I never knew I had a fascination with pancake syrup before

All those years of dreading that I would forget it was the weekend to turn back the clocks finally paid off. I looked it up and wrote it in my planner so we wouldn't forget to Fall Back, but alas, we greeted our Sunday morning an hour earlier than necessary.

Luckily, Dr. J realized this about 20 minutes after we woke up (don't ask me how) so he suggested we go get breakfast at this place near our church that always has crowds of people waiting outside of it, The Original Pancake House.

Ladies and gentlemen, The Original Pancake House did not disappoint. I suggest you find one near you, or if you ever decide to come and see us, remind us to take you there.

It took me a full 15 minutes to select which variety of pancakes to go with, torn between the blueberry, the banana nut, the georgia pecan, the classic dollar pancakes, not to mention the succulent variety of waffles ... but who knew it would be the syrup that would utlimately cause me to forget my surroundings and lick my plate clean in public. We'll be back, TOPH.

Because I couldn't get Dr. J to dress up as Zorro ...

... we will be leaving the house tonight as Hermione and Harry, complete with Harry's homemade Nimbus 2000 and Crookshanks. Pictures to follow.

I think Dr. J thought Zorro was too cliche, but a latin guy in a cape and mask never gets old, am I right ladies?

Actually, yes, I have wanted to do that very thing

"For anyone who's ever wanted to sit down with several pints of ice cream and watch every episode of "Sex and the City," you get half your wish: "Sex and the City: The Complete Series" -- 19 discs and a bonus disc -- comes out Tuesday." - Eye on Entertainment, CNN

All I can say is, bring on the Triple Choclate Fudge and a stick of Tollhouse cookie dough.

This conversation took place this morning

[Dr. J sneezes 20 times in succession - normally I would find this very funny but you can't laugh at these things immediately after someone wakes up or you have to sleep on the couch that night]

Missy: Are you getting sick?
(see how sweet and sympathetic I am?)

Dr. J: My allergies are acting up ... I think maybe I'm allergic to you!

Missy: Maybe I should run away with John Cusack so you have time to heal?

Dr. J: No wait! Then who would cook for me?!

When normal people are given free football tickets, that's usually the highlight of the weekend

Thanks for the outpouring of support, really we are all fine except that one of us accidently bare-handled a pot immediately after it came out of the oven last night and has some pretty nasty burns. If you have to wonder who it was, just ask yourself how many times Dr. J has ever used a pot and/or the oven.

The game turned out to be a really good one to go to, quite exciting (scoring wise). It shouldn't have been so close and would be if USC's QB wasn't such a little girl when it comes to running the ball himself. We tried to give that extra pair of tickets away - I emailed everyone in our class at church (~50 people) and got no replies (no I didn't feel AT ALL rejected from that) so we decided to take it to our new neighbor. So I knocked on their door Saturday morning, was greeted with a weepy face, asked if the owner of the home was there and received a reply of, "she passed away two days ago."

Uhh ... how awesome did I feel. All I could say was, "sucks, here's a pair of football tickets to express my condolences" ... not to mention I'm wearing a black t-shirt that actually has COCKS written across my chest.

So anyway, our breakdown for the weekend was: fun game, found good chinese food, completed disc 3 of Everwood Season 1, and we are down a neighbor. Oh that and it turns out the tree in our front yard is a pecan tree. Made me much less homesick.

Homecoming: Cocktoberfest

The worst part is I didn't even have to make that up.

I just found out that Homecoming has been going on this week at USC. And with no time to spare because apparently the parade starts at 4 pm. To top it off, my boss just walked in here and said that he and his family can't make it to the game tomorrow and handed us 4 tickets*. So this should be a very different weekend for us. Beats the crying fit I had in Bed, Bath and Beyond yesterday because I couldn't decide which window treatments would work best for the house. Sure, it may have had more to do that I don't have a SINGLE FRIEND in town to help me decide, but it didn't make my public breakdown any less ridiculous. Oh and if you know 2 people who love the Gamecocks, we've got a pair of tickets with their name on them.

*Dr. J's ticket request for 2 seats to one very insignificant game this year was rejected by the athletic department. You aren't even permitted to apply for tickets until you have completed a year with the university.

I'm definitely behind the Stros

Very sad to see the Cards go down this way, and even more saddened by the fact they started ripping apart Busch Stadium the next morning. Pitiful, mutilated, warm corpse that it is.

