Ego check
Honey, do you have something to tell me?
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
My Favorite Holiday
Now that the weather is getting chillier, the lights are going up around town, there's a bit of spirit and cheer in the air, it's time to talk about my favorite holiday--Halloween! Yep, I'm a little behind on the blogging.
I said in an earlier post I'd explain why we were so busy until three weeks before I wrote that entry. When we moved into the house at the beginning of August, we were totally daunted by all of the unpacking, painting, and decorating that had to be done. So we decided to give ourselves a deadline so that we'd buckle down and get things accomplished. What better way to make sure we followed through than to invite all of our friends over for a haunted Halloween hootenanny? If we didn't scramble and make the work happen, we would be embarrassed to let our friends walk through the door. Well, it worked! By All Hallows' Eve, the place was sparkling. We even decorated the front yard! What do you think?
We also got the chance to go to Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom. We wore some costumes that have been in our family for a number of years, but they're classics.
We rode the Haunted Mansion...
...watched the fireworks...
...met the Seven Dwarfs...
...and ate lots and lots and lots of candy! What fun!
I said in an earlier post I'd explain why we were so busy until three weeks before I wrote that entry. When we moved into the house at the beginning of August, we were totally daunted by all of the unpacking, painting, and decorating that had to be done. So we decided to give ourselves a deadline so that we'd buckle down and get things accomplished. What better way to make sure we followed through than to invite all of our friends over for a haunted Halloween hootenanny? If we didn't scramble and make the work happen, we would be embarrassed to let our friends walk through the door. Well, it worked! By All Hallows' Eve, the place was sparkling. We even decorated the front yard! What do you think?
We also got the chance to go to Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom. We wore some costumes that have been in our family for a number of years, but they're classics.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
In the Air Again
Thank goodness for free Wi-Fi at Hancock International! Now writing this blog post on my iPod will keep me occupied until our flight back to Florida leaves in an hour and a half. We always arrive early to airports just in case (there is actually an Eric Brown on the Do Not Fly list), and today it was a good thing we did. We didn't have to do the new body scan, but they did unpack and inspect literally every piece of luggage we brought: we each had a carry-on and a personal item, and every last square inch of space is full. (I'll be darned if I'm spending $100 round trip on bag check fees!) It took us a good 15 minutes and excellent teamwork to repack everything at the security checkpoint. L.L. Bean and American Tourister get a big thumbs-up for durability. These things are bursting at the seams. I wish I could take a picture because I feel you just have to see Eric's backpack to appreciate the true Mary Poppins carpet baggedness of this piece of luggage.
Our visit with Eric's side of the family was very restful and festive. We were very sad to say goodbye to the whole family, of course, but it was especially heartbreaking to leave our nephew Andrew and his sweet mommy Laura. Here's hoping he'll be ready to go airborne soon and he can come for a visit soon to his cool uncle Eric and aunt Katie in Florida!
Next on the agenda, making a trip to Apopka tommorow to pick up...my brand new car! Yes, my trusty Honda Civic, which I personally drove for 10 years, finally bit the dust last Monday. Eric is planning to fix it up nicely enough for us to sell or donate it and I'll be driving my 2004 Saab 9-3 just like my Civic--until it dies!
Aftter that will be a slew of holiday gigs stretching into the year, beginning with opening for the Walk Through Bethlehem this Friday night in Winter Park where my newest winter piece, Winter Carol, will be premiering! Then the next day I will be taking part in the filming for the Disney Parks Christmas Parade once again this year, this time with a mystery celebrity diva! I've heard dumped about who it may be but I'm sure I'm not at liberty to share the hunch with the world wide web until it's for sure. So on Saturday afternoon check back for another post :)
Our visit with Eric's side of the family was very restful and festive. We were very sad to say goodbye to the whole family, of course, but it was especially heartbreaking to leave our nephew Andrew and his sweet mommy Laura. Here's hoping he'll be ready to go airborne soon and he can come for a visit soon to his cool uncle Eric and aunt Katie in Florida!
Next on the agenda, making a trip to Apopka tommorow to pick up...my brand new car! Yes, my trusty Honda Civic, which I personally drove for 10 years, finally bit the dust last Monday. Eric is planning to fix it up nicely enough for us to sell or donate it and I'll be driving my 2004 Saab 9-3 just like my Civic--until it dies!
Aftter that will be a slew of holiday gigs stretching into the year, beginning with opening for the Walk Through Bethlehem this Friday night in Winter Park where my newest winter piece, Winter Carol, will be premiering! Then the next day I will be taking part in the filming for the Disney Parks Christmas Parade once again this year, this time with a mystery celebrity diva! I've heard dumped about who it may be but I'm sure I'm not at liberty to share the hunch with the world wide web until it's for sure. So on Saturday afternoon check back for another post :)
Monday, November 29, 2010
Autumn in New York
Hello from beautiful central New York! We are here for a week visiting Eric's family for the holiday. We landed in our little puddle jumper on Thanksgiving Day and enjoyed a delicious traditional holiday meal prepared by Eric's mom. That evening we also paid a visit to the rest of her side of the family and met the older of the two new babies in our family, Eric's cousin's little boy, Aiden. What a cutie!
