Hold yer Horses!

I think I forgot to mention that we will NOT be moving forward with the home renovations. After receiving three bids that were nowhere near our ideal, we decided that the best course of action was no action. This means that I am now on the hunt for a brand new home! This also means I'm horribly obsessed with my search even though our house isn't even on the market just yet.

Anyone in search of a super-cute 3/1 with fabulous hardwood floors??

Why does it rain so much in Seattle?

I'm in Seattle for work. Two words: cold. rainy. Actually, I'll add a third: windy. Meanwhile, it's a balmy 80 degrees back in Austin. Boo hoo hoo.

Costa Rica

Just returned from a week in Costa Rica. Pics will be posted sometime this week. Quickly, a few highlights:

1. Watching a volcano errupt from my hotel bedroom
2. Spotting monkeys, monkeys, and more monkeys!
3. Boogie-boarding in Manuel Antonio and getting sand burn on my belly
4. Spotting not only a two-toed sloth, but a three-toed sloth as well!
5. Not dying on the windy roads in the pouring rain
6. Not dying while repelling down a 150 ft. waterfall
7. Relaxing in the natural hot springs at the ultra-nice Tabacon hotel
8. Getting a massage after a day of flying through the forest canopy
9. Seeing the most beautiful bird ever, the resplendent quetzal
10. Finally getting rid of my heinous tennis shoes by ruining them in the water

And what would a highlight list be without a lowlight list??
1. Having to leave the beach
2. Waking up by 7 am every morning (on vacation!)
3. Having hair so big not even a gallon of product would contain it

Mr. B, Fat Pants, and the perils of travel on my precious feet

1. Mr. B is ridiculous. In a strange reversal of roles, it appears that my cat has learned to scarf his food down like a dog, and my dog has learned to snack like a cat. Because of Mr. B's insatiable appetite, I've gone the healthy route for my beloved feline fattie. I bought him some low-ash (err, what?) no artificial flavors, and no something-else-that-might-be-bad-for-you-or-your-cat from WF. At first he scoffed at it and walked away. Then those hunger pangs must have kicked in because he, as expected, scarfed it down (Note: He is currently curled up next to me biting my arm in hopes of more savory deliciousness).

2. On to fat pants.....I admit, I used to mock the fat pant, along with the high-waisted mom-jean. But being on the road for the last 3 weeks out of the month has tuned me in to a couple of things. One: fat pants look like they travel well. How much more comfortable does it get than riding on a plane in your pajamas? Two: While they may make you look like you just took a large crap-ola in your pants, they do provide ample room to fit over your entire gut. Three: I thought I had something positive to say about mom jeans, but it turns out I don't. They are horrible and there is no excuse.

3. And what about the perils of my feet? What does all my important executive travel have to do with that? Well, you try to find and attractive pair of shoes that let you walk around an airport all day, followed by a walk to the train, followed by a walk to the office, followed by doing it all over again to get yourself back to your hotel (all the while toting around a laptop and a suitcase) AND looking stylish. I just don't wear tennis shoes well and I've tried the clogs, but the stupid weather refuses to cooperate. Despite all my attempts to escape the Texas heat (and potentially wear said closed shoes), it just ain't happenin for me. Who ever heard of 90 degree weather in Chicago in October??

Additionally......

One more thing that people might not know about me (not that you asked):

• When I was in elementary school my family was going on vacation to LA. I took this opportunity to write my favorite teen heart throb Corey Haim to let him know I was coming to town ("Hey Corey - I'm coming to town! Wanna meet up for some ice cream??"). Thankfully Tiger Beat only provided a poster and not the corresponding address of Corey, and therefore my letter never got mailed.

I bring this up because I stumbled across a horrible new reality show called "The Two Coreys". Corey Feldman + Corey Haim together again = recipe for disaster. Not only is Corey Haim looking god-awful these days, but man he's portrayed as a total dick.

What happened to the cute boy who played Lucas?? I loved that movie. I think I need to take the rest of the weekend to mourn the loss of my teen boyfriend. Boo.

I've been tagged....

So here it is, 7 little known things 'bout me:


1. I’m a tongue-thruster. This has caused me much personal pain and anguish. Not really, but the braces that fixed my buck teeth did hurt.

2. I was a notorious liar as a child. One time I had an accident in the bed (and my sister ratted me out). I lied and said it wasn’t me even thought it was totally obvious that it was me. My Mom told me to go to her closet to get a belt so she could spank me, but when I went to her closet there were tons of belts. I went back to her crying and asked “which one??”

