Ok, so I have a few weekends to cover here....

Weekend of March 4 - 
So we took Friday off.  Why on a random chilly day would we do that, you ask....
Well, we had to go and pick out our new puppy.  Yup, we're a 3 dog household now.

Meet Griffin:

He's about 5 months old and he's the most laid back puppy I've ever seen.  Laid back to the tune of we have to wake him up to eat and go outside.  We're smitten, we're in love, we think he's the best thing since beer.  I feel sorry for all of you once we have kids b/c this guy is all we can talk about anymore - kids are a whole other level.

On Saturday and Sunday - it was rainy, cold, and wet.  We learned that Mr. Giff doesn't really care for those conditions.  Evidenced by the fact that he wouldn't actually go to the bathroom - that guy held it ALL day long.  We know this b/c we were outside with him in the rain, cold, and wet ALL. day. long.  5 minutes inside and then 10 minutes outside.  It was a LONG day.  But eventually we won.  And we haven't had an accident since....that wasn't our fault.

No Sunday movie.  For no reason at all.  I don't know why we skipped it.

Weekend of March 11 -
Mike came to town for a date on Friday night.  Matt and I stayed home and watched TV.

SaturDAY started with puppy training class with Dogs and Kat.  We've got a pit bull and we plan to turn around as many minds about this breed as possible -he has to be an ambassador for the breed which means a TON of training.
It was beautiful out so after training and a trip to Hot Diggity Dog for lunch,  it was time for our all day drinking party.  The first pretty Saturday of the year, you just have to spend it on a porch.  So we started in our back yard and then we all headed over to Lester and Dooze's to finish out the evening.

Our Sunday Morning movie has just been completely forgotten about....that always seems to happen when Mike's in town.  Instead we had another day of drinking on the porch.  And we started another project - but that's a separate post.

Weekend of March 18 - 
I have no idea what we did on Friday night.   I'm pretty sure Sakah came over and we began the evening on the front porch.  I dunno what we did for dinner - ordered in something, I'm sure.

SaturDAY - 2nd puppy training class and then came all the prep for Marchgiving.  This was the biggest year yet.
Guest list included:
The Heads - brought the stuffing and the cranberry sauce
The Hawks - brought the rolls and the dessert
Sakah - brought the corn and green bean casseroles
Ronnie and Liz - brought the broccoli casserole
and Chris (who left Japan 18 hours before the quake hit) - he didn't have to bring anything.
Matt and I supplied the turkey, sweet potato casserole and mashed potatoes.

Marchgiving was a success and I know this b/c I have only one picture (of the food) and had a clogged kitchen sink once it was all said and done.  The dishes weren't done until Sunday night.  Maybe I'll upload the picture later....but probably not.

SunDAY - No Sunday morning movie.  Chris stayed with us and since we didn't have any clean dishes (all were used for the Marchgiving festivities,) we went for coffee and breakfast at Ugly Mugs.  About 3 blocks down the street.
RotoRooter was waiting in our driveway when we got back.  After telling us they wanted $350 to snake the drain - we said - uh, no thank you.  And Arthur the Plumber (our regular Harley riding, pony tail having plumber) made an appearance later in the afternoon.  By that time, Sam had made his way over and the 4 of us were on the front porch again with a game of "bags" and some beer.  The perfect way to spend a Sunday.

And finally, this weekend - 
Friday - we took a half day to get some life insurance and have our taxes done.  Grown up stuff.  Turns out we had to put off the taxes but we did get some life insurance.

SaturDAY - puppy training and then Gabby's Burgers - Oh. My. God.  Awesome.  So awesome that we had to come home and take a nap.  Plus it was cold and rainy outside - so we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening  on the couch watching basketball and planning our vegetable garden.

SunDAY - No Sunday morning movie - we had to go to puppy play time.  Our trainer also does puppy play sessions so that the little guy will learn to play well with others.  The added benefit is that it wears his little ass out and he sleeps for 2 days afterwords.
We (Griff in tow) headed to Lebanon to get our taxes done - Jimmy Bowen is our tax man.  He's also a musician.  Jimmy Bowen and Santa Fe  He tours and stuff - but not during tax season.
We hit the Home Depot on the way home.  $200 later - we're home and watching NPT learning about Buddhism. 

