{Still On Vacation}

But, I have a quiet moment right now and darn it, I thought I'd post these darling ornaments. Scott and I have a strict rule about celebrating Christmas after Thanksgiving (all of you are Cheaters!), but I guess it is about time to get in the spirit. It is a little weird to feel Christmasy when I'm wearing a swimsuit (yes, I wore it and it felt good--even with my post turkey and pie belly). It is time, though, to start thinking of cider, trees and Christmas lights. So, in honor the season I'd like to decorate a tree with these. Every year we buy a new ornament for Scott's fly fishing tree. I think it is high time we start a photo tree. What do you think? These cuties are from the Sundance catalog, but they aint cheap. Too bad they don't have a polaroid.

{Next Week I'll Be...}

Here (spending time with her and the fam)

and here

and eating this

and swimming here

and reading some of these (not literally these though)

and hopefully doing a little of this

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

all images via flikr

{Fashionably Late}

I will probably be there, but not until 9:30. I have a wedding until 8:30 in Alpine. Hopefully there are still some crackers left!

{Why Did I Eat You?}

You are nasty and old and made me feel sick. Why does microwave popcorn sound better in theory than actuality. Is that just me?

{Good Read}

I loved this book. If a good Shakespeare retelling and dogs are your thing then you should pick this up. Okay, even if those aren't your thing you should still pick it up. My favorite books always break my heart a little bit.
*Delayed Spoiler alert* This book might break your heart.

{Chasing Penguins}

Scott didn't understand the why this song was called "chasing penguins."

{Sneaky Sneaky}

I came home from running errands today and guess what I saw? Oliver, sitting patiently on the driveway. This is the 4th time this week he has gotten out of the yard. We keep thinking after each escape that we have properly fortified the fence, but I think it is obvious that he is smarter than us. The chain link is not doing it's job. I'm glad he doesn't run too far away, but I'm so worried that he will run in front of car or get attacked by the neighbor dogs. He smells stinky and has sticky hair so there is a story to his adventure. I wish he could tell us. I also wish I could talk to him and tell him to cut out the escape shaningans. I don't know what to do about that dog. Luckily, the neighbors keep an eye out for him, but I think a new fence will be going in next year.
Oliver, Oliver, Oliver.
I think escapes stress him out though. Whenever we get him back and put him in the house he immediately crashes. Right now, he is passed out and doggy snoring.

{A Little of This}

Sonora Grill

and a little of that this weekend.
I have a thing for Daniel Craig. Tara asked the important question--were there swim shorts involved? Sadly, no.
Scott did an excellent job on date night.

{Oliver Ate Through Our Garage}

I was suspicious when I saw carpet padding, a badminton set, boxes, and a Williams and Sonama bag on the grass. Stinker, stinker, stinker. What are we going to do with you? I once saw a sign that said you can't have nice things and a puppy. At least the garage isn't nice. It is really ugly and we hated it anyway.

{Hotel Cafe}

Last night we met up with Marianne and Bryan for burgers at the Blue Plate and then headed over to the Avalon Theater for the Hotel Cafe concert. Lots of talented ladies, but Lenka was my favorite. She was darling and her music was so much fun. I know I'm getting old though because it was late for a weeknight. After 3 hours I was sleepy.

{Girl Loves Dog}

It took 8 years for Scott to wear me down on getting a dog. I didn't grow up with one and was totally convinced I would never want one. As soon as I caved, I had a list of no's that wouldn't be allowed. No sleeping on the bed, no licking my face, no picking up poo (Scott's job). My how times change. It turns out I'm the sucker for the puppy face. I think what gets me is that Oliver is so patient. He never whines, he just looks completely dejected. I can't help it.
So, we have started letting him sleep in our room. Not every night, but sometimes. The routine goes as follows,
Scott puts him the kitchen and goes to bed
I finish up my computer work and let him down
Oliver runs down super excited and tries to wake Scott up
Oliver jumps on the bed, says hi, and then jump back down
Oliver sleeps on the floor
and now for the best part...
In the morning when Scott gets up to get ready Oliver jumps in his spot. I'm half asleep so I don't fight it. He lays his head in the crook of my neck, licks my face and falls asleep. I never in a million years thought I'd like a dog licking my face, but I do. When Scott comes to give me a kiss goodbye he finds Oliver and me snuggling. I'm Oliver's snuggle buddy and Scott is Oliver's play buddy. If you are thinking, ew gross--I hear you, I was there too. But I'm also guessing you have never had a dog. They have a way of sneaking into your heart.

