28 days, 19 hours, 37 minutes and 5 seconds

So many good things are happening that something is bound to go wrong soon.  For example, why must GOD punish me with zits when I’m 39?

Vacation is looming large and I’m beginning to panic a little about not having practiced my Spanish more.  I need to do a little research and download a conversation Catalan and French podcast.  Teh Smitten and I purchased our train tickets a couple weeks back and only spent a total of $220 to get us from Barcelona to Toulouse – pretty happy about that.  I’ve started to tab interesting places and cafes/bars for us to visit.  I should be more concerned with various deliverables due with my leadership program, but its hard to focus when I know that happyfuntime is so close.

We have commenced Teh Smitten’s birthday weekend.  The celebration (kinda) has kicked off with Ghirardelli brownies and this lovely Rias Baixas Vizconde de Barrantes albarino.  We have a Clatterford dvd in the player and are idly flipping channels. Right now, teh cutie is happily watching some blow hard talk about weaponry on history.com.

Also, I am nearly done with Christmas shopping.  Took care of the niece and nephew via Amazon.com this afternoon.  The boy gets xBox 360 games (Madden 10 and Brutal Legend) and the girl gets the latest glam barbie vacation house with matching pool and convertible (to be released in mid-November).  Best. Aunt. Ever.  My brother in law is getting an haute couture t-shirt from Alexander McQueen.  The boy loves t-shirts so he’s getting the best.  Srsly.  Gilt.com has saved my ass this year.  (And so has ruelala.com, hautelook.com and ideeli.com – bless them every one!) The Marc “mother effing” Jacobs handbags for my sister and me – still reeling over that find.  I need to stop spending money so I can buy myself a car at the end of the year.  I’m not sure that Toonces is going to pass the DC inspection in January.  At the current rate, it is going to be a Toyota Yaris or Hyundai box of death instead of the Honda Civic.  Alas, alas!

57 days, 19 hours, 20 minutes and 34 seconds to go

We’ve nailed down an itinerary and lodging, which makes me giddy.  Its not just the glass of wine I just had and the ambien CR.  So, I thought I’d share a bit.

We fly out on the 21st and arrive on the 22nd (flying from Dulles, through De Gaulle).

After a bit of research, I happened upon this website that provided apartments in Barcelona for rent to travelers and found a perfect one in the Barri Gotic.  It has as washer (rare to find a dryer in Europe) and we will stay there 4 nights.  The cost is about 75 Euros per night, which is extremely reasonable.  The link to the place is below – we are staying in that specific apartment.

http://lovingbarcelona.com/Barcelona_apartment_9046.html

We’ll take the train on the morning of the 26th up along the coast and will stop for the night in Narbonne so we can check out the Via Domitia. I think the train ride will be 5 or 6 hours due to all the stops along the way.  Would be closer to 3 or 4 by car.

Narbonne, Hotel La Residence - November 26 (1 night).  I checked the area out using the Google Street Level thing, and it is super close to the train station, close to the river, and only a few blocks from square where there’s a sunken area of the Via Domitia.

http://www.hotelresidence.fr/uk/navigation.htm

On the afternoon of the 27th we’ll take the train to Carcassonne – I think its about 45 minutes to an hour West)

Carcassonne, Hotel Donjon – November 27 & 28 (a Best Western).  We will begin to try cassoulet there.  The Hotel le Donjon used to be an orphanage in the 1500’s.  We are staying in the old walled part of the city.

http://www.hotel-donjon.fr/en/

On the 29th, we will take the train to Toulouse, and maybe stop in Castelnaudary along the way.  Castelnaudary is about 10 minutes away, and Toulouse another 40 -50 minutes.  Carcassonne, Castelnaudary and Toulouse all vie for the best cassoulet recipes.  We will need to bring Beano and Gas-X.

