getting stuff done!

I am getting lots done this week and feeling real good about it...

1. picking up bowls from a friend that she is letting us use for centerpieces.
2. meeting with the florist
3. getting my dress altered
4. picking up some free paper products from a super generous chica
5. getting my hair highlighted
6. hopefully getting our invitations printed already.
7. seeing the Sex and the City movie - hoody hooooo!

I am sure a detailed update will follow.

overpriced resale shop

I walk into Anthropologie behind a group of elderly women. The elderly women are curious about the new store. They have never been there. They enter the store and lay their eyes on Anthroplogie in it's purposefully shabby chic/boho decor and clothing. Sale tables in the front of the store house items in buckets with handwritten price flags on each one. The items include mix and match knobs for $3.95 each, aprons for $8.95, etc. The women converse as I listen:

"What is this store?"
"Oh! it's a resale shop."

I giggle.

thankyouverymuch

Jon's mom just got a Cricut and let me borrow it. She owns her own crafty business where she will use this machine, but I have often wondered how much the regular person would feel the need to die cut...so much where they have to buy a $200 machine. On top of that, buy the cartidges for extra die cuts at $90 a pop. (I think these are the average prices anyway. I just Google'd it and the prices greatly vary) People go crazy for this stuff too. They have the cartridges under lock and key at Michael's and on one of my last visits, I overheard people feverishly asking the employees when they would get the Disney Cricut cartridge back in stock. Regardless, I welcomed to opportunity to spend the weekend with the thing, see what all the hype was all about, be crafty and cut stuff. And cut stuff is what I did.

I had bought some blank note cards at Micheal's a while ago in their dollar bins and I decided to spice them up with the help of some leftover paper I had and the Cricut. I will be having to thank people a lot in the near future, so I figured thank you cards would be a wise choice. I made 60 of these babies.

Five Guys

We finally got to check out Five Guys Burgers and Fries...affectionately known simply as Five Guys. We had heard big things about this place. It originated on the east coast, but from the look of their website it is moving westward. I would call them the east coast In-N-Out Burger. Like In-N-Out, they only have a few things on the menu: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, veggie burger, fries and cajun fries. Although, word on the street is that the "veggie burger" is just a bun with any vegetables you want on it.

Anyway, we walked in on a Friday night at around 6pm and there was a line about 8 people deep. The food was a little more expensive than I would typically spend on a burger and fries and such a place. $17 for both of us to have: a hamburger, a bacon cheeseburger, large fries and 2 sodas. We got our number (92) and took our seat. The restaurant is decorated pretty minimally. It kind of reminded me of Jimmy John's, but with less character. White and red tile with almost every square inch of the walls covered in articles about how great they are (Zagat ratings, food reviews, etc) and quotes by people raving about how delicious the burgers are. We waited for a while, maybe about 10 mins or more and all of a sudden we started hearing them call out, #95, 96, 99, 102...and remember, we are #92. So we are getting kind of pissed....We are hungry, they think they are awesome, they are charging us more than what we normally would pay for fast food and now, they obviously lost our order. So I got up and checked out the situation...sure enough, lost our order. They put a rush on it though and I had it in no time. They gained a few more points by doing this...

We got back to our table, took our first bite and immediately forgot about all of their shortcomings. It was delicious! The regular burgers come stacked double, which Jon and I decided is quite convenient. We don't like when you get huge burgers at restaurants and you have to cut them in half to be able to pick them up and eat them. Jon also liked that the bacon on his cheeseburger fit his burger and wasn't hanging outside the bun. The fries were good in my book, but Jon wasn't the biggest fan. They are fresh cut potatoes and were just salty enough. I mean, I added more salt (because that is just what I do) but I think they were good and salty for the regular fry eater. We got a large fry and shared it, but it was more than enough. We didn't even finish it. I think we'll share the small next time.