3. I used to trip on purpose when playing chase in the schoolyard so Randy Young would catch me.

4. I met my husband at a bar. When he failed to ask me for my number at the end of the night, I spent the week stalking him on the Internet. I eventually found him and almost sent him an email to invite him out for my birthday, but my sister told me that would be crazy. So I didn’t.

5. When reading a book, I often skip over the long descriptive paragraphs. I don’t really care how green the rolling hills were – I just want to get to the story!

6. When I’m bored, I spell words backwards on my fingers. For example, I hear a word (let’s say the word is ‘apple’). I’ll spell it out A-P-P-L-E, counting out each letter on a finger. Then I spell it backwards E-L-P-P-A on my hands. Wtf?

**Bonus #7 – I pee heroin. Ok, not really, but if Vanessa gets to smell like weed, I should be able to pee heroin.

My sincerest apologies...

It's know been awhile since I've posted, but readers, I have had the house to myself for the past week (as in 7 days). House to myself means endless hours vegging on the sofa watching bad TV, and boy did I max out the bad TV this go-round. Did you know there is an entire reality show dedicated to the *fabulous-ness* of Kimora Lee Simmons? I didn't even know who she was last Tuesday, and now I know more than I ever wanted to know about her.

With Lance gone, I was able to enjoy a clean sink for at least 5 days in a row, sleeping with Mr. B cuddled up with me, and loooooong hot showers without anyone guilting me to stop wasting water. It was fabulous, but by day seven, I was dying of boredom and so I'm glad Lance is back. And the best part - he brought presents back with him!!

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A few weeks ago our friend Havis was in town. We went all out and ended out staying up until 4 in da mornin (yeaaa yeaaa). At last call over at the Draught House, my dear brother Ryan invited the crew back to our house with the following phrase "we got tequila at the house!". Uhh, first it's not his house, second it's not his tequila. Of course, I never mind sharing, so we headed back to the house (because the thing you need after a night of drinking is more drinks). After all the stories I've heard lately about my bro and his late-night partying ways, I was pretty sure he was going to finish the bottle and start in on another. Much to my disappointment, this was the scene after just two shots of tequila. So sad what has happened to today's youth - can't even hold their own liquor!

Homeowner Idiots

In today’s installment, I’m gonna let you guys in on a little secret. While I aced elementary school and high school, and even graduated from a decent college, it seems I have little to no common sense. We’ve been suffering through pi$$ poor water pressure in our shower for upwards of 6 months. And when I say poor, I mean sitting under the shower head for at least an hour just to get my hair totally wet. It’s been painful. This past weekend we had a friend in town, and after showering he said “man you guys gotta get that shower fixed!” Duh Scott – we KNOW this!

Hours later, after sitting on the sofa simmering in my own hung over stench (because I was avoiding the shower you see) I saw a commercial. In it, the man had a pair of dentures and a shower head on a counter. “what do these two things have in common?” he asked the audience as I wondered if my blank stare was shared with any of the other viewers out there. “You can clean both of these with Efferdent!” he cheerily responded. “This should get your water pressure back to normal in no time!”

This is when the light went on in my head. Hmm, could it be that easy? I was already imaging horrible leaks in the pipes or something equally dreadful. I went into the garage to grab the old shower head (because unfortunately I didn’t have Efferdent in my medicine cabinet) and voila! The most amazing shower pressure I have ever experienced!!

Now – does anyone have a remedy for puckered skin?

Sit Ubu Sit

Once again I've been suckered into watching the Dog Whisperer. And once again, I'm determined to curb Prancer's bad habits. I'm not foolin' myself here, I don't think I'll ever break him of the habit of licking his own private parts (and I really don't have the heart to rob him of this pleasure anyway). I'm talking about the whole bark-at-strangers-and-even-people-I-know-along-with-little-kids-and-the-postman habit. Apparently it's all about the exercise (which I don't give him), discipline (which I give him but incorrectly) and THEN affection (which he gets without having to work for it). I feel bad. Apparently my lack of this regimen has made him anxious and mentally unstable (or at least not as mentally healthy as he should/could be). So basically it's my fault that he's crummy to people and by default, unlovable to anyone but us.

We started today with a long walk (in which I led him, not the other way around), followed by some sitting and finished up with a belly rub. I call that progress for the first day. Tomorrow I'm going to teach him how to make me a vanilla soy latte, no foam.

