I've got your price override right here.

Now that we have a Sam's Club membership we find ourselves wandering over there mid week just for a little entertainment and to see if there's anything we "forgot" on our grocery list. This week we ran in on a Tuesday for Crest White Strips.

Coffee for me used to just be a Saturday morning indulgence, but this past year I've found myself getting out of bed, putting on my fuzzy slipper socks, wandering downstairs and, while half asleep, making the coffee pot produce an ugly ugly drug that I've now (gasp!) become addicted to. For this reason, my teeth are changing from a nice pearly white to, well, not so pearly white.

But I digress. So we walked in on a random Tuesday solely for white strips. But let's be honest, you can't just walk in and out of Sam's without perusing the electronic aisles, or, you can't if you're my husband, at least. Keep in mind, we didn't NEED anything other than the white strips. After about fifteen minutes of me at the jewelry counter and Ben in electronics, we finally met up in the discount aisle. The aisle where tvs, monitors, speakers, have been returned, have damaged boxes, been refurbished, or are older models, etc... Always a good deal to be had if there is a sucker to take the bait. Ben and I found a 26" LCD Vizio on sale for $200 bucks. We looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and said...what a deal. Our current bedroom tv DOES need to be updated. It's a 19 inch monstrosity from college... soo, it would be silly to pass on this, right?

We are normally the type of consumers that faithfully read consumer reports and base most major purchase decisions off of their ratings. Well, with a quick google search on Ben's blackberry, we saw one 4.1 out of 5 rating and that Amazon was selling them for $350 bucks so we bascially just decided we'd hit the jackpot!

But like responsible consumers, we didn't want to rush things. We decided to continue our walk around the store and then, if we came back and it was still there it was meant to be, if not, then so be it. The next stop was the clearance section in the back of the store. Guess what was spewed all over the shelves with $10 bucks marked off because of damaged boxes? Crest White Strips!! Score!!! This WAS meant to be. We grabbed the only item on our shopping list and, to again not seem too eager about the TV purchase, we walked briskly the long way back to the electronics section. It was still there! SOLD!

After walking out, I asked Ben if he had buyer's remorse, that would be a negative. I hooked it up, and we watched house hunters from bed. Not a bad Tuesday.

"You cannot escape your destiny"

Life lessons that I've learned from the Star Wars trilogy:

1. Only if your name is princess Leia, you have an awesome body and gorgeous hair are you allowed to wear a metal bikini

2. Never leave home without your lightsaber

3. Black masks aren't good for the complexion

4. Every man should have a Wookiee

5. The moon may not be a moon, but in fact, The Death Star

6. Take all advice from people who are two feet tall and 900 years old, no matter how funny they talk

7. Watch out who you kiss to make your boyfriend jealous, it might end up being your brother

8. Frozen in Carbonite? Don't worry, you'll live

9. Thinking of becoming a storm trooper? Don't. You'll never win and will always die

10. Good will always prevail over evil

Cooking Class: Pasta, wine, and H1N1?

During the winter months I feverishly search the internet looking for activities to keep us busy and make these dreary winter months more tolerable. During my search I found that a local restaurant was going to be holding cooking demonstration classes each Saturday in January for twenty bucks! If you remember, Ben and I did a cooking class last year about this time, but it was sixty bucks, so this seemed VERY appealing.

Pasta and wine pairings 101 sounded like the class for us! A chance to learn how to make fresh pesto, risotto, stuffed raviolis and, of course, an opportunity to drink wine, one of my all time favorite activities.

We arrived early to ensure we got a seat at the front table. The class ended up being very full, 20+ people were in attendance. You could tell that this was a new venture for the chef and restaurant. They were taking pictures and seemed to still be working out the kinks as far as prep, serving, and demoing went.

The chef, being very eager to teach his new found foodie students, asked participants to help. The first opportunity came when he needed extra hands to pass out a few of the sample dishes. I'm not sure where the waitress was at this point, slacking in the back somewhere obviously. So a gentleman in his mid fifties stood up to help that was wearing old jeans and a wrinkled button up shirt that was un tucked. He seemed to me like someone who spends his days at home in front of the computer playing video poker. Ben and I were a little alarmed by this. On one hand, we're positive he didn't wash his hands prior to serving us. On the other hand, he did only touch the plates, not the food itself. Sooooo...duly noted.

The next opportunity for participant help came when the chef was mixing risotto. He needed someone to continue to stir and add vegetable stock while he prepped the wine glasses and discussed pairings. Again, the waitress was MIA. Our eager video poker player stood up to help out once again. The chef referred to him as his star student (apparently he's been every Saturday in January so far). He played with our food while the chef spoke. Ben and I, again, began to feel a little uneasy, but he wasn't touching our food, so no big deal. Right?