Toulouse, Les Loges de Saint Sernin – November 29 and 30 (a B&B, we are staying in the very pink St-Sernin room – I requested it especially).  Ah, the pink room.  So romantic.  Teh Smitten says he is comfortable enough with his masculinity to stay in a pink room, but not enough to wear a pink shirt.  This is a fair compromise, don’t you think?  I’m quite excited about staying in this place, only a block from the Basilica.  Toulouse is called the la ville rose.

http://www.dormiratoulouse.net/eng/index.php

Tim and I have been focusing our wine buying solely on wines we might find in Cataluna and the Languedoc-Rousillon region of France.  There is a minervois on sale at Schneiders that I have got to get my hands on this week.  We are getting studied up as much as possible.  Tim has located an iPhone app for us to help track our libatory interests.

Our flight back departs on December 1st at 1 pm from Toulouse, and goes through CDG in Paris. (Air France).  IF we decide to come back.

where the hell have i been?

Life just keeps happening, faster and faster.  Well, kind of faster.  For example, each week of June seemed painfully long but when I got to July 1, I couldn’t figure out where the month had gone.  I started a leadership program that keeps me busy and has a more interesting reading list than I had anticipated.  Work is good, but I’m a little burned out.  The bosses have promoted me to a 15 and I start a 60 day detail with another part of the department in August.  This week will be my last in the office until October 5th as I have leadership training in Norfolk the 19th through the 24th and have to conduct a meeting in Grand Forks, ND from the 27th through the 30th.  I’m not stressing yet so I’m either incredibly prepared or in utter denial.  Oh, and Teh Smitten and I bought our tickets to Europe.  We’re going over the Thanksgiving holiday (oh yeah, I return from Kansas City on a Friday and immediate fly out of the country the next day which is INSANE), flying into Barcelona and out of Toulouse.  So, in the midst of leaning leadership skills, upping the professional ante and trip planning, things are busy.  Getting cable in June does not help me focus.  I have cable-related ADD and cannot manage to watch most programs to their end, preferring to flip channels constantly.

In the interest of my sanity and health, I decided not to attend my 20th HS class reuinion.  It looks like it was fun, but I figure I’ve got FB to keep up with folks, and maybe I’ll make it to the 25th or 30th.  People should have mellowed out even more by then, right?  And gained weight?  I really don’t need to be the one classmate where everyone is like, “oooohhhh, she used to be so pretty.“

Radio silence will probably continue until sometime in August.

on the wagon

We’re mostly dry at Chez Allezoop these days due to Teh Smitten’s unconfirmed fatty liver (non-alcoholic) disease. Once confirmed (hopefully later this month) we may be able to commence having our daily bread wine again. Technically, I could drink but we believe in solidarity around here. Well, 9 days out of 10 we do.

This is tough on Teh Smitten since fancy artisanal and old school cocktails are among his passions, and because people who complain about not being able to drink are automatically labeled alcoholics. (Sometimes I not so secretly long to live in Europe where folks have a more balanced view of these things.) Fortunately, we both – and his doctor – know better.

Once I get my tax refund, I’m seriously thinking about whisking the cutie and me off to somewhere for some relaxation. How far can I get us for a total of $2K to $2.5k?  Considering that our current outlet is an xbox 360 game called Fable II and that I have developed a true hate for my blackberry, out of the country would be nice.  Could I do Spain for us both for $3k?

Lastly, I need to come up with 2 60 day rotations in other Federal agencies.  Who wants a GS-14 with external affairs and policy skilz?  My agency is paying the way…

doing my patriotic duty

It was not a major purchase, but I finally got a new loveseat.  People all around me (well, okay, two people) have gotten new ones and I was full of envy.  I’ve had my current loveseat since my mom bought it for me at least 10 years ago.  I know.  Its sad.  Jennifer Convertibles made a decent product though, and it was doing well until about 9 months ago.  It was fine for one person’s generous ass.  Having to deal with two people’s asses for the past 18 months was just too much and the support is gone.  The cushions haven’t ripped, but they lack bounce.  The pillows are a bit misshapen.  I’m hoping I can donate it to AmVets or something since DC regs won’t let me just put it out on the curb for the public to take away – its just a matter of having AmVets pick it up the same day the new loveseat of glory [cue angels singing] is delivered.