Proof

In case you non-believers didn't really think I tried the snuff, here's the incriminating photo.

The cable guy

After returning from a great trip to Minneapolis on Sunday, we plopped on the sofa to watch a little Entourage. 'Cept when I turned on the TV, the cable wasn't working. At almost the exact same moment, I heard Lance cursing the computer. The modem was out as well. Oh $hit I thought. Did I forget to pay the bill?? Wouldn't be the first time this has happened (not that they've ever shut off my service though!). I got on the phone and dialed time warner (thank goodness I'd paid my cell phone bill!). After going through a lengthy explanation about the bill the customer service rep tells me "um, we haven't shut off your service - something else must be going on. We'll have to send someone out" Ooops!

So the next day the cable guy shows up two hours late. He immiedately begins working outside, climbing ladders, drilling into the house, etc. all before he even comes inside. When he finally did knock, Prancer the attack dog lost his mind and almost bit the poor guy. After shooing the dog outside, mr. cable man started messing with the DVR. All still without a word. So I say, "so, did you have to replace the line?" and he says "yeah". Not satisfied with his response I say "oh, did one of those lousy squirrels bite through it?" and he says "looks like a big truck came by and ripped off the line" Ok, good enough for me. I let the man get back to his job and went into the kitchen to wash dishes (because I didn't know what else to do). Again, thoughts came creeping into my head (just like with the stoic cab driver at 4 am who I was convinced was going to murder me). The internal monologue in my head was something like this "Geez, I'm home alone. This guy could totally attack me. Good thing I'm washing this knife - ooh, my back is to him...I should probably turn around." Honestly, I think I've seen one too many Lifetime movies.

After an hour and a half working at our house, the cable guy leaves with some instructions for the DVR setup. He says if it's not done rebooting in half an hour I should give him a call. Well, of course the half hour goes by and the dang thing doesn't work. By this time, it's 9:00 pm and I'm pretty sure he won't come back to fix it. But Lance calls him anyway. This poor cable guy was STILL working, and more impressive than that, came back to our house at 10:30 to give us a new DVR box! That's some serious work ethic. So I'm sorry Mr. Cable Man that I thought you might murder me. Thank you thank you thank you for fixing my cable. Now I can resume the business of watching back-to-back episodes of The Hills and Newport Beach while surfing fabulous websites like perezhilton.com!

Wedding bells in Minnesooo-ta

We just returned from our friend Mike's wedding this past weekend in Minnesota. It was a really beautiful wedding held at the bride's parents house which is on a lake. I can't imagine how much time and work these people put into getting the yard in perfect condition - but it was really amazing. Aside from the great view and dancing the funky chicken, what was really special about the wedding was how all of the family came together to help. Apparently the uncles made the dinner, the aunts helped with the yard, and Mom was out until 2 am the night before mowing the expansive lawn. Now that's what I call love!

Ok, the wedding was great and all, but the rehearsal dinner wasn't too shabby. Mike and Jerah kept it real by having everyone over to the Gasthof zur Gemutlichkeit. No readers, that's not me coughing up a hairball. The Gasthof is a great restaurant / german hall / polka bar that serves up heaping piles of meat, beer in a glass boot (brings new meaning to the term "community"), and snuff up your nose! After several rounds of that darn boot, followed by a shot of apple something-or-other, followed by the good 'ol battle cry of "ziggy zaggy, ziggy zaggy, hoi hoi hoi", let's just say I was feeling a little adventurous. After some arm-twisting by Dani, I decided to go all out and try some snuff. If it was good enough for lords and ladies back in the day, surely it was good enough for me. I asked the waitress for a baby snuff, which, I'm pretty sure isn't a real term. She hooked me up, put the piles on the crazy catapult contraption, counted to three and SNIFFFFFFFFFFF. Holy sh*t, mother-f*cker, $#*$&#^%!!! That snuff burned, then cooled, and ended in one grand finale of sneezing. That ended my streak of insanity for the evening, although, I came to realize when I woke up the next morning and blew my nose.....snuff is the gift that keeps on giving.

Sha-zam

In other news, my sister put her talents and college degree to good use today with this fabulous poster. The Solid Gold Dancers are B-A-C-K!

