Friday, January 23, 2015

Viral Video Vendredi: Funny Vines

A few months ago, Buzzfeed posted an article with the 22 funniest Vine videos. (For people like my mom who don't know what a Vine is, it is an app where the user can create a six-second looping video). I LOLed at almost every video on the list, and I have compiled my 6 favorite Vine videos below for your enjoyment. To ensure that you get the full effect, unclick the mute button in the bottom right hand corner of each video before watching. Enjoy!

1. This flying fairy toy just wanted to be free from her captors.



2. I watch this video and cringe at the memories of me dancing to Nelly at middle school dances.



3. I had two thoughts when watching this video: 1) This girl probably went to W&L or 2) Someone from W&L knows this girl.



4. Someone really needs to create a mash up of this video and T-Swift's Shake It Off.



5. The youth of America, ladies and gentlemen.



6. Farts are funny. No ifs, ands, or butts about it.



Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Surprise Trip Wednesday: Asheville


My ginger strikes again! We are headed on another impromptu long-weekend trip to celebrate my birthday -- this time to Asheville, NC! Asheville is only a 3.5 hour-ish drive from Atlanta, and thus the perfect getaway spot that doesn't require too much travel time. I have fuzzy memories of visiting the Biltmore as a child (I think I got a Biltmore coloring book?), but neither Matt nor myself have been to Asheville as adults. 

Asheville is known for its restaurants, craft breweries (main selling point), and of course the Biltmore. We hope to hit up all of these places during our visit!

The Biltmore Estate. I wonder if the McDonald's and roller coaster from Richie Rich are still there?

Birthday dinner spot - Curate tapas restaurant

Wicked Weed Brewing

We are looking for your recommendations! Do you have a favorite restaurant? Multi-stop brewery tours? Activities? Has anyone ever done the LaZoom purple bus tour through Asheville? I am not sure if this tour would be worth our money or if the guides would just annoy me.


Please share your thoughts with us - we want to soak up as much of this cool, laid back city as possible!

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Weekend Roundup: Netflix, Tapas, Massages, and the World Cup

Don't you love it when you are smacked in the face by reality after a long weekend? I was hit hard this morning when I woke up 35 minutes before an aggressively scheduled department meeting that I totally forgot about. I somehow managed to make it to my meeting with two minutes to spare, but my appearance is dangerously close to turning any potential visitors to my office cube into stone.

Our weekend was rather calm, with a few social gatherings sprinkled in here and there. In my downtime, I was intensely binge-watching Season 1 of House of Cards on Netflix.



Why am I so late to this party?! (Besides the fact that I just began borrowing Netflix from my parents - don't judge). The acting in this show is top notch and I now see why Kevin Spacey won a Golden Globe for his role as Frank Underwood two weeks ago. Also - please God, let me look as good as Robin Wright when I am her age. She looks flawless as she effortlessly executes every step in her day to day life. The music is creepy yet powerful, and I couldn't help but compare the intense political drama from House of Cards to the what now appears to be the fluffy, sensationalized (but still great in its own way) drama that embodies Scandal. Season 2 binge-watching commences this evening...

On Saturday we went to Barcelona Wine Bar with Matt's MBA case study team, and all I got was this picture of sausage hanging from the ceiling:


Not my picture

Not my picture, but this is where we sat

Despite being seated an hour after our 9 pm reservation, the meal was fantastic (per usual) and we stuffed ourselves silly with tapas and wine. We truly lived the European c'est la vie lifestyle by dining outside (in January) next to a roaring fire and covered in fur blankets. You can check out my full-length review of our Barcelona experience on Yelp, which is my new favorite way of reviewing businesses and giving them the 411 about my experience. I have been pleased to see that many businesses truly value the reviews that their customers leave them on Yelp -- we have even been offered a fully compensated meal to retry a restaurant whose service was lackluster at best when we dined there a few weeks ago. I will report back on how our follow-up visit goes!

Seeing that Monday was a holiday, I initiated a "Day of Molly" by scheduling a last-minute massage, hitting up Starbucks, getting my car washed and detailed, and last but not least, engaging in some retail therapy at our local Home Goods.

Greenery for the guest room
Mirror options #1 and #2 for our bedroom 

The weekend roundup wouldn't be complete if I failed to mentioned that I booked my ticket to Vancouver for the 2015 Women's World Cup Final!


I could not pass up the chance to attend the Women's World Cup when it was basically being held in our own backyard. No one wanted to attend the group stage matches with me, so I am tagging along with my aunt, uncle, and cousins for the big kahuna - the final game! I believe that we will win!

