Who Dat!

Logo via the New Orleans Saints

Woohoo! Can you believe that the Saints are no longer the 'Aints this year? That they are undefeated? As in not lost a game this year? Who dat! As you can tell, I might be a little excited about tonight's Monday Night Football game...it starts in less than two hours. Yup, just a little excited. ;)

I hope it's a good game, a bright spot for today because, let me tell you, today was gloomy. Chilly, overcast, rainy...just down right gloomy. It was dark when I left the house this morning and dark when I left work this evening. As much as I love fall and winter, I do miss and crave the sunlight!

So, yesterday I made this cute little garland from A Field Journal blog. Quick, easy and fun to do with carols playing in the background. Thanks to Amazon's free mp3s, I have a few new carols to listen to and am considering the purchase of an "album" or two.

Saturday is the BIG SEC Championship game in Atlanta. No. 1 versus No. 2 depending on what polls you look at and what order, Florida and 'Bama. Both undefeated at this point. Both with National Championship hopes. I plan to watch with some friends, we're going to meet at Brother Jimmy's. I haven't been there in ages and it should be fun. Of course, I'll have on my purple and gold, but who cares. I'll probably get taunted for it..but who cares. It's all good!

Thanksgiving: A Recap

Photo via pieceoflace's photostream

This year I spent Thanksgiving with the Lance family again and once again it was wonderfully yummy. I'm yet again thankful that they invite me over to join their family and friends' Thanksgiving celebration, especially since my family is so far away. Trust me, it's no fun to spend Thanksgiving alone and the past two years, I've not had to!

We also did some shopping today but after the crowds had thinned a bit. I was able to pick up some Christmas gifts for me! lol...I've done some shopping for everyone else and decided that this year I wanted wrapped gifts even if they won't be under a tree. Now, I have on the Cablevision holiday / seasonal music channel playing while wrapping my gifts.

Can you believe this year has gone by so quickly? Is it just me? Wow, now I have to start thinking about Christmas cards.

Chicago Pixie

The past few days, I've been a Chicago pixie instead of a NY pixie and I have to tell you, I really like Chicago. Well, what I saw of it. Above are some photos from Soldier Field and the bottom right is of the local NBC affiliate building that looks like a little 30 Rock. That was pretty cool.

My hotel was right across the river from the affiliate and that river was amazing. I don't think I've ever seen such pretty blue-green water in a city before. The entire city (once again, what I saw of it) was wonderfully clean and decorated for Christmas to boot.

There were Christmas trees all along the top of the Wrigley Building, lining Michigan Avenue and all over our hotel lobby. Everything seemed to glow and sparkle in the cool night air. Michigan Avenue or Magnificent Mile was pretty amazing too...so many stores and not nearly enough time or money.

The only thing that mired my stay was problems with the hotel, room charges and valet, but in my line of work, there's always problems with the hotels. It seems like they don't really care that they have a group block of our size or about the sheer amount of money that we'll be spending there on rooms, dining, valet OR the fact that if we're not happy with that service we're not going to stay there when we return.

DBGB and Bespoke Chocolates: A Sunday in the City

Image via Zagat / B. Milne

Yesterday I was able to scratch another restaurant off the list in my attempt to eat my way through the Zagat NY. I met Snowflake, Jill and Fafa for brunch at DBGB Kitchen & Bar in the LES / Bowery. A quick trip on the F train to the 2nd Avenue stop and it's right around the corner, easy peasy.

I wanted to bring my camera and take some pictures but the weather was miserable and I didn't feel like lugging my it around in the rain. I was able to find the above picture on-line.

The girls went with the burgers (The Frenchie and The Piggie) while I stuck with a more traditional brunch meal of eggs, I had the Ouef Forestiere. It's a baked egg dish with mushrooms and Gruyere and it's dee-licious.

The restaurant is laid out with a bar area in the front, a dining area in the middle and the semi-open kitchen in the rear. Along the perimeter of the dining area are little booths tucked into nooks to provide a cozy if not private dining area. Between the booths are shelves of wine, salts and other cooking supplies with copper cookware at the top. All the copper pieces were donated by famous chefs and each has a little plaque underneath to let you know which chef had used which piece.

After stuffing ourselves silly, I passed around some amazing little chocolates that I picked up at Bespoke Chocolates. While wandering around the area, I stumbled on this place and was able to see the chocolates being made while I made my purchase. Ohhh, so good...I would definitely suggest the Chai Spice and French Milk Chocolate pieces.

All in all, with the rain and chill, it was still a fun outing and it's always fun to meet up with the girls.

2010...Yes, It's THAT Close

Photos via myfolklover esty store

I bought myself a lovely new 2010 calendar from Etsy. It arrived nearly two weeks ago, but I've been lax about posting. I tried to take some pictures of it to show you but they didn't come out. The artist, Catherine, was kind enough to let me post pictures of it from her Etsy store. Isn't it pretty? There's nothing like starting a fresh calendar. I think the only thing right up there was back to school and getting new binders and notebooks. Yes, I'm a paper nerd.