{Going Swimming...Hopefully}

I'm not so much a fan of myself in a swimsuit. There just isn't much forgiveness in Lycra underwear. But, in honor of the Texas trip, I decided to just get over it and get myself a swimsuit. Maybe one day I'll feel up to a little more exposure, but I can't tell you how comforted I am by my skirt bottom. Sure, it's a little 1905'ish, but it conveniently covers my most worrisome trouble spots. Hopefully there will be some swimming weather to justify my triumph.
Swimsuit: jcrew.com

{Throw-Up}

Is what happens when a dog eats a stick of butter. A lot, a lot of throw-up--just in case anyone was wondering. If you want a visual (and you probably don't), just imagine me with my pajama bottoms rolled up to my thighs dry heaving as I cleaned up buttery chunks, while Oliver watched confused and tried to eat it. STAY! I called Scott in tears. Now, I know probably most of you have cleaned something like this up before, but I haven't and it involved butter and dog food. Gross? You betcha.
Scott gets Best Husband Award for coming home during his lunch break and cleaning up round #2.

{Friday Night}

Friday night is homemade pizza night. At least it was this past Friday, and boy were our pizza's awesome. Usually we do a Margherita/Hawaiian, but we decided to mix things up and in the process discovered our new, absolute favorite, heaven on earth, food of the Gods, pizza ever. Potato pizza, I heart you. Who would have thought something so simple would be so amazing? We actually did half potato pizza and half balsamic-marinated cherry tomatoes, fontina and peas pizza. Both were amazing, but the potato was inspiration on bread. We had planned on getting dessert afterwards and going to a movie, but were sleepy after eating all that pizza and decided on hot chocolate and going to Barnes and Noble instead--I am loving the Story of Edgar Sawtelle.
I have been chastised for not having enough pictures of the two of us, so hopefully these will appease.

Scott is clearly superior on knife skills. Here he is showing his skinny potato next to my sloppy thick potatoes (you should see if present wrapping skills...or underlining skills).

Pre-oven pizza

Post-oven pizza

Here is the recipe for anyone who is interested,

Carol's Pizza Dough
Mix together:
2 T. dry yeast
½ c. warm water
2 t. sugar
Set aside until foamy

Mix:
2 ½ c. powdered milk, mixed (2/3 c. powdered milk with 2-2 ½ c. water)
1 T. salt
2 T. oil
2-3 c. flour

Add yeast.
Add flour to sift dough (3-4 c. more flour) until pulls away from bowl.
Raise until double – about 1 hour.
Divide into 3 – rest so it can be elastic, 5-10 minutes.
Floured surface.
Preheat oven 450º.
Cook 9 minutes (we usually go 10-12).

Potato Pizza
Slice a Yukon Gold Potato super thin
Soak it in 3 washes of an ice bath to remove starch
Drain potatoes
dice half an onion
brush olive oil on prepared dough
layer with potatoes, onions and a generous (really, really generous)
handful of freshly grated parmesean
Follow cooking instructions on pizza
Ta da!

{The Mystery of the Missing Butter}

Fact: 2 sticks of butter were on the counter, softening for cookie making
Fact: Oliver was in the Kitchen
Fact: One stick of butter is mysteriously missing--not a shred of paper, not a greasy smear. All proof of its existence has disappeared, kind of like the period on the Dr. Pepper can.
Question: Did Oliver eat a whole stick of butter?

I think we all know the answer to this one. Bad dog.

{Delayed Halloween Post}

Photo Courtesy of MarthaStewart.com

So, Halloween is long over and it is time to start thinking about Christmas...um I mean Thanksgiving, but I thought I'd share some Halloween love anyway. Speaking of celebrating Christmas, I was at my cousin's house today and they had their Christmas lights up! I guess I shouldn't judge though because a. is already listening to Christmas music. Maybe the weather justifies the holiday spirit, but I'm soo not ready for winter. I remember last winter and how it went on and on and was snowing in June...at least I think it snowed in June. It felt like it snowed in June.
Anyway, enough about Christmas and snow. I'm really writing this so you can see the super cute shrunken head brew I made for our Halloween Dinner with Marianne and Bryan. Martha always steers me right. It was super easy, but you need to allow plenty of time for the apples to shrink in the oven. The drink was simple (lemonade and apple cider) but it was really all about the presentation anyway.
Our dinner party was long overdue since I had already canceled on them twice (think back to Wedding Expo stressapaloza). All in all our Halloween night was fabulous. The food was great, the company even more so, and it was fun to help hand out candy in a neighborhood that actually has kids. Marianne makes me laugh. She had pencils, plastic spiders and soda pop to pass out (along with regular candy). There was also a no-candy-to-anyone-over-14-rule-who-didn't-say-trick-or-treat-or-justify-their-sweatshirt-and-jeans-costume. Way to hold the line.
On a little Halloween side note, Scott wanted to know the purpose of pumpkins. He wasn't too clear on where pumpkin pie or pumpkin bread came from. Silly Scott.

{Holga Stuff}

Hey, guess what? I just got these 3 Holga's accepted to be a part of show. Exciting, right?
There's more info over at Green Apple as far as times, etc. Me and Caitlin are going to be kicking it Art Gallery Style (I think that means we are going to be eating some Brie on Saltines).

{What's better than Two Blogs?}

Three blogs! Yep, I just couldn't resist starting a new one. If you want to check out the latest and greatest you can find it over here.
My Polaroids just didn't seem to fit into either blog. So, now you can read about my business, Scott and me, or look at some random Polaroids. How exciting.