Best Part of Wakin' Up...

... is FRIDAY in your cup!!!

First off - E is flying off to Canada today for a cancelled Bachelor Party in Montreal... wait, what?

An ex-co-worker of his is getting married November 1st... so when the best man approached E with the Bachelor Party plans (a weekend in Canada! Bus transportation + hotel room for cheap!) he was so down - he's never been to Canada and was excited, more so since his BIL (who knows no one of the group) agreed to come along (E also knows no one but the groom, and wanted a friend to be along for the trip...) BIL was excited as well, has also never been to Canada.


A few days after they booked their plane tickets (no HOURS-long busride into Canada for these two divas... lol) E got a text from the best man - not enough interest (basically none) was expressed for the Canada trip (i.e. the groom's friends all still live at home, sometimes hold jobs, and don't have the money to go to Canada).
And so the Montreal Bachelor Party was cancelled.


But the best part was that E and his BIL have non-refundable tickets....

When the best man text E with the new plans a few days later (Atlantic City, your go-to for Bachelor/Bachelorette parties in the north east...) E just shook his head and responded, "yea, sorry I won't make it - I'll be in Canada that weekend!"  (AND THEN the best man had the nerve to still ask E to chip in for groom's expenses in A.C.)


Sooooooo E and BIL are going to have themselves a little man-cation this weekend. =)

and honestly, I'm looking forward to having the house to myself Friday and Saturday night! (ok yes, I have grand dreams of watching whatever I want on TV for hours, staying up late, playing my piano and singing as loud as I want, when the stark reality is: I'll be passed out on the couch by 10:30....)







 Anyways - a quick Foodie Friday for you! (In case you've been dying to know since yesterday, WHAT'S ON THE MENU?!)
(And watching Rachel Ray must have finally jump-started my domestic gene because I made:)

HOMEMADE Butternut Squash Soup!

The whole process was actually pretty easy (as these soups usually are)

(follow clock-wise from top Right:)

First was chopping time!  

Then I browned the onions in a big soup pot (which I used later)

cuts down on the dirty dishes!

While the onions were browning, (top of left picture) 

I peeled & cubed apples, and made broth (chicken, I think - basic bouillon!)

(And I cheated - I bought pre-cubed butternut squash...)

Once everything was cubed and the onions had browned, I added the apples, squash and broth to the pot.  This was simmered (see recipe below!) until everything got decently tender.
And then, as with a number of these kind of soups, the whole mixture gets mashed or pureed in a blender.  (And here is where I need a hand-mixer! I had to put it in the blender, bit by bit!)
And here is also where I think I under-blended it, as the final soup was a tad crunchy/chewy with onions...
But it came out AWESOMELY with the bread bowls I found at our grocery store!

 (And I just remembered where I even got this recipe - from a pumpkin patch a few years ago! They had a table full of paper scraps, all different recipes!)

(And no, I didn't use fresh ginger - I used ginger powder - it still came out pretty good!)

Hot Saturday Nights... with MAYO?!

Want to know what my hot Saturday nights now look like? I mean, just a few short years ago (ok, like, 6-7 years ago...) I was primping and straightening (and pre-gaming!) before a night out on the town, that probably started around 11pm...

Well - last weekend, after No-Nap-Button finally crashed during a long neighborhood stroll (at 5:45pm!!!) I was spent after I put him to bed at 7:30....

So I treated myself to a spa night:
I started with a mayo hair mask - my hair is thick, curly and usually pretty dry... leave-in conditioners don't really do a ton... and I wanted to blow dry and straighten my hair last weekend, and what a good start to supposedly get soft sleek strands!

some random site I found said that heat really releases the protein in the mayo (and yes, I used straight-up sandwich Hellman's...) so, yay for plastic bag head... 

Told you I had hot Saturday nights now...

After the 20-minute wait, you're to shampoo out the mayo, and supposedly it will take a few shampoo-ings to get all the oil-i-ness out... well I either didn't use enough mayo, or had such dry hair that sucked up EVERYTHING in the mayo, because I barely shampooed it once, and it didn't feel *that* much sleeker...
#dryhairproblems

Anyways - postShower I slathered on an aloe mask (which is clear, and I very nearly forgot I had on...) and treated myself to my first #JamberryMani:

I finished the night off around 11pm, blow drying my hair - which I then slept on to get some of the POOFINESS out, and then straightened the next morning as well... Just a TAD different than years past when I was blow-drying hair at 11pm, just starting my night...

