These are a few of my favorite things...

My handsome husband!

 

My crazy/adorable cat, Buffy!

Also, of course, raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm winter mittens, and a few other things. But when I think oy my favorite things, I think of my family, MJ and Buffy.

My favorite deal this season

I looove to shop. Now, I am by nature a bit of a bargain shopper. I stretch my holiday dollars as much as I can while still finding something moderately perfect. But my fave holiday bargain this year didn't involve a 20% coupon for BB&B or a big sale at the outlet mall to buy gifts for family & friends.

I check slickdeals.net every now and then to see what sweet deals they have, and I saw one for games at Toys-R-Us, on sale for as little as $4, with a $2-3 rebate available per game, and a $10 gift card if you spent $30. Normally I'd avoid Toys-R-Us like I'd avoid a stadium full of irritated lions (I'm not making a religious statement here. I just don't like little bouncing children all that much, and toy stores are so... full of children).

But this was too good to pass up. Handsome and I went out to Toys-R-Us, and bought six games. Here's my haul (and also, an accidental glimpse of my metallic toe nail polish):
Six games, with tax, came to $33 and change. We immediately received a $10 gift card back. Then I mailed off the rebate, which is for $14.

So for $9, I picked up six board games -- including my childhood favorite, Connect 4 -- that are all being dropped off at Toys for Tots tomorrow. The only thing better than a good deal? A good deal for a good cause.

My new direction

So my thing is not being domestic. I love to cook and bake (and so does Handsome, so we eat far, far too well). But beyond that, I've managed life so far without sorting colors from whites, dusting, hanging picture frames or knowing how to thread a bobbin. When you move every six months, as I had pretty much from college until a few months ago, decorating seems especially futile.

Except now that MJ and I own our first house, I am overcome with a sudden nesting bug. Not only do I want to paint stuff and make my own art, but I enjoy things that I really shouldn't: cleaning my beautiful kitchen, for instance, or tidying up the laundry room. If I didn't know better, I'd think my body had been inhabited by an alien from the planet Martha Stewart.

This desire to nest - and to fill my pretty house with pretty furniture, since my shabby college hand-me-downs are a little lacking in chic and there are several empty rooms - is in contrast with my other desire. The one to save money for a new car, vacations, future business ventures, and a happy retirement.

So I'm going to be writing a bit about my domestic adventures (I bought my first pattern! I'm going to try to make an apron! I don't know how to sew!). I'll also be writing about my journey towards frugality.

Hopefully you enjoy reading this blog -- which I'm hoping will satisfy my goals of being domestic, frugal and entertaining!

I've been terrible about keeping this blog up

Work work work, school school school, blah blah.

I really struggle with my tendency to overbook myself. I always feel like there's a lot to get done and a lot of goals I want to accomplish. Most of the time, I can handle a pretty intense job with some long hours and lots of travel, working on my Master's part-time, hitting the gym and spending time with Handsome all at once. Other times, responsibilities converge from all angles and I find myself in the midst of my own perfect storm (I love the phrase perfect storm. It's so overused in the media now that I feel deliciously obnoxious every time I use it myself).

Things should be dying down a little now, though. Work is uber-stressful at present, but should be pretty 8-5-ish, with only short business trips, until March. Yesterday was the last day of the semester for grad school. I should have a life again, for a little while, at least.

Which means it is time to attend to all the little things that have been shunted off until I could breathe. So far this weekend, once I dispatched my 30-page Strategic Finance paper to the professor, I've taken care of a few of them:

1. Applied to be a foster parent to cats for the local ASPCA. I'm hoping they'll take us despite our work schedules -- I really want to help. Our ASPCA doesn't have a shelter, so the number of volunteers willing to foster dirrectly corresponds to the number of animals they can rescue.

2. Ordered prints of some of our wedding and travel photos. I already purchased some frames from Ikea recently, and our entertainment center is coming Monday -- which means the living room is almost finished! I can't wait to put on the finishing details.

3. Ordered some Christmas presents for Handsome. I still need to make a mall and BB&B run to pick up some other things for him, and a sweater for my Mom that we saw in a store that she liked.

There's a lot of little things to wrap up in the next week or two, though:

1. Complete my big art project for the living room. I bought all the crafty stuff I need, but I haven't gotten the chance to actually put the thing together.

2. Pick up the rug for the living room

3. Send out Christmas cards. Actually, this is not going in order. First I need to find addresses to send Christmas cards to!

4. Buy a damn tree. Handsome and I are outrageously picky (which is probably why we only have three furnished rooms in our house - shopping is a lengthy process for us). We agreed to buy a faux Christmas tree due to some allergy issues, but if we can't find a tree that meets Handsome's exacting specifications sometime soon, we'll be piling presents under a wreath.

5. Set up and figure out my mom's hand-me down sewing machine. I haven't had time to confront the beast yet. I am a little intimidated, because I don't have any sewing machine experience, but we have a house now and damn it, I am going to learn to be crafty!

6. Make stockings for Christmas. Maybe. See Item 5 suggesting that I am not, in fact, crafty at present.

7. Register for classes for next semester and buy books. Sigh. I don't want to, but my employer is paying for any courses I take right now... it'd be foolish to waste the opportunity.

