soak up life

Roma Boutique Hotel

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:11:04 PST

Rome - done!

We started looking at Rome hotels earlier this week and came to a decision today. Ultimately the decision required a second assessment of our budget; Rome is an expensive city. We threw a bit of caution to the wind, did another search and within about 10 minutes, booked our hotel.

(Note we did about the same thing for our honeymoon. Spent months researching and when the time came to book, quickly changed our minds and made an impulse purchase.)

We'll be staying 2 nights at the Roma Boutique Hotel which looks just lovely. The room includes breakfast and has a king size bed, both things we place a high priority on. (My hubby is 6 feet tall, king beds are a must.) It's also very close to the Spanish Steps and seems close to the Vatican which is my no. 1 priority in Rome.

Very excited! We're just one hotel away from having it all booked!

Man v Bathroom

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:07:16 PST

You've heard of Man v Food but unbeknownst to me, at my house today it was Man v Bathroom.

Ross regrouted the tub last week and was keeping a close eye on it to see if it separated again like it had done in the past. That sneaky tub, it did. So today he tackled it again and it looks good as new.

Our toilet in the master bathroom had started running about a month ago. Not consistently...seemingly only at night actually (or maybe that's just when it was quiet enough for me to hear it). It wasn't anything a little jiggle couldn't fix so we were focusing on bigger priorities such as company parties and puppy dog parks in our time off. Apparently today it became too much for the hubs to stand. I came home not only to it fixed but to the whole tank gutted and rebuilt. We're now the proud owners of fancy low-flow toilet plumbing in our master bathroom.

If you aren't a homeowner, it's possible that these upgrades are lost on you. Goodness knows they would have been on me when I had a landlord. I would have simply notified said landlord and then come home to it magically fixed. Granted, since I have a wonderful hubby, my personal experience isn't that much different but I know how much work he puts into it. You should see how proud he is every time he tackles a new house project, especially the ones he's teaching himself for the first time. I'm so proud of his productivity, his new handyman skills and of my fancy freshly grouted, eco-friendly upgraded master bathroom.

Moneyball

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:33:32 PST

I took a brief break from Friday Night Lights this weekend to watch Moneyball on BluRay with the hubs. Since we're both big baseball fans and since the book is one of Ross' favorites, we'd been really wanting to see this movie. In fact we had every intention of seeing in the theater but you know how it is, one thing leads to another and since movies are only in theaters for about 5 days now, it doesn't take much to miss the window of opportunity.

But anyways...

Though I'm not a huge Brad Pitt fan (I mean I think he's good looking but eh whatever, not into the hype), I loved him in this movie. He was really well cast. A bit of a gritty, muscular baseball look to him but sunny and tanned just like you expect a California boy to be. I also love the actor (Jonah Hill) they cast to be Peter Brand, Pitt's Ivy League genius awkward 20-something sidekick.

As we were watching it I thought about a post from the office blog and the point it drove home: when you can't win with business as usual, it's time to change the business. Even if we ourselves never actually change the rules, it's a romantic notion to daydream about, one perfectly fit for the romantic game of baseball.

Finally I indulgently loved how the movie included a few scenes from that old familiar part of Boston. Ah, nostalgia, how I love you.

Verdict: see the movie!

Hollywood Night

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 10:46:40 PST

It's been a big week at the office and last night we wrapped it up with our annual party. In addition to being a fantastic party (I'll get to the details, just wait) this year was even more fun for me because having been there a year, I know everyone much better. Also Ross was able to join and since we've had a few functions with my immediate team recently, he knows them and their spouses. We even started with a little happy hour with them. I'm telling you, I work with some wonderful and fun people and despite spending 40 hours per week with them, I really enjoy seeing them socially too.

Anyways, back to the party. It was at a new-to-me location this year, the One World Theatre in Westlake. The theme was "Hollywood" and our party planner nailed it!