MoreMissingMonth:

(Waiting in LincolnTunnel Traffic...)

The very last day in September, I was back in NYC - but this time was with my new-momma BFF Dee and her mom.  We were there to see Rachel Ray!!!!

Here we are on TV!

We were right on the aisle, and got shown alot during audience shots!

(I hope no one from work happened to be watching, as I called out sick that day!)

The best part of the whole show? the guest co-host that walked out with Rachel Ray...
a HUGE MEGA TV star that we had no clue was going to be there,
so the shock and awe and excited giddiness of the audience was very real when he walked out!
(We weren't allowed cameras in the studio, so I was thrilled when - as we were leaving,
 we passed Huge Mega TV Star getting into his limo, and was able to snap these close up shots!
I mean, I could have reached out and slapped him high-five!)

In case you have been living under a rock the past 50 years couldn't tell, it's REGIS PHILBIN!

Back to basics tomorrow: 

BuggyList hot Yoga-ness!

and Foodie Friday - what's on the menu?!

the Time When...

Some more of the Missing Month:

The last weekend in September brought gorgeous NYC-weather and so Button and I packed up and headed into Brooklyn for some of the most delicious food and drink!

We feasted on some wrapped up piggies:

We enjoyed some yummy LOBSTAH!

After a quick romp in the grass (where Button approached every stranger that was seated there with a wink and a wave:

We adventured with some sticky rice and Mango

 

 

We then packed up and, complete with a caramel&seaSalt cookie-IceCream-Sandwich that oozed and melted and made our fingers sticky - strolled on to try our flea-market hand in Williamsburg. (Our hands found success - this awesome vendor was where I got a birthday gift for E's aunt!)

We quenched our thirst with some "artisan" sodas (I'm not even sure what "artisan" means - but there were flavors like Hibiscus, Cinnamon & Clove... and Apple & Ginger (delish!!)... and Watermelon & Tarragon... so yea. I'm going to call them "artisan"...)

And then we really quenched our thirst with a good beer while this guy napped (for over 2 hours!!)

and THEN - I was able to break in my K-Tan wrap (boo, no pictures - but he loved it! as did I!) as we walked through Brooklyn, stopping at a playground for some sliding and screaming before we caught the subway back up to Muffin's apartment on the UpperWestSide.

*Oh god I just remembered that whole trek - so it takes a good hour between waiting for trains and switching to get from Brooklyn to the nearest stop to her apartment (approx 3-4 blocks) and we both had to pee before we even got on the train in Brooklyn... While on the train, Muffin needed extreme distractions to keep her from leaving a piddle on the train seat. 
I did my best, and we arrived at her stop - we sprinted up the station stairs, and into the nearest friendly restaurant where she blew past the hostess and made it to the bathroom just in time.

Meanwhile, I'm all, I can make it - I can distract myself enough, there's been more urgent times that I've totally made it to a bathroom! We've got this, I can wait til we get to your apartment Muffin!

Well.


I made it all the way into her building foyer (nothing fancy, really just a small entryway that has the wall of mailboxes and a teeny stairwell for her walk-up.)


I started the Pee-Pee Dance as I said to Muffin, "GO, just go unlock the door (I'll get Button out of the stroller) JUST GO UNLOCK YOUR DOOR!"


Aaaand as I took the stairs two at a time, slinging Button in my arms, I could feel it - I started peeing myself, and couldn't stop...

I banged into her open door, pee seeping into my jeans and down my inner thighs (YUP, that happened...) I set Button down (who apparently then toppled over on his bottom, having not been steady when I set him down - and he started SCREAMING)


I didn't even get my underwear pulled down - I scraped my jeans down over my hips, and sat on the toilet and peed straight through them.  Did you ever do that when you were little, and couldn't get a wet swimsuit down fast enough?

No? Just me?


Ok then...

And that was the time when a grown woman peed herself.

And had to come home commando in Muffin's PJ bottoms...
 (she gave me the pants - I still owe her another pair...)

Making Things Mondays!

You're gonna laugh, thinking "This girl is going to start a new series when she can't even keep up with the existing ONE?!"  (ok ok, like, 4 series I've "started" and failed to either keep up with or continue... I still have every intention of finishing continuing the Tour Tuesdays!)

But I've recently done a few crafty things I wanted to share!