The new loveseat comes in a rich chocolate velvet (from Macys).  Why just a loveseat?  Because I live in a hobbit hole.  I’m still debating getting the accent chair to go with it (it almost costs the same amount) but am afraid of overwhelming my tiny abode.  Also, it would mean putting the cute but uncomfortable vintage chair into storage.  At some point, Teh Smitten and I will move into a larger place and will be able to expand our available seating.  We’re not in a hurry to do so in this economy.  Also, I’m more interested in spending on travel than rent/mortgage.  My family thinks I’m nuts. Maybe I just have a fear of housing commitment.

In other good news, things are on the verge of going completely my way at work.  I hope to have a new minion by the start of March; she’s accepted the tentative (its all tentative till you pass the background check) offer and its now just a matter of getting through the remaining red tape.  The Federal hiring process is horribly broken and its no wonder that its so hard to recruit the best and brightest. Also, I’ve been accepted into a prestigious leadership program for the next year.  It will provide some much needed development and help me to continue to move forward.  My boss, who is retiring soon, did me a huge glorious solid on getting me into the program and I’ll miss him like hell.  Now if I could only get my contractor to perform at the level she should be performing.

Health-wise things could be a bit better.  The rapid pulse problem is back, probably because things got a bit dicey with the job (contractor problems – one of them wasn’t doing their job which meant my workload increased significantly and I had them taken off the project; the other one isn’t performing well and is a nervous wreck because they know I’m not happy)  in early January.  Either I’m not dealing well with stress/anxiety or its the thyroid again.  It affects my ability to sleep, my mood, my gut, etc., and the pulse medication makes me sluggish – its whole purpose is to slow you down.  Taking a flight of stairs up is a slog and winds me.  Teh Smitten and I have changed our diet to try and counteract things – much less red meat, more vegetables, watching the salt, more oatmeal and less eggs on weekends, etc.  Lean ground turkey has replaced lean ground beef for taco nights (and we don’t use sour cream).  I see the doctor the week after next.  Warmer weather and longer days would be helpful – I just can’t motivate to exercise when it is dark and cold.

A trip to Florida is in the works.  Just for me and just a quick weekend.  I had bought a ticket for the end of March, but I now have to be in Gettysburg on the 29th to start the first week of leadership training so need to call Orbitz and reschedule.  It might end up costing less to buy a new ticket at this point.  A weekend of sunshine and to check on the fam would be both nice and stressful.  I also need to find time for Teh Smitten and I to get away.  We’ve been thinking about going up to NYC to see my friends and visit a couple famous cocktail places.  Teh Smitten’s cocktail curiousity just grows and grows.

this’ll teach you

So, Agent Provocateur has a very slightly NSFW ad on their website that I kind of just love.  Don’t watch it with the kids around.

http://www.agentprovocateur.com/lovemetender/.html

I tried to insert the video directly but my web skills are lacking.

Back to my originally scheduled home alone for the weekend plans that involve eating cereal for dinner, bathing when I wanna, watching girly movies (Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette wasn’t all bad), catching up on True Blood episodes online, and maybe scrapbooking if I can get my lazy culo motivated.

you get back here right now!

Teh Smitten and I had a nice Christmas with my family at their new home between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. The first couple days were a bit harried, but Christmas day was spent at the beach and the day after with old friends and dinner at SoBe. To help stretch out the relaxing feeling, I upgraded us to first class for the trip back on Saturday night. About an hour after we landed, we got an irate call from my niece.

Niece: Allez! You left your peepee!!! [Unintelligible yelling...] You get back here right now!!

Me: [Trying real hard not to laugh because she is SERIOUSLY shocked and dismayed that we have LEFT A MAN BEHIND.] Wait, honey, let me put you on speaker… Now tell Teh Smitten what you just said to me.

Niece: Smit! You left your peepee!!!!! [You can hear everyone over the age of 5 laughing on both sides of the line at this point.]

To freshen your memory, here is the previous post about Pipi Le Chick.

