Meg{Moir}

I’m excited for the weekend. We have plans, we have plans, we have plans! Riding bikes tomorrow and crabbing with Paige and Dustin. We might even see alligators

Until next time….

Mila’s Daydreams – Hello! Lucky. An adorable idea and on point art direction.

Stop Drinking Bottled Water – The Huffington Post.  I got a Kleen Kanteen for Christmas, and I love it despite the wonky spelling.

Summer Meal Series: Chicken, Broccoli and Mozzarella Calzone – The Simple Dollar.  Sounds delicious, but I’d probably rather have pepperoni.

Best Ad Campaign Ever – Tony Gentilcore.  I love the idea behind this ad campaign, but isn’t it kinda the one Mel Gibson came up with in What Women Want?

Somehow I managed to completely forget about how much I love O.A.R.  I guess lack of radio play (and lack of radio listening on my part) will do that.  A couple of nights ago I recorded the band performing at Madison Square Garden and watched it during a rainstorm.  Yep.  I still love those guys.  Love it too when lead singers go through almost the whole set with their eyes shut.  Is it too bright?  To many camera’s flashing?  Trying to remember the lyrics?  I employed that trick successfully during the annual Christmas pageant in 4th grade, so I know it works.

Anyway, I hadn’t heard any of these songs in a couple of years, and I missed them.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be humming Love and Memories for the rest of the day.

I’ve added a whole slew (don’t you love that word?) of craft books that I would love to own to the list of things you can buy me, you know, if you’re in the neighborhood, in the mood, and what not.  There are all kinds of amazing craft books out there from new sewing techniques to hand printing to organization.

Which would I pick to buy for myself?  Well, obviously I want them all…but if you twisted my arm I would have to choose One Yard Wonders and Last Minute Quilted + Patchwork Gifts.  Swoon.

I have a real love/hate relationship with surprises.  I absolutely love surprising others, but I really hate being surprised.   I have a tendency to ruin the moment without realizing it, you should ask Patrick about the day he proposed to me if you need details.

Anyway, I have been trying to fill my unemployment with something other than unsuccessful runs (thanks humidity!) and rereading Harry Potter, but I wanted to surprise someone else with my mess-ups creations.  Hey, I’m still learning here!

I fell in love with this fabric, but it read “baby girl” to me, so I mailed it to Winston-Salem, home of the world’s cutest baby.

I also put this set together for Grandma Doris, since she sent me money to buy fabric with (thanks again Grandma!).  I decided not to switch the fabrics around this time as the polka dots just seemed happier inside.

I’m pretty happy with how they turned out, although I know that there is still lots to learn.  I had a great time putting them together none the less, it’s so neat to watch something take shape in front of your eyes!

I’m going to stop recapping weekends when Patrick is on call, because they are really boring and look like this:

Friday night: Hang out at a resident’s house, bed by 11pm.

Saturday: Sleep in, coffee, antiques shop, restless restless restless, debate going out, sleep on the couch at 10pm.

Sunday:  Nothing, nothing, nothing, pool with Paige and Molly (finally, something fun!), grocery store, bake extremely messy cupcakes from scratch for something to do.

So yeah. I’d say that write up was worth about what you paid for it.  Anyone having more fun than me out there?

This weekend snuck up relatively fast, or was it just me?

A few things of note:

My sewing machine was not my friend yesterday.  I don’t think I’ve ever been so mad at an inanimate object.

Last night I laughed in the face of the 100 degree heat and made this 44-clove garlic soup from Smitten Kitchen.  It was delicious, but I can’t get rid of the taste this morning.

Isn’t this illustration the neatest thing ever (today)? By Frank Chimero.

Now…where were we?  Oh yeah, here…

Where’s the Money in America? – Mint.com  Mint has the best illustrations of money concepts anywhere.

Fashion Victim Tutorial: How to Make an Annoyingly Painful Trendy T-Shirt Design – Princess Sparkle Pony Photo Blog.  Just in time for Jersey Shore to start next week.  Fist pump!

Some Assembly Required – Main Street Gazette.  This is my kind of humor.

Wedding Spotlight: The UP Inspired Wedding – The Disney Wedding Blog.  This is hands down my favorite wedding of all time.

My Dearest Public Library (especially you, North Regional),

It’s true what they say you know, that you never appreciate what you have until it’s gone.  And let me state for the record, I miss you. Dearly.

