Kelly B.com

Do you believe in New Year's Resolutions?  I don't really because I think it's silly to set goals just because it's arbitrarily the New Year.  If you want to set a goal just do it, you don't have to wait until a specific date to set it.  However I do like taking a moment to access yourself and determine how to better one's self.  That's nice.  So I have a love/hate relationship with the whole thing. Totally unrelated to the Earth completing a rotation around the sun, my cousin, I shall call Haley got engaged and has sprung it upon me that she needs me to participate in her wedding.  To which of course I think I'm just like, making food or prepping flowers but in fact I now need to be dressed identically to three other girls for the ceremony, so....in that roundabout way that I get wrangled into a lot of things I will be an active participant.  Since I had her be part of my wedding party I suppose it's only fair.  But when she was a bridesmaid fo...

Clearly I spoke to soon. Takesies backsies anyone? Lex and Mike eloped this Saturday at Wickham Park on what would have been their planned wedding date anyway. It was very last minute even though they had originally planned to be wed on that day and they've been engaged well over a year but all the most important people seemed happy, albeit rather harried. Since Amanda's been in town anyway I've kind of used her as my go between with Lex and this whole wedding because to be rather honest I thought Alexis fell off the face of the earth and hated me for some confusingly unknown reason. I'm not saying I'm perfect but I try really hard to be empathetic. Rather than bother her about it I just preferred to not push the issue any further. Getting married, or not getting married or eloping is a pretty stressful thing without dealing explaining it to every Tom Dick and Harry. Because through the 1+year of plotting this wedding it's shrunk from a 300+ guest event t...

Lex asked for another post so here it goes. Apart from the mild euphoria of squeezing into those jeans and losing all feeling in my legs and slightly bruising my hips (which by the way, do not whither away as quickly as I do) it's been more of the usual. Weekends spent at Lowe's. Looking at granite slabs. Looking at cabinet swatches. Feeling generally nauseous about the cost. Ya know. The usual. I'm a little confused about this granite versus marble thing because I've had laminate or tile in my other kitchens and it's been fine. I think it looks cool, and I'm kind of excited about the prospect of having a cold surface for chocolate tempering and dough rolling but otherwise? I just wish for a kitchen that works. My needs are pretty modest. I don't even need a funky back splash or granite light switch covers or a tin ceiling or built in bar sinks or anything. Other than that I've been painting things, mudding up holes and generally sore from stan...

Work has totally eaten up all my time. I even went into work on Saturday for a few hours to kick out some work that I knew I'd never get to complete otherwise. I feel awful because I want to have a good work/life ratio where I actually, like...live. Like, a LIFE. So with that said I don't want to stress any more about it than I already do when I wake up at 5am stressed out about how I should load XYZ file as soon as I get in the office Monday. I roll my eyes just listening to myself. It's so uninteresting but I'm drained and I'm a horrible updater as a result. I'm also a horribly inconsistent chef and my husband has on, more than one occasion, been left eating olives and crackers because there is nothing pre-made for him. I'd feel bad, but if he wanted to he could always fry up some eggs and toast but he is not that person. He's more of a "if there is nothing I can reheat in the microwave there is nothing to eat" fellow. I think he'd ...

News? Ugh, nothing good, so I'll just say things have been happening but most of them not-so-much things I want to talk about because I totally believe in jinxing things. For example? My husband went to NYC for a business day-trip. He got there just fine. Hopped on the Amtrak and was at the conference hall just fine. He insisted on taking my phone because mine is a normal cell phone. I told him he should then give me his for the days "just in case" and he brushed me off. I know when he's listening to me and taking me seriously and I know when he totally doesn't think what I'm saying has merit; this was one of those times. He didn't think it was a big deal and I'd be fine without a phone for one day. And I am the first to admit that I am not a phone person, and often forget the darned thing or keep it on vibrate. Well, inevitably things go wrong. He misses the last train from NYC to our town. He'd have to take a train to New Haven. I'd hav...

Okay, I'm backlogged again. I guess I'm obliged to mention I went to my friends Jeff & Jill's wedding, huh? Story in a nutshell? Jeff and I went to school together and I guess I'd consider him my best male friend in high school. He was just nerdy enough, but didn't take himself seriously or pretend to be cool and mature. We were admittedly weird and silly and that's how you're supposed to be when you're a teenager. And he was as boringly straight edge as I was. We've tried to keep up our friendship through the years although I admit we kinda suck at it. I think we always have fun hanging out but we lead busy enough lives that we don't want to drive long distances to see one another. Jeff and Jill went to the same college and have been together for 8 years. You can probably guess that this was not as rushy rushy as Kim's wedding. In fact this might be the polar opposite of Kim's situation because people have been tapping their...