The last demonstration came with raviolis made from prepared wonton dough. He stuffed the first one with cheese, mushrooms and spinach, closed it up and asked for volunteers to finish the rest. A little hands-on action during a cooking class is always a good thing, but are you going to serve us those? Among the half dozen volunteers was our star student. While walking up to the counter I watched him lift up his shirt, scratch his backside and cough into his hand.

AFTER the participants were done germing up our food they wanted to know where they could wash their hands. This had our entire table in a hushed uproar. We couldn't believe it! While we were discussing amongst ourselves how incredibly wrong this was, our MIA waitress came out of the kitchen with raviolis already cooked. Whew! He was truly just demonstrating and had prepared the dish in advance.

After a careful head count he discovered he was two servings short, doh. So guess what? Yes he did. He took TWO of the raviolis that were groped by our classmates and "cooked" them (they spent 30 seconds in a sauce pan with a little olive oil). My ever so observant husband watched which tray they went on and looked on in horror as one got served to me and the lady next to me. I shrugged my shoulders and said, "I'm sure I've had worse," and ate it. I'm sure the wine killed whatever video poker dude was a dormant carrier of, right?

Overall, a great intimate setting for the class. We learned a lot but are starting to wish we would have gotten that H1N1 vaccination.

"There is a great disturbance in the force"

Monday morning marked Star Wars screening number two. To be completely honest, I was bored out of my mind with the first episode, even with the margarita's and milk duds. I wasn't sure how I was going to get through this one, especially after just getting up and only having my coffee to get me through it. I thought if the movie got too dry I could always find the Bailey's to make things a little more entertaining. But no need! Empire Strikes Back was actually full of adventure from the very beginning and, for the most part, commanded my attention.

I have a better outlook on the rest of the movies now. I'm not saying I'm looking forward to seeing them, or that I'm on the edge of my seat to see what happens to Han Solo in episode VI, but I may be a little curious.

The Wedding Chronicle

Ben and I were cleaning out our basement this past weekend and came across the newspaper article that we wrote for our wedding. I had totally forgotten about writing it and was thoroughly entertained. We both decided that this was definitely the origin the Debacle.

Enjoy!

These aren't the droids you're looking for...

It's true. I've never seen any of the Star Wars movies. Why, in the 1990's, would a girl need to watch these obviously boy movies when there are options like Clueless, Father of the Bride, and American President? I digress... Ben found out this little factoid about his wife and decided that, to pass the winter nights, we would rent the Star Wars movies from the library and watch one a week. Last night was the first screening, and you can tell from the picture what my prerequisites were. The movie was a little slow, but I'm willing to see this out to the end so I can chime in when I hear people say, "Luke, I am your faaather."

2009... "did I hear a niner in there?"

Megan, Rachel, and I were the sexiest bridesmaids Lauren could have ever hired asked for. We had a great time with all the wedding festivities and are now hassling Adam (Rachel's BF) to step up to the plate so we can start planning girls weekend/bachelorette party/shower/OMG Rachel's getting married weekend!
You're welcome Rach.

Heather & me after completing the Illini Half Marathon Easter weekend. We both posted our PR's at this race!

Three weeks after the Illini race, I finished the Indy Half Marathon.

Took a trip out to DC over Memorial Day weekend to visit Ben.

Ben and I headed out to San Francisco and Sonoma Valley for my birthday. This trip ranked a close second behind our honeymoon. Needless to say, we had an amazing time.

This year Kelly hosted Estrofest in Des Moines, IA. I know what you're thinking, they have beaches in Iowa? We laughed too much, drank too much (except for Debo who dropped the preggo bomb on us!) and one of us ended up with a tattoo... FANTASTIC weekend!

We sold my 15 year old Honda and I got my first real adult car, with car payment and all!

Ben ramped up his competitive spirit this year and completed four triathlons. He has improved drastically from last year, even placing first in his age group at one race.

Paul bought his own place this year, so we invited ourselves down for Labor day weekend. We had a blast celebrating Ben's birthday with a little rap concert action, golf, cake, shopping and Dave & Busters.

We hosted the second annual Christmas Shindig which consisted of the girls baking until we either got sick on cookie dough or drank so much wine we couldn't read the recipe. The guys beat Tiger Woods on the Wii and drank so much beer they couldn't swing straight.

2009 was a fantastic year for us. Each year holds more adventures than ever anticipated. We toast to 2010 and whatever it brings our way!

Warm weather. It's a crutch.

Ben and I spent New Year's weekend in Chicago. At the time the trip was booked I was picturing a nice miniature weekend couple getaway, strolling down Michigan Ave drinking hot chocolate, taking in all the Christmas lights and sale signs in the store front windows. While that sounds very romantic, it was the coldest weekend in the history of the world. Locals said that it was colder than normal for this time of year, "we usually don't see weather like this until February." The point is, YOU DO SEE THIS WEATHER!