Now you're up to date -
See you family humans in a few weeks in New Madrid.  We're bringing Mr. Griff so everyone can meet him and so we can get some extra points on the socialization contest our trainer is having.  We're gonna WIN!

This Weekend - one week late.

Sakah made it official!
Mike showed up Friday afternoon since he was the "preacher" for the affair.
Matt was a groomsman and I just hung out the whole weekend.

Friday night - The Un-Rehearsal dinner at Daniel's house in Franklin.  Not a bit of rehearsing but a ton of eating and drinking.

SaturDay - Matt went to work early his first Saturday of work since Sears.  Mike and I hit Pucketts Grocery with Sam, Steve, and Lisa for brunch.  Highly recommend.  Bloody Mary's and biscuits and gravy are the perfect start to any day.  Matt met us there around 11a then we went home took a nap and got ready for the wedding.

Mike and Matt doing "the Lenor."

Matt was NOT into getting his picture taken...PUNK.

Saturday Night - The wedding went off without a hitch, the food was good, and the party was awesome.

Lester and Dooze.

And Dez. Was the perfect gentleman - slept through almost the whole reception.

Steve and Lisa.  Lisa was the DD - love her for that.

They weren't so sure about the champagne punch.

So the only thing to do in a situation like that is drink it like a shot.

A toast straight from Steve's wedding week: "Here's to fires, not the ones that bring down shacks and shanties, but the ones that bring down pants and panties."

Down the hatch.

Apparently Mike and Sam didn't get the memo about shooting the champagne punch.

Steve and I did and we promptly called them both Pusoirs (said poo-swah - French for pussy.)

And then we were proud of ourselves....

And then we were proud of Sam.

The last shot of any night that the 4 of us are together at an event....for the last 3-4 years.

After this we hit the road with to-go cups of soda - for the Jack Daniels that was waiting in the car.  By the time we made it back to Nashville, I was done.  Sleeping on the bathroom floor - done.  Great party.

SunDay - no movie of the week today.  Since Mike was camped out on the couch, I couldn't live there all day.  Someone made the suggestion that we all have a Bloody Mary - and we did....All. Day. Long.  Sakah came over about 3p and we talked about the wedding over "brunch" at Mad Donna's. 

Back on the front porch, Mike and I continued to celebrate the nuptials.....while Matt - 

pretended to be a grown up and drank water on the couch until dinner time.

We wrapped up the weekend with a nice greasy dinner at Batter'd and Fried, again with Sakah.  It was a perfect wedding weekend, if I do say so myself. 

This Weekend

Better late than never, right?
Friday night - I worked out and then drank wine. 

Saturday - I worked out again - wahoo - go me!  Then we did a quick truck trade with Steve so that we could pick up some room dividers that I was taking from work.  Not sure yet what I'll be doing with them - maybe a head board of some sort??

Saturday Night - we had dirty Mexican dinner with Sakah.  The thing about dirty Mexican is that if they ask if you want a big beer, you have to say yes, it's practically state law.  But do you really want the big beer - NO, hell no you don't want the big beer b/c mixing the big beer with beans and rice is a BAD idea.  No one's stomach is built to hold that much substance.  No one.

Damn you Big Beer - I love and I hate you.
Sunday - We did have our Sunday morning movie:
Taken

It was good.  There is one line where he talks about his "specific set of skills" that makes the whole movie.
 
It was more than beautiful outside and since I'd gorged myself the night before - we had to get out and do something.  Matt pulled the bikes out of the shed and we took a ride over to a guy's house to look at a rug.  And the rug was awesome. We bought it.  (Does that count as working on the house?)
It's currently living in Living Room 2.  The old rug was too small and this one is perfect.  It's an 8 x 10 West Elm rug that we scored for $140.  You can't beat that with a stick.

The old rug is just a little small and doesn't really match anything - got her from Craig for $40 so while worth it, she's not quite what we want in this room.  Never fear, she will soon live in the front room upstairs where she matches and will feel much more at home.