It began with complimentary valet parking, always a nice way to start the evening. Then they literally rolled out the red carpet up to the doorway. Our CMO and VP of Sales were greeting partyers on the red carpet with microphones, conducting interviews, asking who you were wearing, etc. ("A local designer"...ie I couldn't remember the name of the cute little boutique where I bought my dress.) As you walked through the door the "paparazzi" stopped you for photos.

Everyone was dressed to the nines. Ross bought a new tie for the occasion (I love his new tie, it's gorgeous) and paired it with his good pinstripe suit. He looked dashing, handsomest man there. I wore my gray dress from our own Christmas party and accessorized with some new black stud earrings and a big black cocktail ring.

The food and drinks were great. The decorations were awesome, lots of red and white. The annual awards were presented with videos from the Oscars dubbed over with our own audio. (I became the voice of Angelina Jolie.) One of our favorite things though was a flip book making booth. It was so fun! And the little book is great. So great that I wanted to share it and while I can't upload a flip book, I'm sharing the next best thing: our homemade video of our flipbook.Enjoy!

January?

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:37:40 PST

My yard and my neighborhood haven't been this green in months. It's January. Doesn't it usually not work like that?

Oh and it was 80 degrees out today. I think that's fairly odd for winter too.

Welcome to 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:03:13 PST

Dear Cheryl, welcome to 2012.

When I was asked for approximately the 400th time about calling someone via Skype this week, I decided maybe it was time to get with the program. Tonight my friends, I downloaded Skype.

New headshot

Then I got crazy and decided I should have a mildly recent headshot to fill the avatar screen so that required some photo selecting and editing. (And now I'm wondering, should I maybe update LinkedIn, Blogger, etc for improved consistency and recency? Oh the really tough and important questions in life.)

Then - ooh! I can add contacts! Yes let's do that. Let's search my Facebook. I bet I find a dozen or so...or like 500 people I know who are on Skype. Apparently I really was last.

I didn't have the patience to sit down and add all of you. I apologize. I added Anna, AJ and my cousin Anthony because as A's I got to all of them before I was bored. The real purpose was to be able to call Kevin so I added him and on my way to K I saw Joe's pic and figured I might as well round out the Renaud family listing. So I have those five people. One day I'll get crazy and add the other 495 of you. Or you can find me. I'm CLBlack425...just like my username for nearly everything is. Creative right?

Watch out! Now that I've joined 2012, I'm gonna Skype you!

(That sounds somewhat violent doesn't it?)

Better Luck Next Year

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:25:54 PST

Well the Texans loss to the Ravens was a bit of a heartbreaker. Between Jacoby Jones making a laughing stock of the special teams and TJ Yates throwing not one, not two but three interceptions...sigh. Our defense played great; if only the offense could have matched it.

However Mom & I decided there is a small consolation prize in losing today: we don't have to travel to New England to be demolished. I've seen the Pats play and I had no dreams of the Texans beating them, especially outside, in January in New England. So it would have just been one more game to risk injuries and possibly end the season with an unnecessarily disheartening massacre.

So on our first year ever in the play-offs, winning one and going out with a (frustrating game but) respectable score ain't so bad. Until next year Texans...

1H 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 07:51:54 PST

The first half of 2012 just got busier.

If you read my California Girl post, it already looked fairly busy. Ha! That's nothing compared to what's on the books now:

January: 3 speaking engagements, 1 in each city: Austin, Phoenix and NYC
February: This is the month I sleep. So far nothing other than Valentine's Day here.
March: Co-hostessing Brittany's Baby Shower, Cirque du Soleil date night, Janice's Bridal Shower, SxSW, Boston for Jane's wedding, start California trip
April: Finish California trip, Easter, Ross' birthday, my birthday
May: EuroTrip
June: Orlando to speak at TechKnow

As Mom used to say to me in high school as we drove from one cheerleading practice to another, "it's a good thing you like to be busy."

