Happy New Year!

Our first day of 2011 involved a lot of mimosa, yummy brunch (I made popovers for the first time! And they were pretty tasty!), a couple friends, Trivial Pursuit and Wii.

So, today, clearly, we need a little recovery. We're all cuddled up in our post-Christmas present to each other: a new Maple Falls Duvet cover from Anthropologie! Christian's had his eye on it for a while and thankfully it went on sale. Normally, I try to steer him away from the plaid housewares but this duvet is super cute.

Señor Kitty Paws also enjoys it very much. See?

Reverb10 #8

#8 Beautifully different. Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different - you'll find they're what make you beautiful.

People think I'm funny. And, to be perfectly honest, I think I'm funny too. When I was younger, very often my humor wasn't fully appreciated. Even now, somethings are only funny in my head. But, my sarcasm and biting wit do produce laughs on a regular basis.

I have very little ability to hide what I really think of people. While this may be a drawback sometimes, it's also a plus because anyone I like knows that I really like them and I'm not just blowing smoke up their booty. Mostly because I'm almost totally incapable of doing that.

I have an appreciation and cultivation of Target products that surpasses a majority of the world's population.

I don't know how different these things make me but I think they make me pretty darn beautiful. In addition to my long, long lashes, of course ;)

Reverb10 #7

#7 Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011?

Planning our wedding I met some really great friends online and my friendships with some of them have blossomed in 2010. Before this, I had never made friends through online forums. Now, I'm so happy I have. They've been a huge support system, especially this past year with all the change going on.

Also, I've formed some really great friendships at my job.

I feel like as you leave school and get older it seems harder and harder to make new friends and develop new networks/communities. Given that (I've definitely experiences), I'm so thankful I've found these two new communities that pick me up on a daily basis.

Reverb10 #6

#6 Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?

The last thing I made was Frito Pie for dinner last week. I used Fritos (clearly a necessity for the Frito Pit), canned chile, cheese and avocado.

I really want to make a snood AKA one of those scarves that are so trendy right now that just slip over your head. I could work on it while watching TV but I really need to learn how exactly to do it. I know how to do a basic knit stitch (which all of my loved ones were happy to discover a couple Christmases ago when they all received very simple scarves as presents) but I don't know how to purl or how to make something one continuous connected piece like you have to do for a snood.

I always think I'm going to take some knitting lessons but that's yet to happen. For now, I think my best bet for getting a snood is asking Santa.

P.S. This prompt came from Gretchen Rubin. She's the author of The Happiness Project. A.maz.ing book. Get it. Read it. Check out her blog.

Reverb10 #5

#5 Let Go. What (or whom) did you let go of this year? Why?

I let go of my inability to quit something this year. I quit my old job. It was really hard for me because I've always seen everything through to the end (even law school, which I wasn't crazy about). It was tough for me to realize that as an adult (still not totally cool with being one of those), sometimes you will quit jobs and you will move on from things. And that, is OK. And it's totally necessary. And it doesn't make you a bad person.

I'm also trying to let go (or at least lessen) some of the high expectations I have for myself.

Reverb10 #4

#4 Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year?

Honestly, I'm not sure.

The cat? I'm in constant wonderment at how she can be incredibly cute and snuggly looking and at the same time a total hellion.

Yeah, that's all I've got for this one. Maybe I should think of this and work on it in the new year.

Reverb10 #3

#3 Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors).

October 2nd
Uchiko
1st wedding anniversary dinner with Christian

I'm so happy we moved to Austin. Beyond happy.

But, the first six months were tough. I was adjusting to a new job. Christian was busy establishing himself with clients here in Austin, which was especially hard during the summer slow months. Money was tight. Stress was high.

Our 1st anniversary was the first time we got to go out for a really nice dinner since moving here. It was an amazing night. It was the start of a turnaround for us. It was a celebration of the best day of my life and the first year of being married to my favorite person in the world. And it all took place in a beautiful restaurant eating one of the best meals of my life and enjoying just enough yummy sake to highlight all the joy that night celebrated.

