oops

so last night after dinner allan and i are just swinging on our front porch swing, beers in hand, enjoying the nice night. the neighbor from across the street, tammy, had just walked out of her house with her two dogs for their nightly walk and we'd said a neighborly hello. then out of nowhere the chain on allan's end (thank God it wasn't on my end) rips from the ceiling and down we go onto the floor, coors light spilling everywhere. we had a good laugh, as did tammy, then we got up, brushed ourselves off and continued sipping our beers in the safety of the rocking chairs.

now we just need to figure out how to hang the swing again so that it's not a hazard ...

attempt at decorating

on tuesday my aunt lynn was nice enough to meet me at allan's house so that i could give her the grand tour of what, in january, will be my house too and to help me assess the decorating (or lack thereof) situation. let me preface this by saying that the only experience i have with this is evidenced by the random pieces i've accumulated in jackson and in charlotte over the past four years. i've gotten a bedside table here, a vanity there and finally a year ago i purchased two grown-up swivel chairs and a sofa (with aunt lynn's help of course).

i know what i like, it just happens to reside at stores such as aquisitions or mary frances miller and as allan tells me, "we're 27, we're not going to have a house filled with antiques". so, i'm left to look for more cost effective ways until i can actually get that antique sideboard i've been eyeing.

progress is definitely being made. last night we ordered a "ming" shade for our front door that's essentially a big window, from smith + noble and we've picked out "terriffic tables" from ballard designs to go on either side of my grown-up sofa that is now residing in allan's living room. check out that progress!

next up is scott's antique market in atlanta. it just so happens that it's the same weekend as the braves game we were already planning on. fingers crossed that we come back with a dining room table (and chairs) so that we can actually have people over for dinner with somewhere to sit other than the front porch, especially since the seating on the front porch decreased by two last night, more on that later ...

sawadee ka

since i did just return from thailand and cambodia a couple weeks ago, i figured i might as well fill the blog world in on the international excursion:

we (jordan, helen, emily and myself) flew into bangkok and spent the first three nights there seeing the city and adjusting to the 11 hour time difference. our hotel (lamphu tree house) was near khao san road which is the main drag for backpackers so it was filled with plenty of pad thai carts and the like to cater to budget tourists (aka, us). while in bangkok we took a canal trip via long-tail boat through khlong bangkok noi and khlong bangkok yai (what they called the “venice of the east”), visited wat arun, wat phra kaew, wat pho (wat = temple in thai) and the grand palace, spent the better part of a day at chatuchak weekend market (it’s huge!) and had sunset cocktails at lebua hotel’s roof-top bar. for those of you that have seen the hanover 2, they filmed a scene there. side story: we accidentally ordered the most expensive wine i've ever had here. gotta watch out for those thai bahts ...

our next stop was phuket for some beach time. thanks to jetsetter, we were able to stay at the evason six senses there for five nights and enjoy some r&r. when we did decide to venture out of the resort we walked along the street to find cheap noodle stalls with tasty thai food, we rode and fed elephants, took a thai cooking class and did a bit of surfing. the cabs in phuket were much more expensive than in bangkok so we ended up renting a motor-bike (read: scooter) each day so that we could go surfing. that scooter ended up being the most dangerous part of our trip even though emily and i looked like dumb & dumber riding it.

next up, the island of ko phi phi. we took a ferry from phuket to get here and once you’re there, there are no roads so you take long-tail boats where you need to go, or navigate the trails on the edge of the island which were relatively easy to do (although we did get lost twice in the dark during on our first try. this is when emily informed us that her internal gps doesn't work internationally.). while on ko phi phi we took a boat tour that allowed us to snorkel, sea kayak, go to monkey beach and go to the island where “the beach” was filmed. the sea kayaking was one of my favorite parts of our trip, the islands are essentially cliffs jutting out from the ocean and the water is totally clear, it was amazing.

after ko phi phi we flew to siem reap, cambodia so that we could check out angkor wat. as soon as we walked off the plane i knew i was going to like cambodia better than thailand. the airport was small, not crowded and very clean. the city of siem reap, while not sparkling, was still cleaner and less crowded than the places we visited in thailand. we decided on a sunrise view of angkor wat and it was worth the 4a.m. wake-up call to be able to see the sun rise over it and to beat the crowds and heat. the rest of the day we biked all over town and visited angkor thom, ta prohm (scenes from tomb raiders were filmed here) and the terrace of the elephants. 35 miles on a bike in cambodia = exhausting. our second day was spent on a long tail boat on tonle sap, the largest freshwater lake in south east asia. people have houses, markets, even churches built on the water which changes the direction of its flow twice a year and rises and falls with the monsoon season by great depths; very interesting.

from there we flew back to bangkok and then made the long journey home. as a side note on the flights, i think we all realize that international carriers are typically much better than american carriers, a point that was driven home on this trip when united re-assigned me to a middle seat from chicago – tokyo and when i found out that our 45 minute prop-plane flight on bangkok air served a meal and free beer.

bra straps

okay ladies, it's summer time and the sleeveless shirts, tanks and strapless dresses are in full force so now is the time for me to remind everyone that yes, they do make these wonderful little bras without straps that you can wear with these items so that it doesn't show. you see, bras are part of the undergarment category for a reason, because it's supposed to be UNDER your clothes. one of my biggest pet peeves is when i see someone wearing a thin strapped top and their bra is hanging out of it, it's just tacky, end of story. you know there's a chance that those straps are going to slip out from under the shirt for all of the world to see so stop being lazy and go back in your room and change so that all that's supposed to be left to the imagination, is.

s'mores

in honor of it being officially summertime and frizzy hair season i thought i'd write a post on the greatest dessert of summer (or any season if you order one at the brew pub in jackson), the s'more.

i like to think i'm close to being a professional s'more maker. you can't just stick the marshmallow directly in the flame and let it catch fire. this causes the outside to be charred but the inside is still cold and it won't melt the chocolate. instead you have to slowly roast the marshmallow over the hot coals on the outside of the fire so that it browns and warms all the way through. this then melts the chocolate perfectly when the s'more is ready for construction. and while we're on the subject of s'more construction, let me tell you about a genius invention that will forever alter the s'more as we now know it; square shaped marshmallows. the graham cracker is square, the chocolate is square, and finally the marshmallow is square!

no need to wait for your next camping trip, try it in the oven tonight!