23 Hours in Phoenix

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:39:19 PST

It's a Friday night and Lexi and I are curled up for an episode (or two) of Friday Night Lights. That's because after 23 hours in Phoenix, I'm a sleepy lady.

Instagram pic from front of AZ hotel

Since I'm sleepy, I'll give you the very brief version. Yesterday afternoon I flew to Phoenix to join up with the McPherson Co-op, a group of fundraisers and marketers for PBS stations across the country. I enjoyed dinner with the group, where I ate delicious chicken and learned TONS about the world of public media. As the intersection of charitable work and broadcast journalism, I found it to be super interesting.

Then this morning I spoke to the group about social media and shared a few ideas for how they could use it back at their stations. Shane, from KLRU (Austin's PBS station) spoke with me on the topic and is definitely leading the charge in terms of social PBS stations.

And after speaking but before reaching the 24 hour mark in the wild wild west, I was back on a plane and headed to Austin.

Let's honor Shane and his team here with a teaser video for a show on our local PBS station that I do believe I will have to start watching.

Ruby's Pet Peeve

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:15:01 PST

Some cars shake when you approach 80 mph, some car speakers pop when you try to rock out, some cars can barely make it up an on-ramp if they are low on gas. It's their way of telling you to not to drive so damn fast, to turn the music down or to fill up with gas already.

My little Ruby car is scenario three. She really hates being low on gas. Most cars can be "on empty" but still have 20 or so more miles in them.

Nope, not Ruby. One time I was on empty when I brought her home. The next morning I was about to go to the gym, turned the key and got nothing. Freakin' crickets. Ross was standing in the garage and he looked at me with the biggest "No way" eyes I have ever seen. I tried again and she started to purr. I immediately filled her up at the nearest gas station, cost be damned.

Today we had a little trouble with a wee hill, really had to stretch the little juice we had to get up what I didn't even realize was a slight incline until now, despite driving the same route for 2+ years. (You were above E old girl! Come on!) We promptly made a pit stop.

I love that little car and I'll probably consider buying another Hyundai when the time comes. In the meantime, I'm gonna make sure her little car belly is full (or at least half full) o' gas 24/7.

PS Musings about my car's gas habits led me to an idea and subsequent blog post about donor record keeping. OMG I am such a nerd.

Consumer ID

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 18:22:35 PST

In cop shows they often go through the victim's trash with the idea that you can tell a lot about a person from their trash. Are they health nuts with nothing but organic groceries? Or are they Chinese take out aficionados? Maybe that receipt from the corner store will break open the case.

When I'm in the (always lengthy) line at the grocery store on Sundays, I find myself mindlessly staring at the purchases of the person in front of me and IDing them based on consumer habits. Apple juice and Pediasure probably mean there's a wee one at home. Sticky buns, soda and potato chips, especially when not accompanied by fruit, milk or vegetables, speak for themselves. Mountains of chips, Gatorade and deli meat either mean there are 5 kids in the family or possibly just 1 teenage boy.

Our shirts also said game day

What does our grocery shopping say about us? Well, yesterday with beer, cranberry juice, sausage and jalapeno poppers it said "game day!"

But our regular weekly grocery trip consists more of fresh vegetables (but rarely the organic ones), boxed rice or pasta mixes, 1% milk, fish, steak or pork, chicken, store brand tortilla chips (every week like clockwork), a small bouquet of cheap flowers and maybe a sweet something like this week, a pint of (light) vanilla ice cream. I think you'd say that we're a small family, probably with no kids (I mean come on, no juice boxes), who are mostly healthy and who don't put a lot of stock in most name brands.

Or maybe I just think that because I am us. While groceries don't actually define us, I'm still curious: what do your groceries say about you?

Hotel San Giorgio - Here We Come!

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 15:34:20 PST

One more EuroTrip hotel booked!

Late last month/early this month I created a short list of lodging options for Venice, Vienna and Rome with the idea that Ross and I would pick our hotels together from that list. This morning we knocked out Venice!