Reverb10 #2

OK, I totally fell off the wagon day 2 of Reverb10 due to a very late happy hour. Then, I went to visit Christian in east Texas. But, I'm back now and catching up.

#2 Writing. What do you do each day that doesn't contribute to your writing -- and can you eliminate it?

I watch too much TV, especially reality TV. At this very moment, I'm watching Grey's Anatomy while writing my blog post. Watching TV and writing does not make for very well composed posts. And, even more often, I'm too distracted by the TV to even remember that I need to blog.

I don't think I could eliminate all TV. But, I should cut back. That'll allow more time for writing and for reading.

Reverb10 #1

I'm participating in Reverb10 this month. I don't think I'll do a good job explaining it, so definitely check out the link for more info. In a nutshell, every morning I get a prompt in my email and I've gotta blog about it. Seems like a good way to really dedicate myself to blogging this month (and keep me occupied while Christian is off in east Texas producing a new movie). My plan is to think about the prompt first thing in the morning and try to remember what my initial reactions were at the end of today. Today, that worked. We'll see how it goes going forward.

Now, onto the first day.

One Word. Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you're choosing that word. Now, imagine it's one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?

2010: Change
This year had a lot of change. I changed the city I live in. I changed jobs. We changed our family size by adopting little Senior Kitty Paws. And, most recently, I've been working on changing my outlook so I'm more positive.

2011: Grow
Next year, I think will be a year of growth. Now that we're away from the high prices of Manhattan, I'm looking forward to growing our savings :) Now that I'm comfortable in my new job, I'm really looking forward to growing in it next year. I also want to grow as a person and continue on this new path toward positivity that I've started on. Clearly, SKP will keep growing.

One thing I don't want to grow in 2011 - my waistline, of course. Oh, but I do want my hair to grow. I love my pixie cut but I'm ready for a little something longer.

iPad

I got an iPad today.

That's right.

Christian has a mograph job that requires shooting with an iPad so we had to get one.

For the first five hours, I was totally loving it.

But, I'm discovering that it doesn't work with some sites I visit a lot (including blogger, which is funky). So, now I'm a little on the fence. I was hoping the iPad could replace my laptop becuase I primarily use it for Internet-based activities anyway. Not sure if that's possible if it's not totally compatible with everywhere I want to go and interact on the web.

Anybody else have an iPad? What do you think?

I'm Ashamed...

That I got a little tiny bit excited when I saw this.

Yeah, we've already covered the fact that I have questionable taste in music. Now you know I also may have questionable taste in perfume.

For full disclosure, once upon a time I may have worn the Paris Hilton perfume for 6-9 months. I would like to blame it on youth, but I was at least 22 at the time.

Now, quick, someone else admit something shameful and take the focus off me.

Weekend Activities in Austin

• La Condesa will be hosting a Pumpkin Carving Fiesta from 3:00 to 5:00PM on Saturday. This event features three very important Ps: pumpkins, punch and piñatas. All of which can be enjoyed on a very important fourth P: the patio. While we’re talking about La Condesa, have you been there yet? If you haven’t, you need to go. For brunch. And order the huevos chilangos. In case you haven't a short memory, I raved about them just this week here.

• Don’t you love the Downtown Farmers Market? Having it in Republic Square Park really adds something that you don’t get at the markets in the parking lots at Barton Creek and Lakeline Malls. Well, this Saturday morning is your opportunity to say a little thanks for that beautiful setting. From 9:00 to 11:00AM you can volunteer, helping to weed and clean up the park. You might as well pitch in while you’re there picking up your veggies and such. If you miss it this Saturday, note that they do it alternate Saturdays. Plus, if you take a cooler with you to keep any perishables fresh, once you’re finished with your shopping and weeding, you can head the couple blocks over to La Condesa and have those amazing huevos chilangos. Doesn’t that sound like a fabulous Saturday morning?