I miss your high ceilings and big windows that let in all the light.  I miss how no matter where I was in town, there was one of you close by.  I miss your modern design and clean interiors and helpful staff (that actually spoke in a whisper…loved that!).

I miss your efficient check in process.  Do you remember the day I first got my card?  It all happened so fast, it was over before I even knew what hit me.  I got one card for my wallet and another to go on my key chain.  Over all the grocery store rewards program programs in the world, your card alone lived happily beside my car keys.

I miss your clean website, and how it never left me cryptic messages like “Book replaced 2/07″ leading me to believe that a happier, shinier book was on the shelves than the poor decrepit book that was no longer fit for public consumption, only to find that “book replaced” really meant “book not here.”

Speaking of decrepit books, I miss that nearly all your books were shiny and new, thanks to the fabulous Wake County Library book sale, where I could buy your old books for just a dollar.  You always cleared out the old to make way for the new.

I miss that when I reserved a book, I got an email the day it was turned back in.  Down here, I got a notification in the mail.  Can you believe it?  Oh and it was printed on a dot matrix printer, if we could get any more behind the times.  That book has been sitting there for days waiting for me, and now it will have to wait a day longer because the mail comes so late.

I miss your self-service check out, which I hate and never use at the grocery store, but which I adore at the library.  I never realized how private I was about the fact that I like reading business books for fun.  But you didn’t judge me, no, because no one ever actually saw what I was checking out.  Now some snooty wannabe author scoffs at my pile of Made to Stick, Small Giants and Good to Great.  Can I come back?

Finally, I miss your drive through drop off window.  When it is so hot outside that my contacts fog up, I don’t really want to park, walk in side and hand in my books just to have to go back out and wait for my vision to de-fog itself again.

No, you never know what you have until it’s gone, and while other things are going just swimmingly down here, I want you back.

Love,

Megan

Photo Credit.

I can’t believe that I completely forgot to mention something that happened a couple of months back.  Our little boys grew up in to full fleged, 3 year old adult dogs.  Where does the time go?

If only we could shrink them back to puppy size, minus the lack of house training.

Amos Moses:

and Caden Leroy Brown

Happy Late Birthday to our best buds.

We had a low key weekend, taking advantage of Patrick’s first weekend not on call since he began working.

The alarm was set for an early morning bike ride to try and beat the heat.  We set off with our vague directions to the north side of town where the only 2 trails exist.  Even though it was only supposed to take 20 minutes or so to get there, a comedy of errors put us there well after 9 am.  No matter, we were finally able to get in some time on the bikes.  Surprisingly, the trails weren’t bad!  I miss the long technical climbs in Raleigh but we’ll get by.

Saturday afternoon we stopped by a flea market (mostly clothes) before ducking in the mall to wait out a rain storm.  We watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on DVD…is it November yet?

Sunday we were up to try a new church.  Despite looking online for directions, I didn’t bother to check what time services started.  We actually made it there at ten till 11, which is rare for us because we’re never on time for church.  I noticed that the parking lot was pretty quiet and told Patrick, “I hope they don’t start early.”  Hmmm…when we got in the preacher was talking, I thought maybe he was doing the welcome, but no…I looked at the bulletin and he was definitely in the middle of his sermon.  The service started at 10:30!  Whoops.

We had a lazy Sunday afternoon of reading and napping before a thorough house cleaning.   Cajun shrimp and rice for dinner followed by  a long walk with the pups.  Back home we watched Shrek 2 and 3 before turning in.

See what I mean, not a lot going on, plenty of down time…just how we like it!

Or trying to, at least!

So far I have attempted 2 local meals (only 2 because they make LOTS of leftovers).

Yum.

The second dish was an ingredient heavy but easy to assemble Jambalaya.  Just check out my mise en place:

I only have a picture of it getting started in the pan, but trust me, it was delicious.

We also created a new dessert for the French equine medicine resident during the end of block party.  It’s called the Flopol (Her name is Florence Pol), and it is basically nutella fried in funnel cake and topped with powdered sugar.  You don’t want to eat too many of these, unless you like love handles.

Um…and then we had to stop taking pictures because Patrick got the oil too hot and the kitchen became a big smoky mess.  But they were cute, and very very rich.

And I still take very, very bad pictures.  My bad.