Hotel lobby

We'll be spending two nights in the Hotel San Giorgio. As Venice is a spendy city to visit, we'll be staying in an economy double. But since I'd rather be out and about enjoying Venice, a small room is no problem.

Among the reasons we selected this hotel were the good reviews on TripAdvisor, the central location and the inclusion of breakfast. (We're all about included breakfasts to help power us through the day.)

Review: Wired and Dangerous

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:08:00 PST

I don't know if I would go as far as to call it a new year's resolution, but instead of just blogging about moi all the time, I would like to spend more time this year reviewing books, movies, events, restaurants, destinations, etc. I'm thinking we can sum them up as the lifestyle section of the blog. (In fact, I think I'll create a new "lifestyle" label. Yes, yes I will.)

Last month I read Wired and Dangerous, by John Patterson and Convio Summit 2011 keynote speaker, Chip Bell (hence the interest). It was definitely a work read so to be honest it took me a little while to get through. It was a good book, and I'll hit some of the highlights, but you know how it is, after working all day, who relaxes with a work read?

Like I said though, good book. The big idea is that consumers today are more demanding and more vocal than ever. We're more demanding because a few stand-out experiences, like working with Amazon and their amazing customer service, have really started to raise the bar. We're also demanding because we're less tolerant of human error - just think of how often you go to the self-check out lane or ATM instead of conversing with a real person. It's just like they say, if you want to get something right, do it yourself...so we do.

We're more vocal somewhat on accident. Many moons ago if we had a bad experience, say at the airport, we would moan about it to our friend who picked us up after the flight. Now we tweet about it from the runway, consequently reaching way way more people. We've also started to learn that if we moan in a public enough way, someone might fix it for us right then and there. Quite reminiscent of Pavlov's doggy experiment.

All that means that as customer service people, we have to work a lot harder to make our customers happy. You have to remember what their most recent site search, recommend books based on their last purchase, alert them of deals based on their habits. Admittedly, it is a little daunting.

Throughout the book John and Chip share personal stories of customer service gone wrong (very funny in many cases) and customer service gone oh-so-right (make you say WOW). And even if you don't think your job is about customer service, their stories help you see how all of our jobs are about customer service in one way or another. It's a good read for thinking about how you approach your job, your clients, the retention of clients and all the people who are serving you and their performance and the fact that maybe you should cut them some slack for simply being human. After all, it happens.

California Girl

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:28:19 PST

It's been unofficial for a while but now it's official - for six nights this spring I'm gonna be a California girl! I'll be adventuring first to San Diego to see Kevin for two nights and then on up the coast for a four night business trip to San Francisco. I've never been to either city so between that and seeing little bro, and knocking "San Diego Zoo" off my bucket list, I'm quite pleased.

Hotel in San Fran

This officially solidifies the first half of 2012 as just pure crazy. Pure wonderful fun crazy. Check it out:

January: 3 speaking engagements, 1 in each city: Austin, Phoenix and NYC
February: This is the month I sleep. So far nothing other than Valentine's Day here.
March: Cirque du Soleil date night, SxSW, Boston for Jane's wedding, start California trip
April: Finish California trip, Easter, Ross' birthday, my birthday
May: EuroTrip

I totally dig it.

2012 Resolutions

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:35:17 PST

It's quite late but I'm still up (and yes, mostly because I had to watch just one more episode of Friday Night Lights). I just read several of the Deltas' new year's resolutions and I have to admit, I felt kinda left out. So I'm going to share just a few of them (the others I'm trying not to jinx so you'll just have to wait until I achieve them to learn about them).

