Dr. Brodie, Google MD

Hello everyone. Happy Saturday!

I thought Ian and I were going to die the other night.

It all started when I got home from work and we heard a mysterious beeping noise coming from inside the closet, over on our landlady's side of the basement. It went like this: beep beep beep beep.....pause....beep beep beep beep....pause....and so on. Then it would be quiet for about five minutes before doing it again.

I heard it while I was in bed reading, and asked Ian if he heard it too. He said it had been beeping for the past couple hours. 

So naturally, as with all of life's ailments and questionable situations, I Googled it. And was greeted with a long list of websites that stated that four beeps on a smoke alarm meant carbon monoxide. As I was reading this, Ian came into our bedroom and asked if I had a headache. Which I did! Never mind that I always have a headache after work, but it turns out Ian had a headache too. 

I flew into panic mode, running around the apartment opening windows while trying to call Georgia about the beeping. I sat there shivering as I kept Googling carbon monoxide symptoms (headache...nausea...flu-like symptoms...), while Ian tried to convince me it was just her washer and dryer we were hearing. 

We sat there in the living room, listening for the beeps. Then, I heard it. The whir of the washer and dryer, followed by four beeps. But I couldn't rest easy until I heard it again. Which I did. Turns out these new-fangled washer and dryers beep when they're done.

So then we went to bed.

Funk Today, Gone Tomorrow

Yesterday, I was in a funk.

Actually, I had been in a funk all week, which was sort of the reason you haven't heard from me since Sunday. 

I even started to write a post about how I couldn't think of anything to write a post about, but then I had to get ready for work so I never finished. It's probably a good thing, because 1) the post was depressing and 2) my funk was soon lifted because I discovered a revolution that will forever change my life. And hair.

I finally learned how to curl my hair with a flat iron.

Ooooh my goodness, this has changed my life, not to mention lifted me out of my funk! Seriously, it is so easy and makes absolutely the perfect, smooth, wavy non-Shirley-Temple-like curls that last ALL DAY LONG.

There are tutorials all over you tube, but this was the one I used. You gotta try it now.

There are a lot of things that can lift me out of a funk, but a good hair day is on the top of the list!

A Taste of the Weekend

Usually, I have this strange craving to eat a lot of bad things for me on the weekend. That craving multiplies about 110% when it happens to be near that time of the month.

It's been a meltdown-free weekend though, so perhaps we have discovered that the key to keeping Brenda sane before Aunt Flo comes to town is to keep her well fed?

On Friday night, after lots of buildup about the surprise date we were going on, Ian took me to the Sweetwater Tavern in Falls Church for some after-dinner drinkin'. Really can't beat microbrews and my man all in one place. 

After coffee with a friend on Saturday, I was feeling chipper and sufficiently caffeinated, so I snapped a pic of my enjoying the sunny day in my sunny day sunglasses (the ones I reserve for the sunniest of days) and the fact that I wasn't wearing a coat. Yes, it sure is the little things. 

So when, much to my delight, cake mixes were 10 for $10 at Giant, I decided Saturday was finally going to be the day where I made cake pops. See, back in the day when I had a wedding to plan, I had at one point decided that I would hand-make thousands of these little guys for some fabulous favors. That motivation pretty much lasted until I went out and bought all the supplies to make them, and alas, packages of lollipop sticks and bags have been sitting in the cabinet. Until yesterday!

There is no shortage of cake pop tutorials in the blogosphere, so I pretty much gathered that you bake a cake, crumble it in a bowl, mix it with frosting, and mold it into cute little balls to be dunked in chocolate. I thought I would mix it up and dunk it in melted Reeses Peanut Butter chips. 

However, have you ever tried to melt those things? They don't melt. Instead, they form a nasty, hard glob of peanut butter-like substance that hardens in about five minutes. So forget that.

I melted a big bowl of chocolate chips and quickly found that coating balls of rolled up, mashed together cake isn't as easy as it sounds. In short, it made a mess and I gave up and Ian and I played Scrabble.

But the next day, the stupid balls of cake were sitting on the counter. I had to finish the job, so I went back to Giant on a quest to find chocolate that's actually meant for dipping and coating things. Didn't find any. 

So I settled for the next step: Google. Turns out if you melt chocolate chips on a double boiler and mix in some vegetable oil, it makes a lovely, smooth, chocolately mix perfect for coating your cake pops. 