And here's the new guy:

He's chocolate brown and big and beautiful.  And sooo thick.  He came from a home with a dog and a baby and the puppies are having a field day scratching and licking and pulling at the rug trying to find said dog and baby b/c they smell them.  A little strategically placed red pepper has hopefully fixed the issue.

We drank Mimosa's with Morning Glory juice which is a blend of pure sunshine and rainbows.  Awesome.  While I vacuumed the new rug (outside on the front porch,) Matt got sucked into a John Cusak movie on TV.

Seredipity

Who doesn't love a good and sappy John Cusak movie.  There was no rain in this one though - there was snow.

We finished the weekend with the Grammys.
Lady Gaga, Lady Antebellum, Eminem, Mumford and Sons, Avett Brothers.  Love them all.  Period.

Food, Inc

I've been interested in my food origins for about the last year now.  I quit buying and cooking chicken about 2-3 years ago, partly because I gave it up for Lent and never recovered and partly because I had heard the rumors about how chickens were raised and I wasn't comfortable with it.
Matt and I have been talking about buying a freezer and "buying a cow" for about a year now.  I've been reading the Omnivore's Dilemma.  Needless to say, I've been interested in where my food comes from for a while now.  I just never made the effort do something about it.  I preferred to ignore the thoughts in my head and keep going to the grocery paying more attention to price that quality.

Well, I watched Food Inc. and now it's worth the time and money to me to make the change.  I've made friends with the Turnip Truck, our local organic grocery store.  And yes, it is more expensive but until I get my garden growing and my freezer and my grass fed cow - it's where I'll be going.

So for now, we're on the hunt for a chest freezer, a CSA, and a cow.  Click that link to find your own CSA.

This Weekend

I think we're just over the house stuff.  This was another weekend of no house/reno stuff, just normal stuff.

Last week was longer than it should have been for both of us...so I hit the couch on Friday night and promptly began my Wine Haze while Matt continued his scrubbing of every surface of the bike.

Saturday we lounged around the house, ate more HOT chicken, Matt worked on the bike somemore, and I had a documentary day of movies and monthly menu planning.
Blood Into Wine

We were most interested in this because we're Maynard fans, the man sings like he's from Heaven.  This probably wouldn't have been as interesting to us if not for that....and the fact that I like to drink wine.  I was also glad to know the story behind his wine named Judith - it made him more real to me.

The Business of Being Born

Since kids are a future endeavor for us, this was an interesting take on labor and delivery.  I think I may be a hippie. 

And finally, Food Inc.

Ok, I'm definitely a hippie.  This one deserves it's own post for all the changes that we're making due to it.  Maybe I'll get to that later this week.

Sunday was spent grocery shopping and cooking and eating and SuperBowling at the Sunday Ryan household.  Saw Vince and met Jordan of MONA while there.  If you haven't checked them out, then do.  Ms. Ryan has dubbed me a superfan and I kind of love them.
Anyway, we watched the game, ate too much food, and then went home to bed.  Unfortunately, we missed our Suday morning movie this week.

$200k - HA!

HA!  I say!  I laugh in the face of $200k.

If you pay attention to the sidebar on this blog you will notice that the amount of money we're saving is totally different.  And by totally different - I really mean double.
*Hint - it's listed in my profile info.*

What led to that drastic change was a meeting with this lady: Lynn Taylor
She is a pseudo architect that has a bajillion years of experience with old houses.  And we spent almost 2 hours walking through our house and talking about all the stuff that's floating around in our heads.

Good News -
What we want to do inside is completely doable.
Bad News -
We don't think we can change the front of the house b/c we're in a historical conservation overlay - boo.
This means that this:

May not be possible.  The front of a house is sacred in historical overlay land. 
Poops.

And then there's the bottom line - we've got a LOT of saving to do, otherwise none of it really matters.

Monthly Menu Planning

So I was doing some Googling around ....
Sidebar - don't you love that Google has become a verb.  Matt even says he googles his iTumes library now.  No really - that actually happened.
Anyway - on my Google trip the other day, I found this.
Monthly menu planning = interesting.

I don't know if I have the cojones to try it.