Breaking Up Is Hard To Do.

Well.... at least taking a break is hard to do. I still haven't decided definitely one way or the other if I am gonna get rid of this blog. I just don't have enough to say to fill two blogs. So I am taking a hiatus from this one and concentrating on But You Have Such A Pretty Face. Come visit me over there. :D

Slap Your Mama Good!

Paula Deen's Nutty Orange Coffee Cake




Ingredients

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 teaspoons orange zest
2 (12-ounce) cans refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (10 count)
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter
1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

Direction

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a small bowl, combine the granulated sugar, pecans, and zest; set aside. Separate the biscuits. Place about 3/4 teaspoon cream cheese in the center of each biscuit. Fold each biscuit in half over the cheese, pressing the edges to seal. Dip the biscuits in melted butter, then dredge in the granulated sugar mixture. Place the biscuits, curved-side down, in a single layer in the hollows of a lightly greased 12-cup bundt pan, spacing them evenly (do not stack). Place any remaining biscuits around the tube, filling any gaps. Drizzle any remaining butter over the biscuits, and sprinkle with any remaining sugar mixture. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until golden brown. Immediately invert the cake onto a serving platter. Combine the confectioners' sugar and orange juice, stirring well; drizzle the glaze over the warm cake. Serve warm.

So frackin good!!

Two Blogs or Not Two Blogs?

I have been thinking lately that I don't have enough to write about to support two blogs. I have been spending more time on my weight loss blog than this one and as much as I don't want to admit it, I am thinking I may have to give this one up for a while. What are your thoughts on this decision?

Kolache House Bakery

I have been wanting to check out this bakery located in Massaponax ever since my gym membership began......which, BTW is located right next to the bakery. Well since I had never been mostly due to the guilt I felt even thinking about a bakery while going to and from the gym, I finally broke down and went on Mother's Day.... Adrienne in tow. I didn't know much about the Kolache House Bakery I checked it out on line first and it sounded quite delicious so off we went.

Apparently a Czech bakery consists of only yeast bread baked goods, of which I am not much of a fan, except for cinnamon rolls of course. :) I tend to prefer the more flaky and buttery style baked goods (think more central Europe). I have to say that what I tried was just, meh. However the cafe au lait I had was divine!


Made with whole milk since that was all they stocked.


Can't remember what this is called but it had a cherry and cream cheese filling.


Here's an inside look.

I then tried these "pigs in a blanket" type things. I didn't care for this at all.

So unless you really like yeast breads I would give it a skip and head on over to Eileen's and see there new bigger and brighter location. :)

My Six Hotest Hotties (for now)

Jumping on the bandwagon of Girlysmack, I have created my own Six List.

1. My Hottie Scottie Husband, Gerry Butler

2. Nathan Fillion, Castle Hottie

3. Matthew Fox, Lost Hottie

4. Paul Rudd, Funny Man Hottie

5. Bear Grylls, Rugged Hottie

6. Ryan Kwanten, True Blood Hottie

SWOON!

Thank You E & J!

With your fabulous gift card from Ulta, these amazing purchases I made:

A large container of i.d bare minerals Feather Light Mineral Veil (has a slight shimmer compared to the original Mineral Veil.)

A lip gloss collection by Smash Box (my favorite purchase) with wonderful summer shades that have a "get up and go" theme. Names like Zip, Go, Zoom..... you get the picture.

Yay for cosmetics!!!

Across the Universe

Good grief! What in the world took me so long to watch this movie?! I mean, really! I love musicals, I love the Beatles and I love cool artsy fartsy movies. Several parts of the movie reminded me of HAIR which, you guessed it, I love.

This movie ROCKS (pun intended). It's wild, emotional and an amazing ride.

Oh and Erin, girl, you were so right about Mr. Sturgess. He is DELICIOUS.

Our Grey Garden Party

The movie was FA-BU-LOUS!!! And only made better by the company kept. We started the evening off right. Preggie Meggie brought a little something sweet to compliment the pizza we were having later.


Oops, smudge one.


There, that ones better. Not only were the cupcakes super cute, they were delicious too!


Note to self, never underestimate 28 inches of pizza.

This is what was in that huge box.... A HUGE ASS PIZZA!

Here are Adrienne's tiny baby hands for scale.

One slice! Adrienne looks a little scared under that sadistic smile.

Patherine likes a challenge. ;)

Meggie, who is every inch the lady, refused our vulgar, ginormous pizza.

Davy, entertaining us all with beer and stories from Vegas.

The end of the movie brought reflection, conversation and more beer. Not for Preggie Meggie though. Doesn't it look like Patherine is goosing Davy and doesn't look like Davy likes it. Hey Davy, where is your other hand?

They Didn't Know That They Were Dealing With a Staunch Character!

Tomorrow night! Tomorrow night my friends is the premier of HBO's Grey Gardens. I am so freakin excited! A few fabulous folks are coming over to enjoy the utter outrageousness of Big and Little Edie Bouvier Beale. The fashions, the music, the tragedy of it all. Sigh. Oh, and there might be pizza too!


It's uncanny how spot on this movie is to the documentary.



In fact, I have recently discovered my own little Grey Gardens right here in Fredvegas. More photos to come......I didn't want to freak them out by camping out front of their house with my camera.