Don't have a double boiler? No worries! Just improvise with what you have.

Again, it made a mess, but this time I winded up with some pretty tasty truffle-like balls of candy coated cake. Which kind of looked like turds. So I rolled them in sprinkles just for shits and giggles.

Yes, this weekend sure tasted good. 

New Shoes and Nu Shooz

On Sunday while my husband was mourning the loss of a football legend, I mourned in my own special way by going shopping.

I have been in serious need of new shoes, a fact that Ian finds very hard to believe, but a real need nonetheless. Particularly work shoes. See, I have been wearing the same sensible black heels that I bought for my summer internship three years ago, complete with a chunky heel and ankle strap. Not really cute at all. At one point, I invested in some better, more modern black heels from Kohls, but one was lost at some point in my bachelorette party travels, and one somehow made it down to Virginia. So that does a lot of good.

Needless to say, a trip to DSW was in order. After pulling up into a perfect parking spot just a few yards from the store, I had a good feeling. Just about everything in the store was on sale. Can you say cha- chingggggg? I did.

I walked in with one thing on my mind: black heels. But then it all went downhill when I spotted a pair of red patent-leather pumps. For 29 bucks. Eeeeeeeeep!

I mosied my way back to the clearance section, where I circled and circled trying on pair after pair of black heels that would be suitable for work. Finally, like a beacon on a lighthouse, I saw these babies marked 70 percent off!

After one (or two or three) more sweep up and down the aisles, I mosied back to the clearance one more time. And saw this pair of fabulous, totally un-sensible, and a little bit unnecessary, purple pair. Naturally, I tried them on and decided I had to have them.

So I did what any self-respecting shopper would do. Compared all of the options and their pros and cons. 

Red Shoes

Pros: They are red. And fabulous. And obviously I am buying them.

Cons: None that I can see.

Purple Shoes: 

Pros: They are purple. And fabulous. And I really want them.

Cons: Where will I where them? Whatever.

Black Shoes:

Pros: Perfect for work.

Cons: They are not red and/or any other bright color, not really fun, but a necessary purchase.

So I bought 'em all.

And it's not as self-indulgent as you think because all three were under $100! 

And now, as I'm sure you are just as excited as I am about this, I have provided for your listening pleasure the 1980's pop sensation Nu Shooz and their one hit wonder that makes me want to kick on my purple shoes and go dancing at a discotheque:

Reasons Why I Love the Weekend

Exhibit A: Library books.

Exhibit B: New Recipes. This weekend, Ritzy Chicken Casserole. Looks like dessert, but it ain't.

Exhibit C: A giant cookie in a skillet. Which was consumed in roughly three minutes.

I love the weekend. Who doesn't? Saturday and Sunday, the ending and beginning of the week, are what gets me through the week. Having these days to rest and rejuvenate helps me face the upcoming week with a renewed energy. Hence, why I don't work in the industry that I went to college for.

It was also a sad weekend for Penn State and for my hometown. RIP Joe Paterno.

source

How was your weekend?

A Nifty Thrifty Outfit

Since the 'spending money' budget hasn't had much room for buying new clothes lately (maybe I shouldn't buy lunch all the time at work...) I've been doing a lot of mixing and matching what I already have.

Skirts are absolutely my favorite thing to wear to work. Whether it's pencil skirts, dressy skirts, or casual skirts that are able to be dressed up, I love the streamlined look of a flowy top cinched at the waist by a skirt. So classic, pretty, and kind of sexy without being trashy.

I bought this floral skirt at Goodwill several years ago. It's great to wear in the summer with a tank top, but I hadn't really ventured into the professional territory with it. That is, until this week.

A pair of black tights and a cozy blazer made the skirt work-appropriate and the outfit got lots of compliments!

Not to mention, it was a good bangs day.

Can't go wrong with a good bangs day.

Something Beautiful

One of the biggest ways we saved money for our wedding was with our video. Ian had a friend who does professional wedding videos, so he asked him if he could shoot the videos and just give him a disc with all the clips for Ian to use his former-film-major expertise to edit together.

This weekend, Ian put the intro portion of the video together. We might have watched it a million times already. Because, seriously, it was the best day ever.

Enjoy!

Video by Tyler Capozzi

Photos by Meagan Jepson

Music by The Newsboys