US meets UK

One day, if I ever have a kid. It will be bacon for halloween. Or just for fun, anytime of year.

I dig DC Vote’s sign, but I’ve been checking the internet for a few ideas as well. This is a slideshow of a few signs, and I’ve linked to several forums that have great quote minefields.  Plus, sane vs take it down a notch.

My Sanity favorites:

“Give me Liberty…. Oh….Thanks”

“Sorry Christine, but WE are the PEOPLE too!”

“Jefferson Was A Liberal”

“I’m As Ambivalent As Hell, And I’m Not Gonna Stress About It Anymore!”

“Anti-Extremism Extremist”

“Land of the Free, Home of the Sane”

“I Want My Overly-Romanticized-Idea-of-What-I-Thought-My-Country-Was Back!”

“The Constitution was a compromise”

“My Dog Ate My Hatred”

“Give Peace and Quiet a Chance”

“What do we want?
Evidence Based, Gradual Change!
When do we want it?
After Peer Review!”

“Real Patriots can handle differences in opinion”

My Fear Favorites:

“Help The Poor or they will Rise Up Against Us!”

“Behind every good man…. IS A SOCIALIST! LOOK OUT!”

“Where is your birth certificate, Hawaii?!”

“God hates HMOs”

As an aside, I found this pic in my search, and thought it put together a few ideas nicely.

This year, I’ve signed up for a dessert and a side dish. I like to keep it pretty simple on the side dish front, typically opting for a nice array of roasted veggies. I think they’re a nice break from so much of the heavy stuff that is typically served.  This will be my first non-vegetarian Thanksgiving in 11 years – and I AM SO EXCITED! Oddly enough, nothing I’m bringing contains meat – I’m only good at steak and zuni chickens.

For dessert I’m considering a gingersnap crusted cheesecake since Nick hates cheese (esp cheese cake) and I pretty much never have the opportunity to make or eat it. Gingersnaps can easily be made gluten free, which means my mom will be able to enjoy dessert.

Do you make a fabulous cheesecake? Please, send the the recipe!

(via Real Simple)

The other is a pecan, chocolate bourbon pie. I first heard of this kind of pie from Penny – thanks!

I found three recipes so far, one from Tyler Florence , one from David Lebovitz /Food  & Wine, and one from Southern Living. All involve corn syrup, but that’s probably what provides that crazy sticky sweetness.  Have a better one? Send it my way!

I’m pretty open to suggestions at this point. I want to make a pie because I love my pie dish (a beautiful wedding gift) and a cheesecake because it can easily be made gluten free.  I’ll leave the pumpkin pie to the professionals, since mine never seem to turn out quote right, and there are always a plethora of pumpkin delights each Thanksgiving.

My quick thinking cousin Megan, sent me a link to Fantabulously Frugal’s post about free shutterfly cards.  I mostly looked at ones that could be used with vertical pictures since those are the two photos I’m choosing between. Shutterfly also has non photo cards, photo cards (like the ones below) and holiday address labels. My top design picks?

Both pictures I’ve been considering lean towards red, so I don’t think the last two card will work for us. But I still think they’re pretty!

Would you like to get your own? visit Shutterfly’s blog for more information on how to get your 50 free cards. Since getting the cards requires a blog post about Shutterfly, you can consider this post sponsored. However, if you look at the comments in my previous post, you’ll see I was considering Shutterfly as a contender! Win win!

ps. It’s way too late to use a wedding picture right? I mean, we’ve been married for a year and a half – we’ve missed the boat. Right?

Turns out, this weekend is Halloween. Which means we should probably carve our pumpkin prior to this weekend. I hit the internet looking for a few free templates. I didn’t find many.. I did find the pumpkin lady, who sells templates for $1.49.  A price I’m willing to pay.

Free Owl Head from dltk holidays

Squiggy the Octopus (though, you might be able to free hand this one)

This dopey, smiley bat and cat combo

and one that would be fitting for our first Halloween, only blocks away from the capitol

Mot surprisingly, I found my favorite patterns in the Nature category.

How do you pick your pumpkin design, and do you even use a pattern?

It feels like an adult thing to do, which might be why I can’t bring myself to join the ranks of responsible, organized folks who send out personalized cards each holiday season.  It’s what responsible, married couples do, right? Except this year, I signed on to send cards to other lovely bees, which means I’ve actually got to get myself into gear.

Typically, I purchase holiday cards, and then place them in a drawer or box because I’ve run out of time to write them and tell myself “I’ll use them next year”. Riiight.

