11/30 - a momentous day

While today may look like a normal November 30, it's actually quite a memorable day for the KKs.

First, it marks the last day of NaBloPoMo. Which means I have blogged every single day for thirty days. Which means it's the last day I can leave Mr. KK with all of the dirty dinner dishes and the excuse, "I have to write my blog post!" and high tail it out of the kitchen.

Today also marks the anniversary of Yours Truly being cancer free.

(quick pause for any new readers to absorb this bit o' news.)

Yes, bloggy friends, 7 years ago today I underwent invasive surgery that eliminated my cancer.

I have a hard time believing it's been 7 years. Part of me feels like the surgery was yesterday, because I can so vividly remember my recovery in the hospital, the smells, the nurses soft tones, and toting around my catheter. And, yet, the other part of me feels like it was a lifetime ago that I got that phone call from the oncologist, one rainy afternoon in October, and collapsed into a heap of tears on the carpet - one of only 2 times I cried during the entire ordeal.

And here I am today - healthy, and no worse for the wear.

So while November 30 means the end of a month of sharing life's tidbits with you, it will always signify new beginnings to me.

(and who knows, I may keep on daily blogging...if you'll have me!)

kk's day of fun!

Today was a FABULOUS day.

Why?

Because I had the day off from work! I have a few vacation days I have to use up before the end of the year, so why not take a random Tuesday off?

My day looked like this:

Wake up and organize my room, write out bills, update Facebook status

Hit the BIG Homegoods. Buy more stuff for me than others.

Stop by Crate & Barrel and pick up a gift.

Lunch! I grabbed a bar seat at this yummy bistro. Enjoyed a lobster club sandwich, a chilled glass of sauvignon blanc and my book.

Hit the mall and crossed 4 people off my list!

Returned home for a 45 minute jaunt on the treadmill.

And the best part of the day: date night!

We're kicking it old school with a movie and dinner.

I'm dragging Mr. KK to see this:

I grew up on the Muppets! I remember watching them every Saturday night, sitting on the floor in front of the TV in my footy pajamas.

I can't wait to see the whole gang back together!

And of course we're going for a yummy dinner. You think I'm going to end my day off by cooking???

a new holiday tradition?

(for those of you counting, this is Day 28 of NaBloPoMo and I'm going strong!)

Today I was speaking to someone on the phone, and we got to talking about the incredible fact that it is almost December, how it's unseasonably warm, and how we're both planning on getting our Christmas trees this Saturday.

"A few years ago, before we moved to NYC, we used to get a group of people and all go to the Smith Tree Farm and get our together," she tells me. "We'd go up there and tailgate first, then go pick out our tree."

Wait.

What?

As someone who is totally on board with the idea of adding cocktails to an event to make it more fun (i.e., manicures, yard work, church), I was intrigued with this idea.

Thinking back to the tree farms that I've been to in the past (if you live in Connecticut, you've been to a tree farm. Unless you've been living under a rock your whole life), I remember them consisting of large, unpaved areas for parking oversized, tree-carrying vehicles. The same types of vehicles that are perfect for carting coolers and mini grills. I imagine me and Mr. KK cracking open cold ones, sitting in lawn chairs, eating crock pot chili. It would be just like tailgating for a football game minus the stadium, thousands of other people doing what you're doing, and, well, football.

And while this all sounds like a perfectly normal Saturday afternoon activity, I have a few questions.

1. Technically, you're not supposed to operate machinery while intoxicated. Does a chainsaw fit under this category? What about a hand saw? Does that constitute as machinery? Technically it's not electrical, so...

2. After drunken tree cutting, do you wake up the next morning and find your tree not as attractive as you did the night before?

3. It has been my experience that everything in the universe is magnified when you're under the influence - like when you catch a glimpse of yourself in the bar's bathroom mirror and can't get over how H-O-T you look (even though your mascara is running halfway down your face, and you've lost the muscle control to hold in your stomach). Do you pick out a tree that's WAY too big for your living room? Do you have a faint remembrance of yourself chanting the phrase, 'Go big or go home!' as you wandered around the tree farm?

4. Did you see a sweet little family cutting down their very first tree together, and the minute they go to capture the moment on film, jump into the picture?

So I'm giving this tree tailgating idea a little bit more thought. Though the pros just may outweigh the cons...

