And then there were three.

My last blog post was titled "Coming Clean." In retrospect, I probably should have saved that title for this post.

I've been keeping something from you guys...for about 12 weeks now.

There's a baby on the way! (As if the totally-creepy-if-it's-not-your-little-peanut ultrasound picture didn't give that away.)

Brian and I are over the moon, beyond excited. And to be honest, just a little bit petrified too. A baby? Us? Eeek!  Did I mention how how excited we are?!?! I can't wait until August to meet this little boy or girl!

Coming Clean

Y'all, I'm losing it. 

Literally. 

A few weeks ago during a cold snap I lost both pairs of my favorite Spanx Tight End tights. (They are the greatest. Try them.)  I searched the house high and low, did every drop of laundry and still couldn't find them. Turns out I had hung over a hanger to dry after washing and put them in my closet, hidden between other clothes. I found them a week later - after it had warmed up, of course.

But it gets worse. 

Right after the New Year, I started reading Gabriel García Márquez's 100 Years of Solitude. It's been a slow read for me but I was diligently plugging away at it. And then, I lost the book.  It just disappeared into thin air. Or so it seemed. The Mister and I tore the house apart. I stripped the sheets off the bed, moved couches, broke out the flashlight and left no corner unchecked. B even searched the freezer. (I guess I can be a little scatterbrained.)  I was convinced the book had grown legs and walked away.  After three weeks, I finally gave up on ever finding it and started a new book on Sunday. 

Well, I found the book. 

In my gym bag.

THREE weeks later.

I could not be more embarrassed if I tried. 

Resolution Update

I've decided the only way to hold myself accountable for my New Year's resolutions is to keep you all updated on my progress. Here's how I'm doing so far:

1.  I will learn to use my new dSLR camera.  B was sweet enough to give me a great new camera for Christmas and I want to learn how to use it properly.  I'm determined not to shoot in automatic.

• Big progress here! I've signed up for an eight week Introduction to Digital Photography class at a local art school and have attended three classes so far. Don't call me Ansel Adams just yet, but I'm learning. I also took a separate class specific to my camera so that I could learn the all the functions, gadgets and gizmos. It was incredibly helpful and I'm happy to report that I'm no longer intimidated by my camera. '

2.  I will not punch the trainers at the Y when they remind me that "Consistency is the key to success."

• Total success on this front. I took a nice little break from the gym during the month of December but went back the first week of January. On my first night back, one of the trainers said to me "Melissa, where have you been?" (Let's just skip right past the fact I have no idea how this kid knew my name. Not like I went all that often before.) It took everything I had but... I did not punch him!  Yay me!!! 

3.  The infamous mirror will be hung in 2011! (For those of you keeping track, it has now been in the box in the corner of our bedroom for a year and a half. Oh, the shame.)

• Still on the floor. Moving on.

4.  I will bake bread. From scratch.

• No bread making yet. Plenty of bread eating though!

5.  It's been almost two years since we got married. It's time to make an album of our wedding pictures. (Or, preferably, hire someone to do this. Any ideas how to go about this? I don't want to use my wedding photographer.)

• I've created a few pages of a wedding album in Blurb. Baby steps...

6.  Drink more water.

• I am doing really well with this. I keep a 32oz water jug on my desk and fill it up at least twice each day. I've almost entirely eliminated Diet Coke and order water almost exclusively now. I have the rare Diet Coke if I'm looking for a little caffeine bump but it's a treat, not a regular occurrence.

7.  The windows in our dining room, guest room and master bedroom need shutters or blinds (and have since we moved in two and a half years ago). I'll check that off the list in 2011.

• I haven't done much on this front. I checked Lowes, Home Depot and a few local companies online to see what options are out there but that's about it.

8.  Try five new local restaurants.

• One down, four to go. The first place was quite an interesting experience... Let's just say this, it involved a a BLT mysteriously missing the "T", a bus boy who was determined to take away my fried pickles and a revolting green substance being passed off as avocado. Nothing catastrophic but I do insist that my BLTs include tomato and I take avocado extremely seriously. (Avocado "spread" is not food and guacamole does not come from a can, pouch or bag.)  I'm disappointed the food wasn't better. They do a Drag Queen "Praise the Lord & Pass the Liquor" Gospel Brunch on Sundays, which, I'm sorry, sounds like a hoot. But even the promise of drag queen gospel won't get me back for the sub-par food.

