Don't lose your cool on Valentine's Day weekend!

O.K. I haven't become a restaurant critic, lord help me I'd weigh a million pounds if I was lucky enough to have that job! But, one thing I can say about living in Austin is that we have awesome restaurants in and around the city and they keep on growing. Especially in the area that I live in. Lots of new construction, wide open spaces (that are shrinking) and plenty of new joints opening up all over. But, buyer beware! The restaurant boom is great for us consumers, but not so great for the existing restaurant owners. They are having to come up with either better food, better prices, some kind of gimmick or unfortunately, they're closing up shop.

O.K. what does this have to do with the Valentine's Day weekend? Well everything. You want a great place to eat for the V-Day weekend, if you're going out.

What it you've made no plans for Valentine's Day? Well it's not too late. Call up a friend or friends, pick up the phone and make a reservation (NOW). I almost totally messed up on our party of four by thinking we could eat anywhere tonight. But alas, I lucked out and made reservations at a really great place that's been around for the past year or so. That might seem like a short amount of time for a restaurant, but not in this growing area. As already stated above "look out mediocre restaurants, there are many new sheriffs in town who want your job."

You could say that about some professional organizers, but that's for another blog day. This conversation is about having a good time on Valentine's Day whether you have a date or not.

So, make that call, get out some nice clothes and have a blast. Those of you with no date tonight, don't be discouraged, go out on your own. Be sure to bring some mace (you never know what maniac is out this weekend). My safety suggestion is that you go to a local place where you know or feel comfortable with the crowd and have a drink and a bite to eat. If any creeps give you a hard time gals, remember the mace;)

Happy pre-Valentine's Day!

Holiday Grand Plan

You've decided: this is the year you'll celebrate the holiday season from a home that is clean, organized and ready for Christmas. You dream of holiday parties, overnight house guests, Christmas cookies, a decorated home and a calm and stress-free holiday season.

There's only one problem: right now, you're living in domestic chaos. Looking around your home, you don't know where to begin.

Cluttered counters, crammed closets and out-of-place possessions pile up everywhere. Dust bunnies and ceiling cobwebs announce that deep-cleaning is long over-due, and the guest room? Forget about it! It's home to moving boxes, unfinished crafts and last winter's stained jackets and unmatched mittens.

To have the holiday of your dreams, you need more than just a gift list and good intentions: you need the Holiday Grand Plan, a tried and tested roadmap to Christmas in a clean and organized home.

Written by Katie Leckey with contributions from the Prodigy Homelife Get O group in 1992-1993, the Holiday Grand Plan is the Web's oldest Christmas organizing plan.

By breaking down all the tasks needed to clean and organize the house and prepare for the holidays, and dividing them into weekly assignments, the Holiday Grand Plan will help you reach the season calm, centered and ready to celebrate from a clean and organized home.

Holiday Grand Plan 2010 begins on Sunday, August 29, and continues throughout the holiday season. Based on Katie's companion Spring Cleaning Grand Plan, the Holiday Grand Plan combines holiday prep, home organizing and cleaning components.

ADD Holiday Survival Guide

With the holidays fast approaching, I want to share some useful information to help you through the holiday season.

To budget for all the wonderful gifts you plan to buy this holiday, here is a well known website where you can order your credit report. Log on to annualcreditreport.com. You’re entitled, by law, to a free credit report once a year from each of the major credit-reporting bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.

Another useful bit of information is a wonderful survival guide offered by ADDITUDE magazine. Here are the first three tips. I will send out subsequent tips in the next few days.

1 REPLAY YOUR GREATEST HITS

Make a list of all the activities your family did last year—everything from attending a religious service to seeing local light displays. Have each family member rate them on a scale from 1 (very important) to 3 (unimportant). Do your best to fit in the 1s and some 2s, and forget about the 3s.

2 SAVE THE EARTH—AND YOUR WALLET

Set a date on your calendar to send out cards, and make the job fun and easy by using your computer to send cute, interactive e-mail cards.

3 STREAMLINE GIFT-GIVING

Keep shopping simple by buying everyone varieties of the same thing, such as books, gift certificates, or clothing from the same catalog or website. Stock up on decorative candles or bottles of wine to give out as hostess gifts, too.

These simple tips might save you some time and stress. Happy Holidays!

Holiday Giving

I can not believe that it is almost the end of October? Where the heck did the time go? It will be Halloween in a few days and then we’ll start thinking about Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year’s and so forth. It’s all coming at us so very fast and furious. The recession may have changed the way we will be buying this holiday season.

There are many people that don’t have jobs right now and they may be our friends, our neighbors or former colleagues. Those that do have jobs , many of them have had to take pay cuts to keep their jobs. You can bet there are changes that we are all making in our personal lives that will impact how we celebrate the upcoming holidays.

For way too long, the holidays have been about stuff–the stuff we get and the food we stuff down our throats. The upcoming holidays are supposed to be about family and friends, thanksgiving and compassion, redemption and forgiveness, new beginnings and old traditions, love and sacred beliefs. Too often, the focus shifts to finding batteries for the barrage of toys to come, wrapping paper, and shopping deals. Take a moment or two this year to think about those who are still struggling. Have your children (nieces and nephews) buy a few gifts for those children that will not have anything this holiday season. Think about giving money or food to your local food banks for those who are hungry. You can send a box to a U.S. soldier through www.AnySoldier.com for those brave men and women that will not be with their family for the holidays.

Please think about giving of yourself and/or your time and helping those who could use your help this holiday season. You will feel better for helping another less fortunate than you. Pass on that lesson to your children, who will also feel better about the simple and selfless act of giving. God bless you and your family this holiday season!

Easter Fish Fry

This Easter we had the opportunity to spend our time with our neighbors down the street. We had a "good ole" Louisiana fish fry. The fish de-jour was speckled trout. This was the first time I ever had this kind of fish and it was great. The speckled trout is an important game fish in the Gulf of Mexico as well as the Atlantic Ocean. Specks are a coastal saltwater species of the Louisiana coast and can be caught year round. I have done a little bit of research on these fish and found that they start spawning in May. Speckled trout have elongated bodies with spots and can grow to a maximum size of 16 pounds, but the average size is 1 pound. Speckled trout caught in the surf will run up to 2 to 4 pounds, then walk to the backside of the same island and catch smaller 1 pound specks. They are a sweet, pleasant tasting fish, and now that I have had them, I look forward to having more at future fish frys. Check out www.thejump.net for more fishing info.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Today was a quiet St. Patrick's Day for me. But in the past I have had many enjoyable St. Patrick's Day experiences. Especially, when I lived in New Jersey and worked in Manhattan. At lunchtime I'd walk to 5th Avenue to be right in the thick of all the action of the St. Patrick's Day Parade.  I'd be clapping, cheering and joining in as the parade marched past St. Patrick's Cathedral. This St. Patrick's Day will mark the 248th consecutive year that the parade has taken place in NYC. 

Although celebrating St. Patrick's Day in NYC was a blast, I must admit that celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Chicago has also been a blast. Having a chance to watch the Chicago River turn green was a phenomenal experience.  Here is a link to a 60 second stop motion video of the greening of the Chicago River by Anthony J Stewart, photographer. Excellent video and website. Hope you enjoyed your St. Patrick's Day!  http://anthonyjstewart.smugmug.com