NKOTB confession

Hang tough! Did you hear that New Kids on the Block may be back? Brian e-mailed me a link to this news story today and included this message:

We swore this would never happen. It has. Now is the time to pray for redemption, for the end is nigh ... The comeback we never asked for and prayed wouldn't happen appears to be on its way. Wow. Please make it stop. Nearly-40-year-olds dancing around in stone-wash jeans with neon T-shirts and faux teen angst is a terrible thing.

So ... is now a bad time to break the news to my sweetie that back in about 1990 I had a big ol' boy band crush on cutie Joey McIntyre? If you were once a fan of Joey, Danny, Donnie, Jordan and Jonathan, please join me in a collective "What the heck was I thinking?!" and "Yikes, I feel so old!" as you watch this video:

Beautiful blankets and bichons

Mom & I ran a couple of quilting-related errands on Sunday afternoon. First I picked up a quilt of mine from a local woman who runs a long-arm quilting business. It's one of several projects that I've had professionally quilted, which is quite a treat.

Kristie has two bichon puppies, including Scooter who can do a very cute trick.






Then we went to Sunflower Quilts in Derby to do some fabric shopping. There we saw Louie the bichon, who's a big fan of belly rubs and isn't too proud to beg.










Now Mom & I each have a project that will be quilted in coming weeks. Hers is a shop sample she made for a local quilt store.











And I have a gorgeous quilt to finish with binding:


The quilting is beautiful. The red plaid coordinates well with the overstuffed chair and ottoman in our basement, so it'll be nice to have that completed. (Hand work is definitely my weakness, though, so it may take awhile.)

Park it

Brian & I took the dogs to Sedgwick County Park on Saturday afternoon to walk a few miles and enjoy the gorgeous weather.


Dakota & Lilly got really dirty.















And Brian & I were so well-behaved at the park that Lilly drove us to Blockbuster afterwards to rent a couple of Wii games.

Locked and loaded

Our friend Tony is the proud keeper of his grandpa's recipe for gravy, an authentic Italian family marinara sauce. It's so tasty that it puts every Italian restaurant in town to shame.

Friday night, he cooked up a fresh batch of gravy, meatballs and lasagna and had Ann & Jeremey and Brian & me over for dinner. We started the evening with a wine tasting (each couple provided a bottle of red). Ann & Jeremey generously shared an '03 Casa Pedro Domecq Chateau Domeca, which they purchased in Mexico on their honeymoon earlier this year. It was mellow with caramel flavors. Mmm. Definitely the best of the night.

Brian & I, once again inspired by our friend Teresa, purchased this wine journal earlier this year so we could keep track of what we've tried. If you're looking for a good bottle to buy for dinner tonight, here are the ones we've rated highest:

• 2005 Susanna Balbo Reserve Malbec
  
• 2002 Laurel Glen Sonoma Mountain Cabernet
• 2005 Stephen Vincent Cabernet
• 2003 Villa Antinori

Between dinner and The Best Cheesecake Ann Has Ever Made, we introduced Ann & Jeremey to a game the rest of us already love, Loaded Questions.

Brian and I have made up our own rules to the game, in which players write quirky answers to questions and then try to guess who wrote which answer.





Looking online this morning, I discovered that the maker also has a party version geared toward grownups, which looks hilarious. We're ordering it online today.



Now I gotta go watch KU basketball defend its perfect season. Rock Chalk!

UPDATE: The Hawks remain undefeated! Woo-hoo!

They didn't plan this ... or so they say

I've been delinquent in sharing this great photo that my long-time friend Chrissy e-mailed me of her and her mom Monica. They live in Iowa, and Chrissy and I were best friends in first grade. Our families have been close friends ever since. They (and Chrissy's sister Nicki) are beautiful, sweet women who are very smart, talented and thoughtful. They're like family to me.

In an homage to my "We didn't plan this" Friday feature of yore, here's how this twinkie thing went down earlier this month, straight from the horse's mouth: Mom and I got up on Sunday and didn't see each other until we were showered and dressed. We both picked out jeans, a pink sweater with a lace cami underneath and brown boots. I thought you might get a kick out of it.