The niece had plenty to say about this very serious parental lapse on my and Teh Smitten’s part, for which I should feel lots more guilty.  Pipi is very special to her as he has a delightfully soft and plaintive peep, and she knows him well from our Skype video conferences.  She demanded that we return immediately and fetch our precious baby.  I explained that he must have hidden from us while we were packing so that he could stay and winter with her in Florida.  I asked her to take special care of him for us.  She was somewhat placated.

Christmas is HARD.

We went to the beach on Christmas afternoon.  Teh Smitten and I lounged in our chairs and read our new books.  The niece crashed after about 10 minutes.

I told you I was tired.

We took mercy on her wee neck and put her in a lounge chair.

So, Christmas was nice.  My mom wasn’t on my case for anything.  The weather was nice (maybe a little rainy for a couple days), we found a pub down there that serves Belhaven on draft as well as fried p0undcake (which is so wow), and we had a brief respite from cold and gray DC.

holy cow, its already christmas

How did that happen?

The season seemed extra short and extra stressful. Having a decent job and no mortgage does not help one to feel recession-proof. This was the first year in a long time when I did not have all my Christmas shopping pretty much done before Thanksgiving. I dragged my feet and had a hard time getting into the spirit of the season. Work is partially to blame, but I feel badly about not doing better with gift-giving. And the foot-dragging has even affected the gift wrapping, which I usually enjoy. Not this year. Its gift bag city under my family’s tree. We ran out of tissue, rendering several gifts not so much a surprise.

There’s not really anything I really wanted this year. Jewelry and stuff are fun, as are little pocketbooks and silly things. For example, our West Coast friends – members of our Urban Tribe who fled for better jobs and neat weather – sent me this wonderful pop-up book on the history of the bra and these fantastic whisky stones (you freeze them and put them in your whisky so you can cool it but not water it down) to Teh Smitten. We were so pleased.

We’ve pretty much just gotten the kids to bed in the last half hour so maybe they’ll sleep till 9… It is always fun to watch them open their gifts. My nephew adores Teh Smitten and insisted on going out and buying him a game for Smit’s X-Box 360 (a gift from his dad). Tomorrow will be quite manic and magical, and maybe we’ll even get down to the beach to enjoy the 80 degree weather for a while. I’ll try to capture some of the magic on photograph and post.

In any case, just wanted to convey my wishes to you for a wonderful Christmas. I will be among the people I love the most, feeling extremely lucky.

cookery

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:  I am not a good cook.  I am quite proficient at heating food up.  This is a handicap around the holidays.  I have a couple go-to items such as my mom’s Hello Dollies (a very good five layer bar) and ghirardelli brownies – from the mix! – people never know they aren’t from scratch.

Why why why would someone who loves food the way I do not have the natural ability to also cook it?

Exhibit A: homemade pie crust.

This past weekend I took a shot at what seemed to be a ridiculously easy pumpkin tart recipe in Gourmet.  The fact that it was in Gourmet should have been the tip off.  I’ve never actually made a pie crust in my life – even my mother just buys the ready-made kind.  This particular recipe called for baking anise seeds into the crust.  Leave it to me not to check the directions before launching into this project; I was missing a couple important tools.  A pastry blending thingy would have been nice, as would a rolling pin.  I used a bottle of dessert wine to roll out the dough instead.  The dough came out uneven and separated a bit (and, yes, I chilled it for at least an hour).

So, there goes that idea for Thanksgiving dinner with Teh Smitten’s family.  I’ve since offered to make the family monster cookies but now I can’t locate the recipe and have had to email a cousin who will hopefully respond in the next week or so.

Adding to the pressure is Teh Smitten, whose workplace is holding a potluck next week.  I have offered things that I know I can do such as broccoli-rice-cheese casserole and homemade mac-n-cheese with ham.  Casseroles are mighty hard to screw up – they’re barely a notch above heat and serve.  I’ve also offered the five layer bars.