The next day we slept in a bit and relaxed until late in the morning so we wouldn't have to battle the Black Friday crowds. My one major purchase was a new pair of classic black boots on major sale at JCPenney, but we also finished up our Christmas shopping for Eric's side and spent quality time with our beautiful and amazing teeny-tiny nephew, Andrew Wilson Kazmarek! He was born November 9, so he's still only a few weeks old. We are crazy about him! Here are some cute photos I've taken of the little guy.
Ain't he a sweetheart? In the meantime, we've just been relaxing, spending time with family, opening gifts, and hanging out with Andrew, introducing him to our favorite holiday movie, Elf! Perfect examples of the Comedy Rule of Threes for the future superstar.
The next day we slept in a bit and relaxed until late in the morning so we wouldn't have to battle the Black Friday crowds. My one major purchase was a new pair of classic black boots on major sale at JCPenney, but we also finished up our Christmas shopping for Eric's side and spent quality time with our beautiful and amazing teeny-tiny nephew, Andrew Wilson Kazmarek! He was born November 9, so he's still only a few weeks old. We are crazy about him! Here are some cute photos I've taken of the little guy.
Ain't he a sweetheart? In the meantime, we've just been relaxing, spending time with family, opening gifts, and hanging out with Andrew, introducing him to our favorite holiday movie, Elf! Perfect examples of the Comedy Rule of Threes for the future superstar.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Pomp and Circumstance
Eric finally gradumatated this summer. He has been taking online classes toward his Bachelor's in business administration, so he had been joking about having his own graduation ceremony and walking past the webcam on our laptop when it was all over, but since his mom was in town during the school's official ceremony, he decided to physically attend a school event for the first (and last) time. We kept it a secret until the day of the event, so she was pretty excited when she found out where we were going that day!
Eric and mom at the ceremony venue
Eric meets the dean of the business school
(Don't look too closely at the above photo if you are easily offended)
This is what Eric thinks of Everest University
A celebratory bike ride
I'm very proud of Eric for sticking with it--I'm not gonna lie: the online program was bull$#!+ so he was tempted to quit many times--but now it's over! Everest University, we will forever be in your debt. Go, Sherpas!
Monday, November 22, 2010
On a Mission...to Chicago
I promised there would be a post about our trip to Chicago to visit my AXO sister Rachel and her boyfriend Ollie, so now, since we're about to have our own visit from the Londoners, is a good a time as any!
As you know, we moved into the new house in less than three non-vacation days because we'd already planned our Chicago vacation with the assumption that we would have closed on the house by the time we flew out. We thought we would be a bit stressed out to leave behind such a mess, but the trip was actually a welcome distraction from the madness awaiting us at home. We spent the first day flying, doing a little shopping, socializing, and regressing on the Scott family trampoline. Eric split his pants during the making of this photo.
The next day we ventured from the suburbs into the city for authentic deep dish Chicago-style pizza on our way to the Cubs game! They lost (no surprise there) but we have now had the official bleacher bum experience.
Our third day in Chicago was spent sightseeing in the city. We rode the El, stopped by Chicago Lyric Opera, and found ourselves at the Bean. (See our reflection behind us?)
Then we happened to run into the crew of Transformers 3 filming on location. There were more childhood regressions when we sneaked a peak at Bumblebee! Further down the street was faux destruction and controlled mayhem for the shoot.
Then we had a tasty lunch on the river and explored the Tribune building where we found a little piece of central Florida all the way up in Illi-noise.
Our final stop in the city that day was the Museum of Science and Industry. We experienced a bit more regression mingling with the field trip kids, stopping by the ice cream parlor, and playing around on the exhibits.
The rest of our time was spent relaxing and spending time with our friends. All in all, it was a sweet little taste of a city new to us and a great time with Ollie and Rachel. They're flying in from England for a visit on New Year's Eve, so we're bound to have more adventures to write about in a few short weeks!
As you know, we moved into the new house in less than three non-vacation days because we'd already planned our Chicago vacation with the assumption that we would have closed on the house by the time we flew out. We thought we would be a bit stressed out to leave behind such a mess, but the trip was actually a welcome distraction from the madness awaiting us at home. We spent the first day flying, doing a little shopping, socializing, and regressing on the Scott family trampoline. Eric split his pants during the making of this photo.
The next day we ventured from the suburbs into the city for authentic deep dish Chicago-style pizza on our way to the Cubs game! They lost (no surprise there) but we have now had the official bleacher bum experience.
