Brownies

What have I done?  I hadn't gotten my return plane ticket yet for a variety of reasons.  The hubby and I were talking today and I was looking at prices.  For the next week they are a decent price, and then they get really high over Christmas.  January 5th had the lowest price, and the hubby said, "why don't you just stay?  Take advantage of being able to hang out with your family for an extended period."  So, I now have a return ticket for January 5th.  On the one hand, yay!  Family time!  Niece snuggles!  On the other hand, massive guilt for leaving my husband alone for Thanksgiving, Christmas, AND New Year's.  I know it was his idea, and believe me, he wouldn't have said it if he didn't mean it, but I've been having really mixed emotions all day.  And I miss my puppies.  Oh, and I have no Christmas socks or earrings because I didn't pack any.  And Pedro only has his tux and his Thanksgiving shirt, so I can't dress him appropriately for the season.  (Also, yes, I know those last 2 things are completely inane, but this is how my brain works when I get weirded out and feel guilty about something)  I'm feeling very selfish at the moment.

OK, moving on.  Did you know that today was National Brownie Day?  Me either, until a few minutes ago, but I made brownies today!  It was cold in the house today and we had a box of brownie mix in the cupboard, so I figured I'd use the oven, warm up the house, and get chocolate all in one go.  Tonight's shoes are inspired by this happy coincidence:

I like them all.  Brownies are yummy.  I still have guilt.  Good night.

Happy Birthday, Hubby!

Today is the hubby's birthday, and he is what I am grateful for today.  We've been together for a little over 6 years now, and we've certainly had our ups and downs.  Some days he drives me a little bit bonkers and I want to kick him, and I know some days I drive him bonkers back.  When push comes to shove, though, we've go each other's backs and for that I am very grateful.  Plus, he makes me laugh with his goofy sense of humor.  So tonight's shoes are inspired by the hubby.  I've already done a post with our last name, so today I'm using his first name.  Which is just weird because he doesn't go by it, and refuses to answer to it, but I figure the shoes don't mind one way or the other.

These look like something the hubby would wear.  He likes suits, and he has a couple of pairs of wingtips to go with them.

 

Black shoes are definitely his preference.  Kind of like JG...no wonder they like each other!

Oh wow.  I can't see him wearing these, and I can't say I would blame him.

He wouldn't wear these, either, but I might.

Boy shoes are all well and good, but not very exciting, so here's some hounds tooth for me.

Oooh...and I love this one!

Happy Birthday, hubby.  Love you to the moon and back!

X-Men

The hubby and I did NOT go into the office today.  Can you believe it?  I was there until almost 10:00 last night recording and editing my 2 bible study podcasts for this week, so it's been nice to stay home.  Well, we did actually go out, just not to the office.  We went to a movie!  We had a date!  We saw X-Men: Apocalypse.  I joked on Facebook that we haven't had a date night since approximately 1978.  Hyperbole, obviously, but it kind of feels that long.  Which is silly because we've had movie passes since March and it took us this long to use them.  To celebrate our long-time-coming date, here are some X-Men shoes:

I'm a nerd in that I really like movies based on Comic books, especially Marvel, but I'm not really a true  nerd because I've never actually read any of the comic books.  But the colors make for a nice contrast on black shoes.

 

Same shoe, I think, just more detail with the whole pair.

Storm and Wolverine?  Since I don't read the comic books I don't know how Wolverine looks in them, but those seem like his claws.

I think I might like these better if the platforms and heels were blue.  I know...color you shocked, right?

 

These actually said they were Wolverine shoes.  Wolverine is my favorite, but mostly because I love Hugh Jackman.  The fact that he takes his shirt off in the movies (a lot) doesn't hurt my love for him, either.

I also love Charles Xavier.  It's a well-rounded love.  I love the character and I also love the actors who play him, Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy.

Not only did I get a date with my hubby, but I got a nerdy date with my hubby!  I'll take it.

Memory Lane: 2013. 2014. 2015.

Stars

I'm exhausted.  I'm tempted just to skip posting and go to bed, but I haven't posted for 2 days, and I had wanted to post every day during Lent.  Tuesday and Wednesday were roller coaster days, along with being extremely long days at the office, so I've been tired all week, and those days I didn't have the emotional reserves to form coherent thoughts.  Thankfully for tonight, I have the Pinterest Friend to fall back on.  I mentioned before that I've been doing the Synod's Lent Photo-a-Day on Facebook, and Tuesday's theme was stars.  Not only did the PF provide me with a great picture of Orion (my favorite constellation) to post, but she also went on a search and found me a bunch of fun star shoes.  Sadly I'm 2 days late in posting them, but at least I got to it at some point.  So here they are, with little to no commentary from the loopy, exhausted woman at the keyboard.

