the blogfog of 2010

last day to ask questions, peoples! will be posting answers on monday morning, so speak now or forever hold your peace!

also, i am pretty sure i have that SAD thing. i mean, maybe not really, but right now the only things that can pull me out of this funk are summer weather or zoloft. i would really prefer to go the natural route, but it ain't lookin' too good. mother of god, PLEASE stop the cold weather. or get me some good drugs.

what are you lovelies up to this weekend?

various and sundry, part deux

the blogfog {like that? i just thought of it} continues...

*people, ask me some friggin' questions. it will give me something to do.

*so last thursday night i cooked for the new boy for the first time. i made babe's beloved mexican lasagna and this citrus avocado salad. the salad was meh. the lasagna was off-the-charts delicious {thank you, dear alice!}. i sent him home with half a pan of leftovers. i got a guilty phone call the next night confessing that he had eaten the entire thing in one sitting. mission accomplished.

*how am i just now discovering the pioneer woman? my god, J'ADORE her!! currently sitting here drooling over the rosemary rolls recipe...

*which will go great with this meatloaf recipe i am making for the boy next week. he asked me to cook for him again. i'm really liking this excuse to cook with obscene amounts of ground beef. i feel like it justifies all of the red wine.

*which is why i'm starting the 30-day shred on saturday. actually kind of looking forward to it. well, more accurately, looking forward to lounging around in a teeny bikini for a week in palm springs {let the countdown to april 14 begin!}

*no, really. ask me some questions.

*lacrosse season starts tonight. thank god...the first sign of spring.

well, there you have it, my darlings. the second non sequitur brain dump in a week. please pray that spring thaw will also bring a brain thaw pour moi.

i got nothing

since the junior league has taken over my life and most of my available brainpower {the rest was zapped by the nasty weather today}, i am copying everyone and their mother and opening this up to questions. ask me anything. i will answer to the best of my ability. so hit me with your best shot! anything you've ever wanted to know {and more} about belle on heels...

hope y'all had a wonderful weekend!

the sweetest thing

a little heart hug for you on this sunny friday morning. i dare you to watch this video and not tear up a little bit. as my coworker said, it just goes to show that there is someone for everyone :)

http://video.tiscali.it/canali/truveo/611_1234581161.html

happy weekend, my loves!

laissez les bon temps rouler

it's mardi gras! hope everyone is getting in some last minute sins before the season of lent arrives. i'll be celebrating today with a locally-made king cake and plenty of vino. let the good times roll!

various and sundry

still in a bit of a blog brainfog. just some random things this monday morning...

*it's snowing. again. we're expecting another 2 inches. blech.

*i'm home sick sick sick. sniffles and a delightful dry cough. curled up in bed with the puppy boy and watching old seasons of lost.

*i drank an obscene amount of wine this weekend. really....just ridiculous.

*and discovered the most AMAZING new cheese ever. brunet. holy mother...i want to make babies with this stuff. delicious with champy {but honestly...what isn't?}

*i found out i'm headed back to my favorite place on the earth, jackson hole, with my dad for a long weekend at the end of march. that was a wonderful valentine's day gift...

*as was the amazing dinner he treated my mom, sister, and me to on saturday night. and the shiny new slow cooker my mom gave me. anyone have some good recipes? i'm eager to break it in in in!

hope y'all had a wonderful valentine's day weekend. mine was perfectly lovely.

thoughts on the single life

this morning i came to a frightening and reassuring realization: i am really happy being single. this is the first time in life that i have been able to say this with absolute honesty.

oddly enough, what spurred me on to this realization is the fact that i've been hanging out with a new guy. nothing big...a few dates. he's nice and fun. but i'm not sure there's anything there. and for the first time EVER, that doesn't upset me at all. perhaps a sign that he's not "the one", but also perhaps a sign that i'm growing up?

example #1: after going out friday and saturday nights, the boy wanted to hang out again on sunday night. i said "no", simply because i didn't want to. i know that sounds trite, but that's huge for me. in the past, i would've wanted to, regardless of whether or not i was interested in the guy, because it was nice to know that someone was interested. or i would've said no, but only because of the rules of playing hard-to-get. this time, i was just tired. and wanted to go home and snuggle with my puppy and sleep alone in my bed without listening to anyone snore or steal the covers.

example #2: in the past, realizing that maybe there's not anything there would REALLY upset me. i would dive into my self-pity mode of ohmigod if it's not him, then who? i will never find anyone! a touch melodramatic, no? but now....just calm. just a realization that i need to get to know him a little better, but if it's not there, it's not there. and that's ok. and someone else will come along. nothing worth worrying about.

