Summer Vacay 2011: A day on the dock

It’s day four in Savannah and we’re having such a nice time.  It’s been the perfect mix of productivity and relaxing.  We’re already seen a handful of friends and have spent plenty of time hanging out on the dock.  Yesterday was our first day without an agenda while everyone else worked (suckers!), so TGrass and I layed on the dock all day listening to Pat McGee and Matt Wertz and devoured some Zaxby’s (wasn’t on the original list but it should’ve been!). 

Caveman catch dinner…wife bring beer.  Feast on crabs ‘til 11 o’clock. {Grunt}

(My brother Charles is in the orange, he lives just a few minutes from my parents)Man vs. Food

Dinner before…

During…

And after…

So here’s where we stand on our summer vacay progress…

- Vinnie's
- Wright Square
- Lulu's Chocolate Bar
- Pearl's or Oyster Bar
- Mrs. Wilke's
- Heiwas
- Crab Shack or AJ's
- Rocks on the River
- Crabbing off the dock
- Host crab boil or low country boil
- Francesca's
- Charming Charlie's
- The Pink Door
- EJ Scandals
- Sand Gnats game
- Sewing lessons with mom
- Tybee Island
- Sugar Shack
- Wassaw Island
- Bonna Bella
- Charleston or St. Simon's for a day
- See a bajillion people

All signs are pointing to no day trip to Charleston and no Sand Gnats game, which is perfectly fine—there just isn’t enough time.  But we’ve still got six days left and plenty of eatin’ to do!  It’s a little overcast today, so I think that spells s-h-o-p-p-i-n-g!  Throw in all of our craft projects and sewing lessons while we watch football on Saturday and this list will be dunzo by next weekend!

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In other news, while Tyler and I enjoyed a leisurely day on the dock, my sister-in-law Kara was working hard to deliver her third baby boy!  We’ve only seen cellphone pictures so here’s what I have to show you…

They’re still deciding on a name but he weighed in at 9lbs, 11 oz so right now he’s going by Tank!  Who knows what he’ll look like in a few years but right now, he sure looks a lot like his big brother Cohen.

Happy Birthday Tank!  We’re proud of you Kara.

Summer Vacay 2011

Well readers, we're Savannah bound! Summer has just flown by and I can't even BELIEVE it's the end of August. While we've been plenty busy, we just haven't done our usual summer stuff, like all the usual outdoor concerts and movies. Tyler and I decided we needed to get away for awhile so we figured we'd head south to my hometown. We get there frequently for holidays and family events but we've rarely gone without an agenda and definitely not for an entire week! My parents have a great house on the water so it's like a real vacation when we go home.

We started keeping a list earlier this summer of things we want to do while we're there, as we were daydreaming of our time off. Tyler has never been for this long and I haven't been this long since the week before our wedding (and I certainly wasn't hanging out at the beach that week!) so I've been trying to think of things he's never done, things that are new to the city that I'VE never done, and then just our favorite ol' things. We ended up compiling quite a list, most involving food...

- Vinnie's (best pizza, hole in the wall downtown)
- Wright Square (food, delicious)
- Lulu's Chocolate Bar (never been, mom always talks about it)
- Pearl's or Oyster Bar (if i die young, bury me in their hushpuppies)
- Mrs. Wilke's (Paula Deen, Shmala Deen)
- Hyawas (take out japanese, shrimp sauce please!)
- Crab Shack or AJ's (or anywhere where I can eat crab legs in my bathing suit)
- Rocks on the River (newish bar downtown, never been)
- Crabbing off the dock (Tyler's been dreaming about it for months)
- Host crab boil or low country boil
- Francesca's (shopping)
- Charming Charlie's (shopping)
- The Pink Door (shopping)
- EJ Scandals (shopping)
- Sand Gnats game (minor league baseball, old school Savannah and T's never been)
- Sewing lessons with mom (so I can stop gluing pillows...)
- Tybee Island (our local beach)
- Sugar Shack (Tybee landmark, ice cream on the way home from the beach)
- Wassaw Island (small beach you boat to)
- Bonna Bella (great food/bar stop when you're out on the river)
- Charleston or St. Simon's for a day (T's never been to SSI and it's a great town)
- See a bajillion people

We have to squeeze all of this into ten days between all of the lazy days on the dock I'm counting on! But I couldn't be more excited to hang out with friends and family getting in all of my favorite food and places. I'm HOPING to do a blog series on Savannah while I'm there but if you know my track record on blogging while busy, you'll keep your expectations low...

Until then, happy hurricaning! (Can you believe we're heading SOUTH to safety?? I can't get over it...)

A Tale of Survival

Well, it seems we’ve survived it all… hurricanes {Dean in ‘07}, two blizzards, and now…an earthquake!

It was all pretty shocking and the state of our home this afternoon was really devastating.   We’re struggling to cope with the aftermath.