I had glow in the dark stars for my ceiling during college.  Now I want these shoes.

Didn't the PF do a good job?  Yay for stars!

Memory Lane:  2013. 2014.

3 Things (times 3 days):

1. We signed papers for the house on Tuesday.  We are sooooo close to this house actually being sold.
2. My hubby has mad negotiating/charm skills that managed to correct a problem that could have absolutely ruined this entire week.
3. Yesterday was the anniversary of my grandfather's death.  I miss him dearly, but so glad I had him as long as I did, and for the memories I have of him.
4. Today is George Harrison's (of the Beatles) birthday. I'm very happy he made the world better with music.
5. The BFF's mom had a CT scan on Monday (same day SKD's mom had surgery...I called my mom just to make sure she was OK) and everything came back fine, which is good news.
6. The PF finds me shoes so I don't have to find them myself when I'm exhausted.
7. The hubby is lucky (I am not) and won a $50 visa debit card at a marketing event the other day.
8. I ate chocolate for breakfast this morning.
9. The property manager at the office is awesome (the hubby says we are long-lost sisters) and she plies me with coffee when I am desperate.

Wine

The hubby is such a marketer.  Last night he was sitting next to me as I wrote my post, and he saw the screen that shows the statistics for my blog.  Lately I've been averaging around 40 page views a day and he was perplexed.  "Why is that number so small?  Why don't more people read your blog?"  I could see the wheels turning and knew he was about to launch into work mode and Search Engine Optimization and a million other ideas.  I just said, "it's a silly shoe blog, I don't expect that many people to read it."  I get where he's coming from.  If this were something I was trying to make money from or trying to expand into something larger, then yes, of course I would do more with it and try to promote it more.  I've done the training, I know enough to get started, but it's not something I'm interested in.  And this was supposed to be a silly side note, so don't read anything into this paragraph, whether about the hubby, me, or the blog.

Moving on.  It's a screenshot kind of day:

 

Um...what?  I have so many questions, and so many possible snarky comments to make.  I'll hold back, though, and just talk focus on the fact that it's Drink Wine Day.  I don't drink much at all, but I do enjoy the occasional (half) glass of wine.  I like white over red, which did not endear me to the Zinfandel-growing folks at St. Someone, but oh well.  I don't really know much about wine, no matter how many tastings or tours I've done.  It all just seems to slide right out of my head and I can't remember it.  So for those of you who like, understand, appreciate, or are snobby about your wine, please try not to take offense at my shoe choices today.  I'm just trying to find fun shoes.

All of these were found by searching for different kids of wine + shoes.  This is the Merlot shoe, and I like it.  I'd maybe like ti better without the dots on the straps, but I'm not going to hold them against the shoe.

 

Champagne.  I'm guessing this is a wedding shoe.  It's a little more froofy than I typically like my shoes, but there are definitely occasions when a froofy shoe is called for.

 

Chardonnay.  These would have gone well with yesterday's post.  I'm not sure Chardonnay is actually this yellow, but what do I know?

Burgundy.  Love them.

Rosé.  So shiny!

And Riesling.  Which is one of my favorite wines.  See?  I'm totally not a good wine drinker.  I like the really sweet dessert wines.  BUT, maybe I would drink more wine and learn more about it if I could match my shoes to whatever I was drinking?  

If you are a wine drinker, enjoy the day!  Actually, I hope you have an enjoyable day regardless of your wine drinking preferences, but you know what I mean.

Memory Lane:  2013. 2014.  2015 actually has 2 posts because the one that should have been for the 17th got posted after midnight (you might remember my sleep schedule was all whacky back then).

3 Things:

1. Good books.  I'm currently reading Call the Midwife and thoroughly enjoying it.
2. The video of the nephew doing push ups.  His arms never move, but his butt sure does!  Cracks me up.
3. The Lenten Photo-a-Day exercise I'm doing this year which has caused me to go through lots of my pictures which then means I get to see all of the adorableness of the nieces at various ages.