example #3: i really, really, really like my life the way it is. that right now i don't have to do anything for anyone other than me {and the puppy boy, of course}. i'm a creature of habit and i'm also a nester. i look forward to my weekly monday night girls nights of the bachelor and junk food. i love going home after work and not having anything to do other than cook dinner, work out, and shower. that if i want to spend 2 hours recataloging every single magazine page i've ever saved, i can. or if i want to spend all day sunday in bed watching disney movies, i can. if i want to let the dishes pile up in the sink for days or be psycho about wiping down every surface in the house twice a day, i can. introducing a guy into the picture throws all of this off balance.

don't get me wrong...i still want to meet my dream guy and get married and have babies and a house and all of that good stuff. but i think i have finally arrived at the point where i know that will come. and it's ok if it's not today. it might be tomorrow, it might be five years from now. but i can handle the being alone in between. because i'm not alone. i have a seriously amazing group of friends, a wonderful family, a snuggly coonhound, and my own life. so now that i've had this revelation, i'm going to start enjoying this time to be blissfully selfish. because this time is temporary.

sorry for the long, rambling post. just something i needed to get off my chest on this blustery thursday morning.

blame it on el nino

i am having a major case of writer's {blogger's?} block and i am blaming it entirely on the neverending downpour of snow, sleet, freezing rain, and other assorted winter weather assaulting our little corner of the south. it doesn't help that my place of employment has decided that employee safety is none of their concern; black ice or not, we are expected to be in the office everyday at 8:30 sharp. office morale is at an all-time low and i can hardly find the motivation to respond to e-mails. i just keep looking out the window and dreaming of somewhere sunny and warm....

on hibernation

the puppy boy and ferdinand, his beloved squeak rooster toy

greetings from snow-covered small town, virginia! we are spending our snow day curled up in bed {with the exception of midday lunch + cocktails with friends at my favorite local watering hole} getting our WASP on with the following movies:

what's cooking wednesdays: the super bowl edition

last year i co-hosted a big super bowl blowout for me and my closest 40 friends. and by co-host, i mean friend e allowed us to use the game/tv room at her awesomely huge new house and i cooked. a lot. the centerpiece of my menu was my beloved aunt's taco soup recipe. i have wonderful childhood memories revolving around this soup and snow days with my cousins. the recipe has seen me through to adulthood, where my mom and i have both won a few chili cookoffs with a few recipe adjustments. i made two massive slow cookers full of this, and there was not a bit leftover. {if your friends aren't as gluttonous as mine, it freezes beautifully}.

aunt martha's award-winning taco soup
1-2 lbs. ground meat {chicken, turkey, or beef}*, browned with
1 small onion
add:
1 can chopped green chiles
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 package taco seasoning mix
1 package dry ranch dressing mix
1 can hominy, undrained
3 cans stewed, diced, or crushed tomatoes, undrained
1 can kidney beans, undrained
1 can pinto beans, undraines
2 or more cups water

Simmer for 30 minutes. {i tend to just throw everything in the slow cooker in the morning and leave it on low all day. this soup is very low maintenance.}

*i prefer to use a shredded rotisserie chicken and brown the onion on its own.

p.s. this goes beautifully with ina's yummy jalapeno cheddar cornbread!

thanks, mom!

i HEART milly, but since i am in the midst of de-debting, i doubt there will be any fabulous michelle smith frocks added to my closet this spring. so when i got this e-mail from bloomie's today, i saw my only chance at milly loot until the devil card{s} is paid off. my mom is a devoted fan of the clinique dramatically different moisturizing lotion, so i forwarded her the e-mail, kindly begged her to restock via bloomie's, and send the milly bag to her favorite eldest child.

it may not be a dress, but at least my bathroom vanity is getting a little fashion-forward boost this spring! stay tuned for what's cooking wednesdays...

no words needed

so. freaking. excited.

bad case of the {freezing} mondays

oh you know, typical monday morning. just sitting here torturing myself by looking at pictures of warm and luxurious travel destinations. it's currently 16 degrees here. it snowed all weekend. it's supposed to snow again tomorrow. and this weekend. at which point i may say to hell with fiscal responsibility and book the next ticket out of here to one of these destinations:

the tides, zihuatanejo, mexico

vedema resort, santorini, greece

four season maldives

the viceroy anguilla