(and who couldn't use a bigger tree??)

this blog isn't called 'will work for shoes' for nothing

As much as I love a good deal, I'm not the kind of person to cash in on discounts and freebies from friends. It just makes me feel all weird inside.

In my current job, I have a client who happens to be a semi-well-known shoe company. (not that I'm bragging)

And they get a ridiculous discount on a large variety of shoes.

They also have what they call 'sample sales', where they sell off the sample shoes for like $5. Have I mentioned that I'm a sample size 6? This means that when they have a sample shoe that they've photographed for an ad or for the web and they can't sell it, it's my EXACT size. So they have pairs upon pairs of these samples shoes that don't know what to do with. (Back when I worked at Filene's before it was gobbled up by Macy's, I would go to all of the shoe sample sales. Actually, I eventually finagled my way in so that I got to pre-shop the sample sales, before all the women would come down who were actually a 6.5 or a 7, but would shove their fat feet into my shoes and stretch them out and buy them, only to leave the shoes at the back of their closet and never wear them because they were too small.)

((This also explains my penchant for pretty shoes.))

Now, I recently placed a super sweet girl at this company who starts tomorrow, and who has promised me that she'll bring me to her sample sales and friends and family discount days.

Until then, I did something I never do - I asked for a discount.

Actually, I asked a coworker who is closer to our client than I am, to see if they had a certain boot. It was a boot I had seen on sale for $90. Sure, I could have bitten the bullet, but the fact that I work so hard for this company day in and day out was eating away at me.

My coworker asked, and what do you know, the boot was available, and our client purchased it with her discount.

So for half the price of what I saw them on sale for, these beauties will be arriving at work in the next week:

OMG.

I can't wait to put them on!

forget the shopping and the tree

Sometimes, the best part of Christmas is your favorite movies you'll watch over and over.

put your turkeys away

Like every other holiday and major event, Thanksgiving was a blur.

In true Italian fashion, we had WAY too much food. So much so, that tonight, we had the family back over for round 2. And besides a little bit of butternut squash puree (which was a surprise dish from Mr. KK's uncle), we finished everything off. And not a moment too soon. I feel like I'm going to turn into a starch.

And because the holiday season is all about tradition, Mr. KK and I went out for our annual Black Friday shopping trip. NOW, before you image the two of us duking it out in from of Walmart for a $4 toaster oven, let me remind you that we are sane.

I love going out on Black Friday not for the doorbuster deals, but because to me, it signals the start of the Christmas season. I love going to mall and hearing the Christmas carols for the first time. Seeing the lights and decorations. And catching a glimpse of the big guy with the white beard in the red suit.

And to be quite honest with you, I do more shopping for ME than I do for anyone else. I may be organized, but there's not way in hell I know what I'm getting everyone for Christmas in November. I mean, really. That day of crazy deals is pretty much free reign for me to fill my own closet with goodies.

I love telling people we go out on Black Friday because they look at me in horror. "Are you crazy?" and "You wouldn't catch me anywhere near a mall!"

I think so many people have that perception that they all stay home. Because we arrived at the mall at 9:30am, got a fantastic garage parking spot, and walked throughout the halls of the mall freely. It was just like any other day. Sure, the lines in the stores were long, but we have a system: Mr. KK stands in line the minute we get into the store, and I speed shop until he gets near the front, which signals that it's time for me to stop buying. Not only do we make good use of the time, but it curbs the spending.

And as much as I like Thanksgiving (hell, we had it TWICE), and it seems like the turkey is being pushed out the back door by reindeer and elves, I'm always excited at the start of the Christmas season.

Tomorrow I'll take down all of the Thanksgiving decorations, and figure out how we're going going to fit 8 bins of Christmas shit into a 4-bin-sized house (we lost some space in the move). But even though we lost space inside, we gained a patio outside of our beautiful French doors, which seem to be the perfect frame for an outside tree. That's right - TWO trees this year! One inside and decorated to the max (I think we're going with a multi-colored theme this year, opposed to the blue and silver theme the last few years that matched out living room), and one outside on the patio, filled with white lights, that we can enjoy while we're in the kitchen or enjoying dinner.

Move over Tom - Rudolph is here!

BTW, I did by one gift today, so I consider Black Friday to be a success.

happy thanksgiving, y'all!

It's hard to tell, but my beautiful new pumpkin soup bowls are out and ready to go.

Happy thanksgiving, blogosphere. I have so much to be thankful for.