.

Anyway, when we finally made it to our apartment, we were exhausted and hungry. Luckily, the owner of the apartment let us drop off our bags and change, even though they had not finished cleaning. With that done, we were free to wander around the area while we waited on our friends to meet up with us from France. We stopped in a little pub for a beer and some “mini” fish and chips… I’m not a super huge fan of Cod, but it was delicious!

Ohm nom nom

Due to our extreme exhaustion, the only plan we had for the rest of the day was to attend an English Premier League game (bucket list item checked off for me and the hubby!) We watched West Ham United and Southampton play (the visiting team, the Southampton Saints, won). It was difficult not to cheer for the Saints, but we were worried we would be kicked out or jumped, so go West Ham! They had a song about blowing bubbles, which I bought a shirt to commemorate… because it was awesome.

It made me happy!

We took a detour on our way home to eat dinner at Kings Cross Station. And obviously to take a picture of Platform 9 3/4. Cue our Harry Potter flight movie marathon excitement:

OMG HARRY POTTER

Apparently wine isn’t as big in London, because the place where we were staying didn’t have wine glasses. We didn’t know this when we bought two bottles of wine at the 24-hour convenience store across the street. So we did what any normal people would do:

Cheers!

We also played a few games of Go Fish, BS and Gypsy Rose, which you probably shouldn’t play when drinking. Cards don’t always flip the right way when you’re trying to bluff.

The next day’s plans included the London Eye, The Tower of London and a walk to Buckingham Palace (which, unfortunately, we couldn’t enter). We really enjoyed all of it, but were absolutely exhausted by the end of the day. I guess that’s when you can tell you’ve had a successful day of touring though.

We were up pretty high in the London Eye.

Protect the Castle!

Did you know Ravens eat meat? Yeah, they are huge and kinda scary…

You shall not pass!

According to the British Flag, the Queen was not at home.

We also met a very friendly squirrel on our walk to the Palace. He crawled up a little girl’s leg to get the food she was offering. And the girl didn’t freak out. Neither did her parents. I would have lost it.

Feed Me!

And that basically concludes the first portion of our adventure. The next morning we got up early and navigated our way back to the airport to fly to Rome.

“Time Crawls On…

“Time Crawls On While You’re Waiting on the Song to Start, So Dance Alone To the Beat of Your Heart”
– Fall Out Boy, “The Phoenix”

I’ve been loving this song for a while now, especially this line. Besides the catchy tune, i’s a reminder to me not to wait around on things just because the time isn’t right or I’m worried about what might happen. Just to do it. 

So, the hubby and I have decided to go to Europe for his upcoming 30th birthday. We haven’t booked any tickets yet or even asked off of work, but we’ve definitely decided to just go! No kids yet and our finances are in a good place, so why not?

We’ve always talked about how we want to travel before we have kids, but kept putting Europe off for other, less expensive places (although I’m always up for a return trip to Cancun, so a lot of it was my fault!). It’s always been pretty much at the top of our travel list, though. We had actually been planning a trip to visit some friends in New York when we thought, ‘What the hell? We’re never going to find the perfect time, so let’s just go!’

I’m usually not a very impulsive person, so this is a little scary for me, but it’s exciting at the same time! And things happen to be working out well so far… the Barclay’s Premier League starts up right before we go, so we’re trying to plan to see a match somewhere (Go USA in the World Cup, by the way!)

 

10 Years is a Long Time

Does anyone remember being asked when younger, “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?”  How many of us are anywhere near where we thought we’d be? How many of us actually remember what we said 10 years ago?

 Last Wednesday, May 14th, was the 10 year anniversary of my High School Graduation. I can honestly say I would never have guessed I’d be where I am today.

 In High School, I was ridiculously shy when it came to meeting new people. I was also pretty oblivious when it came to guys due to my lack of self confidence. I loved acting and directing in our drama club, and I was also very (privately) competitive, both with myself and others. Based on most of this, I assumed I would end up living alone with some a dog or three, still in the area of BR I grew up in. I would hang out with the same friends from school, but probably not too many new people. I had no idea what I wanted to do as a job, I guess I hadn’t thought about it much at the time. I always assumed I could be a teacher of young kids, as I had always enjoyed tutoring. I’d have loved to volunteer at a local theater.

 That’s not where I am now at all.

 I’m now married and living in NO (never thought that would happen). My husband has made me a much more outgoing person, so I’ve made a lot of new friends. I’ve still  been able to travel, going to 9 different countries and many new states. I have a bachelor’s degree in Psychology (which I don’t use, but it was fun getting!). I have a great job as a paralegal, a job I didn’t even know existed when I was in school. I have heard horror stories from people in law firms (and had a nightmare of a previous job), and am lucky enough to have wonderful bosses and co-workers, in a mostly positive environment. I have a wonderful dog-baby, who is spoiled rotten. No kids yet, but they are in the plans for the next few years. I have a wonderful relationship  with both of my parents and my sister, as well as all of my in-laws.

 Sure, I have regrets. Who doesn’t? But the positives definitely outweigh the negatives. I may not have been able to accurately imagine where I would be in 10 years, but I’m pretty happy about where I wound up.