The family is pretty much all packed up.  They move out of the house on Saturday and into a hotel for a week, and then off to Miami.  Teh Smitten and I already have our airline tickets for Christmas.  Did you know that they have $40 day cruises to the Bahamas leaving Fort Lauderdale daily?  With gambling?  Huh.

My heart is full with regard to the election.  It has been a while since I felt really good about being an American.

a dream is a wish your heart makes

My heart wanted a glass of armagnac.

Today I’m wrapping up the Florida vacation photos.  We’re starting with Sunday, October 5 at EPCOT.  My sister made reservations for Teh Smitten and me at the always nice French bistro.  I had steak (with some lovely escalloped potatoes and haricots vert) and Smit had the duck.

We had cocktails before and after dinner and wines with.  Do I recall what we drank?  No.  I have new respect for people who can keep track of what they drink at EPCOT’s wine and food festival.  It rained on us a good bit – it was all we could do to hold a drink while wearing these vile Disney ponchos.

Thankfully, it cleared up a bit after dinner and we got to watch the fireworks on the way out.  We also discovered that my niece has a thing for world music.  EPCOT was blasting this celtic jam with a disco backbeat and the girl was working it over by the German pavilion!

After all the drinking, we drank some more.

The next day, we celebrated my birthday at one of the restaurants at the Japanese pavilion.  My sister LOVES her some Japanese steak house action.  This resulted in certain humiliations.  I heard that people celebrating their birthdays at Disney were provided extra fun things – like special birthday desserts.  Well, the fine folks sang me happy birthday and provided a very nice napolean and planted this awesome hat on me.

I really don’t know what I was thinking aside from “more sake please”.  I’m not just blushing in this photo – that would be sunburn.

When I was five, the family took a trip to Disneyland where Chip and Dale inflicted much damage to my hair.  The Animal Kingdom’s version was much kinder to my niece and Dale flirted with me, which was disturbing.

The time spent at Treasure Island was pretty relaxing, and Teh Smitten and I managed to do a fair bit of exploring around St. Petersburg.  One day we went to the Florida Orange Groves Inc & Winery and tried a bunch of their fruit wines.  It sounds odd, but I really liked their tomato wine – would have made an interesting bloody mary.  We picked up a bottle of their Hurricane Class 5 white sangria and drank it at the beach, and brought home a bottle of the dry blueberry wine.  Most of the wines are very sweet – they seem to be marketed to people who don’t really like wine.  I’m an equal opportunity drinker, so whatever.  Afterwards, we grabbed lunch at Ted Peters Famous Smoked Fish restaurant.  I’m not a huge fan, but its been there for 50 years or so, had a ton of character and great German potato salad.

The sister and the fam headed back on Saturday, so Teh Smitten and I went to the Dali Museum for a little culture.

Later that day, we went to Ybor City to have dinner at the famed Columbia Restaurant – it boasts that it is the largest Spanish restaurant in all of North America.  It was a great experience!  Ybor City is pretty, and the restaurant consumes an entire city block.  We ate in the lovely bar area.  I think there was a wedding reception and two large events going on in that place that night.

We had calamari, scallops, mussels with chorizo, crab and chicken croquetas, perfect Cuban bread, wine, port and Teh Smitten tried a glass of that Japanese whisky – Suntory’s Yamazaki (it was very nice).  For dessert, white chocolate bread pudding topped with rum sauce.  It was amazing.  The service was outstanding.  That experience was so much more than I had expected it would be.

They also have a gift shop where they sell their own hand-rolled cigars.  Teh Smitten picked up a bourbon soaked cigar to enjoy at some point.

And now I dream of the next vacation.  Teh Smitten wants to go to the Cocktail Convention in New Orleans next year.  I think that sounds like a very good idea.

what a dump!

Just kidding.  Disney is a lovely place.  Teh Smitten and I had a good time.  The time spent at Disney was a bit hectic but the latter part of the week at Treasure Island was perfectly slow.  Rides were ridden, wine was tasted, and I spent a lot of dough on trading pins for the rugrats.  Also, Teh Smit and I were well-reminded that kids are a major responsibility that neither of us are prepared to undertake.