Birthday Booty

Check this loot out!

Lots of smell good things (thanks, Aunt Audrey, Aziz and Jodi!)

Gift cards galore! (thanks Dad & Ginny, Mom & Joe and Erin & Jonathan!)

Amazing candles from 10,000 Villages (thanks Mark!)

This lovely scarf....sigh...(thanks Dad & Ginny!)

The mother of all gifts, this digital camera!!! (thanks Elisa, Adrienne, Patherine, Davy and Sam!)

I am still geeking out!

Birthday Number 33

What a fabulous day! My wonderful friends kidnapped me and forced me to go to Can-Can Brasserie in Richmond. This place was gorgeous and I am now completely obsessed with returning to that palace of chic, champagne and charm.

Everyone was in great spirits (in fact I believe it was the spirits that were great!)

Davy and Sam, partners in crime.

Two martinis and a half carafe of Rose later....

Thank you all so much for this amazing day, I love you guys!

Happy Anniversary E & J

I love you guys!

I Love You, Man

"This is the man cave, there's no women allowed in here. I got a jerk-off station for God's sake."

This movie was hysterical!

They Don't Make'em Like This Anymore

The past couple of days I have been revisiting one of my most favorite films of all time, Now Voyager. I know that this will sound super cheesy but this film and more importantly Bette Davis' character, Charlotte Vale, helped me in some small way to crawl my sorry butt out of my slump. If Charlotte can go in one end of a nervous breakdown looking like Ma Kettle and come out the other end the epitome of style and elegance then I should be able to kick my own ass in to gear.

So, yeah.... things have been looking up. :) Business has picked up, the weather is warmer, the days are longer and we have new furniture in the apartment. (Thank you Dark Fury!)


I have started walking to work more, listening to my Ipod and soaking in all of the beautiful spring colors that seem to be everywhere. Ahhh... spring.

Next Sunday, Easter Sunday, is my 33rd birthday. I'm not really sure how I feel about it just yet. I am pretty sure that I am going to choose to be happy about it. Even though I just went through a annoying depression I still have the feeling that good things are in store for this year. Not just for me but for a lot of folks. So thanks for sticking in there with me kids. :) You are all the bees' knees. (whoa, old school!)

I will leave you with this symbol of strength, beauty and fabulous style....... Ms. Bette Davis.

Persons, Places or Things That Make Me Happy

This BBC show!

I highly recommend this trashy goodness to any and every anglophile out there.

Oy.

Okay for those of you who saw the post I had up earlier, I am sorry. Erin, I totally love you for your kind and not so subtle words of encouragement (Denver School of Massage only 2 minutes from your house). You crazy gurl!

Anyway, I was feeling really sorry for myself when I wrote it and then later decided that it was entirely too whiny and felt embarrassed for even putting it up. To sum up a very dramatic post, I'm sad. Have been for a little over a month now and I don't know when I'll stop being sad. I just hope it is soon because I'm annoying myself with my moping around.

Australia

This movie was wonderful!!! Funny, sad (I actually cried quite a bit) and exciting. Plus I want to adopt the little Aborigine boy in the movie......soooo cute! If you can ignore Nicole Kidman's badly done lip job and just focus on the smoldering Hugh Jackman, life is pretty darn perfect.

In the dictionary under VIRILE is this picture. Swoon!

Persepolis

WOW. This animated film was AH-MAH-ZING!!

So moving, funny and thought provoking. I highly recommend it to everyone (not children of course). Rent, Netflix, Purchase or Download it.....STAT!

Grey Gardens

It's Tragically Delicious!

What The Heck?!

Okay, I'll just jump right in, shall I? Monday was my first day at the Dr.'s office. The night before I barely slept because of the fear that I would over sleep and miss my first day (silly). So needless to say I was running on adrenaline that morning. I get to the office and unbeknownst to me I have a half hour massage scheduled right at 9am (when my shift starts). Cool, massage I can do. No biggie. The office manager is apologizing profusely about not calling me to let me know on Friday so that I could come in earlier and get my bearings. Again, no big deal.So the rest of the day I have about 4 massages, sweet huh? I have time to fill out paper work, eat my lunch, get the lay of the office and try to get to know my new coworkers.

Long story short, through a few pointed questions and some random overheard comments I discovered something truly crappy, that I was completely mislead as to what my monetary compensation would be. I was told at the beginning that I would be getting a salary based on a 40 hour work week with a half hour paid lunch and half hour paid administrative time. NOT SO! Come to find out I would only be paid when a massage was booked and only $16 for a one hour deep tissue and $8 for a half hour session. WTF!! Market prices are $85 and $45. Had I known that I would never have taken the job in the first place. That amount of money is almost third world. My work is worth far more than that. I am good at what I do and I can't believe that this Dr. thinks that amount of money is okay.

At the end of my shift on Monday I asked to speak to the office manager. I told her my concerns and how I felt misled and she completely understood. Since there was no room for improvement in compensation I said thanks but no thanks and have since moved on. I am back at the spa and feeling really welcomed and appreciated. I took Tuesday off to process some emotions. I felt really sad and pathetic and a little stupid and the more I explained it to my friends and family the more stupid I felt. Yesterday I just felt angry and wanted to hit something. Today I am feeling a little better.