I learned how to juggle when I was eight years old. This seems to impress Jeremy quite a bit.
I think what's even more impressive is that I taught my brother how to juggle and he quickly moved on the butcher knives and eating apples. Now he juggles everything from chainsaws to... puppies.
Photo by Halston Bruce.
I think I finally found the rug that belongs in our dining room. 
Urban Outfitters - 5x7 Geo Deco Printed Cotton Rug
I know I would need at least two (to make a 10 x 7 rug) put together to fit under the dining room table. And at only $68 each it's not going to break the bank.
Urban Outfitters has a lot of handsome rugs out right now.
Our Thanksgiving will be spent eating with our families. I will be making my infamous baked mac and cheese. Okay - so it's actually Alton Brown's baked mac and cheese - modified.
Ingredients
* 1/2 pound elbow macaroni (I usually use 1lb. It's less cheesy but more to feed all my friends)
* 3 tablespoons butter
* 3 tablespoons flour
* 1 tablespoon powdered mustard (I leave this out of my recipe)
* 3 cups milk
* 1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced (I leave this out of my recipe)
* 1 bay leaf (I leave this out of my recipe)
* 1/2 teaspoon paprika (I leave this out of my recipe)
* 1 large egg
* 12 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* Fresh black pepper
Topping:
* 3 tablespoons butter
* 1 cup panko bread crumbs
(I use corn flake crumbs instead)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente.
While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it's free of lumps. Stir in the milk, onion, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes and remove the bay leaf.
Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.
Melt the butter in a saute pan and toss the bread crumbs to coat. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.
We finally finished our chalkboard pantry wall. Now the kitties know where to find their food and water.
These dog and cat bowls available at These Creatures are so rad. They're WAY out of our price range (especially when we can just throw down some bowls)... 
...but I think this one would look fantastic on the chalkboard wall.
P.S. I've added the "reaction" function to this blog. So for those of you who don't comment feel free to check a box about how you feel about my posts.
"oh!" - means you're excited about it
"<3" - means you LOVE it (<3 is a sideways heart)
"hm" - means you don't really know how you feel about it
"weird" - means you think it's weird.
This weekend was the second annual Friendsgiving celebration potluck. We hosted it at our house this year now that it's almost done. 
Here's the view from the other end of the table.
Probably my favorite part was when 4 of us (me, Hallie, Liz and Jeremy) were making the mashed potatoes (with kale) and deciding how much more cream to put in while Brett and Dan were screaming about us putting salad in the 'taters.
After eating we played Catch Phrase while we watched OU vs. Texas Tech. Every time OU scored we all took a shot of hot damn and continued on screaming phrases at each other.
We all had a blast. Can't wait for Friendsmas!
I'm a vegetarian. I stopped eating meat when I was 13 or 14 - I was going through a "phase". Well, it kind of stuck and it turned out that I didn't really miss meat that much. About 7 years ago I started eating tuna fish and seafood again. So now I am technically an ovo-lacto pescatarian. That means I eat eggs, dairy and fish.
What I didn't eat much of was vegetables. I started eating squash and zucchini every once in a while (maybe once or twice a month) about 2 years ago. I hadn't had broccoli for about 20 years (20!) until last week.
That has all changed. Jeremy inspires me to eat veggies on a daily basis. And I actually LIKE them! 
The other night we threw together all the veggies we had in the house! Squash, zucchini, onions, garlic, tomato, mushrooms, and kale (it was a first for both of us to cook with kale). We threw in some gluten-free pasta (eh) that we decided to try out.
So really this is me patting myself on the back for eating my veggies versus when I was five years old and pretending to throw broccoli up on myself at the dinner table.
I'm not sure if you're aware but Polaroid has stopped producing instant film. They've moved on to the digital world and expects the rest of us too.
I became obsessed with shooting Polaroids after my digital camera was stolen a few years ago and it was all I had.
So the point of my story is that I bought 20 packets of 10 yesterday. And I'll probably buy 20 more in the next few months. And if you're unsure what to get me for Christmas or my birthday, here it is. Polaroid film.
P.S. It's not just you, the lady on the cover that is about to snap her own neck creeps me out too.
Well - I was wanting to wait until this afternoon to post pictures of the hallway, especially so soon after the exciting bathroom before/after post, but I just can't contain myself.
It was quite a process but well worth it. We still need to do the touch ups but overall everything came out much cleaner than I had anticipated. We also need to hang our new light fixture, paint the french doors to my closet black, and possibly install some recessed lighting on both ends of the hall to get a little more light in there.
Paint used:
Sherwin Williams Creme in a flat finish
Sherwin Williams Black Magic in a flat finish
Sherwin Williams Extra White for the trim
Without further ado!
Here is the bathroom - before and after!
What we did:
• Replaced tile
• Replaced subfloor
• Replaced lead pipes with PVC
• Textured the walls
• Painted walls with Conservative grey
• Painted trim with white
• Replaced baseboards and patched tub tile
• Replaced light fixture
• Replaced blinds
For visual reference of the journey:
Today I was invited, last minute, to an award luncheon put on by the OU College of Journalism. 
