Milka - wha??

Five years ago I had a bad Super Bowl experience. As I was enjoying my tasty cold Bud Light (in a bottle), some fraternity jack-leg knocked my elbow and the bottle chipped my tooth. I'm talking front tooth...bottom right corner up to top left corner gone. On a Sunday. In Clinton, SC. I shouldn't complain too much because in my hurry to the bathroom to survey the damage I tripped over the projector cord and cut off the game for everyone. Whoopsy-daisy.

So every Super Bowl Sunday I feel a little tingle where my tooth repair now lies (and never quite the same color as the rest of my tooth which is subject to lots of coffee and Diet Coke. And then subsequent bleaching.)

But this year was a good Super Bowl. Our dear friends invited us to watch it at their manor in Wildewood. I say "manor" because it's about 9 times the size of my house.

Anyways, good crowd. Good food. Two TV's to separate the people who actually watched the game and those who were there to chit-chat. Cold Coors Light bottles with enough room to avoid flying elbows.

In fact, the crowd was so good that I didn't even watch the commercials! So, I managed to watch them on YouTube this week. Can I tell you how much I love that E-Trade baby?! By far my favorite one was the "Woo-woo-woo-woooolf" one (I can't wait to start calling everyone a milk-aholic now.)

In case you missed it, too, have no fear. I learned how to Embed YouTube.



Does anyone else think this is not the original E-Trade baby? The first one definitely looked just like Brooke's sweet little son, Tripp. Is it possible Tripp is a celebrity and I didn't even know?! Possibly.

I made my always popular pigs-in-a-blanket. The Fourth actually asked if we could have these at our wedding reception (our very nice, very classy, not-a-freaking tailgate reception). The answer was no. So I try to make them at all other possible times to make up for that small Bridezilla moment. See how popular they were?



Towards the end of the game, we ran out of beer. The Fourth found some drinks in the back of our host's freezer (It should be noted that I know that our host has an affinity for fruity/gut-rotting drinks. She has been known to drink Fresca on the beach with a little pour of tequila in it. Try it, it's like a little margarita!) You ever run out of the alcohol you brought and end up drinking something crazy that your hostess happened to have in her outside fridge? Was it ever as bad as a Fuzzy Navel Bartles & James. Ah yes, a wine cooler. I made it about half way through. And then my stomach hurt and I had to quit. Something about the oranges, peaches, and crazy malt liquor carbonation went crazy in my insides.



Lesson learned. Hope your Super Bowl was just as fun!

Eating and Drinking,

Mary Douglass

Blackberry Woes

I resisted the new phone era as long as I could. Honestly, I still sort of want a bag phone like Big Daddy used to have because it came with it's own tower and everything. I had the classic little flip phone until my very phone savvy (and phone company employed) sister-in-law convinced me to get a Blackberry and join the movement. And it was only $0.99. So that helped.

So now I have a Blackberry Pearl. And I can Facebook, Tweet, whatever until my little heart is content! The thing about a Blackberry Pearl is that it has a condensed keyboard. Now, I was used to the whole T9-word thing from my flip phone, but I seem to be making a lot of mistakes with my new weird QWERTY-but-not-quite keyboard.

Blackberry is very nice to give suggestions as you're typing to offer little shortcuts. But I can't help but wonder about some of these quote-unquote suggestions. Some of the worst ones:

As I type in "Friday" I get these suggestions: feuds, feudal, feudalism
Really? You thought I was more likely to write about feudalism before my plans on Friday?

"Email" - The first choice that comes up as I type "ema" is emancipation.
Oh sure, who isn't more likely to text about Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation instead of "I'll email you on Friday?"

"Saturday" - I start typing in "satur" and get: saturated, satirical, satirist...all before Saturday is even an option. Maybe I text a lot about my weekend plans, but "satirical" seems pretty far out of my general texting lexicon. I'm just saying.

"Yum" - Apparently this is not even an option on texting. But Tim, time, timber, tumbled, and tumor all are. I've had more than one tweet saying, "I can't wait for dinner! Tumor!" Inappropriate. (Incidently, when I type in "inappropiate" on my Blackberry, "unsophisticated" comes up first. Interesting and somewhat appropiate.)

So if you're following me on Twitter (EatDrinkBeMaryD, by the way!) don't be too surprised if see all sorts of weird disjointed messages. Blames it on T9-word.

Eating and Drinking,

Mary Douglass

State Of The Smiths

The past week we heard the State of the Union, State of the State, State of the City and State of the County. So what's the next logical "State of?"

The State of the Smiths, of course!

* The Fourth and I are currently learning about Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace. Eesh, this is tough. Do you know how much we spend on food?! And I'd like to think that we're not especially large people. We are literally eating our money. At least we don't smoke; that would be more expensive and way grosser.

* Fortunately, we are feeling pretty cocky about not having any car payments. Sure I got my car in high school (thanks, Big Daddy!) and the inside will never be truly clean due to Diet Coke and coffee spills/dog hair/general messiness. And The Fourth's car is from high school, too, and has been IN the lake 2 times (seriously - water in the ashtray..twice) and had rotten corn in the backseat (from last deer season). But we can still put a big "0" in those little boxes in our budget! Woo!

* The Fourth is training for Columbia's half-marathon at the end of February. Yes, seriously. I, however, only run when chased (and I really can't promise I'd run then; I'd probably just give up and hand over my purse). I will be going to brunch and then meeting him at the finish line. I'm a very supportive wife.

* Easter candy is already out at work. I have not bought a Reese's egg...yet. (It's less than a dollar, okay, Dave Ramsey?!) I'm a little nervous starting in on that slippery slope, I may very well eat them until Easter is over. (Are they so good because there's more peanut butter? They haven't been on the shelf for a couple years? The chocolate is better?? Who knows, I love them though.)

* I have discovered Oil of Olay's In-Shower body lotion. Wow -- so happy that I don't have to choose between 1) freezing while I put on icy lotion or 2) feeling that prickly-dry-winter skin feeling all day! More time in the shower? Yes, please!

* Our vacuum cleaners have quit (yes, plural; we had 2 and a Shark). Not really sure why. Could be the fact that I try to vacuum any and everything - Christmas tree hooks, pine straw, whatever! Or that astronomical amount of dog hair. Any recommendations for a new one? Maybe a Roomba; you know, that little one that looks like the alien from the old movie "Batteries Not Included" that does all the work for you. I don't do all the work myself, so maybe I should get a robot to do it for me.

* We came in 3rd place in our neighborhood Christmas Decoration Contest. I think the lights all over the house that blinked with the music really helped us get that honor. We will strive to do even better next year. And we promise to get the lights down by June (yes, they really are still up. But at least we don't turn them on...much.)

* Our goals for this coming year include: make inordinate amounts of money by working as little as possible; remembering names when introduced to someone new (it's like I don't even listen to the introduction!); keeping a clean, but possibly not vacuumed, house; and enjoying time together and drinking lots of pinot grigio!

Eating and Drinking,

Mary Douglass