               

Friday, January 16, 2015

Viral Video Vendredi: Jimmy Fallon and Nicole Kidman...What Could Have Been


Ok, I have to confess something. I have a crush on Jimmy Fallon. I can't explain it, but that laugh and smile just get me every time. Throw in some red hair and we would be a match made in heaven! I was actually semi-depressed when my results from Buzzfeed's "Which Late Night Host Should You Marry" quiz returned Seth Myers. What?! I took it again and tried to choose different yet still applicable answers, and I still got Seth Myers. Boo.

Last week a video began circulating in the blogger/Facebook world that showed Jimmy interviewing the gorgeous Nicole Kidman. Nicole proceeds to tell Jimmy that she had a crush on him post-Tom Cruise divorce, and his reaction is too adorable for words. You missed out on a good one, Nicole! (But Keith Urban isn't bad either...)

           

I hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend! It has only been two weeks since our last holiday and God knows we need another day to recoup from the madness of Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

The Honeymoon (Day 1): Bon Voyage!


I penned this post a few months ago and never got around to posting it. Given everything that has happened in Paris over the past week, I thought it was time to get this series going and highlight this beautiful city that we had so much fun exploring on our honeymoon. 

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It makes me sad knowing that I did not have a place to immortalize my memories pre-Generals and Gingers. I know, I know...I could have kept a journal or made a scrapbook, but everything is now so digital that blogging is simply the easiest way to capture life's events and share your content with other people. Blogging affords the reader a 360-degree view of a situation through the written word, pictures, videos, and links to all of the things mentioned in a post that may pique his or her interest. 

One of the most blog-worthy things that Matt and I have experienced together (besides our wedding) was our honeymoon in France last year. Our 14 days in France were filled with delectable food, gallons of wine and champagne, French culture, historic sites, prime people watching, and spending time with each other all day err day. I definitely get the French blues every now and then, desperately wanting to return to France and live the honeymoon lifestyle forever. Screw work, I will be a professional fromage et baguette eater/champagne drinker and charge everything to our credit cards without a care in the world. #YOLO.

All that being said, I want to chronicle our honeymoon one day at a time before these memories get fuzzy and I start to forget what we did each day, where we ate dinner, what we saw...


Day 1

I felt like I had been hit by a bus after our whirlwind wedding weekend and a long, hungover drive back to Atlanta on Sunday, and I thanked the good Lord that we had the foresight to book our departure flight to France for the Monday after our wedding. We arrived at Hartsfield-Jackson and boogied over to the Delta Sky Club lounge to get our free drank on, only to find out that they had limited the free drink policy like two weeks earlier. Not cool, Delta, not cool. Oh well. We drank our chilled, overpriced bubbles, ate some cheese slices and breadsticks, and ran into our friend Chelsea in the lounge! (Check out Matt's jet-setter chic outfit. He is looking to perfect the standard W&L Dad uniform by the time we attend Parent's Weekend 20XX). 





Before we knew it, it was time to head to the gate and board the plane for Paris, where we would spend the first half of our honeymoon. We cashed in every single one of our Skymiles (and a few supplemental dollars) to fly business class over to France, and boy was I excited. We figured that it would be a casual 25 years before we took a trip like this again, so there was no point in hoarding miles to use for a short flight to Memphis or D.C. I had never flown anything but steerage with the chickens and the goats, so this was a real treat to see how the other half lived!

So much leg room!

Mini mimosas to get the party started

When I boarded the plane, I was hit with those gleeful feelings reminiscent of the first time I walked into a Discovery Zone (RIP) and was mesmerized by what lay before me. I wanted to experience everything that business class had to offer: giant comfy reclining seats, personal entertainment system with free movies and shows, unlimited free drinks, better food, EVERYTHING. Before we took off we were asked to peruse the menu for dinner and place our orders, as they were going to serve dinner about an hour and a half into the flight (i.e. 5 p.m. Atlanta time) in order to get us (somewhat) accustomed to Paris time. I ordered the shrimp appetizer, tomato bisque, wedge salad, and vegetable pasta. Matt got the braised short ribs for his entree and I had major food envy. Matt skipped dessert (What?! Why?!) but there was no way I was going to miss out on that culinary offering, so I ordered the ice cream sundae with profiteroles. 

Note the dual drink situation going on





We spent the rest of the flight lounging, watching TV, and reading. Matt slept for a good bit of the flight (though he swears he didn't), but my night-owl tendencies/not realizing how tired I would be when we landed resulted in only a 30-minute cat nap. 



After my nap it was time for a light pre-landing breakfast: french toast, sausage, eggs, a bagel, and fruit. GIVE ME ALL THE FOOD! I wish I had the guts to order a mimosa but I was afraid of being judged hardcore by the flight attendant. 


I looked out my window and saw a sleepy Paris slowly waking up as we landed at Charles de Gaulle in the pre-dawn darkness. We touched down in the land of cheese and wine and my adrenaline kicked into overdrive - I was ready to take on day 2 of our honeymoon, our first full day in Paris!