Oh wait.  That’s just our living room. Regular style.

In other breaking news, Prince Charles & Camilla bought a puppy today and the 5th season of “Real Housewives of New York” has been postponed.

In all for realness, the quake itself was really frightening as it was happening but it was more out of shock than fear for my safety.  I was at work with a patient in our gym which is on the 3rd floor of a tall building and completely surrounded by windows.  It was really loud and it felt like a huge gust of wind was shaking the building…except when I looked outside, the branches weren’t moving.  It only lasted a few seconds and we were all just really confused afterward.

“Was that an earthquake?”

I’d never felt anything like it.  But after buzzing around the office and checking our phones for a few minutes, things returned to normal.  I completely understand the initial mayhem in DC considering we’re so close to the 10th anniversary of September 11th.  Tyler works in a congressional office building across the street from the Capitol and you can only imagine what went through their minds inside of a loud, shaking government building on Capitol Hill.  They were all evacuated and weren’t allowed back in for the rest of the day.  Several schools and office buildings in the area remain closed until they’re structurally inspected, the National Cathedral has some damage, as well as a few embassies, and traffic was flubbed up on the trains and in the airports.

But other than that, it really wasn’t a big deal and the news coverage all seems a bit excessive.  Yes, a 5.9 magnitude is impressive and I’ll admit that I’m a little eeked out that there was an earthquake in Colorado last night.  But don’t we all have bigger things to worry about…like Hurricane Irene?

Have a mentioned we’re heading to Savannah this weekend? Just add it to the list.

The Grassmeyers survived…

THE GREAT QUAKE OF 2011

My name is Kathryn…

And I have a problem.

Perhaps an addiction…

…called…

BACON.

I always knew I loved this decadent pork product, but it wasn’t until I received the following birthday gifts that I realized maybe I’m teetering on the edge of atherosclerosis.

Not one...  Not two…  But three different people thought to give me something bacon-themed for my birthday.

Clearly there’s an issue here.

Not that I’m complaining—quite the opposite.  I jumped up and down when I opened my Baconnaise, especially because now I can cross it off my list!!  THE list.

So here before you…all 84 of you…I share photographic documentation of my very first taste of Baconnaise.  Scratch #3 off my list folks!

My review?  Well, first you should know that I love mayonnaise. 

{So if you don’t like mayo, you’re not going to love Baconnaise.  Sounds like a sin to me, but to each his own or whatever.} 

Anyway, it tastes like mayonnaise but saltier and with a definite smoky flavor to it.  There are also little crumblies in it that might be peppercorn, but I’m not sure.  I don’t know if in a blind taste test I’d immediately identify it as bacon flavored mayonnaise, but it’s definitely a good condiment!

And a lick wasn’t good enough, so we went ahead and made BLTs.  I can’t remember the last time I’d made one but let me tell you… BLTs with Baconnaise are double the good of old BLTs!

           

           

My life can now be classified into BB and AB: Before Baconnaise and After Baconnaise.  I’m channeling my inner Bubba and listing everything I can now make with it:  Baconnaise Potato Salad… Baconnaise Deviled Eggs… Baconnaise Egg Salad… Mmmmm. 

The possibilities are endless, my friends.  I speak the truth when I say everything’s better with bacon!

Happy Finger Lickin’ Bacon Eatin’ Monday!

That latest and greatest…

I finally ordered new running shoes…

Because I was developing some foot issues from training…

{You don’t need a picture of that, do you?}

So I stopped running until they arrived.

But in the mean time, we went to New York, celebrated my birthday, and our anniversary {numero four-o}.

Which means I ate a lot.

And then we had friends over for brunch on Sunday.

{Which means I ate more.}

And on Saturday it rained…

So we watched this…

While I made these…

I didn’t do any of this…

Which means I didn’t showed you these…

{Rescued from the streets by Cora the Awesome, just for me!}

Or tell you about how I’m going to paint them bright glossy green…

{Sorta like this}

And cover the seats in this…

But who knows if I’ll actually get around to that.

After all, I never showed you how I made this…

{Which I meant to last Friday.}

Because this Friday, I’ll have some extra special guests.

Yes, that’s already there waiting.

Three days early.

Because that’s how ready I am for them to be here.

{I just hope the flowers live.}

Until then… Happy late night Monday!

Bon Fete!

While my birthday on Monday was a low-key day of work, errands, and leftovers, the real celebration took place at Chez Grassmeyer on Saturday night.  I have been salivating over blogs and party ideas for weeks, a problem only spurned on by my recent Pinterest addiction, so I made a last minute decision to throw myself a party.  Everyone acted like I was a little crazy for wanting to host it myself— if they only knew how much I was loving all of the planning and preparations!

