1.22.2007

grandma's gonna have my hide if i don't post.

well, i truly have no good excuse for not posting for a month. except i got spoiled and L A Z Y over the holiday break, then once i was back at work i was busy and by the time i got home from work i had no desire to get back in front of a computer and blog. so, i apologize for the lack of updates. i will try to catch you up to speed without writing a book.

our first christmas as husband and wife was very nice. my mom and her fiance came for christmas eve dinner, which i cooked all by myself. :) (still proud of this feat!)
i made, let's see... turkey, mashed potatoes (from scratch!), stuffing of course, green beans, corn, broccoli casserole, gravy, rolls, chocolate chiffon pie and pecan pie. and the day before i baked about 10 dozen more cookies. holy crap i was a cooking MACHINE! i must say that cooking a turkey has got to be the most disgusting thing i've ever experienced in the kitchen (save a few things left in the fridge a little too long in my college days, maybe). i was squealing like someone was attacking me when i was taking out the sh*t inside it (which was in plastic bags). bryan was still upstairs at the time and thought i was in pain. i wasn't--just extremely grossed out! ew! it is a freaking DEAD BODY! and yes, people, i am fully aware that i am eating dead animals when i eat meat. but i do not need to see it's freaking RIB CAGE and STICK MY HAND INSIDE ITS DEAD BODY! gross. now i know why people only cook turkeys on special occasions. i may do this again one day, but no time soon if i can avoid it. gross.

anyway, dinner was great if i do say so myself. we took some pictures by the christmas tree, opened gifts and went to see papa and sandra afterward, and it was a fun time for all.

christmas day was spent at aunt elaine's with all the grammer clan. dinner was great as always and it's always good to see the crew. we then went over to dad and neener's to exchange gifts, then on to grandma's. it was a long day but a great first christmas as a klinger.

which brings me to christmas with the rest of the klingers. we had decided to do this over new year's weekend, as bryan's mom's family was going to be down and since we switch holidays back and forth and had been in PA for thanksgiving. unfortunately, bryan went to work the wednesday after christmas and discovered that one of the units at the power station had caught on fire and the whole station was shut down! so he had to work overnights for a few days and christmas with the klingers was postponed until the following weekend. in spite of it being two weeks after christmas almost, we still had a great time in pennsylvania with the other half of our fam.

new year's eve this year was lots of fun. we had dinner with our friends todd and sarah at an EXCELLENT italian restaurant in shockoe bottom called la grotta. i ate all of my soup (red pepper and crab), all of my entree (lobster and artichoke ravioli) and pretty much all of our dessert (creme caramel with vanilla sauce). yummmmmmmmmmmmmm. i use this restaurant for work functions a lot, so the owner invited us to have limoncellos on her before we left. if you follow celebrity gossip, this is the drink that danny devito claimed he had been pounding the night before he showed up wasted on the view.


then we went to carytown, where a new tradition began for ringing in the new year in richmond. there was a "ball rise" a la times square (it rose instead of dropping so that more people could see it at its pinnacle). i was sort of expecting to go there and wander around and in and out of a few bars. not possible. there were so many people there that it was standing room only! it was really cool to be part of a new richmond tradition, though. hope we'll be back next year (and we'll remember to bring our own champagne!)

since new year's and the next weekend's trip to pennsylvania, we've been doing a lot of relaxing, then last week several of my favorite shows started up again for the new season. 24 and american idol have certainly not disappointed me! bryan even hung out with me to watch a few of the, oh, 8 hours i spent watching fox last week! oh, we were also able to take advantage of the unseasonable weather last weekend and took a nice motorcycle ride that ended at grandma's house and DINNER! :)

this past weekend was the arthritis foundation's crystal ball, their black tie fundraiser. i went as a volunteer and it was great to see such RICH people out supporting my favorite cause! my favorite moment of the night was at the end. i was chatting with a couple i have known through the arthritis foundation for several years. they are the nicest people, and the husband just happens to be the CEO of the company that owns the richmond times-dispatch. so of course whenever i talk to them i'm thinking "holy crap these people are RICH and they're talking to ME!" this time i was just joking around with the husband and said, "you know, i was having an awful time getting my newspaper delivered!" and gave him the short version of my newspaper subscription fiasco which is this: i stopped getting the paper in august. in november i got a charge on my credit card for about $50. i called to see why and they said for your 7-day subscription. i said, i haven't gotten a single newspaper since august! well, mr. CEO says to me, "next time you have a problem, you know who to call!" HA!!!! isn't that hillarious? like i'm just going to call up the freaking CEO of a company that owns many, many newspapers and other media outlets, and say, "hey, marshall, i didn't get my newspaper today, can you do something about it?" i love it! (and won't do it! :) )

yesterday we went to a UVA basketball with my dad and neener. we had the crappiest weather driving up there that we've seen all winter, and there were 8 wrecked cars between richmond and charlottesville. luckily we made it to the game just fine (only about 25 min late), and UVA won! yay! the new arena is absolutely awesome, and it was lots of fun.

unfortunately, when we left charlottesville, bryan went west and the other 3 of us headed back east. :( bryan is in roanoke until friday on business, and i am lost! i can't remember the last time we were apart for 5 whole nights. to make myself feel better, i headed to kroger when we got home yesterday and bought myself the junkiest of junk food to eat while he's gone. they don't call it comfort food for nothin'! :)

alright, it's almost time for prime time tv. there must be something good about to come on to distract me for another hour until jack bauer and the nuclear bomb come on to entertain me.....

toodloo!

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