"Raving Fan" of Audible

For two years, 1.5 hours of my day were filled with: idiot drivers, post snow storm rush hour traffic, BMW drivers that thought they owned the road, white knuckles, a clenched jaw, and a rather well exercised middle finger.  Because of this commute, those of you that knows me well, knows that this is how I learned to love me some Audible.

Well, since my commute has been cut down dramatically...so has my audiobook time.  Which is clearly good and bad.  It's now gotten to the point where I've reached my max in roll over Audible credits, and am making sometimes unwise choices about purchasing audiobooks when I need to burn credits.

Crap...I need to burn some of these credits! 

So as I was going to explore my options to cancel on the site, I came across something that quickly changed my mind and reminded me again as to how I originally fell in love with Audible.com.  Their stellar as hell customer service, great pricing for members, and shockingly fair and logical policies.

This makes way too much sense to have no "gotchas", right? 

Oh yeah, and there is a phone number that you can actually call and talk to a person about getting your credit back on the the audiobook that you don't like!  At anytime!  

Talk to a real, live, person?  Anytime?  Can it be true?

What's even crazier is that it all worked like they said it would.  

I called the number above at 9:00 PM CST.  A live person picked up.  I talked to them about how disappointed in myself I was about over-committing to the Game of Thrones series (and sounded like a crazy cat lady)...and that I wanted to know if I would be able to trade books 2, 3 and 4 in for other books.  They said "absolutely", let me know that the books would no longer be in my library, that I would be seeing credits on my account and we cordially parted ways.  Then as soon as I got off the phone I refreshed my browser...and it was already done!  The credits had been applied to my account within seconds.  

Honestly, how can I unsubscribe when I have an experience like that?  I just won't do it.

Moral of the story: If all of the places people spent their hard earned money had customer service like this, the world would be a much happier place.  

Extreme Makeover: Entertainment Room

Blah.  That was the feeling that came over me when I thought of our downstairs.

Ever since Adam removed the sports memorabilia on the walls, they have stood naked.  It's been over five years since the walls were painted, they have lived through many roommate moves and there was enough tan in that room to make even Snooki jealous.

Tan couch, tan wall, wood built ins, wood trim...make it stop already!

Don't mind my little helper.

When I asked Adam about re-doing the downstairs after he removed his sports stuff, he told me that I couldn't paint, but that I could decorate the walls.  Well, quite frankly, the walls were what killed me the most.  No matter how many times I begged, the answer was still "no" week after week.  So what does one do in that situation?

Then the light bulb went off.  Well, as long as Adam wasn't the one that had to paint...then it was probably alright.  Right?  So why not just wait until he's out of town and then re-do the whole downstairs?  He'll be so happy that he didn't have to do anything...and he'll love it!  Can you tell that I'm a newly wed yet?

In the weeks following up to his trip I picked up ideas on Pintrest, made a list of "to do" bought some things off of Etsy, made some trips to Home Goods and made my final stop at Target and Home Depot.  

I might have done a project management course or two in my day...

Then the weekend came.  Instead of leaving on Friday he announced the night before that he wasn't leaving until Saturday morning and was coming back on Sunday afternoon.  This put a HUGE wrench in my plans, as you can see from my timeline.  

But, good thing I have great friends! While this wasn't the original intention of my friends coming over, Terren and Amber saved the day.  We got the room painted by the time we went to bed Saturday night and decorations hung on Sunday morning.  Only thing left was "the big reveal" to Adam!  I was so excited! 

Here's how it went: 

Adam arrives home, hungover with 4-6 hours of sleep.  

Ann Marie:  "I want to show you the crafts that me and Wallace did this weekend!".  

Adam: "Sounds great! I know you were excited to decorate for Christmas!"

We walk downstairs

Ann Marie: "Tah dah!!!"

Adam: Looks around with a serious look on his face,  "What did you do?"

Ann Marie: "Do you like it?"

Adam:  "Didn't I tell you not to paint?  I hate the color.", turns around, shakes head, walks back upstairs and takes a shower.

Now that went well (NOT).  The good news is, after the hangover wore off he admitted he liked it and was very happy with what we had done.  While next time I will consult with the other half about large design decisions before making them, this time, it turned out great!

Tah dah!  Oh wait, you hate it?  Oh, fabulous. 

Purchased a large stencil to stencil the backdrop of the book shelf and a pillow case to match, with Martha Stewart gold paint

Lamp, shade, frame, and bookshelf from Target.  You can see the stenciling a little better here.  The Christmas decor is from antique shopping in St. Cloud.  