However, I can get behind the Stros easily, seeing as how I did root for them while I was at A&M for SIX YEARS that and they played their arse off against St. Louis. This morning I heard on the radio of Houston's troubles, their unprepared-ness in hosting the World Series since it's untimely appearance lines up with the Annual World Quilting Convention that brings a minimum of 50,000 knitters, quilters, and crochet-ers to this apparent metropolitan center of fabric and thread. Not to mention the some 45,000 refugees still in hotels there. I imagine with winter looming, those guys are gonna get a little chilly. I feel like there's a connection here but I just can't put it together.

One More Thing

Wanna know how kool Dr. J is? He has agreed to let me watch The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants tonight as a reward for all of my hard work as of late.

What a guy.

Nothings

Sounds like these guys have no business robbing pharmacies. They are really just do-good-ers at heart.

Wish me luck on my exam tonight. That and recouping from everything I've been putting off because of an overwhelming amount of things to do all at one time. I did get to crush Dr. J with my icey-cold toes under the covers last night since it's finally getting cold at night here. Rumor is the cold will be short lived, so I had to take advantage of it. That was fun.

Crazy Week

Sorry for the non-updating. Nothing much I can do about it though.

I will say that now that nothing will make you miss your former hometown like watching a little post-season baseball in your pjs and knowing you are missing all the fun. Sniff.

Common Grad School Sightings

You know, I don't even bat an eyelash anymore when a see a little chinese guy with his tapered, frosted jeans tucked into his pale pink socks and held up by those plastic crayola-colored belts with his shirt tucked in tight enough to expose his squirly ribcage and tinsey nipples, but today I saw this American guy with double-pleated, fire-engine-red, mid-thigh length shorts hoisted up to just above the bottom tip of his ribs, tied off with a thick, rope-like, black belt. I know he was wearing a shirt but I didn't have time to take it all in. It did make me feel better about this half pajama lookin outfit I have going on today.

No baseball in SC

I've complained to a few friends already, but Dr. J and I are very sad because there is no baseball here. And by no baseball, I mean they don't even really talk about it on the news. Now that it's into the playoffs, we'll get a little blurb every now and then, but something along the lines of "a team with a red bird on their jersey played a couple days ago and beat these other guys ... that and there are some other teams still playing ... mmmm ... let's go get us some nachos". And the closest baseball team to here is the Braves who had a very sad, sad day yesterday, so you'd think they'd at least follow them around here, but no. Pretty much everyone watches Gamecock Football and not much else (by watch, I mean is OBSESSED with) and their year sucks worse than the Ags, so that's no fun either. Anyway, so for having gotten caught up in all the Cardinal Hype the last couple of years, it's very sad to know that's all going on without me. And that I can't even watch much of it on T.V. (no cable just yet)

Anyway, so in trying to see the silver lining, I've decided that my leaving St. Louis might help the Cardinal's since I've altered their karma ... you can't explain these things, you can merely point them out ... and maybe this time they'll have a better showing in the Series.

Sleepeeeeey

Have you ever had one of those weeks where every day you feel completely sleep deprived regardless of how much sleep you are getting? I think I'm on my second week of that.

All of this makes it quite hard to focus, and I've read about all the message boards I can stomach while trying to wake myself up.

The as-promised photos

Before I get too carried away, I have two friends that are down to within days of having little ones emerge from their wombs, and I wish them both the best of luck while I kick up my legs and thumb through interior design magazines over a chilled latte. Let me know if you need anything, girlies. I had offered to take some cookies to my prego-friend here in town, and I was going to let her choose her favorite until I saw a canister of pumpkin, black cats, ghost, and goblin shaped sprinkles at Target yesterday, at which time my open ended cookie giving turned into Halloween sugar cookies. But who doesn't like Halloween sugar cookies? I daresay my Reece's loving Karo would even gobble a goblin or two.

Anyway, so friends, feast your eyes upon our soon-to-be-abode.



Our official new home in it's developing stages


... developing master bedroom and closet


... developing kitchen with missy practicing her hollywood poses


... developing kitchen/breakfast nook with missy practicing second hollywood pose


... developing rear and deck with missy not practicing hollywood pose and looking bloated


and finally, dr. j's artistic zoom in of the developing porch.

We signed a contract on the house!!

Pictures to follow.

As well as much paper signage and a tremendously lengthy lists of tasks prior to ownership. If all goes smoothly, D-day is Nov 23.