My previous boot choices both got nixxed after they were delivered to my house.  The black pair were way too boring and the rockin’ funky pair hurt like a mutha trucker.  So I opted for two pairs of boots.  Do we like?

 

UPDATE ***

At the request of some lovely ladies, here is where I purchased the grey pair and the cognac pair of boots.  

Enjoy.

A week from now I will be on airplane flying to Paris trying not to lose my shit.  The Chef will be holding my hand and I will be in tears for the first hour of my flight.  It won’t be pretty.  It never is.

I have been scared of flying for as long as I can remember.  I have silly rituals that I must do on every flight or else (as in or else I might die in fiery metal ball).  I drink tomato juice the entire flight.  I rarely drink alcohol. All that does is push my emotional threshold past the boundaries and there ain’t no coming back from that.  I make sure to have some kind of communication with the pilot, you know just to make sure their not all hopped on Adderall and Scotch.  I ALWAYS sit by the window.  No matter what.  Apparently I have rationalized that if we are going down I would like to watch.  Odd but I suppose I have always kept my eyes open for even the worst of things.  I am not very good at blindsiding myself.  

 But I am trying not to focus on the fact that I am going to be wreck for eight hours straight come Monday.  I am also trying to arrange  for some drugs.  Hopefully my doc will keep good on her promise to get me nice and ‘relaxed’ aka sedated for my travels.  Fingers crossed.  Instead of dwelling on my fears I have decided to focus on the positive.

I have seven days to spend with my amazingly awesome mini people and I am going to do it right.  Our week is going to be full of pumpkins, harvest festivals, museums, and food.  I am going to let Catcher Crazy Face sleep with me when the Chef works late and I am going to let Biggie Smalls drink all the goat’s milk her little heart desires.  I am going to eat them up and try not to cry.  Which is not really working at this moment.  But I can do it.  I can leave my kids for a week.  I am a big girl and I should still allow myself to have time for myself.  But that just seems so selfish and impossible.  Ahhhhhhh!!!!!  I am making myself crazy.  But seriously I wish wish wish wish that we could take the kids on this trip.  But the truth is we can’t.  And I need time with the chef and I need time for myself and I have never been to Paris…..so…..maybe I should just shut the fuck up, buy more boots, and start packing.

Right?

I can’t seem to find the time to sit down and actually process my thoughts, so I give you these thoughts already processed by myself or another:

Greenfield’s Berry Farm: Kid Friendly Awesomeness!

Poop Be Gone, Diaper Easy Eze

Much To Do About Nothing, by Classy Chaos (my new favorite momster blogger)

A Fable Tale: Congrats to GGC (my other fave) for her new fairy tale girl!

Mother Goose Mouse eloquently writes an open letter to that lipstick loving pit bull  (wonder if she would still want to be considered a pitbull if she actually knew ANYTHING about the breed, not just the media hype and ignorance…)

Harvest Fest Pictures courtesy of the man, the myth, the legend…

 

And a few reminders:

Bar Cento Book Club Meeting Sunday October 5th, @ 2pm.  $10 Pizza & Frittes:

“Charm was a scheme for making strangers like and trust a person immediately, no matter what the charmer had in mind.”

Chef’s Widow Networking Site:

Join us HERE to talk chef relationships, chef, food, chefisms, and chef insanity!

Bar Cento’s 1 Year Anniversary October 9th.  Free Pizza Bitches.

Summer Widow is Boom Outta Here!  Fall Widow has arrived. 

My longtime Border’s Guy & hubby to BF Tri-C, Jeff & I at live it up at the Bar Cento Harvest Beer Fest.

 

Can you believe that I thought I was fat in this picture?  I would cut my big toe off while drinking fish oil for that stomach.

I started boot camp 4 weeks ago today.  I wake up two days a week @ 5am and workout (with weights & cardio) for an hour.  I am amazed at myself.  I am NOT the workout type chick.  I will do any crazy ass diet that you may suggest however working out ain’t my thing.  Before kids I snowboarded so every season I would lose all the weight I gained prior and never have to lift a finger.  Then the kiddos were born, I broke my ankle, and my bad ass board and boots have ben shelved.  After Louisiana I realized that I had really packed on the lbs.  I lost most of my pregnancy weight however my body decided to keep an extra ten.  For warmth.  Right?

When I decided to go to Paris I also decided that the Lemon Cleanse was not going to work this time around and I needed a different approach.  I found this Boot Camp online, asked my friend from Cento if she wanted to do it with me, and signed up for the class.  The first day was crazy hard.  The class was all free weights and strength training.  Something completely unknown to me.  I went home at 6.45 am exhausted, in pain, and ready for bed.