Travel. It's lookin' good. EuroTrip and Boston flights have been booked and tomorrow I hope to book my San Diego plane tickets. With any luck, I'll accompany all those flights with hotel rooms. A January sub-goal is to book hotels for Rome, Venice and Vienna and to come in near-ish to budget. Those might be mutually exclusive clauses; we'll see.
Work out 4x per week. I pretty much do this now but I'd like to 1) keep it up and 2) nail it even on busy work/travel/social/whatever weeks.
Take my vitamins. Well, I just realized that I've already missed the boat on doing this every day. (I need to take them with food so today I took 1 to work with me where I was going to eat breakfast and I just realized I never took it. Damn.) However, maybe I can still come in at 90% or higher and score an A overall for this.

PS Seeing as I shared 3 resolutions right here, it looks like I'm not going to achieve my original resolution (which makes 4 total shared resolutions I guess) to have less resolutions.

Latest Addiction

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:31:54 PST

In high school I read Friday Night Lights and it quickly became one of my favorite books of all time. (Summary: small town loves high school football and goes to the extreme to support it [Interesting note, our friend Stacy grew up out there in West Texas. He and even more so his older brother, were high school students at that school during the time the book takes place.]) I was stoked in college when they made a movie of it but was sorely disappointed when I saw it. Such gratuitous teenage sex, drinking, drugs, etc and they totally changed the ending, I mean as dramatic as making the Titanic not sink. I was so disappointed in fact that when they made a TV series, I didn't even bother. I figured it was the same characters from the movie in a "what happens next" sequel style series.

Fast forward many moons to this holiday season. Our new BluRay player is smart and thus we can stream in Netflix. Totally awesome. The Friday Night Lights TV series was filmed here in Austin so locally it's discussed often and many people I know, with varying entertainment interests, have raved about the series. Rave reviews, filmed in my (new) hometown and now free on-demand via Netflix. What the hell. I'll give it a shot.

Well that was three days and 12 episodes ago.

First, the TV series is not an extension of the movie. It's just loosely based around the same familiar story of a small Texas town infatuated with its high school football team and the holy grail of winning state.

Second, the characters are so loveable. The coach with his guidance counselor wife and their daughter who is so over football. The unlucky start QB who suffers a major injury. Then the self-conscious second string QB forced to step up as an underclassmen and who develops a crush on the coach's daughter. It's wonderfully cheesey, dramatic and wholesome.

And finally, the oh-so-familiar scenes. It's like looking into my life at times. In some ways, literally: the game scenes were filmed about a mile from the house at Pflugerville High, which I just confirmed via Wikipedia but which I ran across the house to tell Ross when I recognized the district office building in the back of one game scene. (This makes living in a town with such an absurd name a little better. The realtor should have told us this back in 2009; I would have felt a lot cooler moving to P-ville if she had.) I also recognized the shopping center across from our house with the ridiculous ice cream sundae shaped building. You can't fake that kind of ridiculousness folks. And according to Wikipedia, there's one future episode filmed in Boston, including a segment at BU.

But beyond the neighborhood scenery, the plot has some crazy familiarity. Like the scene where the football players dress in drag as cheerleaders for a pep rally. Oh Friday Night Lights, that was so CLHS circa every year 1999-2003. Or the CheerAmerica Classic which I'm pretty sure I competed at and won my division in back in sophomore year of high school. And while we thankfully didn't have any injuries as severe as the starting QB in this series does, my sophomore homecoming date, starting QB Michael, did break his femur one week before the dance.

So basically take my new home, plus my high school years and add in a little more drama and scandal and you've got Friday Night Lights. It's no wonder I'm addicted. The only thing standing between me and all five seasons is the inability of our internet to stream both Netflix video and Ross' new online computer game addiction.

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:03:17 PST

2012 is here! At our house you can tell its New Year's Day because the Christmas decorations were all down by lunch, Christmas tree scented candles have been replaced by "soft fluffy towel" candles, the wreath on the door has been replaced by a "Home is Where the Heart is" Valentine's decoration and the Texans are on the TV. Sounds like January to me.

