I have a dress!

Yesterday, after trying on over 50 dresses in 3 different stores i bought my dress. Just in case Russ happens to read this i will not post pictures of THE dress but i will show you some that i liked.

The middle dress i loved! I tried it on at Leesburg Bridal and really loved it. The other two dresses i tried at David's Bridal, i really liked the dress on the right a lot but it had a bit too much bling for my taste. The dress i picked is very simple, comfortable, and has just a tiny bit of sparkle. I LOVE IT. I never wanted to take it off which is how i realized it was the one.

So now that i have that done i need to nail down the colors and bridesmaids dresses.

Huntington Cabernet Sauvignon California 2007

When i was in Dallas for PCMA the Ritz Carlton Dallas invited about 20 meeting planners to dine at Fearing's. it was an excellent meal, in a beautiful room, with wonderful company, but the best part of the evening was the excellent wine.

Huntington Cabernet Sauvignon California 2007

if you can find a bottle i highly recommend it!

Mike's Burritos

Russ's old roommate makes the best burritos ever. my family usually makes double batches and they are usually gone within a day.

we had them for dinner last night and they were excellent as usual. so i decided i would share them with you.

Mike's Burritos

1lb Chorizo

1 lb ground beef

Salt and pepper to taste

Light sprinkle onion and garlic powder

1 pkg flour tortillas

2 cans refried beans

Heavy sprinkle of chili pepper

10 oz cheddar cheese

2 tb tomato paste

Crumble chorizo, brown and drain. Repeat w/ beef, adding seasoning

Mix in large microwaveable bowl meat, beans and tomato paste. Mix well, heat covered on high in microwave for 2-3 minutes. Mix in cheeses. Divide mixture among tortillas and roll.

Line baking pan and cover burritos with foil. Bake at 375* for 15 min or until cheese melts

Note: it usually yields about 12-15 burritos from medium sized tortillas. if you can't find chorizo, hot Italian sausage works well. if you want chorizo find the grocery store near you that serves the largest Latino population, the Food Lion next to my house usually sells 4 different kinds of chorizo.

RIP PHIL HARRIS

Yesterday Captain Phil Harris, of the Cornelia Marie, died due to complications following a stroke.

As many of you may know my favorite show is Deadliest Catch. I have been watching it since the original documentary aired years ago. And as much as i get made fun of for watching the show it is excellent TV.

Phil was one of my two favorite captains and he will definitely be missed. my heart goes out to his sons Jake and Josh and the rest of his family and crew.

I hope that the boys are able to follow in their fathers foot steps and keep the Cornelia Marie Running, i'm sure it's what Phil had in mind when the boys started working on the boat.

My Birthday

At 11 am we were dismissed from work because the Snowpocalypse was on its way. I finally left at 11:30ish and went for sushi with some friends. I got a Vera Bradley bag that I wanted, an IOU for an apron that was in the mail, and Ann Rice’s The Sleeping Beauty Novels.

I love my new bag, the Apron came in the mail and I can’t wait to use it, and I am almost done with the first of the 3 novels.

Russ and I actually hunkered down at my parent’s house. We spent the night drinking and eating and playing dominoes (which when drinking heavily and played with Cubans is hilarious) at 11:30 I realized that our neighbor with MS was out with his snow blower working on my parents insanely long driveway.

We gave him some Cuban coffee to warm him up and we helped him shovel a bit. But he was out there till after 1am and the next morning it was as if he had done nothing and then he was out their again. So we all went out and shoveled. The boys got on the roof since the roof has very little pitch and we were scared of a roof collapse. With 32” of snow there was only so much the roof could handle. We spent the entire weekend their and finally went home on Monday when the roads were a bit passable with an SUV.

It is now Wednesday. We got another 9 inches of snow last night and the office is still closed tomorrow. I have been working from home. And watching TV and Reading, but now I’m getting some major cabin fever. Tomorrow I plan to clean house.

I'm starting to hate snow

Remember my “it’s that time of year again?” post about how my birthday always sucks?

Well I currently have all these wonderful plans to go to dinner Friday and Saturday night, and I’m supposed to have a tasting and a site visit on Saturday as well, but nooooooooooooo we are fixing for another snow storm.

It snowed last Saturday and kept me from doing things I needed to, it snowed yesterday, it’s going to snow tomorrow through Saturday and now they are calling for snow Tuesday –Thursday of next week! WTF mate? Global warming my ass!

So I guess I will spend my weekend cleaning house and working on wedding stuff, although after a lengthy conversation with the Fiancé last night he informed me that he hates weddings (this I knew before, and have been trying to work around it) has never been to a wedding he enjoyed, and that he knows he will hate our wedding. Great.

So I’m wondering what the hell is the point of spending a ton of money on one day that he will hate, when we could just as easily get married at the courthouse and then spend the money on our mortgage?

On the upside I went to McCormick & Schmicks for happy hour last night with my girls and it was great fun. I highly recommend it. I don’t recommend going to the gym after 2 beers, half a burger, some oyster shooters, and calamari but I am down 4lb’s so I’m not complaining. I’m going to the gym again today incase the snow keeps me indoors all weekend.

And so the planning begins…

So far I have been engaged for 4 days and I have a tentative venue, a tentative caterer, and a tentative photographer.

Our site visit at the venue is on the 6^th and then things should start to firm up. As of right now we are looking at a wedding date of November 13^th, 2010 which equals 288 days to plan.

Budget: I am trying my best to whittle down the budget but my family keeps insisting on inviting family members I barely know. The guest list is currently a little under 200.

Invitations: Russ and I think that we want to do an Evite instead of invitations for most people and a formal invitation to the older relatives who will expect them, my mom did not seem to like this idea. I found a set at Michael’s that I like. I’m going to go sometime this weekend to take a look.

Reception: Also I do not plan to have a formal sit down dinner or a separate ceremony. As of right now I think we will ask everyone to sit down at the tables while we get married and then party can begin. Since both Russ and my dad hate the traditional flow of a wedding with scheduled dances, cake cutting, and bouquet tosses, I need to keep this stuff to a minimum.

The Dress: The style of dress I want is hard to find. I really want a dress with ¾ length sleeves,(it’s going to be November and I like the way they look on me) I also think I want to wear silver instead of true white, and I want it simple with very little frill. All that, makes my ideal dress a bit hard to find.

I started dieting a few weeks ago and so far I have had no luck, this week I started back up at the gym, and I have begun taking Alli, if none of this works and I am the same size I am today when I get married I will not be a very skinny bride which is ok but I am very well endowed and a strapless gown (which seems to be the norm these days) is not an option and I’m not a huge fan of my arms either.

I wish I could just borrow someone else’s gown because for a free gown I would forgo being picky about the design for the most part. But I’m not sure how many people would be willing to lend out their wedding dresses especially if alterations need to be made. I think most women have this idea that their daughters will wear their dress and that’s usually not the case, but it makes it hard for many women to part with their dresses. It kills me that some women spend upwards of $2000 on a dress they will wear for 5 hours.

So I will probably go try stuff on at a bridal consignment shop in MD sometime soon and if that does not work I have a friend who is willing to make it.

More to come…