After the first week I found myself a little bit happier.  The days that I went to boot camp inspired me to work out on the days that I didn’t.  I noticed that if I didn’t do some kind of exercise during the day I would be grumpy by nightfall.  Now I am at week four and I am about to get my fat measured.  I am down a pants size and my most favorite pair of jeans reveal my ass crack way more than normal.  And I feel good.  

When I started the boot camp the Chef thought I was crazy.  Now his ass wakes up everyday, runs three miles before work, bike 5 miles at work, and runs another three miles at the end of the day.  It’s his fifteenth day of this routine and I couldn’t be more proud.  Although it is borderline psycho, I just have to remember that he has an ex-wrestler’s crazy ass metabolism and weird mental thing about working out.  

I am really excited about the entire thing.  It has given me a discipline that I have never had in my life.  Even when I played tennis, I slacked.  You could usually find me smoking in my Explorer in between my matches. Totally kidding.  I would never do anything like that…

 

****If you are in the CLE are and are looking to do the boot camp, tell ‘em I sent you.  

 
View my page on Chef’s Widow

Widows,

I have created a Chef’s Widow social network on Ning.  I thought it would be a good place to get to know each other, talk (and/or bitch) about our Chefs, promote chef events, chef restaurants, and chef food.

Please join me if you are a chef wife, chef girlfriend, chef boyfriend, chef husband, chef groupie, chef mother, chef kid, or chef father.  

Knives & Kisses,

Chef’s Widow

I know there are a LOT more things to be out crusading for…but I LOVE LOVE LOVE Pandora.  She makes my day wonderful.  She introduces me to new voices on an hourly basis and I am not quite sure how I would live life without her.

Please take action so Pandora doesn’t get taken away by the evil genius Clear Channel.

CONGRESSIONAL EMERGENCY!!!

Listeners we need your help… NOW!

After a yearlong negotiation, Pandora, artists and record companies are finally optimistic about reaching an agreement on royalties that would save Pandora and Internet radio. But just as we’ve gotten close, large traditional broadcast radio companies have launched a covert lobbying campaign to sabotage our progress.

Yesterday, Congressman Jay Inslee, and several co-sponsors, introduced legislation to give us the extra time we need but the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), which represents radio broadcasters such as Clear Channel, has begun intensively pressuring lawmakers to kill the bill. We have just a day or two to keep this from collapsing.

This is a blatant attempt by large radio companies to suffocate the webcasting industry that is just beginning to offer an alternative to their monopoly of the airwaves.

Please call your Congressperson right now and ask them to support H.R. 7084, the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008 - and to not capitulate to pressure from the NAB. Congress is currently working extended hours, so even calls this evening and over the weekend should get answered.

The central congressional switchboard number is: (202) 225 3121

Or to look up your representative, visit: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

If the phone is busy, please try again until you get through. These calls really do make a difference.

This is a fork in the road. Only massive grassroots opposition will keep us from another 50 years of top 40 radio. It’s time to take a stand and break the stranglehold of broadcast media on radio.

Thanks so much for you ongoing support.

Tim

Founder, Pandora

 

PS If you haven’t heard of Pandora get your ass over to their site and sign up immediatley.  It will change your life.

A few favorites for y’all!

An absolutely stunning decanter from The Blissful in Canton.

An APOC creation sold at my new favorite eco friendly store, Green Clean.

My super cool dude lounges in the Fatboy at The Banyan Tree while I spend WAY too much money on a scarf.

Let the book clubbing begin!

All parties interested in the Kurt Vonnegut Book Club:

The book club will begin at Bar Cento on October 5th @ 2pm.  The first book that we will read is Breakfast of Champions, available at your local library, half priced books, and amazon.com.  The meeting will cost $10 for all you can eat pizza and pomme frittes.  Alcoholic Bev’s additional.  The first meeting will be a meet & greet, no reading required.  Every meeting following will be the first Sunday of the month, same place, same time, different book.  So freakin’ excited.

Please feel free to email me with any questions or concerns.  Also email me to reserve your spot.  I would like to get a count so I know how much food to get from the Chef.  Awesome.  See you in two weeks!

 

It seems like every decade there is a musician that is involved or killed in a plane crash, last night Travis Barker & DJ AM were in a fiery plane crash in South Carolina.  As of a fan of Blink 182 and Travis Barkers’ bad ass drumming skills I am totally bummed.  My thoughts and prayers go out to their families & friends (especially Travis’ young kids).