When Ross and I started 2011 we decided we just wanted to have a normal year. I kinda giggled at the idea of a "normal" year (I mean, really, what's normal?) but I have to say, it was. We didn't have any life changes and thankfully our families all remained happy and healthy. I know most years won't be so wonderfully uneventful and for the most part that's good (because it often takes an event to get to the next great thing). But after our crazy 2009 and a fairly eventful 2010, I'm very thankful for our blissfully easy 2011...and am breathing easier now I can say it without knocking on wood.

Here's lookin' at you 2012.

Italy:Austria :: Texas:New Mexico

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 19:38:31 PST

Remember in elementary school you had to do those analogies, X is to Y as A is to B. And it would be something like big is to small as black is to white.

Well it's New Years Eve and that's what I'm (happily) doing. I was looking at a map and thought "wow, are Italy and Austria as close as we think? Rome and Vienna kinda look far away."

I did exactly what any other Gen X/Yer would do, I Google Map searched it. They are about 775 miles apart. That's pretty similar to driving from Austin to Los Alamos, New Mexico. And for those of you with shady southwestern US geography, New Mexico is a neighbor state of Texas.

Yup, what in Texas only takes you to the next state in Europe will result in another stamp on my passport.

While I was originally thinking I wouldn't have any 2012 new year's resolutions (other than to make less resolutions) I'm now thinking I might have one: see Italy and Austria. With any luck, that one's in the bag.

I was spammed. I think.

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 07:10:12 PST

At work I deal with a lot of blog spam, especially when I first started and our filter system was pretty primitive. But that's just one of the casualties of having a popular blog, with SEO around terms that other people want to advertise to and being open to commentary. (Tangent: we changed to the Disqus commenting system that requires log-in and I would say our spam was reduced by about 80% plus our commenting system is now more interactive. But alas, I digress.)

Today though I got my first spam comment on here! Well, at least I think I did. Disqus email alerts me to comments and I woke up to this email.

Looks like spam to me. But get this - I can't find the comment anywhere but in my email. It's not showing on the post nor is it showing in the admin settings in Disqus. Strange right? Donde esta my spam?

Assuming though that I was spammed, I'm not sure if I should be irritated or pleased. On the one hand, nobody likes spam. On the other hand, does it mean this little blog is kinda a big deal now?

While I'm not totally convinced that this little blog is a big deal, I'm choosing to be pleased with my spam. I'm considering it a blogger milestone.

2011 Resolutions

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 10:03:04 PST

At the beginning of the year I wrote out my short list of new year's resolutions. I achieved 2 out of 6 and partial credit on a few others. That's probably about 50% overall, or in school-terms, definitely an F. I also did no good at helping Lexi achieve her resolution.

Here's my performance review:

Reading list: About 50%. I read more than this but I just forgot to reference my list.
Work outs: I have no idea how much I worked out each week but what I do know is that October-December killed whatever average I had going. The good news though is that I actually weigh about 2 pounds less now than I did at this time last year. I think that's a win overall.
Eye liner: WIN!
Pictures: I don't think I took more (God knows I didn't take any of the friends I rendezvoused with on business trips.) I probably broke even with 2010.
Save $$: We saved but I'm not sure we saved as much as we hoped. That said, we did have a LOT of fun and paid out-of-pocket for some important things like wisdom teeth removal. So a win-ish?
Europe: WIN!

I'm not one to lower expectations usually but maybe I was a bit of an overachiever here. Who has SIX new year's resolutions plus one for the dog?

For 2012, my new year's resolution might just be to have less resolutions.

Holy $&*% I'm going to Europe!

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 18:56:50 PST

I'll admit, this has been somewhat lost on me lately with the holidays, intern hiring, very early 2012 travels (see you next month Phoenix & NYC). But tonight, with my 2012 Italy calendar hanging next to me and European hotels and itineraries on my computer screen, holy guacamole it feels real! We'll be going to Europe in just a few months!

In Google Images, here are a few of the things I hope to see

Holy cow. I can't believe I'm going there. All of those theres.

