How Fast Does A Year Go?

A year goes by pretty darn fast when you are married. Yesterday, my wonderful husband and I celebrated our 1st year anniversary! We went out to dinner on Saturday night to Rey's Restaurant (the site of our rehearsal dinner). We had drinks, dinner and dessert - my three favorite D's.

Before dinner we exchanged gifts. My wonderful and talented husband gave me a framed poster of 96 pictures from our wedding. Think of it as a large collage of our wedding day. It's wonderful. He also gave me a beautiful Tiffany charm bracelet. I gave him a Tivoli radio, a Christmas ornament and a tissue dispenser (for paper anniversary; also sort of a gag gift but hard to describe online).

Yesterday, we ate a piece of our wedding cake. Now, this cake was not the topper we had frozen in the back of our refrigerator. Our cake baker made us a brand new cake topper for our anniversary. She does this for all of her couples. It's one of the many reasons we decided to use her as our baker. The cake was delicious, and she even decorated it in our wedding colors, light blue and dark brown.

We had a wonderful wedding anniversary, and even got some things done around the house! Thanks to Restoration Hardware, we have a new door bell, a new door knocker and new house numbers! Now our house is ready for those trick-or-treators on Halloween!

Happy "Paper" Anniversary!

The Rain Has Come...Has Fall Come Too?

FINALLY...we have rain in Cary. North Carolina, as most of the southeast, is in a severe draught. We finally got a day of rain yesterday and it has continued today. We are expected to get rain through Saturday. Somehow our lawn has stayed fairly green despite the fact that we never water our lawn (the city is on water restrictions anyway).

The weather has also turned a little cooler today. Yesterday, we had a high somewhere near 83 degrees. In October! I love cooler weather so this loooong summer has been particularly annoying. I'm actually wearing a long sleeve shirt today - go figure! I hope we make up for it the winter with some snow. I love the snow, and a couple snow days off from work would be fun.

Sound Selections

Can you tell a lot from a person by the type of music they listen to? Probably so. When I bought my new Ford Explorer last year, one of the features I was most excited about was a six disc CD changer. My previous car (an older Nissan Sentra which I loved) had no such feature. I was at the mercy of the radio and (gasp!) a tape deck. Since acquiring my wonderful new ride last summer, I have thoroughly enjoyed the wonders of having six CDs available to me with the single touch of a button. Currently this is the music I am enjoying (in order of how they live in my CD changer):

"Inside in/Inside Out" by The Kooks. I discovered this wonderful British indie rock band on iTunes about two months ago. Love them! The band members are almost 10 years younger than I am, but those British accents sure do make them sound older. The talent these kids have - I mean, what was I doing at age 17? Deciding what pair of Gap jeans to buy? Sadly, yes.

Billy Joel classics. My husband does not like the Billy Joel, so I crank it up when he's not with me. "The Longest Time" from the An Innocent Man album is literally the first song I ever remember listening to. My mom had the record, and oh yes, I had the moves at age six.

Fleetwood Mac's Greatest Hits. Who is cooler than Stevie Nicks? NO ONE.

Mel's Mix, circa 2006. My own burned CD featuring The Fray, The Knack, KT Tunstall, Maroon 5 and more!

Mel's Mix, circa 2005. Featuring Ambulance LTD, Hoobastank, Incubus and more!

"FutureSex/LoveSounds" by Justin Timberlake. This kid continues to make awesome records and very cool songs. Clearly N'SYNC was limiting the stylistic and lyrical genius that is Justin Timberlake. Congrats JT on breaking free from the boy band curse.

Organic vs. Conventional: The Debate Goes On

I was knocking about on the World Wide Web this morning and stumbled upon this website from the Environmental Working Group regarding pesticide levels in fruits and vegetables. This website ranks fruits and vegetables according to the levels of pesticides that are found in them. The worst foods - containing the most pesticides - have a high number and the better foods - containing the least amount of pesticides - have a low number. I was not too surprised to see some of my favorite fruits and veggies listed high on the list (darn it)! Those fruits and veggies are typically the ones that we consume with the skin - apples, strawberries, grapes and lettuce.

The website lists 43 fruits and veggies, and ranks all of them. It then gives a handy little breakdown of the 12 worst produce items and the 12 best produce items regarding pesticide levels. The website encourages consumers to purchase organic produce of the 12 worst, thereby decreasing your consumption of pesticides up to 90%! That is awesome!

If anyone eats organic, or has researched it, you know how expensive organic foods can be. Places like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's help with price, but I'll be darned if I'm paying close to $2 a pound for organic bananas. But reducing pesticide consumption by 90% just by purchasing a dozen organic produce items is pretty tempting to follow.

If I had more time and money, I would eat exclusively organic foods. They do taste better and I don't have a weird aftertaste in my mouth when eating certain organic foods (seriously, compare organic grapes and conventional grapes. You'll know what I'm talking about). But alas, I work for a non-profit and my funds are limited. Also, I don't have time at night to spend two hours cooking a fully organic meal for the family. Alas, I just try to do my best by eating what I think is healthy and purchasing relatively healthy food for my husband (organic chocolate rocks by the way - ROCKS!). But I think the handy little produce guide on the EWG website may influence my next trip at the grocery store. After all, the more people that buy organic, the lower the price should come down (eventually), right? (Wow - would my Econ 101 professor be proud).

Where Have I Been?

I realize that I have not made a post in over a week. What, you ask, has taken me away from A Coffee To Go?


Work


Taking care of our home


A weekend trip to Atlanta to visit my mother-in-law


More work

Being so busy can take it's toll, so yesterday I made sure to sit back, relax and take a break.


Ahh...this is nice...

Republican Presidential Debate

Tonight, CNBC, MSNBC and The Wall Street Journal are hosting a Republican Presidential debate that will focus on economic issues facing our country. This should prove to be a lively debate, now that we have Fred officially in the running and Chris Matthews moderating the debate. More information regarding the debates can be found here.

Law School Comes To Raleigh

Campbell University's Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law announced today their plans to move the law school from Buies Creek, NC to downtown Raleigh, NC. The Board of Trustees of the University unanimously voted to approve the move to the State Capitol. This is exciting news for this area, as Raleigh is one of the largest cities that currently does not have a law school. The school is set to embark on a $20-$25 million dollar upgrade and renovation of a current building downtown to house the law school. The law school plans to be completely moved to Raleigh by fall 2009. More information can be found below:

Campbell Law School Moving to Raleigh

Campbell Law School Announces Move to Downtown Raleigh

Local news covering the press conference

I Like Fred

This is why I think Fred Thompson should be our next president.

Go Fred!