Jim Lehrer was the recipient of the Gaylord Prize. He moderated the presidential debate between McCain and Obama that took place at the University of Mississippi. 
I always go to events like these for work expecting nothing but always find myself leaving inspired.
For the past few months I've been obsessed with wanting a truck. Specifically, a two-toned (blue and white, please) 1980s Ford F150.
When I tell most people about my desire for a good ol' truck I'm met with "but what about the COST OF GAS!?"
Well, I also drive one of these:
The 90 mpg combats the 8 I'd get with a truck. ALSO, I only live 3 miles from my work.
A truck would be great for lots of things. Like moving/picking up furniture. Hauling home a Christmas tree, quarter round, and large sheets of plywood for random projects, just to name a few.
And I'd look cute driving it.
In between taping stripes in our hallway (yes, we're still working on it - on a Saturday night no less) Jeremy and I decided to enjoy some Silk nog.
Lactose free egg nog.
With a little bit of whiskey.
Topped off with a little bit of nutmeg.
Now, I'm sure soy nog is blasphemous to a few of you Jeremy thinks it's quite tasty - a little less eggy and creamy than the real deal.
I'm still not sure how I feel about egg nog (soy or the real deal). This is my first year to try either.
At Disneyworld, while waiting in line for Space Mountain you're treated to the most soothing sequence of notes known to man. Walt was wise to commission it from undoubtedly the most renowned bard in Fantasy Land, anticipating the decades of parents and children impatiently awaiting the most thrilling ride in the Magic Kingdom. 
Behold!
(and thanks Halston, for finding this and sending it to Kathleen. -jeremy)
Space Mountain Music
I love watching the food channel at Thanksgiving time. Everyone is throwing together some sort of cold weather comfort food and something about them describing every buttery step completely hypnotizes me.
As a result, I've been skimming through 101Cookbooks.com, a web site that mainly features healthy vegetarian recipes, when I found this:
Cornmeal Crunch Recipe
This is what happens when you cook a pot of cornmeal until it is thick and creamy. Add a bit off cheese, some deeply caramelized onions, spread it in a pan, drizzle generously with olive oil and bake until the bottom and sides are deeply golden and crunchy. The insides stay a tad bit melty and creamy, the caramelized onions on top add depth and sweetness.
I want to eat it right now.
Here is our new cowhide rug! I love it. Halston, my brother's girlfriend, picked it up for us in Argentina and delivered it to us when we met up at Disneyworld. She got my brother one too - he uses it as an extra blanket on his bed.
I should also say that we got a super deal on it. We got this for well over half off of what I've seen it go for in local furniture stores. Thanks, Halston!
I'm researching some lights for an office-space remodel I'm working on with a co-worker.
Most of these I'm going to post probably wouldn't be appropriate but I definitely gathered some inspiration from browsing.
Fiorella Suspension Lamp
I don't like how cartoon-y flowery this one gets on the ends but otherwise I love the overall shape and effect.
Droog - Milk Bottle Lamp, www.allmodernlighting.com
LBL Lighting - Marmo Low Voltage Mini-Pendant,
www.allmodernlighting.com
George Kovacs - Twenty Four Light Chandelier, www.allmodernlighting.com
Vitra - Cloud Lamp by Frank Gehry
This one is best in action.
We were off to Disney before I could post more Halloween photos! 
Halloween night Jeremy and I had a wedding to go to. I was too paranoid that if we dressed up (like mummies as originally planned) that we'd show up and be the only ones in costume. So we got fancied up and but blood on our faces instead. Jeremy is a vampire and I'm his food. You can't see it but I had some fantastic looking bite marks on my neck.
Aww... 
Liz was also a vampire. A Lost Boys partying variety.
Dan was Dexter.(Which I'm watching the first season of now!)
Mario was a wrestler. 
Brett was a priest.
Hallie was a pregnant Juno. As we were leaving the bar some girl entering was all "Oh my god! That girl is pregnant and DRINKING!" Hahaha.
Here we are at MGM/Hollywood. 
Once we got on the very popular Toy Story ride it broke down halfway through. We were manually released from the ride and told to line up against the wall. Jeremy and I snuck a photo while we were at it.
My brother and our nephew at Downtown Disney. My brother refers to his mustache as his "money maker" - our nephew pretends to cut it off and says "I'm going to cut off your money maker!"
Here we are at Animal Kingdom - Asia. This was probably my favorite area of Disneyworld. That's my dad in the background trying to work his camera phone.
He's a model.
This is in line for Expedition Everest - the yeti ride. The atmosphere in the line is so rad that you don't even mind waiting an hour to ride the roller coaster.
On the ferry to Magic Kingdom.
Halston, my brother's girlfriend, joined us in Disney too! People kept on asking the 4 of us what band we were in. Jeremy is the only one actually in a real band (he plays drums).
Fin.