Frames and TV tray from Target, prints from Dizzy Rhino Designs, has a store on Etsy

And they lived happily ever after in their new entertainment room..luckily!

Homemade Basic Potato Soup

I openly admit it and everyone close to me knows it.  I have a soup addiction.  This time of year is always quite difficult for me.  Especially when it snows.  Being trapped in our house with heavy snow falling outside, with the temptation of homemade soup is like brining an alcoholic to an all-you-can-drink New Year's party.  It's just not a good place for me.  With the 15+ inches we got this weekend, I did what I do best.  I made WAY too much soup.

Snow = Soup, Soup = Leftover, Leftovers = Wallace's Favorite

What I'm sharing below is by no means a perfectly measured recipe.  But in order to be a become a good cook, you need to taste your food.  Which is highly encourage towards the end of this recipe.  Also, this is "pick your own adventure" base soup that can be made to include your personal favorites from the list below.

Basic Potato Soup
Serves 8
Print a copy of this recipe here

Ingredients
4 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
5 strips of bacon, diced
8 TBSP butter
Flour
10 cups milk
2 TBSP dry sherry
Chicken bouillon - to taste
Salt - to taste
Pepper - to taste

Choose your adventure options:
Onion (cook with roux), frozen corn, frozen peas, cubes of ham, frozen broccoli, shredded parmesan, shredded cheddar, green onions, dill, parsley

Directions

1. In a small pan, fry bacon until brown and crispy.  Reserve grease and bacon bits.
2. In the bottom of a large pot, melt the butter at medium heat.  When melted, gradually add flour one tablespoon at a time, while whisking continuously to create a roux.  Shouldn't need more than 6-8 TBSP of flour but may vary slightly.  Your end roux should look like the picture below.
3. One cup at a time, add milk and whisk.  
4. Add potatoes, bacon, bacon grease, dry sherry, salt and pepper.  Don't over do the salt at this point since you can always add it at the end.  Cook on medium heat for 20-30 minutes until you can easily stab the potatoes with a fork.  
5. Add your "adventure" options.  I usually do the following (corn and cheddar) or (peas and parmesan).  Cook until all ingredients are warm.  
6. Garnish and serve!

Here is a picture of what your goal roux should look like

Potato soup with peas, green onions and parsley

"Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon

Where Did I Find This?
I found out about the Outlander series from an old coworker of mine, Stephanie.  Since we have a similar taste in books and love for historic fiction, I knew I had to check it out.

What is the Book About?
Outlander is the first of seven novels under the same name.  Claire Randall and her husband Frank retreat to the Scottish highland in order to rekindle their marriage after being separated for years by World War II.  Frank, being a history professor, is excited to learn more about his ancestral roots linked to the area.

With Frank is occupied with old paperwork and dusty bookshelves, Claire decides to go and check out Craigh na Dun, a group of old standing stones, to find a rare flower that she is interested in.  While it's rumored to have been linked to mysterious powers and pagan rituals, who can really believe all of that?

While collecting the plant specimens, Claire starts to feel dizzy.  When she fully wakes, things look the same but different.  The landscape looks strange. Then, the people that she meets in the next hour spin her life in a completely different direction than what she was intending.  In the year 1743, 200 years before the morning that she had woken up from.

Would You Recommend it to Others? 
When I was about half of the way through the novel I recommended it to my grandma.  The woman might be a Catholic saint but I knew that she read novels that had a little bit of romance smut in them.  Right up her alley!

Then it happened about 3/4 of the way through.  Think sadistic, torture, disgusting...and the whole thing was totally unnecessary for me.  In a shocking turn of events, it was no longer grandma appropriate.  I told her at Thanksgiving NOT to get it!  When she asked what it was, I told her that it was too gross to even explain.

I did enjoy the following:

• The characters
• Bits of historic information
• Descriptions of Scotland in the 18th century
• The love and romance aspects

Liked it so much that I'm reading the second novel.  But, I'm having a hard time deciding if I'll be reading the third...and it all links back to the extremely dark scenes that surround a certain character.

So, while I want to recommend it, I'm just not sure it's possible because of the disturbingly graphic scenes.

Grand Theater, Wausau: Our Wedding Venue

This August we were married and I haven't shared anything about how it went on my blog yet!  So I thought I would do a few posts on some of the highlights and tips that I have for other brides planning their weddings.  First was the venue...and choosing a wedding venue was SUPER duper tough.

Adam and I both grew up in the country but we love our lifestyle in the Twin Cities.  So, picking a wedding venue back in Central Wisconsin was really difficult.  We wanted a vibe that we'd be able to find in Minneapolis but didn't want it to be so cutting edge that we scared our families and friends back home.

