thank god for chinese takeout

thanksgiving came and went without a hitch. there were no new oven failures, no woodstove catastrophes, no heated political disagreements, and most importantly, not too much football.







by the end of the weekend, we had hosted three family dinners: thankgiving dinner, thankgiving leftovers, and finally, post-thanksgiving chinese takeout.

turkey day

it's nine a.m. the turkey has been in the oven for two hours. green bean casserole - check. cauliflower au gratin - check. stuffing - check. mashed potatoes - check. pies - check. unlike every thankgiving dinner we've hosted in years past, this year we are having a thanksgiving brunch. i have discovered that when in-laws come into the picture things get complicated, but whatevs... brunch, it is.

happy thanksgiving to all!

dab's latest find

it has been a while since we found any treasures on craigslist. instead, we've been in a selling mode. (so far, our ikea bench, leftover lighting fixtures, and two glass end tables have found homes elsewhere.)

yesterday, dabney saw an ad for a danish credenza and jumped on it.



fifty bucks later and the thing is ours.

damn, she's good.

hotlanta

my trip to atlanta this past weekend was a true success. met a ton of nice people, sold a bunch of stuff, and most importantly, got to catch up with an old friend. mixing business and pleasure is one of the best things on earth.

mid century galore

while this song is good and all, it's really about the neato eye candy, in the form of fifties furniture and gadgets, that thrills me.

house on fire

we're finally up and running. and man, it smells good in here.


this is the view of the woodstove from the main living room.

as you can see above, the chimney heads up and then shoots through wall to our workroom, where it makes its final turn up and out of the house (see below).  kinda funky, but it seems to work really well. 




we received our first wood delivery over the weekend, and judging by the size of it, it may be our last for years to come.


here it is in our basement.

lucky for us, delivery included stacking. my back hurts just looking at the pile.

ice ice baby

tomorrow, i'll be in atlanta at this...



come see at booth #75, if you're anywhere in the area. click on the image above for more info.

how to eat a beignet: a visual guide

blog catch up post #2

this past weekend was dabney's birthday and to commemorate the event we decided to take a very quick trip down I-55 to new orleans. dabney had never been before so we thought it would be the perfect way to celebrate turning 29 again.



the boys flew into town to join us for the revelry.


no trip to new orleans would be complete without partying on bourbon street, shopping on magazine street, and eating all over the place.  man, what an amazing dining town!













we even managed to catch up with a st. louis friend (temporarily living in NOLA) over one of the splendid meals featured above.



our brunch was even accompanied by a jazz band AND enormous bloody marys.





from the grandeur of the garden district to hurricane katrina's devastation (and rebirth) in the 9th district, we managed to cover a lot of ground.













dabney, hope you had a wonderful birthday! (she thinks you look hot for a 29 y.o.)

blog catch up post #1

two weeks ago, i spent a hurricane ida-free weekend golfing and playing games in charlotte, nc.

we bowled and played pool.


we took in a charlotte hornets game.


but above all, we played a lot of golf.



we played a total of 54 holes when the weekend was said and done and it was heaven for me.







thanks to my playmates.  here's to STL 2010.  :)

fanfarlo again

this time with a cover of neutral milk hotel's "in the aeroplane over the sea"

you gotta have hearth

that stove is just about in, but before it could be installed, there was the small matter of the hearth. we thought about installing black honed granite. however, the cost was more than we wanted to spend and the placement of that big slab of stone (really just a matter of a few feet away from the GIANT slab that makes up our kitchen island) didn't thrill us - stove versus stone.

instead, we went an entirely different direction... steel.



voila! stove in place.



ok, the hearth and surround may look all rusty and disgusting in the picture above, but take my word for it, it looks pretty cool in person. (flashes make everything look weird.) at first, i thought we'd try to take care of all the rust by eliminating it entirely, but honestly, i kind of like the effect now that i've seen it up close. we'll just smear some mineral oil all over to darken it up a bit and call it a day.

next up: busting through the wall with the stove pipe (luckily, the pass through is already there) and we'll be all set for our first fire.

oh yeah, i better order some wood...

they don't call it the gay high holiday for nothing.

perhaps i would've mentioned last friday what we were going to be for halloween had i know at the time. but it came down to an excruciating decision and a last minute whirlwind of activity (yet again)  to come up with the following:

paperdolls!





as you can see, cardboard is our best friend each and every halloween. the "dresses" weren't the most conducive to sitting, let alone dancing, but somehow we managed to a lot of both saturday night at our friend's annual holiday bash.

those wigs?  it's amazing what can be done with a little yarn, a bandanna, and some thread.