I finished TWO books.  Christopher Moore’s A Dirty Job was delightful.  The Gatecrasher?  A rubbish beach read with an abhorrent heroine.  Also, I don’t tan anymore.  I just get sun poisoning.  As an unrepentant ginger, Teh Smitten also suffered a bit.  My family is moving to Miami over Thanksgiving and I no longer tan.  W. T. F?  Future vacations will be spent in non-sunny and cool locales.

I discovered that my niece  – at the age of three – has a very dark side.  She tells very scary bedtime stories, punctuating her tales of BIG HUGE SPIDERS with giggles and breathy “and THEN…!”s.  She will also get you beers from the fridge and feed you m&m’s with glee.  In short, she is awesome and if she was easy (both my niece and nephew are awful at meals)  to take out for meals Teh Smitten and I might be more interested in procreation instead of our comfortably dissolute ways.  My nephew is much better behaved when we can get him away from his parents, and Smit and I spent a nice part of the day taking him on various rides at WDW.

The niece, even though she is gorgeous, is also a big goof.  This might save her from being one of those vapid beautiful people later in life.  She has a special “sassy” pose.

We are also sassy.

More to come.  I haven’t even gotten to my camera yet or the delightful meals (sans children) we had.

the most important time of day is chocolate

Oh, blessed time-wasters.  The VP debate is making me cringe, so I’m going to focus on fun stuff.

The DADA Server on Smalltime.com is all sorts of fun.  My results are strangely right on target:

Your secret name is pink.
The animal which symbolizes you is brad pitt.
The color of your soul is cold.
The celebrity you most resemble is 12pm.
Your special pain or illness is circle.
Your most important time of day is chocolate.
The shape of your life is Q-yurt.
And the flavor which identifies you most is platypus.

Please go now and post your results in the comments!

my arbitrary comments policy

Occasionally I get comments from mysterious sources.  Sometimes those comments are outright spam and immediately redflagged by WordPress.  Sometimes they go to my moderation folder.  I have a very arbitrary way of dealing with comments:

1. If the comment is negative, if I don’t know you, and/or if you leave a bogus email address I will delete the comment or leave it marked as spam.

2. Ditto if I really disagree with your comment.

3. Ditto Ditto if your comment appears even vaguely spammy.

4. If I know you the comment will be posted despite its content.

My logic:

- This is not a purely public forum.  I don’t advertise, get money for advertisements or have a wide readership.  I have a very, very narrow readership. (Spammers, please take note.)

- Along the same vein, if I don’t know you and/or if you are obviously obscuring your identity then I don’t give a crap about your opinions.  Start your own navel-gazing, self-aggrandizing online diary.  Nothing to see here.

- Open dialogue and differing opinions are a great thing when they are free of comment trolls.  Trolls hijack open dialogue under the auspices of differing opinions.  99% are hostile and impolite, and I will not harbor incivility in any forum (no matter how unimportant) under my control.  Incivility is killing society as it is and anyone engaging in harmful dialogue should consider seeing a therapist and trying some prescribed medications.  Seriously.  In this age of chemicals there is no reason to be an asshole.  Get thee to a physician and out of my grill.

- I’m not writing for posterity.  I write largely for myself.  In the long run, this stuff is only important to me.

Less than 72 hours till vacation.  I so need it.

extreme princess action: t minus 4 days and counting

Just four more days till wine and princess mayhem in the heart of Walt Disney Wierdness.  Can’t. Frakin’. Wait.  I’ve started packing already.  Bought a new roll-aboard for Teh Smitten, a new carry-on bag for me, new slenderizing swimsuit (GOLLY is it hard to put on), cover up, and a bunch of other crap.  Flip flops and camera are already packed.

Staring in the face of 38 is a little odd, so I’m glad I’ll be spending the majority of my time in some state of tipsytude.

Also, implemented a minor hair change over the weekend.

Looking pretty good for 38, huh?  From the shoulders up, at least.

dear god, please please please can we keep him?