The original plan was for the party to take place on our patio under the stars, complete with Christmas lights and hanging decorations from trees.  But we were weary of the forecast and ended up literally rearranging our entire house to make room for a table set for sixteen {I couldn’t stop thinking of Father of the Bride “Well, if you're bringing in chairs, then why are you moving the furniture out??”}.  There’s still like 2% of me that’s bummed we couldn’t do it outside, but I think it all turned out beautifully and I’m pretty sure everyone had just as much fun as I did!

The menu was Italian themed and served family style—bowls of spaghetti carbonara were passed, baguettes lined the table with butter and oils for dipping, with plates of caprese salad and grilled summer squash, carafes of white table wine and chianti to boot.

And frugalite that I am, most of the costs of the party went toward the food—I was able to keep all of the décor to minimum.  A brief breakdown…

• We rented 4 folding tables from Craigslist for $6 apiece and borrowed 12 chairs from neighbors and friends {mismatched is in, right?}
• We borrowed the plates from a friend and we used our own silverware and mason jars.  The wine carafes are from World Market {$5 each}, the chalkboard tags I made a few months ago.
• The white table cloths were paper from a local party store {$4 each, I think}, the runner is one yard of burlap that I cut into strips and stitch-a-witched together {$3.50}.  The orange placemats were made from two yards of fabric I bought and seamed the edges.
• The hydrangeas were cut from the backyard and the crates were $2, I painted and mod podged them for free {coming soon to a Crafty Cfriday near you!}.
• The candles I already had {mostly leftover from our wedding} and I borrowed a few blue mason jars from a friend.

But you musn’t forget dessert!  I channeled my inner Hostess with the Mostess and planned a table dedicated to every dessert I could dream up.  Because I knew I was using colored platters, I tried to come up with sweets in the whiteish/yellowish family.

From left to right: zucchini cake whoopie pies, lemon squares, lemon drops, rice krispie treats, oreo truffles {dipped in white chocolate colored yellow}, powdered donuts, white chocolate covered pretzel sticks, and red velvet cupcakes

My friend Ashley made the adorable chevron food tags.  The platters I either had or made {see Crafty Cfriday comment above}, the desserts I baked, and all of it we ate!

And then, faster than it had taken to set up… The party was over and we were left with this…

{Frowny face emoticon}

      And this was all waiting for us Sunday morning…

            

But this is the only real memory I’m left with!

It was so fun to plan and prep and spend a night surrounded by great food and friends.  Can it be my birthday again next month??  Any excuse to throw a party?  Passed your emissions test recently?

Okay… Well here’s to next year’s fete!

Another day, another year older…

Well, it’s my birthday.  I made it to the big 2-8!  And I have absolutely no qualms about it because I’ve felt like I was 28 since I was probably 22.  So I embrace it—I don’t feel old, I just feel 28!

It was a great year and a lot of great things happened: we spent three amazing weeks in Italy, I graduated and passed boards, I celebrated my year anniversary with my practice, and we saw a wholebuncha shows at the Kennedy Center.  And I made small but steady progress on my “30 Before 30” list…

We went on a family vacation with my family, I kissed Tyler under the Eiffel Tower, we saw South Pacific, and we went to the Kentucky Derby. 

{Okay, so I only accomplished four things but those were pretty big ticket items!}

I’ve got two years to check off the next 26… A few of them are easy if I’d just get my act together…{eat baconnaise, go camping, Charlottesville winery, having a baby- ha},

A few are already in the works… {training for a half-marathon in November, planning a trip to Napa}

And many will only happen with a bit of planning and preparation… {Martha’s Vineyard, heading back to Boston, trips with friends and sisters…}.

Then there are some that I just have no hope of happening… {Golf lessons, water skiing, the Dawgs winning a national championship.}

{Oh, how that last one pains me.}

And that AFI movie list?  Haven’t watched a single one.  Nada one.

So, you know...I have some work to do! {Read the list in full here}  Twenty-seven was good to me and I hope twenty-eight is even better.  My actual birthday today was very nice—we had a big party at our house on Saturday, Sunday we did absolutely nothing but drink sangria at the pool, and today I had a short day at work that included a fabulous brunch-lunch put on by my co-workers.  I talked to most of my family {which is a feat} and I think my phone started smoking at one point from all of the Facebook updates.  I feel the love.

Thanks for being such amazing readers!  Thank you for following along…always commenting, advising, and cheering when I need it…still reading when I’m inconsistent and boring.  I tell myself I’d blog even if no one read at all but you are WAY more fun!

Thanks dudes. You’re the best.

Almost Famous

Tyler was perusing espn.com on his ipad last night {per his usual sexy bedtime routine} when I overheard him say, “Hey, I think that’s me…”

He worked for the football team in college and was a sideline regular at Nebraska between 1998 and 2002. 

And I’m pretty sure he’s right.

Just in case you want his autograph or something…