I love it!

Wii Wei

We celebrated two firsts at our house tonight:

No. 1: The Wii

It's Brian's official 30th birthday gift, and he's breaking it in tonight (after eight miles on the bike and a half mile in the pool at the Y). He created little Wii characters of us. Their names are Lorii and Briian. (Get it?)

Here he is throwing punches in the boxing game:



No. 2: The Wei

The new Pei Wei in NewMarket Square opened Monday. Inspired by my friend Teresa, who made sure that she was the restaurant's first customer, we wanted to check it out. Brian fell in love with his Chicken Pad Thai (although I personally thought that it doesn't touch Thai Tradition's with a 10-foot chopstick), but I wasn't a huge fan of my Asian Coconut Curry Tofu. However, the spring rolls, Sweet Chili Sauce and brown rice were delish. We'll be back for sure.

Searching for atonement

Book club gathered tonight at Lori L.'s lovely home to discuss "Atonement" by Ian McEwan. (You may remember that I loved the book, which I thought to be beautiful literature, as well as the movie.) She cooked up some delicious shepherd's pie, and we had lots of fun conversation. Sadly, not everyone was as impressed with the book as I was. (Most did, however, agree that Kiera Knightley's green gown was a knock-out, we're thankful and blessed not to have had to live through WWII and McEwan did a remarkable job describing the inner workings of a young woman and 13-year-old girl, among other characters.)

A few more highlights:


Molly, Diane, Denise, Teresa and Peggy enraptured in discussion.


The glamorous Robin sharing her insight.


Hostess extraordinaire Lori and Carrie laughing with Brenda about her old bridesmaid photos.


Brenda recapping the wit and wisdom of some of Wichita's finest pupils.


Suzanne pointed out that his photo of her and Cory pretty much sums up book club: You're equally repulsed and entertained. And yet you still want more ...


By evening's end, Barney had grown quite tired of our bantering. Either that or he was getting bored waiting for us to play Werewolf.

I love cheap dog toys

In addition to empty milk jugs, balloons have got to be one of the best cheap dog toys. These balloons are from a b-day candy and balloon bouquet I had sent to Brian at work last week. For part of the day (Brian was off Monday), Lilly figured out not to bite too hard:




























We went through several. Whoops.

Celebration times two

NiTony are huge NY Giant fans, so Sunday night's overtime win over the Green Bay Packers was huge. The game was a nail-biter, though.

Their game-watching party was fun, and they served delicious turkey chili, which included ground turkey and sausage turkey. Very good. Next up: the Superbowl party! I'm craving buffalo chicken dip already.



After that, Brian's parents hosted birthday event No. 3. (It's been a quite the birthday week!) His mom baked his favorite Chocolate Cherry Cake (I've included the recipe below) and topped it off with 30 candles, including some trick ones. See how they're still smokin'?



Chocolate Cherry Cake
1 chocolate fudge cake mix
1 (21 ounce) can cherry pie filling
2 eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
***
Mix by hand. Pour in a greased 9-by-13-inch pan. Bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees.



Chocolate Icing
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup milk
5 tablespoons butter
6 ounces chocolate chips
***
Boil first three ingredients one minute and add chocolate chips. Ice cake once it has cooled. Stir the icing occasionally while cooling.

Thirty, flirty and thriving

Brian's 30th birthday-palooza continued Saturday night with cocktails and dinner at Bonefish and hanging out at the Shadow to watch the dueling piano performance. Brian was recognized as a b-day boy on stage, where he returned a few times throughout the evening for dancing and general harassment. He loved it and completely hammed it up. (There is a video of him shaking it to a parody of "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" out there somewhere. I'll let you know if it shows up on YouTube ... maybe.)

For now, you'll have to watch this video from my friend Jaime, who posted this video on her blog on Oct. 20th. We saw the same dancing cowboy last night. Wow. There are actually a lot of YouTube videos of the Shadow regular:

We ended the evening at Mort's. Happy b-day, Brian!

