whine about it with matt bellassai - his take on fall

I REALLY love fall, as I said a few days ago, but this is FUNNY stuff and you should watch it. It is also my first video post, which is exciting - hopefully it works properly. 

you like potato...I like potahto

I am a Polish girl that really loves her potatoes. Normally, my love for potatoes keeps me out of trouble, but this past weekend that was not the case. I woke up a little "tired" after celebrating at a rehearsal dinner with "a number" of glasses of wine. With a full day of wedding festivities in front of us, my sister, husband, and I decided to try out a nearby breakfast cafe. We knew we needed to bulk up on a serious meal and heard great things about an establishment about a mile down the street from where we were staying. The place had a Celtic theme - even the waitstaff had Irish accents - but it was the menu I was most impressed with. They had potato everything! So, we did what any normal person would do and ordered some sweet potato donuts, potato pancakes, and an actual breakfast dish that contained eggs with you guessed it...a side of hash browns. We were so full after the donut course that we were unable to finish to most of our other delights. We didn't want to waste any of the leftovers, so we had it wrapped to go and went on our merry way....and I was so excited about said leftovers that I forgot my wallet on our table. I never lose anything (knock on wood), so I was very disturbed and shocked when I realized my wallet was not in its little home within my bag. Unfortunately, the cafe was also closed by the time I realized it, so I couldn't do anything until the following morning. Next time I eat potatoes out, I am going to take a deep breath and make sure I leave with my wallet. Make sure you know where your wallet is this weekend.

it's not too late to whip it, whip it good

His waistband says
Mr. Whippy.

We are having an array of guests over for Memorial Day Weekend and I am SO excited - I just can't hide it. Our little beach party was planned far enough in advance that I was able to (finally) use my Mr. Whippy cards. I bought eight of these things years ago - like I am talking at least five, probably more - and have been waiting for the perfect time to use them. I sent three off to our friends, which means we still have five more to use at a later date. Score - more beach parties!

I wish my weekday evenings were not as jam-packed with things to do, but we are just going to have to make it work. Thankfully, the weather looks good for Saturday and Sunday and I typed up a draft menu earlier today. I went with our tried and true dishes, but it is only a draft and we could update it with different options, if we choose. Now I just need to figure out which days are for baking and which days are for cleaning. In addition to great food, fine wine, and friends, we also get to see a concert and dance our tushes off. This is going to be a hectic week, but the prize at the end of it is a three-day weekend and the start to summer. Bring it on. 

feature yourself in your very own emojis

That's him!

My husband recently made me privy to an app called Bitmoji. It is free and you build yourself as an avatar (which very much intimidated me at first, but it was actually pretty fun), and then it combines the face and body type you customize with different moods, poses, and sayings to create emojis. I am a regular emoji user and this takes communicating with pictures to a whole, new level. At the present moment, my husband is the only one sending me his own emojis and it is a GOOD time. I am REALLY enjoying it, I just wish more people used it. We both decided to opt out of allowing the full keyboard access, even though I visited the Bitmoji website and they promise they never read, transmit, or store anything you type. That all sounds well and good, but the warning I received when I added the keyboard scared me out of thinking it was a good idea. (Read: Third Party Keyboards provide an alternative way to input keyboard data. These keyboards can access all of the data you type, including bank account and credit card number, street addresses, as well as personal and sensitive information.) Um, no. For now, we will continue sending our emojis to one another through the app itself. It is still VERY fun and makes me laugh a lot!    

navigate schitt's creek - no paddle necessary

Now for the funny stuff: I am not an avid movie watcher by any means. I really, really, really love some movies, but most movies do not tickle my fancy in any way and I fall fast asleep as soon as they begin. Most of the movies I really enjoy are very visually pleasing, have outrageous characters, and have little to no special effects. I think it helps me stay awake when I can either relate to something happening, or picture it happening in real life. One of my all-time favorite movies is Best in Show, directed by Christopher Guest, and two of my favorite characters in said movie are played by Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara. (Stay with me people.) Well, I learned this morning these two amazing actors are involved in a comedy tv series called Schitt's Creek and it premiered on the network Pop last night! I have no idea if we have that channel - though for how much we pay for cable we better - but I am going to do everything in my power to tune in. I also hope it's possible to DVR it because it is on at 10:00 p.m. and that is my bed time. Without saying too much, it is a story about a very rich and out of touch family who loses everything and must start over in a town they own, bought on a whim because of its name. Yes please. 

an interesting way to end the week - in yellow

That is the actual culprit -
beautiful lilies in our kitchen.