We finally got the quarter of the basement completely finished - carpeted, walled, lights and sockets installed - and so were able to work more on Button's playroom!  We get his "artwork" sent home from daycare monthly or so (and by "artwork" - I know that it's stuff the assistants and teachers mostly do and slap the child's name on it - but they've been creative with hand- and foot-prints at this daycare!)

The walls in the playroom were really bare and empty, and so I got this great idea to frame his stuff!

There's a bunch more artwork that I have to frame (A Foot Minion!) and will probably rotate pieces out of a few other frame-collages (so I don't fill the walls, corner to corner!)



More Updates on the Missing Month (lol!)
A late Friday in September we stopped for pizza  after work (instead of hot yoga... bad Kate!)

Ben loved the rice balls and pepperoni!

The next day he got some more goat-action! Our town holds an annual [Town] Day, complete with jump houses, petting zoos - and the local girl scout troop selling cookies! (ahem... only two boxes of Samoas purchased!)

And Button did not lick the green cow fence.

He did not lick it three times.


Ew ew ew ew ew

What I'm wearin...

*I utterly fail at scheduling posts...

last Wednesday's:





oh Wardrobe Wednesday.

I <3HEART<3 clothes... (did you SEE my closet in MasterBedroomTourTuesday??)

What better way to share that than in my random Wardrobe Wednesdays?! =)

today:

(yes, my actual feet - no matter the g.oogle combination, I couldn't find a comparable set of shoes!)

*Dress - from street fair : $8
*Cardigan - probably thrift store...
*Shoes - JCPenny, probably under $20... (and the heel looks shorter than it is - they are hot shoes!)

**Waves Hands** - I'm still here!

First and foremost, the reason why I've been so crazed and too busy to blog - the assistant (not sure if I ever mentioned her, she sucked, was a little crazy, etc) "resigned" last Wednesday... so I've been in charge of the whole office.  (Hence, the music.)

I refuse to work late and miss time with Ben so I've brought work home a few times (and only once or twice neglected to do the work once I finally put my feet up! Tell me why it seems like I'm constantly doing housework while E sits and gets to play with Button!!)

Anyways - so catch up: I made some food.  On Fridays.    hashtag FoodieFriday!
and clothes - I Wore.  On Wednesdays.    hashtag WardrobeWednesday!

Ha.

No, really.  I think the last I really posted was early September, so we've done a lot! There'll be some regularly scheduled series (back on track with ) interspersed with some updating, and first up:

Back in mid-September, Ben's kick-ass daycare had a birthday party! Their birthday party - they'd been open for one year!  So one Saturday, right as Ben started developing a consistent fever (like, 103.4 at one point!) which led us to discover his most recent double ear infection (again!) we found a break in the clouds as the Tylenol did its work and headed to their Parking-lot Party:

 (He tried to head-butt the goat through the fence...) #truestory

That night was when his temperature crept up... with a cooling bath and some more Tylenol, we called the doctor's line and were told to bring him in the next morning (how cool that there was a doctor in the office on a Sunday?!)

In we went, where we discovered the afore-mentioned double ear infection.  They prescribed a third anti-biotic (as he'd been on amoxicillin before his last ear infection, which was treated with augmentin and I think they just wanted to see if something would be more effective...) so we then trekked to a small Ma&Pa pharmacy that had this anti-biotic in stock.  While we waited for the ($70!!!!!) Rx, we sat and played left a total disaster for the staff in Starbucks.... (sorry guys!)

Then, on the way home we passed it - The Garage Sale! Where I found a K'Tan sling (still in original packaging!) for like, $2! And two potty-training seats for something like a buck each!

And this sweet ride:

He loved cruising in this baby, even with the missing gas-cap and wobbly-wheel.. (what do you expect for $2...)

 

And then this baby SLEPT.

 Mad Points for the reclining high-chair!!

I'm sure it was the combination of being slightly still feverish and not feeling well... But the good news was that the Rx did it's job - infection was fought and the fever went down the very next morning! (We still split that Monday to stay home 1/2 day each to give Button a chance to really recoop...)

The Music's On....

Pandora's crankin' in the background at work... that's never a good sign.

It means I have 20 hours of work to do in an 8 hour day.

It means I might have to be here til 8pm tonight and miss putting my Button to bed...

It means I can't even take 5 minutes to review with you the past two weeks of blog-silence...


but I'm here... and will probably try to catch up and comment with a few of you ladies during a break when it feels like my eyeballs will fall out and my fingers fall off...