The sock monster

Man, every time I have good intentions, they seem to get squashed by something ridiculous. Recently it's been my intention to walk around the lake at *least* twice a week. The first couple of weeks we had severe flooding. For real - flooding in Texas in the middle of summer?? That's about as likely as me passing up a pair of red patent-leather shoes that are half price! So, the monsoons have subsided and I was all ready to go on a walk today with my friend Jenny even thought the heat index today was 100 degrees.

As soon as the 5 o'clock whistle blew, I went to the ladies room to get changed into my gear. That's when I realized the sock monster had paid a visit to my bag. I had ONE freaking sock. WTF? Several thoughts went through my mind. The first being "hmm, can i walk three miles with one sock?", which then switched to "crap, maybe they sell socks downstairs?", which eventually switched to "i can't figure out the logistics - where would I change? I think I'll stay in the air conditioning on my sofa and write about this in my blog".

I had to make the call to Jen to tell her I wasn't going to make it. She then tried to convince me that all would be cool - I should just go to REI and buy some socks and change in my car. I argued that I have no window-tinting AND that I was parked in a public lot (helloooo!?) thinking she'd totallly get it. I forgot, however, that she changes in her car (a tiny convertible) all the time (uh, how?). Anyway, I told her I would not do this, and besides, she didn't want to wait for me to buy the damn socks and head on over. From now on, I'll not only carry an extra set of clothes in my car (honestly, you never know when they may come in handy, for a variety of occasions), but I think I'll also carry an entire package of socks just to be safe.

What tha??

Maybe if I'm lucky, my sweater will magically get replaced with THIS! Now that's what I call "sassy".

Tiny girl in a teeny sweater

Although this blog is entitled "Champagne Taste on a beer budget", don't let me fool you dear readers. There is nothing I enjoy better than finding a good sale. So when I hit up the Gap a few weeks ago, I thought I'd struck gold in finding a tissue-thin sweater (in white) for $10.00. Not only had I been searching for a sweater exactly like this all summer, but $10?? Ah, the shopping Gods were smiling upon me that day.

However, I must have done something to royally piss them off because, after wearing the sweater non-stop all week (it's the perfect thing to wear over a dress or strappy top to work), I ended up leaving it in the trunk of Jim's car. Although he would say (and may even think) that I left the sweater there on purpose just to have an excuse to go back to his place, this logic only works if i LIVED IN TOWN. But since I don't, this was obviously a totally legit mistake.

Now comes the tragic part. Jim, being the dear dear friend that he is, decided to wash my sweater before sending it back. A lovely gesture if he knew anything at all about washing delicate items such as this lovely $10 sweater. Turns out he doesn't. He apparently shrunk the shit out of my sweater, and now the Gap isn't even carrying this item anymore. At this point, it's not even fun to make him feel bad about it and guilt him into sending me another because they're all gone!

I guess it could have been worse - I could have left my favorite pair of shoes at the hotel!

Why can't all weekends be like this?

I had such a good time this weekend, that, sitting here on my sofa today (Sunday) is a bit depressing because that means it's time for another work week. My 4-year wedding anniversary is coming up, and to kick-off the festivities appropriately, Lance took me to dinner at my favorite sushi restaurant, Uchi. This place is nothing short of amazing - including the wait. We got there around 7:45 and didn't leave until 11ish. Since we hardly ever eat here (it is slightly pricey), we decided to go all out. This included multiple glasses of wine, an appetizer, several rolls, and the grande finale - dessert! And OMG, the dessert was intense. Wasabi-chocolate mousse type-thing with pistachio ice cream!! I didn't even know I liked pistachio ice cream!

My parents came to town on Saturday to deliver a gift for us (for our anniversary). They made us hide out in the bedroom while they brought it into the house. When we came out (eyes closed) and opened our eyes, sitting in front of us was a FABULOUS bar!! How cool is that?? Best gift ever. We found a spot for it in the living room, and now anyone who feels compelled for a shot of tequila can just grab one from their seat! Yay! After a great dinner, my parents left and Lance and I headed down to Mohawk to meet up with friends and watch a show. The opening band was awesome -- and I really wish I had upgraded my phone so I could have taken a decent video of these guys. The lead singer (the band was Mark Mallman) not only played his leg (aka electric guitar), but he did a great karate kick and humped his keyboard. It was awesome.

Today I spent most of my day lounging on the sofa. I did get motivated enough to go check out Strut, which is a great store that opened up a new location just minutes from me! To continue the great weekend, I found two really cute and extremely affordable dresses. Not wanting my luck to run out (or to melt in the heat), I drove home with my treasures and took a nap on the sofa. Ahhhhhh.