While we were there, we decided to rank our favorite burgers in terms of deliciousness. Jon thought Five Guys was better than Dotty's, but I don't remember if he liked it better than Culver's....and he doesn't have a soft spot for Gille's like I do. I rank my favorite burgers like this:

1. Culver's
2. Gille's
3. Five Guys
4. Dotty's
5. Sobelman's
Honorable Mention: In-N-Out Burger (Only because it has been about 3 years since I have been there and I don't remember really what it tasted like, only what I felt while eating it...which was immense satisfaction)

ring a ding ding

We got our wedding bands this weekend! It was much more painless than I anticipated it would be. For some reason, I thought it was going to be a really long process. You see, from time to time, if Jon and I would be in a mall or something, we would pop in a jewelry store just to see what they had to offer. I always left a little dejected because the channels didn't match up or my engagement ring paired with the band looked too big for my finger or the salesperson would tell me I should leave at least 6 weeks to be able to get the ring sized, etc. I should have known the original jewelry store where Jon got the ring would have a perfect match. And they did! I still had a couple decisions to make though. My ring is a round stone with 3 channel set princess cut side stones on each side. A channel set princess cut band would technically match it, but I was loving the round one! After wearing them both and staring at them both, I decided on the round band and I am so glad. I love how it looks together and alone. Jon opted for a titanium beveled edge band. Here they are...

...and the set

burgers and fries

This is an ongoing post I have been writing for the past month:

I love McDonald's. I love the McChicken, the Filet-o-Fish, the burgers, the nuggets, the fries and even the diet coke is delicious. It is so convenient, so cheap and so entirely bad for you. It was becoming too easy to stop there and get lunch or dinner when we were in a rush/not feeling like cooking, etc. So, I decided to give it up for the month of April (and any place like it)....and you guys, it has been SO hard! I kept thinking I wanted to have an ongoing post of how I felt about McDonald's that particular day, but I didnt get around to it until today (the 21st). Oops. So I will summarize how the last 2 1/2 weeks have been. Things were easy peasy up until the week of the 14th. Since then, I have thought about having McDonald's at least once a day. I am a crazy person! I know this. May 1st can't come soon enough! Except, since I have gone without it this long, I am thinking I should stick it out as long as I can. We'll see what wins out (probably McDonalds, I'm not going to lie)

21st - It's Monday. Enough said. I wanted to go to McDonald's for lunch because I know all we have at home are Lean Cuisine french bread pizzas. I had those 3 times last week. /// Went home for lunch and watched a little Big Brother After Dark and had an Herb Roasted Chicken Lean Cuisine. This is actually one of my faves. It was pretty good.

22nd - Jon calls me at work to ask me if Culver's is the same as McDonalds. I say yes, we cannot go there either, I proceed to think about butterburgers for the rest of the day.

23rd - not feeling real good. My glands are kind of swollen and soup sounds much tastier.

24th - Still getting over the sickness. Still not diggin the idea of McD's.

25th - we went to Dotty's for dinner. I'm not sure if that was cheating. We DID have burgers and fries (and cheese curds...mmmmm), but it wasn't McDonald's :) And, it's Friday. I don't cook on Fridays.

26th - kind of want McDonalds.

27th - Had soup for lunch. Jon made homemade pizza for dinner. McDonald's would have been convenient, but we chose to eat what we had in the house. Yay us!

28th - Stopped at Target to get lunches for the week...including 3 Cheese Ziti Marinara by Smart Ones. It is my favorite and I have not thought about having McD's.

29th - stayed late at work, then did some errands. Jon wasn't going to be home for dinner. I kind of wanted to go to McDonald's, but I didn't!

30th - we went grocery shopping right after work and didn't get done until about 7, so we didnt feel like going home and starting to cook a meal at 7. Typically, we might have gone to McD's or Wendy's since they are right down the street. Tonight, we went to Subway! Yay us!

Recap:
So now it is May 1st and we are planning on making dinner at home tonight, but we'll see what happens in the future. This experiment was meant not only to cut out something that is really bad for you, but also to save money and be in the mind set to make meals rather than eat out. And I think we succeeded in that. The times when we were tempted to just go to McDonald's, we took a step back and realized that we were just being lazy and to get our butts in the kitchen to cook something. Tomorrow is Friday though and it's possible that we could relight the flame with McDonalds. Bottom line: I think I will think more about the money and the calories before I ever go there again.