Best of

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:46:22 PST

At work this month we ran a 4 part series on the best of blog posts, culminating with today's best all-around post. It was very objective in nature - we just reported back on what Google Analytics told us.

So because I love Google Analytics and am a little bit of a nerd, here are the most popular posts from this blog, as objectively reported by Google Analytics.

PS Blogger has some crazy analytics thing now too. I'm not sure how or why it differs from Google Analytics (they are all Google products after all) but it says that this post on cheap wine was the most popular. Since everyone loves cheap wine, I can certainly see how that'd be true.

Christmas Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 11:39:15 PST

Christmas morning I loaded the car with presents and cake balls, made the mandatory stop at Starbucks, doubled back to the house for my flat iron and then hit the road to Houston!

I arrived at about 11:30a which gave me plenty of time to change into my holiday clothes (complete with new jewelry from the hubs) and help Mom and Dad with a little set-up (though they really had it covered). It also gave us time to open the Christmas box from Kevin which he instructed us to open early. When I saw our gifts I knew just why - crystal drinkware engraved with "World's Best Sister" and Mom and Dad respectively. FANTASTIC. We drank from those all day.

We had 13 people at the Lowe Family Christmas this year and it must have been the year of the prime rib because that was a part of the menu just like at Nancy's.

I hung out with family, got the latest scoop from everyone and ate lots of good food. For our gift exchange this year, we traded photos, mostly old, which sparked a lot of fun conversations about different family stories. My Uncle Larry also brought an old home video of my third birthday party which was HILARIOUS. My favorite three parts in that video were...

5 year old Robin jumping out of the sandbox, running to her mom and yelling "A dime! I found a dime!" Ah, if only life were that simple today.
Uncles pushing/throwing the cousins down the slip-and-slide. We got way more slide and did way less work.
Mom, 8 months pregnant with Kevin and wearing her 1980s pregnant lady swimsuit, eating a piece of cake and telling the camera "getting fatter with every bite." Awesome.

After the whole clan left it was just three. We FaceTimed Ross in for some present opening, specifically when I opened the brand spankin' new Blu-Ray player from Mom and Dad and when they opened the Houston Symphony tickets we gifted them with. Other present highlights include many new pairs of shoes for me, some of our fav movies on Blu-Ray from Kev and one of my favs, Dad got Mom a book of bed-and-breakfasts from which she gets to pick their 2012 vacation. The book even came with a voucher for one night free at any B&B listed. So cool!

For a final Christmas highlight, here's a video of Lexi playing with the new puppy blankie Kevin and his girlfriend, Carley, sent her. We're not sure if she thinks its a chew toy or a blanket but either way, she loves it.

Christmas Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 18:30:08 PST

This evening was Christmas Part 2, Ross' family. We meandered over to Nancy and Jack's mid-afternoon and ready to relax until present time.

Since Ross' work schedule doesn't let him easily come to Houston, we do our big Christmas with his family and then I go to Houston on Christmas Day to see mine. This all means that the main gift exchange happens Christmas Eve.

He lucked out this year and didn't have to wait for normal present opening time for his gift. As soon as we walked into the house he was greeted by his big gift - a shiny blue bicycle. It was perched under the tree for him, adorned with a silver bow, just like a kid would receive a bike on Christmas Day. Straight out of the movies. And from his reaction, I think he really loves it.

Just hangin' out, watchin' football

Once the surprise of the bike passed, we hunkered down for appetizers, football and drinks. Around 4:30p we started present opening. Even though there were just six adults at Christmas Eve, it's amazing how many presents we had! Let me hit the highlights.

Ross gifted me with my third and biggest present: Cirque du Soleil tickets. We have exceptional seats for the performance at the Cedar Park Center in March. I can't wait! I've always wanted to see this and March is the perfect month to already have a date night on the calendar. Good job hubby!