Pix's Trip to the Rock

Friday night I went to see the Islanders play the Devils at the Prudential Center. It was my first trip to the Devil's new arena, thus...
me in front of "The Rock" as it's called. It was pretty darn cool for a sports venue...all fancy and stuff.

I was with four Islander fans, 3 of which wore Islander garb. At the beginning of the game, a camera guy came down and had the camera aimed at us but no tally light so we weren't on live. What were they doing? Oh, I'll tell you!

In the 3rd period, they did this thing where they put up a that pre-recorded video of someone in the opposing team's jersey / hat / etc and everyone boos! lol..then, they go live to some Devil's fan going crazy in their jersey / hat /etc and everyone cheers. They keep going back and forth between different shots. And, yup, you guessed it...we were booed.

MBE was impressed, he's never been booed by 4,000 people before. Good thing they all thought it was funny, because as the lone Devil's fan in the group...well, I wouldn't even want to speculate. ;)

However, there was one thing we all could agree on: we all dislike the Rangers.

Fat Babies and Grandma

Yup, I'm the fat baby on the left. The fat baby on the right is my cousin, Binky. Let me tell you a little story about how Binky got his name. It is a nickname of course, but one that's followed him for some 30 odd years. Bink loved his pacifier, or nook, nooney, whatever you may call it. Not only did he LOVE this paci, he was a connoisseur. He would only suck the Binky brand nooks. Thus the nickname "Binky". As he grew older, this name stuck and stuck...so much so that when he grew up to be a big boy, moved out of his parents house and had his phone installed, no one knew who he was because he was listed in the phone book under his given name. And so he changed the listing to Binky and all was right.

Pixie's Family Reflections

At our family reunion last weekend, several people brought boxes of photos that we took turns looking at and laughing over. They ranged from ages ago to brand new, black and white and color, and most had an awful lot of funny hairstyles and even funnier clothing. I took the opportunity to scan some of them and I thought I'd share.

This one is of my grandparents back in the day. I don't know when it was taken as it doesn't have a date on it. It's always fun yet strange to see these photos from so long ago, photos of my grandparents as I never knew them. It seems that they were always "old" to me yet here they are, dark hair and unlined faces.

Maw-maw and paw-paw were the proud parents of 11 children which included two sets of twins. Yes, you read that right...two sets of twins! These days we number well over 100: aunts, uncles, cousin and their spouses and children all accounted for. I think it's a wonderful reflection on maw-maw and paw-paw that all these years later, regardless of time and distance, we're still all willing to come together, have fun and enjoy each other's company. That we can laugh about the past and look to the future together and always know that someone (or in this case many people) are there for you when you need them.

A Gathering

Click photo to view larger.

Ah, well...my trip home was quick and sweet. I flew down on Thursday and back last night. Whew, that wore me out. We had our family reunion on Saturday and since it was Halloween, many got in the spirit and wore costumes!

I was a bumblebee, mom was a jailbird, E was Buzz Light Year, Addie was a flower, and assorted aunts and cousins were anything from a 50's girl to a dead homecoming queen, a pumpkin (pregnant belly) to a gypsy. There was a game of croquet that I missed and food, food and more food, pinatas and catching up. I saw a few cousins that I haven't seen in ages which was nice. I hope we get to do this more often as it reminds me of when maw-maw and paw-paw were alive and we all gathered at their house for every holiday and most Sunday's after church.

I was so happy that even though Addie doesn't know me from Adam's house cat, she let me hold her the entire time I was down there! She's such a sweet, happy baby...always laughing and bouncing. My little E was so good too, he's too much.

But, now I'm back in Jersey and back to work. C'est la vie!

Kidnapped?

Nah, just that I've been a busy bee trying to finish my next project before heading out for a long weekend visiting the parents and family. Why does it seem that as soon as you think you have a project all wrapped up, someone comes along and changes everything? Is that just me? Does this never happen to you?

So the story behind the picture above: The Director sent me an email before flying off to Phoenix. He'd been upgraded to First Class and was on a later flight...much later. I was in coach on a 6:30a flight. Ew. So, in typical snarky pixie mode, I responded that wass nice and I hoped he had fun in First Class while I slept in my car since the hotel check-in for our group wasn't until 3p. I added (for dramatic flair) that I hoped I wouldn't be murdered by a crazy Phoenix serial killer while I slept. He responded that I would be more like kidnapped by a drug cartel and to bring my passport so that when I escaped and found myself in Mexico, I could get back. Ha ha.

Anyhoo...all this to lead up to the picture. Once on site, some co-workers and I decided to take a picture of me in the trunk of my car as a faux kidnapping since said car had no license plate :) We sent it to The Director with a ransom request that was denied because he couldn't be sure it was me. And I quote, "all I see are legs and feet". lol. Can't pull anything over on him.