• If you scored like a good competition AND you think you have an awesome Halloween costume (please note, us competitive folk don’t generally like to enter contests we don’t think we’ll win so the second part of this equation is key), then Hotel San Jose is the place for you to be this weekend. They are having a costume contest both Saturday and Sunday nights (if you lose Saturday, my advice would be to get an even better costume together for Sunday). The drink specials will run from 5:00PM to 12:00AM each night, but the costume contest will kick things off.

• If you don’t have a fantastic costume, but your pooch and/or kid does, you’ll want to go to Howl-o-ween at the Central Market on North Lamar on Sunday. There, the pressure will be off you to come in first place and instead you can live vicariously through your canine or offspring. Even if they don’t win (which really shouldn’t be an option), you’ll still have gone out and benefitted the Austin Humane Society so it won’t be a total waste of an afternoon.
  

• Normally, we associate fireworks with July 4^th and scary costumes with Halloween. If you’ve ever wished more holidays had a fireworks component, you’re in luck because there is actually a fireworks display Halloween night. Planet K will put on a fireworks show over on the East Side starting around 9:00PM.
  

• Also, normally when you hear something like Tour de Fat, your first response isn’t “Sign me up!” But, that should be your response to New Belgium Brewing’s Tour de Fat as it’s actually all about the bicycle as the best mode of transportation. Saturday at Fiesta Gardens will include a bike parade and costumes are encouraged. It is Halloween weekend, after all.

~ So, I’m going to the Worst Fest this weekend!

· Why on earth would you go to the Worst Fest? That sounds terrible.

~ Not the Worst Fest, silly, the Wurstfest.

Don’t you want to go to the Wurstfest, too? This is the 50^th Annual Wurstfest and it promises to be the worst wurstest of them all. It’s running this evening through November 7^th so there’s plenty of time for you to go celebrate German culture with music, the Tour de Gruene Bicycle Classic, and other events like the Circle Arts Theatre staging of Harry Potwurst and the Order of the Opas (I’m pretty sure J.K. Rowling hasn’t given her blessing to that adaption but it’s all in good fun, right?).

Nice

Today, two of my favorite blogs collided. Tsh Oxenreider of Simple Mom was interviewed by Gretchen Rubin on her blog The Happiness Project.

I finished Gretchen's book, of the same title as her blog, about a month ago and it made (and is still making) a huge impact on me. I need to devote a whole post to it once I can get the words right. I may need to read it again before I write a post. Which is kind of a big deal because I rarely re-read books.

For now, go check out those two blogs if you don't already have them on your daily reading list.

Aquariums? Really?

Today, my favorite little house feature in the New York Times includes a house in Austin.

A house with an aquarium in not just the master bedroom above the bed but also in...

Wait for it...

The kitchen.

That's weird, right? It's not just me who thinks it's weird to stick a couple aquariums in an otherwise gorgeous house.

Right?

Let's Talk Turkey Tuesday

For my birthday we tried two new restaurants.

First up, La Condesa for brunch.

I'm sure you gathered yesterday that the key word for my birthday is awesome. And La Condesa was awesome.

Christian and I both had the huevos chilangos because house-made wild boar chorizo with poached egg, arugula, quinoa croquette and avocado salsa sounded too darn good to pass up. If you live in Austin, go. Eat this. This Saturday. If there are two of you, just order one, though, because this thing is huge. The only thing I wish was different is that they would just sprinkle the arugula on top at the end so it would maintain the crispness and flavor. As it is now, it's in the middle of everything else and you don't really get to enjoy the wonderful fresh peppery arugulaness enough.

For my birthday dinner, we went to Parkside. This dinner was heartbreaking. Everything we ate - the garlic shrimp with smoked paprika (much spicier than you think it's going to be), the marrow bones, the pork jowls with polenta, the brussel sprouts and the fries - was awesome.

