Little Road Trip

I'm excited to get to go see Matt today! I haven't seen him since Wednesday morning. Not fun. I'm driving to Des Moines later this morning. There's a great site, fuelcostcalculator.com that gives you a projected fuel cost based on the make/model of your car and the average gas prices in the cities you're leaving from and driving to.

Here's mine for today:



The only good thing about driving my old Saturn is the gas milage. In city I get 30 mpg, and on the highway I can get up to 40. I haven't driven it on a trip in a few years so I'm interested to see how it does. I got my car the summer after I graduated high school. It has 118,000 miles on it, but I'm reluctant to trade it in. First off, I haven't had a car payment in four years. That is definitely something I don't miss. And secondly, I haven't had a car payment in four years. That's really enough to make me want to delay buying a new one.

My dad talked my mom into letting him get a new car. Can you say "Hemi?"

I have to go finish getting ready to leave. Somehow, I'm not getting much done while sitting at the computer with my coffee and blogs. I did put away my camera to take it and realized that I left the battery charger for it in San Francisco. DOH!

A new me. A new me on paper anyways...

Well, it's official...

According to my social security status and driver's license, I'm now Mrs. McG.

Gone is the old me, in her place is this new lady who is the proud owner of a maiden name and a pile of paperwork. I still need to change my name with payroll, my utilities, the college, credit cards, mortgage.

I got my new social security card this week and I went this afternoon and got my new driver's license. My last license was issued right before my 21st birthday and I look like a child in it. A child that just rolled out of bed and went to the DMV. I got harassed big time with that ID. Not any more though. This ID adequately projects "adult." Bonus for it actually being a good picture! After ten years of bad IDs I think I deserve it. The girl working the camera booth is a real artist. I'm hiring her for family portraits.

My Husband is Famous!

Okay, so maybe being featured in the Des Moines Register doesn't actually make him famous, but it makes me proud!



He performs in this show called, Yesterday and Today with two of his brothers. (Matt is the brother in the middle.) It's an audience-driven tribute to the Beatles. The audience picks what songs they want to hear and they make a set list out of the top picks. It's pretty incredible. Some of the songs they play are dead on. I Am the Walrus, for example, blew my mind the first time I heard them play it. My jaw literally dropped. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was like I was listening to the recording it was so accurate.

Check out the article here. I'm going to go see them this weekend. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I get there in time to go to the Des Moines Art Center. It's one of my favorite museums to visit. I took my very first solo road trip there in college. (Does a 2.5 hour drive count as a road trip?)

Cheap Until I got to the Furniture...

I went back and priced everything, just out of curiosity. And, this way I know exactly how much money I have to convince Matt to let me spend out of his gig paychecks this month:

Waverly Damask Window Panel - $34.99
Indigo Flora Glasses Set of 4 - $12.99
DwellStudio™ Lattice Decorative Pillow - $24.99
Cynthia Rowley Stainless Steel Shaker - $7.49
Teardrop Table Lamp - $59.99
Bing Table Lamp - $59.95
Radinka Table in Red or Yellow - $119.99
Chirp Pillow - $29.95
Sol Console Table - $299
Halogen Credenza - $499
Chet Sofa - $899
Broadway Leather Ottoman - $699
Barrel Club Chair - $359.99

Living Room Inspiration

Matt and I are really excited to redo our living room after our inspirational trip to San Francisco. We want to do something that feels very 1960s mod inspired, but is still comfortable and fits us and our home. I would say that as people, we are of a very 1960s flair. Our home is not though. Our home is a culmination of hand me down furniture and mismatched stuff from my 400 square foot (yes, really) apartment. It's very colorful and comfy, but Matt and I want to pimp our house so it's time to mix it up a little.

Here's the wall colors that we're working with:



And here's what I've come up with:



It feels really good. Everything is sleek and clean and bright. The idea is to stay away from the Austin Powers "mod" cliche of cheesy egg chairs and purple velvet. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm a person who would probably kill for a piece of Eames furniture, after all. I just don't want it to go over the top.

Everything except for the wall art is from CB2, Crate and Barrel and Target. The San Francisco poster is something we bought after our last trip to SF and the couch sized tree photo is from Images Of Nature. That print is like $3200. Ya. Okay. I used to live above an Images Of Nature gallery, and while the stuff is nice, it's really overpriced.

What's in your kitchen?

A fellow Off Beat Bride member posted a fun little blog asking readers to list grocery items that are always found in their kitchen. Here's mine:

01. Onions
02. Big jar of garlic
03. Lots of cereal
04. Potatoes
05. Soy milk (his) & Skim milk (mine)
06. Pancake mix
07. Baby dill pickles
08. Frozen chicken
09. Coffee
10. Unbleached flour
11. Breadcrumbs
12. Olive oil

What's in yours?

Email Goggles

Well, it's about freaking time...

Google released a new gmail feature yesterday that helps prevent drunk emailing. "Mail Goggles" kicks in on weekend nights and forces users to answer math problems before sending out their email. You can change the settings so it turns on every night if you're one of those rare breeds who likes getting smashed during the work week, also commonly known as a "frat boy" or "alcoholic."

I used to be one of those people. Now all of my mid-week drinking is reserved for federal holidays.

Hooray for not waking up on a Sunday morning and realizing that you sent a cringe worthy email to one or more unmentionable people! Not that I've done that or anything...

Full story here on Wired.com.