So I could pretend that I’m organized and purchase more generic holiday cards, only to let them collect dust. Or I could pretend that Nick and I can take a picture in front of the Capitol in celebration of our recent move, which I will never be organized enough to do. So I’ve landed on the idea of a printed photo card, which takes 80% of the work (plus mail merge labels). Maybe one day I’ll get to the level of writing a letter, but I think it’s best to ease in with the baby step of actually mailing a card. One year I wrote, addressed and stamped cards and STILL did not send them out. So, clearly I need to go slowly.

I thought I could use a photo from last year’s shoot with Muriel Silva (which, I have STILL yet to blog about). Here are the options I’ve narrowed it down to. There were so many great shots, but Nick and I are both awkward picture takers, and the best shots are either leaning a bit romantic for a holiday card, or have our eyes closed.

Option 1:

Option 2:

In an ideal world, I could use photos of our cats, but I know that really, we’re the only people interested in our cats. I love to get pictures of people’s pets, but I understand I’m not the norm.

Which photo would you choose, and what company do you use for online printing?

Anyone need a Tuesday pick me up? After my Monday, I know I do! So, visit this post to download a great mix to enjoy while at work.

Sure, it’s Indie Soup Runner, and I’m stuck at a desk, clearly not running. Whatevs.

Recently a friend changed her facebook photo to an old one from college. I couldn’t believe how much smaller I was, I was shocked. SHOCKED that I’d gained this much.

(I was a dance major in college and we were practicing lifts)

Then KJPugs wrote a post that led me to look for other photos of myself that I could use as inspiration to lose weight. One of the funniest parts of this search, was realizing how I thought of myself as overweight then.

Sure, I no longer have time to work out 40+ hours a week (dance classes, dance team, dance teaching, rehearsals, rugby practice, rugby games, rec soccer) but I CAN watch what I eat. In college I ate a very, very poor vegetarian diet. By “diet” I mean breads, cheeses, and candy. Aka: Sugar, Fat and Salt. #WIN!

Diet plays SUCH an important role in your physiology so  I think I can get back (and maybe even lower!) to my old size/shape/weight. Since the true downfall of my weight gain began with ACL surgery and I am technically fixed I should be able to be more active-even with a full time job and life.

So hopefully soon I’ll be going from this:

(via Lisa Rice Photography aka Mrs. Bunny)

to this:

Before the new year!

Aside from an adorable dog like Brutus….

What do you use for motivation?

I mentioned in a previous post that I had been splitting my food tracking efforts between a few websites.  I’ve tried Fitday (free), Calorie Count from About.com (free), Spark People (free) and MyFoodDiary.com (not free, but low cost). Issues I encountered included not being able to upload your own recipes, inadequate selection of foods and having to constantly create custom foods, tracking of the big 3 (protein, carbs, fats) but inadequate tracking of other things.

Jess suggested I try out Daily Plate from Livestrong and I have to say, I’m LOVING it! It tracks everything I’d like to (including sugar), I can enter recipes, track fitness and I like the display. It also will help you with goal setting if you’d like to gain weight- so I’ve sent the site to Nick to help him with his goals too. I’m still rooting for the dog though!

Is… confusing? difficult? annoying?

Establishing credit for anyone is a pain, but when you’re fresh to the US AND your business/self-employment is based in the UK? It’s downright impossible. I can see why a bank wouldn’t want to give Nick a chance, he’s lived at 2 residences in the US, each for about 6 months. He hasn’t filed a US tax return, and doesn’t have a US employer.

We’ve tried to switch to Ally bank, but they didn’t approve him for a checking and savings account. NOT A CREDIT LINE, but a bank account. So it looks like for now, we’re still stuck with Bank of America.

I just applied for a travel rewards card since I travel for work, and travel is what we save and spend most often.  I foolishly listed him as a cardholder, vs a co-borrower. Which means that this card STILL isn’t helping him to establish credit. I think after we use the card for 3-6 months we’ll see if Discover will change him to co-borrower status.

I don’t want a another credit card. The only reason we chose the Discover Miles card is that we will be paying the balance off, and we have so many travel related expenses – why not receive rewards for them?

I’m so frustrated with this whole situation. Since we aren’t planning on buying a house or car or needing a loan anytime soon I suppose it doesn’t matter that his excellent credit rating didn’t follow him over the Atlantic. I’m just so irritated with the whole thing, everything related to immigration is a pain!

How did you establish credit?