Whiskey - Briefs = My Thursday Night

Tonight I'm headed out to see my brother's friends band play at the Whiskey Bar. I haven't been to the Whiskey Bar since I was like 25, and my only recollection of this place is of a stacked waitress serving beer out of a big bucket. Let's hope they've made some improvements since my last visit. Tonight should be very different from my last Thursday night out, which I spent at the ever-popular DC hangout, Cobalt . I'm guessing there will be no Battle of the Briefs tonight. Wah.

Why do you do it?

I read an article today in the Austin paper about a study done by one of my old psychology professors from UT. He and a collegue explored all the different reasons "why" people have sex. I loved the responses (keep in mind, they polled college students). They ranged from "because I was in love" to "because I was slummin". Noice!
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In other news, I filed my expense report from my trip to DC. I thought I had gone way over budget with my per diem, but turns out I spent a lot less at Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast than I thought, so that saved me some cash. While going through my receipts, I came across one from my last night in DC. The night went down something like this: dinner -- drinks -- drinks -- drinks -- drinks. I'm not sure when the drinks stopped - but my bill says we closed out around 10:36 pm. This doesn't quite gel with me getting back to my hotel around 2:00 am, which leads me to the conclusion that I was most likely roofied. This conclusion is slightly flawed though, because I was with a group of gay guys that, in all probability, had no interest in roofie'ing me. I think I'll stick to it anyway, because it's better than the "Hi, I'm A-Lo and I'm an alcoholic" alternative.

Hurray for toilets!

We had our second meeting with our architect today and things went really well. We've now got three drawings that he is going to spec out so we can get bids from a few contractors. Then we'll really know how much money we're talkin' bout with this addition / remodel. Lance and I arm-wrestled over which plans to move forward with, but finally agreed on 3:

1. The most-expensive plan which will give us a bigger master bedroom and bigger 2nd bedroom by expanding the entire east all of the house and moving the current bathroom.

2. a mid-size option that expands our bedroom and expands part of the east side of the house.

3. a low-grade option that basically just tags on an extra bath to our bedroom.

I'm pretty sure I can coerce Lance into my special option with takes # 2 but pumps it up by expanding the entire east side of the house without moving the bathroom. it'll probably take me cooking lots of dinners and baking (which i do NOT do), but after i burn enough batches of cookies, i think i'll probably be off the hook.

Hopefully we'll have the bids and final drawings by early fall so we can start the actual construction. Speaking of, we'll most likely have to find a temporary home for Prancer. Any takers?? (Why do I only hear crickets chirping out there?)

Been caught sniffin

Lance bought Prancer some dog biscuits yesterday. As an added bonus, the dog biscuits came with a package of catnip (makes no sense to me, but whatever). We decided to pour the catnip into a sock and give it to Mr. B to see if he liked it. What's better to do on a Sunday morning than experiment with your animals??

Mr. B didn't like the catnip. He LOVED it. He immiedatley started huffing the sock, which according to this site, totally gets him high. After reading more online about what exactly catnip does to cats, I started to feel kinda bad. The article related the effects to LSD! Did I just totally turn my cat into a junkie? I quickly snatched the drugged-up sock away from the cat (who cried immiedately and pawed after me).

I went into the living room to clean up some stuff when i heard a scuffle going on in the kitchen followed by some major sniffing. I went into the kitchen and found this (see picture below). The cat knocked the package of catnip off of the kitchen counter, spilled it on the floor, and immiedately started rolling around in it! I guess it's safe to say he's got a problem. We may need to get him some rehab. I'm an admitted enabler.

I heart DC

I just returned from a 9 day drip to D.C. It was a fabulous time, but I'm glad to be home for the following reasons:

1. while the metro is fun at first, the walk to and from the metro sucks. Also, the rush hour on the metro is about as fun as a root canal. As least you get numbing drugs with the root canal.

2. My liver probably couldn't handle anymore drinking and good times. (Although, I did drink last night in Austin and will probably drink again tonight. Hmm, maybe it's not the city but the girl).

3. My hotel sucked. It didn't even come close to the phat Hotel Helix, and on the rare night that I stayed in, I had to eat on my TWIN bed. Who puts twin beds in a hotel anymore??