Is it lame to admit that I love my bridesmaid dress? Probably, right? Well, too bad. I love it. Probably a great deal in part to the fact I picked out not only the style but then proceeded to pick the color and for some reason Alexis agreed with me. I didn't even have to bribe her! What a pal. I mention this even though I bought the dress like over a month ago because I'm on the cusp of attending a wedding and if we're being 100% honest I was deeply considering wearing Lex's bridesmaid dress to this occasion. Because dude...one less dress to buy! But then I'd be really lame because there'd be pictures of me wearing the same dress to TWO weddings. And that's simply unacceptable behavior in my book. So I bought a new dress. Ugh. By the time I pass away I might have 500 billion dresses in my closet. But in addition to it being totally unacceptable to have dozens of pictures of me wearing the same dress at two separate occasions I think I'd be really p...

What a crazy busy weekend. I spent Friday evening frantically trying to wrap my shower gift to Alexis. By the way, it was the best shower gift I've given yet. No joke. I like to think I put a lot of thought into all my gifts but this one took the cake. I'll find it hard to top myself for the next round. But I ran out of paper to wrap it and of course I was frantic trying to find something late at night. One day I'll remember not to procrastinate. So I ended up wrapping part of it in a brown paper bag. How lovely...yet ghetto of me. Saturday was the shower and I was pretty much cooking, serving, cleaning..etc. for hours and hours. Because I volunteered to bring potsticker dumplings and then I also volunteered to help Lex's mom prep before the shower so she'd be less stressed out. So that meant cooking at home my dumplings. Then getting dressed. Going to their house and then cooking and prepping and wrapping and serving other food. It was fun; don't thi...

Happy Anniversary, Trevor! How did we celebrate? I had a mild panic attack about my work and not being at work and kind of wishing I had more time. UGH. But you don't live your life, look back and wish you sat in your cubicle longer. You wish you spent your free time constructively and with people whom you love. So I did. I spent a lot of time with my husband. I made him a three course meal totally from scratch. Mind you, he seemed confused his Vietnamese wife made him such a convincing Chicken Tikka Masala and seemed genuinely convinced I used some kind of prefab mix. For our anniversary? Ugh, yeah...that's not my style. I also had this weird desire to make mashed cauliflower. It seems like a forgotten vegetable that no one ever buys or thinks about. I liked it okay. You won't ever mistake it's flavor profile for mashed potatoes. It can't ever whip up as beautifully as mashed pototoes, okay? But it's nice if you just take it at face value as being cau...

The 2nd house thing fell through. I'm sad for Trevor because he really seemed to love it. But I'm sure there'll be others. On the bright side, my husband has ripped up the boards on the back deck and is now in the mist of replacing them with the assistance of his bro Devin. The cabinets are finally repainted and all placed back where they belong, so thankfully the kitchen looks less like a construction zone. The same can now no longer be said of our back deck/entryway, but progress is progress. The deck was beginning to rot anyway. The house itself is over 100 years old, so you have to expect that with the charming quaintness you inherit a few repairs. It must be deck re-do time because my dad just finished repainting his an incredibly bright light blue. I kind of wonder about the color selection, but Dad insists it's great. Dad takes some serious pride in his handiwork. Mom gets frustrated that it seems to take 5 times longer than it should to be completed, but...

Sooo , I only just broke open the box of my pressure cooker and used it. I got this pressure cooker as a bridal shower gift about this exact same time LAST YEAR. This clearly just goes to show that I did not deserve to receive so many gifts because I might be 80 years old by the time I break into everything I was gifted and use it. Mind you, I'm grateful for everything, I just might not live to use it all. And this was one of the things I genuinely wanted to have because I was curious how it'd work. In fact it's pretty rad. It's like a crock pot, only without all that pesky waiting time of slowly cooking all day. I do however have to admit that I was intimidated by using it. I've seen a lot of cartoons in my youth where it blows up and expels its contents all over the room. I'm sure a lot of other people tend to feel the same way; I've never seen anyone actually use one on any cooking show, my mother's never used one and my friends never make any...

I'm so backlogged. lol Kim's wedding went off without a hitch. I do however admit to being drunk for a large portion of her bachelorette and wedding day. That probably really helped with the overall relaxed attitude I had. Apart from mine and the other bridesmaids generally being uncomfortable in our $200+ dresses it was a good time. We got our hair done (minus the Maid of Honor Kim's sis who had her hair done elsewhere) and makeup and took pics. Did the whole church thing. Ran a totally random errand for Kim and then really hit that open bar hard. The bachelorette was a lot of fun although I entirely look forward to a repeat when it's Alexis's turn. A. Kim won't be pregnant by then and maybe I won't be THE loud talkative drunk person; I can always count on Kim to be my crazy counterpart B. I loved it. C. I think there'll be less girls and less "stuff" because Lex isn't interested in nails and toes being polished...so it'll also...