9.  Bring my lunch to work more often.

• Massive failure. Once a week, at best. I really need to work on this. 

How are you doing on your New Year's resolutions?

what i'm loving

Happy Thursday! The weekend is so close I can almost taste it - and that just puts me in a good mood. Let's embrace the good feeling and do a little run down of the things I'm loving today, shall we?

* The First Lady looking absolutely gorgeous in Alexander McQueen at the State Dinner held last night for Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Love the dress, love the hair, love the whole thing.

* The BEAUTIFUL weather we had in central Florida today. When I left the office for lunch today it was 78 degrees and sunny. Heaven. (Please remind me about this heavenly weather come July when I'm complaining about living in the sweaty armpit of America.)

* The return of Parks & Recreation tonight. It's been far too long since the hilarious gang from Pawnee was on my TV screen.

I think Rob Lowe will be a great addition to the cast but April the intern is still my favorite. The girl is hilarious.

* The adorable clutch purses from Etsy seller Oatmeal Lace Designs.

How cute is this clutch? And it's reversible too!

UCF friends - isn't this one adorable?

Alright, gotta run. Time to watch Big Bang Theory. Bazinga!

I was not compensated in any way to write this post. Oatmeal Lace Designs has never heard of me - I just think the clutches are cute!

Golden Globes

I cannot lie - I love awards shows. I love the gorgeous gowns, the inevitable fashion disasters, the suspense of who will win the big awards and the tearful speeches from grateful winners. I can't get enough. 

I like to record the Red Carpet pre-show so I can get a good look at all the gowns - and fast forward through the awkward interviews.  Here are my favorite gowns this year: 

My favorite Golden Globes moments - Katey Sagal winning Best Supporting Actress for Sons of Anarchy, Chris Colfer's awesome acceptance speech, Annette Bening winning Best Actress in a Comedy for The Kids Are All Right, and Jim Parsons winning Best Actor in Television Comedy for The Big Bang Theory. I loved The Kids Are All Right and The Social Network so I'm glad they took home the big wins.

What were your favorite Golden Globe gowns and moments?

the simple life

Today was a good day.

I threw together chicken pasta and a spinach salad for dinner.  With a full mouth, B told me it was "so good."  Then he did the dishes.

I knew the answer to Final Jeopardy.

After dinner, B and I watched The Social Network. I loved it. In my eyes, Aaron Sorkin can do no wrong.

Now I'm headed to bed to bed to read a few more pages of 100 Years of Solitude before falling asleep. I'm nearly 200 pages in and I'm still not sure what to make of this book. I'll keep at it and see how I feel when the pages run out.

I can't help but think that sometimes the little things are everything.

Today was a good day.

Friday Night Thoughts*

The first full week of work since before Christmas has come to end - FINALLY! This week was brutal. After an exhausting week, we decided on a low-key Friday night at home. I made pizza and we caught up on our TV shows from the week. Unfortunately, we've already watched all the shows I like and now we're on to B's stupid shows. Time for me to find alternate entertainment. Thus, the rare Friday night blog post.

Ordinarily, I'd grab a book and head into the bedroom while B watches his shows. Unfortunately, my library books are missing in action.  I think I've mentioned a thousand times that my library delivers books to my front door. They leave them on the porch and I come home to a stack of new books to read. Except it doesn't seem to have worked that way this time. The library's system shows my books have been delivered but I have no books. Not sure what happened. I'd suspect my jackwad neighbors of taking them but I'm pretty sure they can't read...

I have a few books here that I haven't read yet but I'm down to the books that have been collecting dust on the bookshelf for years. You know, the ones that seemed so interesting in the store but sound like a snooze every time you pick them up to read them? Surely I'm not the only one with stacks of unread books on her bookshelves.  If I get desperate, I'll have to crack one open. 

Or maybe I'll just waste some time trolling the Internet. You know, something different than usual.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go convince B to drive me up to the frozen yogurt place.

Hope your Friday night is more exciting than mine!

*Not quite as entertaining as Friday Night Lights.

Crazy Swan, Golf Clubs, Bladder Bust & Corndogs

No intro, no chit chat. Just a collection of crazy thoughts coming your way in bullet points. That's what I like to call down & dirty Friday blogging.