4. I missed Mexican food. I can't help it - it's in my genes.

5. I missed my family! I think Prancer peeing on my leg out of excitement when I got home kinda means he missed me. Of course, Lance did the same, so I guess he missed me too.

Fat men at work

I’m in DC for work and I decided rather than rent a car I’d just take the bus and metro everywhere. Even though I’m college-educated, I apparently and not smart enough to read a bus schedule or map. I hopped on the bus yesterday (against my better instincts, because I didn’t even really know which bus to get on ) thinking it would drop me off right at the metro station. Uh, not so much. After winding around some crazy roads and being stuck in horrendous traffic, this girl had to get the eff off the bus. Forty-five minutes completely out of my way when my lazy ass could have walked to 5 blocks to the metro. Auugh. Worst mistake ever. Luckily I found a metro station (thank you jeezus!) so I hopped on and had to ride all the way from Silver Springs back to Dupont Circle (which equates to like one million stops too many). Three stops before mine, the largest man on the planet squeezes into the already extremely packed car and sits next to me, which is to say he was all up on me! I was seriously scared he was going to sit on my legs and snap them in half. Maybe this is the gods’ retribution on my for all my SSFB comments?

Ring my bell!

Lance and I went out for a happy hour last night. We do this about once a month. Lance picks me up from work and we go find someplace that has half-price appetizers and cheap drinks. What starts as a happy hour normally turns into a late-night booze fest. Last night was no different. We met up with my sister and her boyfriend, and after my 6th drink, I found myself on stage with a cover band playing the cowbell. No joke - there are incriminating pictures to prove it.

To follow-up my hangover this morning, I finally treated myself to a fabulous sugar scrub and massage (compliments of Vanessa and Havis). I have to admit, I was disappointed when I realized that my masseuse was a dude. I probably should be a little more open-minded about these types of things (he IS a professional, after all), but my last incident with a male masseuse did not go well (he got ON the table to work my back - uhh, I'm not comfortable with that!!). Luckily this guy was on the up and up and he did a great job. It took me awhile to calm down and not freak out when he lifted the towel to massage the sides of my butt cheeks - but hey -it's all part of the experience, right? (please say yes!)

Robots in disguise?

I just got back from the movies. Lance dragged me to see Transformers. I don't really remember much about the cartoon from when I was a kid. I was too busy burning Barbie's hair with a krimper. My brother may have played with the tranformer toys -- but his real passion was the ninja turtles (so much so that my Mom made his this rad ninja turtle costume for Halloween). At any rate, Lance (who WAS in love with the transformers) gave me a quick run down of the plot. Optimus Prime = Good. Megatron = BAD. I actually enjoyed the first half of the movie even if there were not nearly enough frames containing Josh Duhamel's beautiful face. Overall the movie had a little bit too much testerone for me. It did, however, entertain and give me an excuse to eat my first package of starbursts in over 2 years. What more could I ask for??

Move over Barbie............... There's a new man in town!

The blog is back b*tches!

Since my mailbox has been flooding with requests for me to resurrect the blog, I've decided to come forward and deliver for the masses. The first topic on the agenda is this: why do people think that just because they are in their car, you can't see what they are doing? Although it's totally entertaining for me to sit at a light and count how long a guy can pick his teeth or chew on his nails, I wonder if he/she would not be totally embarrassed to know that somebody was watching?

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I've aptly named this blog "champagne taste on a beer budget". It's a phrase my Dad has said to me more than once. I often wonder how this happens to me? I mean, I don't intentionally set out to buy the most expensive items, and I certainly don't have the budget to do this. Is it that I just have really great taste? (Because yes people, the more expensive an item is, the BETTER it is!) These items just seem to gravitate to me! I swear. For example, I can to into a store where half of the stuff is on sale, and I go and pick out a great top or something, take it up to the counter only to find that "oh no ma'am, this isn't on sale. Someone must have accidentally placed it on the wrong rack." Now if I were any kind of shopper (like my Momz), I could probably totally argue the point that it's their bad and not mine and their false advertising pretty much means that I DESERVE the item for the sale price. But instead I fork over my credit card and get ready to make up a really great story to tell Lance (who pretends to not watch my spending, but bless him, I know he does).

This all culminates into our latest home project which is to add a master bath and walk-in closet. I'm pretty sure that I'll somehow manage to pick the most insane pedestal sink (I already did on accident) or some outrageously priced towel rack. I am absolutely determined (and committed) to sticking to budget on this project -- stay tuned to see if that actually happens.