Paris was amazing. I loved it. I couldn't recommend it more. The only negative about it is that it's uncomfortably expensive, but what can you do about it other than accept the pain and realize it's a once in a lifetime opportunity to dive into a new culture. $4 Euro coca cola (roughly $6 American). And I thought NYC was overpriced. But Paris was clean. Paris was much more relaxed. I didn't think people were mean at all. I think if anything they were just confused about how to approach my mangled french. lol I loved it. I loved the stylish people. I loved the delicious food. I loved the smells of the wafting french perfume. I loved the wonderful french bread. I loved the french-ified Japanese food. I loved the fragrantly wonderful vanilla ice cream. I loved the Monoprix. We went to all the "major" things like the Eifle Tower, Notre Dame, L'Arch de triomphe, Le Champs-Elysees and Le Louvre. Touristy of course, but you have to do it, right? The be...

Congratulations to Alexis & Mike on their recent engagement. Dude, there's gotta be something in the water. Not like this is a gigantic surprise. Lex has already been talking about getting married to Mike in 2010, so I'm not about to pretend like I was even half as floored with Lex's engagement as I was with Kim's. So Lex is next. Thankfully for her we already found a dress for her that we love because while doing the whole bridesmaid thing for Kim I insisted both girls try on wedding dresses. Heck, we drove over an hour away for 10 minutes of measuring and chit chat. Why not try on some dresses? Kim and Lex were reticent about it but, for the time we ate up driving there and money in gas, why turn around and go right back home? Lex actually fell quite in love with two dresses and both were incredibly reasonably priced (discontinued-s) so I get the feeling she'll likely turn right back to that bridal shop in Newtown and snatch one up. I look back on the dr...

I have a bit of explaining to do. I haven't been keeping this up to date. But I have a good reason. The one I thing I wanted to talk about...I couldn't talk about until now. I couldn't talk about it because it wasn't my news and because when it's not your news you can't spoil it for other people. When half of her family didn't know I couldn't very well tell the entire internet. Kim's pregnant...with a baby...Vinnie's baby. It's due date is Oct. 31st, 2009. It's gender is still yet to be determined but I'm hoping girl. A.) Because girls are awesome and B.) She wants to name her son Tyler and Trevor is already in an uproar about anyone using that name because he wants to use it. I say, people who have babies first have first dibs. And unbeknownst to me the name Tyler has shot itself up to #21 most popular baby boy name per Social Security Administration. A name that popular pretty much guarantees your kid will be referred to by his...

I haven't been posting. I've been really busy with work...and I hate saying that because that sounds so uninteresting and generic but it's true. When your work is tied to the stock market and everything is tanking to record lows you'll find that it drags you right down along with it. But I don't dare complain about work because I'm quite happy that I still have a job given the current economic environment. In non-work news, now that I'm a married lady the next natural question that people tend to ask is "when are you going to have kids?" And my answer is, "eventually...but certainly not tomorrow." Sorry to disappoint but as of this moment I don't care to be bogged down by a tiny, screaming, pooping monster. Not to sound like a heartless baby hater because I'm actually quite fond of children but I'm not naive enough to think that our lives will be as carefree after one enters the picture as it is right now. Children are a l...

Yesterday I hung out with Lexie & Kim baking. I decided on boston cream cupcakes and Kim made a mix of different candy bar innards for her cupcakes in lieu of pudding. All in all it was a lot of fun and very indulgent. Even Lexie's mom was saying how she was having flashbacks because the last time all three of us were piled together laughing and being silly was like 8 years ago. A lot changes, but a lot stays the same. Kim and Lexie still lovingly bug one another, I'm still the kindhearted mediator and there's a lot of laughing. Kim and Lexie talk about boys and I calmly listen on and chirp in my two cents where appropriate. I think that's always a good sign of a significant friendship; you can just pick up right where you left off like no time has passed. We caught up on what I missed while I was away; I talked about my honeymoon; Lex about her new job...etc. I think it's a bit of a longshot considering everyone's current economic status but the nex...

I've been ridiculously tentative about sharing any of my wedding planning all year long because A.) I didn't want to hear anyone say "well, I wouldn't do it like that. If you did ___ it'd be better." Even if you're right I didn't/I don't want to hear it. You can say I'm hardheaded but the fact is that for my wedding day I wanted to do what I wanted to do how I wanted to do it and hearing otherwise from people just filled my head with anxiety. Because I do have a bit of wishy washy-ness inside me and the last thing I want is to be tormented with more options. I have a hard enough time trying to pick out an entree at dinner time and that's a pretty inconsequential decision. B.) I don't like the idea of someone snagging my ideas before I use them. Once I've used them you can feel free to give me credit for inspiring you, but I'd be ridiculous kinds of upset if someone outright stole an idea from me under my feet. And it's...