We learned several things on this trip:

1. Cold weather attire purchased in Atlanta does not make for cold weather attire in Chicago. My winter coat may as well have been a spring jacket. My winter hat that barely covered my ears was quickly replaced with a hat that had ear flaps.

2. How to properly tie a scarf and show nothing but your eyes. Nose covered, ears covered, chin and cheeks covered. At those temperatures priority number one was keeping my face from falling off. Running a close second was priority number two: looking ridiculous.

3. Living in this climate might possible kill me. After braving the weather for a few hours I could see it in Ben's eyes, it didn't even need to be said. His "I love cold weather" attitude and "I could live here for sure" mentality quickly froze, broke off and was lost forever.

Regardless of the ridiculously cold temperatures, we continued on with our planned activities. Friday night we met up with an old high school friend and his wife for dinner at Wildfire and a show at 2nd city. Dinner was amazing, a glass of Hess Chardonnay paired with mushroom stuffed salmon and veggies. Ben had a Sam Adam's with a peppercorn fillet and green beans. 2nd City was a blast. I laughed so hard the entire night my face hurt. Seriously, my face hurt. If you have not been, I strongly recommend going.

Saturday morning we were picked up by our buddy from college, Jeff. We hadn't seen him for four years nor had we met his girlfriend who he's been dating forever. We had breakfast at Milk & Honey in Wicker Park and sat and talked. It was perfect, and we totally gave his girlfriend our stamp of approval. Jeff had to work that afternoon so he dropped us back off at the hotel and we continued our frigid adventures.

We toured Millennium park where I previously had big plans to ice skate. But, since it was -20 degrees outside, I opted to watch others and then briskly walk into a Payless to get feeling back into my legs. We walked along Michigan, went in some all time favorite stores and then ventured over to Holy Name Cathedral for Saturday night mass. It was an amazing church and absolutely packed. We followed up mass with Chicago deep dish pizza a Giordano's. We decided on Giordano's after polling several Chicagoans and decided this would be the spot at which to clog one of our arteries. The rest of the evening and walk back I had imagined stopping at a Starbuck's for a latte and people watching to cap off the night. Instead, we hauled ass back to the hotel where I immediately got into my flannel jammies, watched a couple episodes of NCIS and passed out.

With the threat of "lake effect" snow, we got up and out of Chicago on the 8:30am train Sunday morning. It could have been about 30 degrees warmer, but we had a fantastic time visiting with friends, eating great food and celebrating the new year together in a fun city.

Holiday Hiatus

So, many of you may know or, if not, after checking your favorite blog daily, then...weekly, and then, at last...monthly, realized that yours truly took a holiday hiatus from all things blogging. After cookie weekend my mind was full speed ahead on the upcoming weeks. I was busy Christmas shopping, planning parties, attending parties, shopping for myself and packing. So, now that I'm back in full swing, you can rest assured that there's no need to delete What Not To Write from your favs, I will be mindlessly writing and blogging to keep you entertained. So, to review the last few weeks briefly:

Ben's company Christmas party was not what I would call a rip-roaring good time. I attended some excellent Christmas parties when he worked for Deliotte, chocolate fountains, ice sculptures, free drinks, food, live entertainment, the works. Oddly enough, a museum full of drunk accountants is a blast! This crowd, however, was much stiffer. It all started with the cash bar serving $5 cocktails, wine, and beer and proceeded to get worse when the DJ decided to play family feud with random participants in the audience. It was painful to watch, so much pain it made you want to drink, but due to lack of physical cash I choked down my ice tea instead. We now understand why people say they never go to the Christmas party. We will not be attending next year.

The good news about just attending such a lame party meant that the one we were about to throw the next weekend could be nothing but awesome. This was the first party that we've actually hosted since living here. We provided all the alcohol and everyone was asked to bring a dish. John & Sherry bought me a glass beverage dispenser for an early Christmas present so I made about five bottles worth of Sangria. It took a little finessing, but it turned out AMAZING! It was the hit of the party. It was decided that we would need to host another party this summer prior to moving so everyone could enjoy some more Sangria!

That led us straight into Christmas. I took off the week prior and after. Hence the holiday hiatus. We had a terrific time at home. We spent Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas day with Ben's family. Got a Wii, some gift cards, wine, and a few other odds and ends. All items that I needed and greatly appreciated. We stopped by Brian and Heather's on the way home to play with the kids in the snow before making the VERY long trip back home in the horrendous weather. I spent the following week of my vacation in my jammies playing Tiger Woods Wii golf. I now own multiple outfits, shoes, jewelry, etc. Ben did point out that I can buy better clubs now that I have over 100k but I would much rather just change my outfit every 18 holes, a girl can't be caught dead in the same outfit twice, even if it is on the Wii.