no way jose

i enjoy the carolina/clemson rivalry just as much as the next gal. but moving the game up to the first of the year?

no thank you mr. morris. http://www.thestate.com/tigers/story/1041616.html?RSS=sports

my dad and i had a talk about the possibility of moving the game to an earlier date this afternoon. he’s as much of a carolina fan as i am of clemson so i figured he would be able to offer a little insight. nope, he hates the idea, too. if it ‘aint broke, don’t fix it.

i simply don’t understand changing things for the sake of change. if both teams were consistently vying for their conference championships i might understand. let’s face the facts though folks, that’s just not the case. i even hated moving the game back a week when they added the 12th game to the schedule. call me a traditionalist i guess.

ps – check out this preview of this weekends big game on CBSSports http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wggQBOm21NY

On my way to Tampa Bay!

Go Tigers! On Saturday, Clemson clinched the Atlantic Division title with a win (and helping the cause in case of a CU slip up, a BC loss). Alex and I did not attend the GT Clemson game this year even though we live about 20 minutes because honestly, Thursday night traffic in Atlanta is dreadful. I’m pretty excited about the rematch. Today we booked our hotel and arranged tickets through our friends that are faithful IPTAY donors.

Kate’s Prediction: Clemson 1003, GT 2

Alex’s Prediction: GT 38, Clemson 28 – Clemson winning in the 4th quarter until Kyle Parker gets KO’d and Willy Korn steps in. 

This is me with the Tiger in 2005 during The Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando. Probably one of the greatest football road trips all time complete with a marathon Disney trip, Crayola Room, and great tailgating.

on the homefront . . .

mom came up last week to help work on the curtains for the kitchen area. she was able to finish 4 panels and get a jump on the roman shades that cover the kitchen windows that overlook the street. here’s mom slaving away on the curtains.   

 but even though the curtains are completed i’ve run into a little snafu. the mega windows in the dining room area measures 155 inches. yikes. no curtain rod from lowe’s/target will work. so we can either make one or go with two shorter rods. what do y’all think?

the long-term plan is to change the windows out for a set of french doors, but that is likely a few years off.

we’re in the process of having some super fabulous 1980’s mustard yellow velvet chairs recovered and i’m just crazy excited to get them back from the upholstery dude. two weeks is a long time but i’m going to hold out on the before and after until i get them back. i also learned in this project that it is possible to get high gloss paint out of micro suede. i’m convinced micro suede is indestructible.

i recently completed a mini project involving high gloss spray paint and a hand me down lamp. i’m in love with anything high gloss now. from my desk to my upcoming upholstered chairs. alex’s aunt jerrie was kind enough to give us a few things when we moved in. i knew right away that one of the lamps would make a great diy project. i bought a can of high gloss white spray paint intended for metal and went to town. i topped it off with a great shade form target and it’s found a home one the table behind our couch.

this guy was originally brass and shade-less. i’m loving the shape and the clean, modern lines.

dear whole foods . . .

in my weekly “dear” section i dedicate this to whole foods. why, oh why, are you so darn expensive? i stop by to pick up a quick lunch, grab a few things and a bottle of wine. i only use a basket to make sure that i don’t bust my budget. then bam. $90. omg! either a) quit making things so yummy or b) lower your prices.

i am now only to shop at whole foods with a list. no more special treats. just my list. sigh.

decisons, decisons

do y’all remember the episode of 90210 when dylan was trying to decide between brenda and kelly? dylan went to the peach pit and played “did you ever have to make up your mind” like a gazillion times and mac told him to “get with it.” that’s how i’m felling now. 😦

miami? eh. joe’s stone crab? awesome!

i don’t love miami. sorry guys, even though south beach is beautiful and i’m usually a big fan of any city with 1950’s architecture miami just doesn’t do it for me. maybe it’s because i hate the airport, and the ensuing rental car area cafluffle, or maybe it’s because my espanol is no bueno.