Our third day in Chicago was spent sightseeing in the city. We rode the El, stopped by Chicago Lyric Opera, and found ourselves at the Bean. (See our reflection behind us?)
Then we happened to run into the crew of Transformers 3 filming on location. There were more childhood regressions when we sneaked a peak at Bumblebee! Further down the street was faux destruction and controlled mayhem for the shoot.
Then we had a tasty lunch on the river and explored the Tribune building where we found a little piece of central Florida all the way up in Illi-noise.
Our final stop in the city that day was the Museum of Science and Industry. We experienced a bit more regression mingling with the field trip kids, stopping by the ice cream parlor, and playing around on the exhibits.
The rest of our time was spent relaxing and spending time with our friends. All in all, it was a sweet little taste of a city new to us and a great time with Ollie and Rachel. They're flying in from England for a visit on New Year's Eve, so we're bound to have more adventures to write about in a few short weeks!
Holy Crap...
...as in, "Holy crap...it's been a long time since I blogged." I know people have been waiting by the computer for a new post, so I apologize to those faithfully (imaginary) obsessed readers for the delay. We really and truly were so busy around the house--until about three weeks ago (I'll explain in a minute)--that we didn't have time for much else. Then I just became accustomed to not blogging, so it took me until now to get back into the swing of things.
If you know me well, you know that I'm not a morning person. If you're any random person stumbling onto this post on the web, you can see that I'm posting this at 8:30 in the morning. This is because Eric woke me out of spite this morning because I kept him up last night. I might be a bit biased, but I don't think silently doing a crossword puzzle with the lamp on (while someone who can easily fall back to sleep is sleeping) should be repaid with being generally boisterous with the overhead light on (while someone who can not easily fall back to sleep is sleeping). So, now I'm officially awake, on my day off, at 8:30am, and I decided to take on a big project that I've been putting off: moving my digital photos and posting about some of our recent adventures. I had my mind all made up about what site I was going to choose, but after doing a bit of research, I changed my mind about trusting that service with my precious photos. So now I'm back to square one, but in the meantime, I'm trying out Picasa Web Albums (Google's photo storage service, which stores this blog's photos anyway) just for kicks. That way, at least for now, I can post about a few of our adventures and there will be visual aids!
If you know me well, you know that I'm not a morning person. If you're any random person stumbling onto this post on the web, you can see that I'm posting this at 8:30 in the morning. This is because Eric woke me out of spite this morning because I kept him up last night. I might be a bit biased, but I don't think silently doing a crossword puzzle with the lamp on (while someone who can easily fall back to sleep is sleeping) should be repaid with being generally boisterous with the overhead light on (while someone who can not easily fall back to sleep is sleeping). So, now I'm officially awake, on my day off, at 8:30am, and I decided to take on a big project that I've been putting off: moving my digital photos and posting about some of our recent adventures. I had my mind all made up about what site I was going to choose, but after doing a bit of research, I changed my mind about trusting that service with my precious photos. So now I'm back to square one, but in the meantime, I'm trying out Picasa Web Albums (Google's photo storage service, which stores this blog's photos anyway) just for kicks. That way, at least for now, I can post about a few of our adventures and there will be visual aids!
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
We're Ready for April Fools' Day
Yesterday, while we were riding in the car, Eric said to me, "Remember that time when I farted into a cup and I handed it to you, told you to look inside, and you put it right in your face?" How could I forget? Needless to say, he learned after one time not to do that to me again. However, he went on to say, "What if I did that into a bottle with a message in it?" We decided it would be too disappointing to go to the trouble to prepare the prank and not know for sure if the smell was actually contained by the time the message was found off the coast of Africa somewhere, but then we remembered that our new neighborhood has several ponds and lakes.
Dinner Menu for March 31, 2011
Buffalo Wings
Stuffed Peppers
Refried Beans
Spicy Nachos
Beer
Friday, August 27, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
The Pot o' Gold is online!
Guess what, everybody? Since our last post, we closed on the house, packed, moved in, and already took a vacation! Whew! (The vacation wasn't planned to fall right in the midst of everything else going on, but that's for another post.) The Bright House guy just left, which means the Brown family, and the Meet the Browns blog, is back online! While I take a little break to catch on my virtual life and catch up our blog readers on our new home, Eric is hustling to do his handiwork around the house. Already in the past few days since we got back from our trip to Chicago, we've already put a big dent in the unpacking chore, degreenified the pool, painted the laundry room, hung cabinets and cabinet hardware in the laundry room, repaired the wheels on the glass patio door, installed the master bedroom fan, and organized almost all the kitchen cabinets! And before we even left on our trip, Eric had unpacked and arranged all of our new bedroom furniture which looks amazing. And now, we're going to veg a bit and watch a movie. I'll add updates--and a post about the Chicago trip--as we go along on our new adventure!! Yay! We're finally here!
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