Grown up purchases

Here is our first major furniture purchase since we moved in (technically we bought our bed before we moved in). It comes on the 19th. We tested it out at Bob's and it was a great couch for a great deal. Even the saleslady wasn't pushy. I didn't feel like they were following me around waiting to pounce.

In other purchasing news, I am up for an upgrade on my phone and in about 11 days I will be getting the Verizon iPhone. I am very excited. It does involve waking up at 3am on on the 3rd (G's birthday) to preorder it however, but ensuring I get it asap so I can get rid of my broken phone is well worth it. My love of gadgets and fun technology has been greatly increased by my husbands interest in them and I relish in it. I plan on getting him a very fun toy for his birthday, but it does not come out until April. So he will just have to wait til the Acer Android Tablet comes out.

Yay new adult toys... or toys for adults.... or something that doesn't sound like a sex toy! Being a grownup can be quite fun.

Snow, 2011, and Fidelity

I am so sick of snow, but definitely not hatin' on the snow days. Right now it is 3°F. 3! Unacceptable. I have to say, the best part of the cold is getting to cuddle close to my man. Yesterday we watched football and he made a chicken gumbo-esque dinner. He's a very talented man. I could write a whole post about why this man I married is just the right man for me, but I'll try to keep the gush to a minimum.

Things I am looking forward to this year:

• New Orleans with Gordon
• iPhone
• Not working every Saturday and going down to working one late day a week
• A lower heating bill (we got a new boiler, hot water heater, and insulation in our attics. Thank you Brookhaven Green Homes Project!!)
• Getting some home projects done... molding and lighting in the dining room, replacing the couches in the family room with a sectional, making the living room in the front of the house look like a living room instead of an empty room with a couch.
• The weather has to get warmer... right?
• I have a week off in April and no idea what I will be doing with it
• Hopefully starting grad school in the summer
• September will be 1 year of marriage. Right now it's been just over 4 months.
• Benny has to calm down.... right?

Speaking of marriage. I watch a lot of movies and tv and whenever people are in relationships and fight to the point of leaving the other person or cheat or think about cheating I wonder how. And how do we make sure this doesn't happen to us? People in the real world. Well, all I know for sure, right now, is I will do everything in my power to be someone Gordon can always be proud to call his wife. And I can't see how he could be anything other that someone I am proud to call my husband. So everyone, let's just all try to be happy and not look for reasons to ruin things or make each other miserable, because as the movie I'm watching right now tells me... the people you love have the power to make you miserable. Movies like this make me wish my husband was next to me so I can promise that I will always be his and he will always be mine.

Sorry... I'm taken.

Eataly in NYC and other adventures

Yesterday I went into the city for a fun filled day. First we saw The Screwtape Letters, which was a two man plan but only one man talked... for an hour and a half. It was quite good. We went in with G's mom, her friend, and his sister. Then we headed to lunch and split up afterward. G and I went to Midtown Comics, where he gets comics shipped to him from every 2 weeks. (We all knew my husband was a nerd.) Then went to Stout, a bar by Penn station with Ludi, where we played darts. And I kid you not (see picture), on the first dart I threw, I got it in the bullseye. It was insane.

After this impressive feat, Dom met up with us and we went to see The Tree in Rockerfeller Center, then off to Eataly.

Here we indulged in tapas and gelato in true Italian style. It was pretty cool. Then we headed back to the train and got home around 1:30am. It's a good thing I have been preparing for staying up late by playing Sims 3 into the wee hours of the morning.

Yesterday I went into the city for a fun filled day. First we saw The Screwtape Letters, which was a two man plan but only one man talked... for an hour and a half. It was quite good. We went in with G's mom, her friend, and his sister. Then we headed to lunch and split up afterward. G and I went to Midtown Comics, where he gets comics shipped to him from every 2 weeks. (We all knew my husband was a nerd.) Then went to Stout, a bar by Penn station with Ludi, where we played darts. And I kid you not (see picture), on the first dart I threw, I got it in the bullseye. It was insane.

So this is Christmas...

And Benny is rocking his Santa costume at our First (Annual?) "A Very Rowe Christmas Party". It was a good time. I may have been a little crazy with the Christmas themes. I made appletinis and red wine sangria in color appropriate punch bowls. And put the dip for the veggies in red and green little bowls. And I put candy canes in all the chip bowls.

I have just about all my Christmas shopping done. Right now it's just too windy to leave the house. I printed some of my wedding pictures at Walgreens and I need to pick them up, so eventually I will leave the house but right now I am going to work on my grad school application.

Simply havin' a wonderful Christmastime...

I have been horribly slacking on my posts. Gordon got my into this video game and he plays it with me. It's cool because, like right now, he is playing the game, but I can feel like I have been getting farther. And I don't have to fight the bosses, which is something I never liked about most video games. I asked for the Sims and Mario Kart for the Wii for Christmas so I can play video games and not fight things. I plan on spending my winter under a fleece blanket with some hot cocoa and video games. I think the antisocial aspect was part of why I never got into them in the first place... now however... I am married and as an old married lady, I don't plan on ever leaving the house again, so video games will suck all my time and make me feel accomplished.

In other news, this holiday season is a very very good one so far. I have been in pretty high holiday spirits since about Thanksgiving and Christmas music fuels it. I have most of my Christmas shopping done and this weekend I plan on eating and drinking merrily with some friends. I have been talking about apple martinis and red wine sangria as the drinks of choice. Festive, right? Eh? Eh?? I also hope to make some gingerbread...... bread. Not cookies. Straight up bread. Maybe a little icing action? It's good, it's going to be good.

Here is a preview of our Christmas tree. It already has presents underneath. The stocking to the right is the stocking I have had since I was a kid. I think this is the replacement from when I was about 8 after the previous one was either destroyed or burst at the seems one year. I remember it though; it was green.

It's the day after Thanksgiving...

so naturally, I'm ready for Christmas! The husband and I went out and chopped down our Christmas tree.... fake, prelit, and on sale from Target. Then we got some other gifts for people and ornaments for the tree. Black Friday is really not that scary if you do it right. Look, even the husband got into the Holiday Spirit!

I was so excited I put up the rest of the decorations I have saved from previous years and put up the tree, all while listening to Pandora's Rocking Christmas station. It would be the perfect Christmas season scene if it wasn't about 50 degrees out and raining. But we enjoyed it none the less. I sprayed my Williams Sonoma Winter Forrest spray around and breathed in deep. Mmmm smells like a real holiday home. Soon I will be baking gingerbread and pumpkin ice cream. And you will all be jealous... or over here enjoying it. Depending how much I like you.

In case you were wondering, Benny spent the majority of the day staring at the tree and tilting his head in confusion. But he has not attacked it... yet.