But, there was a little miscommunication in the kitchen about when everything was supposed to come out and we got the pork jowl entree at the same time as the huge marrow bone appetizer. A word of warning: trying to eat that much meat product in a very short amount of time so your food doesn't get cold (even though it's not your fault there's all this food on the table at one time) isn't a good idea. At all. It made us a little sick. So, we couldn't even finish the marrow bones, which was incredibly sad because marrow makes me happy. And, we didn't have dessert, also incredibly sad because I love dessert and they are supposed to make awesome sweet stuff.

Our waitress and the manager were very nice about the whole thing and took the marrow off our bill and gave us a gift card. We'll go back and give it another shot.

Image via the La Condesa website.

Awesome Birthday

Saturday was my 28th birthday. And it was freakin' awesome.

My awesome husband took me shopping for 8 hours. And bought me some awesome new clothes. And shoes. And jewelry. And fed me some awesome food (more about that tomorrow).

Here are some highlights of the awesome awesome clothes I got.

Wightwick Manor Dress from Anthropologie. Can't wait to wear this with my wide brown belt. I'm still undecided about whether boots will be too much with it. What shoes would you wear?

Tweedy Leaves Dress also from Anthropologie. So cute. I can't wait until it's under 90 degrees here so i don't feel like a crazy person wearing something that has a wool skirt.

Hot hot pencil skirt from J. Crew (my name for it, not theirs). Isn't that color just awesome?

Some TOMS. I'm dying over how comfortable these shoes are.

That's only a small percentage of all the stuff I scored. I had some major coupons, we found some great sales and my closet is looking a lot fuller.

Awesome birthday.

Weekend Activities in Austin

• There are a couple very important birthdays happening this Saturday (MINE MINE MINE), including the Draught House’s 42nd. Their party is an all day affair running from 1:00PM to 10:00PM with plenty of beer, food and music. Don’t forget to bring your lawn chairs! Seriously, don’t forget them. There are sure to be a ton of people at this thing and you don’t want to be stuck sitting on the payment.
• Now, to stick with the beer-related activities, Austin Beer Week starts on Sunday. Beer Week will feature 30 happy hours, 9 dinners, 19 beer and food pairings and a whole lot more. There will be 107 events total in this week of hops and barley. You can even head back to the Draught House on Sunday for the 1st Annual Beer Olympics. Don’t forget your lawn chairs!
• We’re just a little over a week away from the best candy night of the year so it’s time to start ramping up the Halloween activities. First up, the Halloween Children’s Concert put on by the Austin Symphony at the Long Center on Sunday. In addition to the spooky music, everyone is encouraged to wear their costumes. And you know your kids are just dying to wear their costumes already. And, let’s face it, you are too.
• To really get in the Halloween spirit (hehe, spirit), you’ll need a pumpkin. So, head out to Evergreen Farms for their Pumpkin Hunt. Not only can you get a great pumpkin to take home and carve into the Star Wars character/death star of your choice, but they also have a real pumpkin hunt where you can take a wagon ride into the Christmas tree fields to search for mini pumpkins that are hidden in the trees. There are also activities like a pumpkin launcher, pumpkin golf and pumpkin spinner. I have no idea what any of those are, but they sound fun, right?
• Want something spooky? Pioneer Farms has a Haunted Trail that includes a walking tour with fortune tellers, ghost stories around a campfire, and even headless horsemen. The trail is only open this Saturday and next Friday and Saturday from 7:00 to 10:00PM. The scarecrows were already all booked up the other nights with Jazzercize and underwater basket weaving classes.
• Arthouse at the Jones Center is having an extravaganza of reopening events this weekend. That’s right, construction is complete and they are ready to show off their new space, which sounds amazing. There’s a super fancy (with corresponding super expensive ticket price) celebration tonight, but I’m looking forward to the Public Reopening Party on Sunday. That one offers free admission, plus part of Congress right by Arthouse will be closed that day and there’ll be some yummy trailers on hand.
• You'll notice that I'm a little obsessed with all the home tours that go on in Austin. My obsession perpetuates because I always forget about a home tour I heard about and want to attend until I’m writing my Friday Thoughts and realize I’ve already scheduled something that I can’t get out of so I’m missing yet another one. So, yes, I’m talking about another home tour. Sunday is the 7th Annual Downtown Living Tour. This tour is a chance to see some of those fancy downtown condo and loft buildings. Sadly, it does not include the Austonian. Or an explanation of why that building is named the Austonian since Austinites don’t refer to themselves that way. Also, sadly, I will miss this one because we're meeting my mom for a birthday lunch.