My morning started off pretty nicely; I woke up a few minutes before my alarm went off and I wasn't overly rushed getting out the door (there will always be some aspect of rushing, but today wasn't too bad). I give myself a once over as soon as I get to work because my commute is pretty long and you never know what the wind could do to my hair, or what may be hanging out of my nose. Well, I marched into the restroom this morning after discovering some yellow marks on the sleeve of my sweater, and to my shock and horror realized my entire left shoulder was covered with the same sludge. After calming down and thinking through my morning, I could not for the life of me understand how my sweater went from being so clean & pristine to completely destroyed. Side note: I would have been earlier getting out the door, but I realized my sweater looked a little on the worn-out side (very pill-y) and spent a good ten minutes going at it with the lint remover. I left our bedroom with a sweater that literally looked as good as new. 

I racked my brain to try and figure out how the hell I was covered in yellow and then it hit me - the lilies in the kitchen. My husband bought the most beautiful lilies on earth last weekend that have been filling our downstairs with the sweetest smell in the universe. I realized I must have walked into them while getting my English muffin buttered & jammed and the yellow stains all over my off-white sweater were pollen. So, I did what I had to do and soaked the left wrist and shoulder in water, covered the wetness with our Mrs. Myers geranium hand soap, and began scrubbing. Thankfully, the pollen came out. However, I was left with the chunkiest sweater I own (aka the warmest, which is why I chose to wear it on this frigid day) soaked beyond belief. 

We have one of those Xlerator hand dryers at work, but I hate using it because it is so loud. Well, this morning I didn't have a choice. It would start, then stop, and then I would start the cycle again. It seemed to be working, but then I realize it wasn't actually drying my sweater at all - it was just pushing the wetness from one area to another. The sheer power of the damn thing was ruining me. So, I did the best I could and returned to my desk. It has been six hours and four bathroom visits later and my sweater is still wet. I don't know what else to do. I wore it to be overly warm and cozy on this freezing Friday, but it is making me crazy and cold. The sleeve part is actually pretty dry, but the shoulder area needs some work. I cannot wait to get into our car later tonight and crank the heat and turn the seat warmers on high. Next time we have lilies I am going to cut them shorter and make sure they are pushed a little further from the edge of the kitchen counter. Noted.

cheesy jokes from the other night, laugh a little

These are the cheese jokes Johanna (from First Aid Kit) told during their show on Friday. She mentioned how silence makes her uncomfortable, so she started telling jokes while her sister Klara tunes her guitar. 

This has nothing to do with the
jokes. I just want a cheese plate.

Question: What kind of cheese is not yours?
Answer: Nacho cheese.

Question: Which cheese would you use to get a bear out of a cave? 
Answer: Camembert.

Question: What was left after the French cheese factory exploded?
Answer: De-Brie.

Question: What did the cheese say when he looked in the mirror?
Answer:  Halloumi.

Question: Which cheese would you use to disguise a horse?
Answer: Mascarpone.

a different way to run a long distance

I was going to download the app 'Map My Run' to help myself train for the big race last weekend and I actually did, but then I upgraded my phone. I didn't want to run with it in fear of dropping and smashing it, so after a few days of having the app - I deleted it. FYI, I run with a teenie tiny iPod, circa 2003. Well, there is a woman named Claire who apparently uses Nike+ to map her runs, and she is getting rather artistic with it. Click here to read her story. (Yes, I'm six and sat giggling when I saw this. It is too good not to share...so freaking funny.)    

I really do say the darnedest things

Charles Dickens

I am sure you realize this by now, but my husband travels for work - a lot. His flights are not usually delayed or cancelled (that only happens when we are on vacation and going somewhere for non-work purposes, of course). Well, today he was delayed and delayed and then they shifted his flights around, and then those got delayed and then the plane finally arrived. He sent me a frantic message (not really frantic, just contained one !) about the plane finally being there and I don't know where it came from, but I responded with "run like the dickens". I don't where I come up with this stuff, but sometimes I say the darnedest things. I love that saying so much. Lately, I have been finishing sentences with "in America", as in that's the hottest dress in America, that's the most delicious restaurant in America, that's the smelliest trash in America, and so on and so forth. Maybe now everything will be "like the dickens".

my loony bun is fine

I first heard about this video when I lived in Vermont, which at this point was five years ago. My boss told me about it and we watched it at work. We really got a kick out of it. I have no idea what made me think of it, but for some reason I searched for it last week and listened to it again. It is still really funny and if you need something silly, watch it. Click here.