8. Try out for the 2010 triathlon team for work. Why yes, this does go back to my tendency to overbook myself.

9. Do some writing. I've been woefully uncreative in the writing department in the past few months. Writing about Steve Jobs or the role of the non-profit CFO for school does not count.

10. Send out some more poems and stories for publication. When I've done a big push and sent out some work, I've been successful in getting some acceptances back. It's just a matter of doing it.

Aaaand I doubt anyone really cares about my list, so this has just been an exercise for me to think through the things I have to do... all of which are more fun than my usual grind. Will post pics of the progress on the house when I get around to it.

Late night dinner at Rustico

Last night, M.J. and I went to salsa and swing lessons in D.C. (led by instructors from Gotta Swing and hosted at the K Street Lounge). K Street Lounge was OK -- not the most amazing atmosphere, to me, unless you love blue and purple lights and lots of white trying-to-be-modern surfaces. The drinks were insanely overpriced -- M.J. got a $7 Corona and then we called it quits with the bar tab. I figure he is pretty talented, and unlike a lot of the guys there, he would survive the night even without being intoxicated.

However, we enjoyed our salsa and swing lessons. We are afflicted with a bit of a conundrum, though. M.J. preferred the swing, I prefer the salsa. With the salsa dance, I have some prior experience that, given my inherent two-left-footed state, is pretty helpful in terms of not feeling like a bumbling idiot on the dance floor. However, since I'm far more excited than M.J. by the glamor of going out dancing, I think we'll be taking swing lessons. Either way, the night was a nice introduction to two beautiful dances.

Now on to the important part -- the food.

We left the lounge a bit before 10pm, and since we hadn't had dinner before the lessons started at 7, we were looking for a restaurant that was still serving. Thank God for my iPhone -- I was able to hit the web and find some late night dining recs on Chowhound. We headed to Alexandria, and a new-to-us restaurant called Rustico that stays open until 11pm.

When we first entered what appeared to be the not-so-nice part of Alexandria, I was having doubts, but then we turned down Slaters Lane and came to a cute little area in the midst of townhouses -- a block's worth of downtown. There was a fun-looking coffee shop (I'm an indie coffee shop addict, so I definitely want to check that out when we're in the area again), a dog groomer's, and a few little other shops, along with Rustico.

Inside, Rustio has standard-chic decor. You know what I mean -- dark lighting, exposed brick, red chairs. I did like their mosaics on the walls, which incorporates halved wine bottles and coffee mugs. There was a fair amount of chatter audible in the restaurant, but MJ and I were able to talk comfortably, which I always appreciate.

Where we started to fall in love was in opening the beer list. MJ appreciates places that have a real beer list, and especially that consider food-and-beer pairings. I'm not a beer drinker, but I appreciate places that make him happy (Although I will also tease him sometimes about overgrown frat boys whose tastes haven't matured to wine yet getting all hoity-toity about their microbrews... but that's just how I am). We promised ourselves we would try out their six-course prix fixe menu with beer pairings if the food was any good, even though we wouldn't be trying out any of the beers that night.

And the food was GREAT. I ordered the roasted mushroom pizza, with provolone, goat cheese, mozarella, roasted mushrooms and spinach. MJ tried to order the ribeye, but was denied, and changed to the pork tenderloin (-2 for being out of ribeye, but +5 for terrific pork tenderloin). My pizza was positively delish -- the flavors were nicely balanced, which I wasn't sure would be the case. One pizza is definitely too much for one person -- we had my leftovers for lunch today, so it would reasonably serve at least two.

The pork tenderloin was unbelievably tender. It was served on an almond crostini and had been marinated in clam juice, but it didn't taste of clam at all (thank God, right?). I wish we had photos, but hey, we just started blogging -- we will be the complete foodie dorks next time and snap photos of our meals before we dig in.

Such a nice meal - and such lively conversation - begs to be continued with desert, so despite the late hour, we decided to ask for the desert menu and linger longer. MJ ordered the hearth-roasted chiffon cake. I debated between butterscotch pudding with house-made chocolate shortbread and vanilla tapioco with carmelized bananas. Well, I adore tapioca (I'm a bubble tea addict), so that was my pick.

Once the chiffon cake arrived, though, I abandoned my own desert to help polish off Handsome's. The chiffon cake was served warm in a small cast-iron pan, dotted with huge baked cherries and covered in whipped cream. It was unbelievably good. Once that had been dispatched, I returned to my own tasty but more modest desert. The tapioca was about as flavorful as bland tapioca can be (it's about the texture, not the taste), with a vanilla infusion, and the carmelized bananas were a nice touch. I enjoyed it, but next time, I am all about the chiffon cake.

I didn't think the restaurant was too expensive, either. Handsome's pork tenderloin was $23, while my pizza was $14 for a 12" pie we could definitely have split. Our deserts were $8 each. We skipped drinks this time, which will be a must for next time, but our check came to just under $60 before tipping. We'll definitely be returning to Rustico soon -- possibly as early as next week, since we have family coming into the area and they are also beer conossieurs.