Let's Talk Turkey Tuesday

We're not actually going to talk about turkey. One of my 30 Before 30 resolutions is to try 30 new (to me) restaurants or trailers and I love food, so I'm now dubbing Tuesdays "Let's Talk Turkey Tuesdays" AKA let's talk about food I've eaten recently.

Since I made my 30 Before 30 resolution, I've tried one new restaurant: Foreign & Domestic.

I'd been wanting to try it ever since it opened but we just hadn't made it down there. I'm super happy we finally did - it's good stuff.

We had the gruyere popovers, the lardo and I had the mac and cheese for my entree (they had a fancy name for it "ditali and cheddar").

The only part of the meal I was a little disappointed in was the lardo. I had it really built up in my mind, which I totally blame Anthony Bourdain for given his constant praising of lardo. I thought it was going to taste like the best bacon fat I'd ever had in my life, but it didn't. It was still good, and it was still really rich, but just not the scrumptiousness I dreamed about.

The ditali and cheddar, on the other hand, was totally amazing. They use a mild white cheddar (always the way to go), put in oxtails and top the whole thing with a soft egg. Pure heaven. If you get it, don't look at the portion size and scoff as I did. It's plenty.

Sadly, we didn't get to try dessert, which was disappointing because they had a bacon root beer thing that sounded right up my alley. But, we'll save room next time. Clearly, we're totally going back.

Added bonuses: great service, cool space and decor, yummy drinks.

(Image via Foreign & Domestic website)

Do You Want to Live Until You're 100?

Then check out this article in the New York Times today: Secrets of Centenarians.

Something that really stood out to me - studies show that optimists live longer than pessimists. Yet another reason to strive to live a happier life (which I'm currently working on). Of course, if you're going to live until you're 100, it'd be much more fun to be happy for most of those 100 years than downtrodden, right?

A lot of the comments were very harsh. But, I can't agree with them. I don't see anything wrong with reading a story in the Times (every once in a while) that reminds us all to live full lives and to live them positively.

I'm sounding a little Pollyanna right now, huh? What can I say, I had a good day and reading about a 100 year old woman who still does yoga in the morning and corresponds with all her grandkids fits my mood.

Anniversary Traditions (update)

I just realized that I never updated how Christian and I did on executing the traditional anniversary gifts: paper for the 1st year.

Well, I think we did pretty darn good.

I got Christian four cookbooks: Momofuku (we had our first real date at Momofuku Noodle Bar), Chanterelle and Staff Meals from Chanterelle (we had our six month dating anniversary there; sadly it's now closed), and The Foods of the Greek Islands (our honeymoon was in Lindos, Rhodes).

I gotta say, before the day, I was totally impressed with myself. Christian loves to cook, loves new cookbooks and those cookbooks all have great meaning for us. He was totally thrilled with them but I feel like his presents blew mine out of the water.

My "card" was actually a beautiful album he made for me on blurb.com, which made me cry like a baby. (My cards for him were from Target, btw.) And he got me the beautiful Frank Gehry heart pendant necklace from Tiffany seen above. Currently, it's off getting the chain lengthened because it was a little too short. I can't wait to wear it once it's back. What a show off.

Next year will be cotton. A little less than 50 weeks to figure that one out.

P.S. We also had an out of this world dinner at Uchiko here in Austin. That place probably deserves its own post.