*  I'm hearing a lot about Black Swan. I can't decide if the reviews I'm getting make me want to see the movie more or less. Is "weird, messed up, kinky, awesome" supposed to be bad or good?  I think I have to see it to decide for myself.

*  The Mister has been wanting new golf clubs for a long time so I told him I wanted to get them for him for Christmas.  He has been doing his research and didn't find the perfect clubs until this week. He brought them home last night and I've never seen a grown man so excited. He lined the clubs up and told me about each one, then put them in the new golf bag he got for Christmas. This was hands down the best gift I've ever given. I love seeing him so happy! I am however beginning to fear that he thinks it's okay for the clubs to live in the family room, rather than the garage.  Uh, not so much mister.

*  My favorite local dive bar is closing its restrooms for repairs for FIVE WEEKS.  The alternative bathroom suggestions we've heard so far: 1) the single bathroom in the bar next door, which always has a mile long line, or 2) a port-a-potty. Shudder.  This probably doesn't seem like a big deal, right? Just go somewhere else. Oh, but it is. This is our Cheers.  My girlfriends and I (and the guys when we invite them) have been meeting there for years. When we walk in the door, they pour our drinks without asking what we want.  If we don't show our faces around there once a week they get worried something has happened and alert the authorities.  This bathroom situation is a major disruption to our routine. Looks like we're going back to our college Bladder Bust** days.  (Did your college bars have this? Worst idea ever.)

*  Why don't more restaurants have corndogs on the menu? It shouldn't be so hard for a girl to get a corndog. It just shouldn't.

Let's just end it at corndogs, shall we?

Hope you have all have a great weekend! I'm heading to Chick-fil-A in the morning to get my free Spicy Chicken Biscuit. After that, the world is my oyster.

**ETA: Apparently some of you were lucky enough to get through college without experiencing the wonder that is Bladder Bust night.  Here's the deal. {Get ready, it's classy.} A local bar we visited on occasion in our early college days had Bladder Bust night on Wednesdays. You'd pay something like $5 to get in the door and the beer was free - until someone used the restroom. Once someone used the restroom, free beer was over. As you might imagine, using the restroom would make you a VERY unpopular person at the Wing Shack on Wednesdays. {Yeah, it was called the Wing Shack. For a while. I'm pretty sure it was about 7 more things before I graduated. Anyway, like I said, classy.} So, that's bladder bust. Free beer till somebody pees. God, I miss college. 

Happy 2011!

I'm not one for resolutions. I'm also not one for follow through.  I'm fairly certain these two things are related.

There's so much pressure with resolutions. If I don't live up to what I've resolved to accomplish the guilt will inevitably sink in.  I'll start feeling like a terrible person and then before you know it it's May, I haven't kept any of my resolutions and I'm elbow deep in a carton of ice cream to make the sads go away. And really, who needs that kind of stress in life?

Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration.  I suppose resolutions aren't quite that bad. 

Maybe I'll make a few.

However, I'm only making resolutions I fully intend to keep with very little chance for failure. Baby steps, right?

These are my resolutions. (In my head, this is being sung to the tune of that Usher song, "These are my confessions resolutions...")

1.  I will learn to use my new dSLR camera.  B was sweet enough to give me a great new camera for Christmas and I want to learn how to use it properly.  I'm determined not to shoot in automatic.

2.  I will not punch the trainers at the Y when they remind me that "Consistency is the key to success."

3.  The infamous mirror will be hung in 2011! (For those of you keeping track, it has now been in the box in the corner of our bedroom for a year and a half. Oh, the shame.)

4.  I will bake bread. From scratch.

5.  It's been almost two years since we got married. It's time to make an album of our wedding pictures. (Or, preferably, hire someone to do this. Any ideas how to go about this? I don't want to use my wedding photographer.)

6.  Drink more water.

7.  The windows in our dining room, guest room and master bedroom need shutters or blinds (and have since we moved in two and a half years ago). I'll check that off the list in 2011.

8.  Try five new local restaurants.

9.  Bring my lunch to work more often.

I would go for ten but I think I've already been overly ambitious. Resolutions 2, 3, 5 and 7 will be challenging enough as it is.

Happy 2011!