Game nights rock

Brian and I spent Friday night at our friends Nick & Denise's house for a rockin' game night. We played the games Werewolf and Ticket to Ride and enjoyed a scrumptious dinner of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, baked feta and more.

Brian and I are huge game nerds, and we love to be introduced to new games. We want to play both of these again ... and soon!

I'm going to be an auntie!

Well, technically I already am to my older brother's two sons, but my younger sister Jen has announced that she's expecting! Congrats, Jen & Ryan!

There's going to be quite a bit of drama with my sisters this summer: a wedding and a baby within about a month of each other. Mom & Dad: We'll bring the Tylenol! :O)

Frosty Jr.

Brian spotted this tiny snowman when we were in the Starbucks drive-thru this morning. Note the whipped cream hat and coffee-stirrer arms. We think he was waiting for a tall iced Frappuccino.

Birthday surprise

Brian is three decades old today. Happy Birthday! He makes 30 look good!

We've had plans for more than a week to eat dinner at Sabor tonight. And as we were walking along the sidewalk toward the restaurant from the south, we saw a familiar couple headed to the restaurant from the north.

Our friends Kirk and Jocelyn were there, looking rather dapper. Turns out that they had arrived at the exact same time to celebrate Kirk's birthday! What a funny coincidence.

We've been friends with them for a couple of years and attended their Summer 2006 wedding but never realized that Kirk and Brian shared a b-day. So we shared a table, a bottle of wine and a fun evening.

Another fun surprise from today: My friend and co-worker Jaime featured me in her cool new blog 366 Images (Times Two). I'm impressed with how she could turn a cold wet walk into work after lunch into something so artistic.

I, too, have accepted the challenge

After an afternoon at my parents' house this weekend, I'm now able to share the Olan Mills photos from my way-back file.

One of my earliest portraits, in the classic orange tint.



















Jen & me, in those early pre-Amanda days.


Amanda, in her pre-hair days.













Brian says that I'm brave for making this one public. (My parents are SO stylin'.)

Dressed in our Easter best. (This has got to be my favorite childhood photo of Jen.)

Jenny and I are the blue angels. Either that or subjects to Queen Amanda in her wicker throne. Please note the adorable sundress with coordinating jacket that my mom sewed for me. I felt very grown-up in this two-piece outfit.

Looking at this one, it's difficult to believe that the crimper was ever cool. (Thanks a lot, Tiffany!) And, Denise, I'd like to point out that this one is definitely humiliating!

Also, please note what we called the ducky glasses on Jen and Amanda in the last two photos. (They had a little silver duck on the side.) I actually was jealous that I didn't need glasses and that they got to wear the hand-me-down ducky glasses and I never did.

After many years of therapy and deep conditioner, our spirits and our locks recovered from the crimper. (And, fortunately for us all, the ducky glasses are long gone.)

Athletic days of yore

My friend Denise has challenged her fellow bloggers to post old photos of themselves. Jaime was the first one to be called out. I'll have to rummage through the archives at my parents' house to find the Olan Mills portraits in my way-back file, but here are our current offerings:

On the left is my Maize High varsity track photo, circa 1995. (Notice my naturally wavy hair and the fact that I had to tuck my track pants under because they didn't have any short enough for my 5-foot-2-inch frame.) The pic on the right was taken when Brian played on a YMCA baseball team, circa the early '80s. (Notice his stylin' chain. This guy has known how to accessorize for two decades!)

I have two questions ...

No. 1: Meow Meow hates the shower and all things water-related. So why does she like playing on the edge of the tub in between the shower curtain and the curtain liner?

No. 2: She's not nearly as angelic as she looks here. How does she make herself look so innocent?

Sew you know

Tuesday evening was the first quilt guild meeting of '08. Here's some of the fiber eye candy I saw. These include quilts for residents of Greensburg. I'm working on one to donate myself.