what i do absolutely love is joe’s stone crab. it’s a mini chain (which doesn’t break my chain rule because we don’t have one) and it’s delectable. they are only open during stone crab season to make sure maximum freshness is preserved. i personally love joe’s to go because i can grab it, run back to my hotel, and catch the latest episode of glee while enjoying seafood yuminess. you can even order online and have stone crab delivered to your house. just in case any of you were wondering what you should get me for christmas. or my birthday. or presidents day.

my personal recommendation? skip the stone crab and go right for the king crab. i prefer hot to cold crab legs and crave the butter over the mustard sauce served with stone crab. the sides are served à la cart — don’t miss the tomatoes. cheese covered grilled goodness. and their key lime pie might rank as my number 1.

planes, trains, and automobiles. but mainly planes.

i spend a lot of time in airports. i spend a whole lot of time in good ole hartsfield jackson. over the past 3 1/2 years of travel i’ve learned to navigate the atlanta airport better than my local grocery store. with the upcoming holidays i thought it appropiate to write about a topic near and dear to my heart. so here are my insider tips to getting through the atl airport without a gps.

1) this is more self-serving than anything, but read the TSA regulations about what you can and can’t carry on the plane with you. no, you may not bring your 20 oz icee. yes, you have to take off your shoes. yes, you must put your laptop in a bin all by itself.

2) personally, i think the train system in the atl airport makes it the easiest of the large airports to go through. follow signs to the train and hop on. from one end to the other it’s about 5 minutes but rarely do you have to go all the way from e to baggage claim. well, unless you are going somewhere cool and international and then i am insanely jealous.

3) don’t feel like you have to stay in your terminal. there are going to be delays. i can count on one hand how many times my flights have been perfectly on time this year. so why hang out at your gate for four hours? see above post about the trains and hop on to any other terminal to check out shops like lacoste, bath & body works, brooks brothers, sean john, etc. the best part of this airport is the abundance of choices.

4) food. yep, another awesome thing about this airport. here’s kate’s insider tip. pascals. concourse a. heaven. hands down my favorite place to eat. it’s just like your momma cooks for sunday night supper. newly added savannah candy kitchen in concourse b is also a personal favorite. they added this the month before my wedding and i let the lady at the counter know that that was not a nice thing to do to a bride. she laughed at me as she handed me my divinity.

the usual chains exist, too. chili’s too, budweiser brew house, nathan’s, burger king, the concourse e food court is probably the largest of the 6 concourses. i don’t spend a lot of time in concourse t but every time i walk through the food options look pretty yummy. more “gourmet” than some of the other mainstream options.

5) don’t stress. life happens. getting angry or frustrated never helps. just keep in mind that you will (eventually) get to your destination so why not head over to the sweetwater ale house and relax with a cold glass of sweetwater 420 to make the time pass.

kate and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

yep, today was alexander material. i don’t want to even think about it anymore. all i want is a big glass of wine and to make this day go away. instead of explaining the dreadfulness that was today i’m going to post a few pictures that make me smile instead . . .

so here’s hoping tomorrow comes quickly.

dear dad

thank you so much for serving our country. i know you served in a time when your peers did not give you the respect you deserved. people said unkind things about you. they protested and were angry with you — they took their frustrations out on those serving instead of the situtaiton. you still fought for us. you still took a bullet for us. and i couldn’t be more proud! i love you dad, and even though i’m not entirely sure you know what a blog is, i want to thank you.

thank you dad, uncle thomson, stephen, eric, brian, and all veterans for serving me and my country.

musings from nebraska

here are my random thoughts from today . . .

is the guy at the chinese restaurant humoring me when he gave me two forks or does he really think that i’m ordering enough food for two people?

if i were two hours from my nearest target/mall how much money would i save?

is it really necessary to harass customers into getting those “savings” cards from supermarkets? we don’t have  “>saveways in atlanta, no i don’t want one anyway, no seriously, i am not going to ever shop at a saveway again. what am i doing in chadron? oh, well . . .