As for the other highlights...we gifted Meg with a Coach wallet and Jack and Nancy gifted her with a Kuerig one-cup coffee maker. Earrings (courtesy of Lexi, she's so good), perfume and a fancy schmancy blow dryer also found their way into Meg's gift pile. Meg gifted me with beautiful tea light holders and Ross with two books that are right up his alley.

Really excited about socks and boxers

Jack gifted Nancy with several pieces of Waterford crystal, including two wine glasses in the same pattern as two she already has. Nancy gifted Jack with a whole new wardrobe from Eddie Bauer. We gifted Jack and Nancy with two wine tasting kits.

Nancy and Jack gifted us with a personalized world map to track our travels on and a cashmere scarf/hat set for me and several good work out outfits (plus socks and boxers, can't have too much of that) for Ross.

Reinbeer

Stacy gifted us with very good margarita making tequila, of which we'll likely invite him to partake. We gifted him with an Alamo Drafthouse giftcard and a six pack of "reinbeer."

And the all around stockings overflowed with books, fancy shower gels, candles, gift cards and more.

Post-presents it was mealtime. Nancy hit a homerun with prime rib and I'm pleased to report that both my broccoli dish and my cake balls were huge hits.

Needless to say it was a very merry Christmas :) We hope your Christmas Eve was just as wonderful as ours!

Cake Balls

noreply@blogger.com (Cheryl) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 19:36:05 PST

This summer I was reading my coworker Cynthia's blog, specifically her Adventures In Cooking: Cake Balls post. I happen to LOVE Holy Cacao cake balls so I immediately starred this post for another, more housewifey day.

Today was that day.

Exhibit 1

Well, actually it started last night when I baked a butter fudge chocolate cake. Today I tore that cake apart and mixed my cake crumbs with white frosting. See exhibit 1.

Then I chilled it in the fridge for a few hours before moving it to the freezer for a few hours. Fast forward to 2:30p this afternoon and I was ready to make cake balls!

Using my favorite kitchen tool, my un-ringed hands (as in naked of engagement, wedding and TriDelta rings), I started making a million little cake balls, all about 1 inch in diameter. Then I popped those suckers into the freezer and got to work melting my white chocolate chips.

This, friends, is where things got ugly. I improvised a double boiler with a small pot and Pyrex bowl but the chocolate seized. I tried again. Ditto. I realized that it was the steam from the water; the condensation was ruining my chocolate. So to the microwave. This worked OK but my best microwave bowl for the job was a tiny guacamole bowl. I couldn't fit much chocolate into it and what was there would quickly harden. I'd add more chips but now there were little bits of cake in it too which ruined the smooth meltiness of it.

I even called Age and she suggested using my frying pan instead of my Pyrex bowl and going back to the double boiler method. This worked better but again, the condensation kept ruining my chocolate. Somewhere in the neighborhood of attempt 7, I ran entirely out of chocolate. Damn.

My foil wrapped, store brand savior

Off to the grocery store, only for the third time in one day, to buy dark chocolate, the easiest to melt of all the chocolate varieties. And that is when I saw it: my savior.

I know Christmas is about the baby Jesus and he's my savoir, etc, but I kid you not, there were three wise men and a manger surrounding this HEB brand easy-to-melt chocolate-in-a-tray. I grabbed the chocolate and the vanilla and sang hallelujah while standing in the check out lane.

With the help of my savior, I was able to quickly melt chocolate, dip my cake balls and decorate them in lovely white sprinkles, all before kickboxing at the gym.

Ta-daa!

And BAM! Now I've got ballpark 3-4 dozen cake balls plated and ready to travel to Christmas Parts 2 and 3 tomorrow and Sunday respectively.

To answer the your next two obvious questions:

I'll make these again provided there's more HEB chocolate goodness available.
I have no idea if they are good. After eating cake, frosting and chocolate instinctively off my hands all afternoon the last thing I wanted when I finished these was more sweets. So the jury is out until tomorrow.