So after looking at a lot of expensive and boring bowling alleys, hotels and hall rentals decorated with antlers and cedar logs we had one last place to check out.  While we never knew anyone that's had a wedding there, we toured the ARTsblock/Grand Theater's "Great Hall" in downtown Wausau...and fell in love.

These pictures were taken by me when we were scoping out the location

For the first time throughout the whole venue search I could see myself in a wedding dress and could envision the starlit ceiling, the bar lit up with old neon and our guests hanging out on the patio, and the whole thing finally started came together.  In addition to their gorgeous backdrops, there were a few other things that made the decision easy for us:

• The staff was extremely accommodating and willing to work with all of my non-standard ideas and requests.
• The area around the Grand Theater is gorgeous.  Cobblestone streets, a park, a water fountain and a bright red British telephone booth...what more could you ask for?
• The Grand Theater allowed us to choose our caterer.  While they had a list of preferred vendors, they worked with us and were extremely flexible.  At many other venues you are given a limited list of choices (all of which are typically overpriced).  In those situations, they know that you have to choose one of them and are most times unwilling to negotiate pricing or work with you on a custom menu.
• You can choose your dessert.  You want an ice cream bar, cookie bar or brownie bar?  Great.  Also, you can choose who you want to cater it.  No cake cutting fees or any of that shenannigans that couples can get wrapped up in.
• Reasonable alcohol prices.  There were other places that wanted to charge us nearly $4/glass when you take gratuity into consideration, with no options for half barrels.  Based on the fact that we went through six half barrels that evening, and we had warned them that it could that or more, we're confident we made the right choice.
• We had a rain backup, since we were able to rent out the theater if we needed to with a few days advanced notice

Grand Theater's bathrooms, among many other things, are gorgeous!

The outdoor patio is fenced in and gives your guest a LOT of room to go outside .

So it was decided, the Grand Theater it was!  Now, how in the world am I going to do this?  Since I've never been to a wedding there...I had no ideas to work from and literally started from scratch, and only knew one thing...  DON'T FIGHT THE VENUE.  What I mean by that is:

• If there is a prevalent color, don't try to pretend it's not there or that you can cover it up
• If it has a certain style, don't try to pick something drastically different 
• If it has a certain aspect or flair, don't try to fight it
• If you don't like what it has to offer, then don't choose it

While I had originally imagined a rustic chic style wedding, that quickly changed when I saw the art deco elegance of the Grand Theater, and I decided not to fight it.  But instead flatter it.  Thus started my "art deco", "theater", "gold" and "1920's" wedding search.  Since I love that time period and musical theater, I decided to 100% embraced the direction that the venue was naturally drawing me towards.

In terms of the themed details, here were a few of my favorites I plan to talk about in other posts:

• Wedding Playbill
• Favorite Things Menu
• Cookie Cart
• Popcorn Bar
• Photo Booth

Here's a few of the details in pictures:

Can't wait to share more details in the next few weeks!  Here's the venue information in case you're interested in learning more.  

The Grand Theater
401 4th Street
Wausau, WI
54403

Website: http://www.grandtheater.org/
Great Hall Details: http://www.grandtheater.org/facilityrental/greathall.aspx
Theater Rental: http://www.grandtheater.org/facilityrental/grandtheater.aspx

Wedding Photos Taken at the Grand Theater:
M Photography
Carissa Christine Photography
The McCartneys
The McCartneys
The McCartneys

Restaurant Review Guideline and Ethics: It's Time

Earlier this week on his podcast, Andrew Zimmern gave his two cents about how much he dislikes Yelp, how it's on his "shit list" and why he feels that restaurant reviews should be left to the experts.  There is a summary of it here, and within his podcasts he goes onto mention that the site is dangerously unstable and that it gives a forum for uninformed morons to take down a restaurant.

After hearing this, I checked out a few of my favorite restaurants reviews on Yelp and shockingly, was appalled.  An alarming number of the people posting to my favorite restaurants were down right mean, biased, overly critical for no reason, and childish.  In short, Andrew was right.  There are a bunch of idiots out there taking down what have been, are, or could be successful restaurants.

While I agree with his frame of thought, I wasn't angry.  What I felt more than anything was disappointment and asked myself this question: if being part of a community website is a privilege, not a right, then why are we letting people like this ruin our community?

For example, check out some of the unclassy reviews from this "Elite Reviewer" who when reviewing a Jewish style deli, writes the following after having a four out of five star experience "Way to break the cheap Jewish stereotype with exemplary customer service" or comments about a waitstaff "staff who might as well be replaced by guard dogs or just goats".  Nearly everything that she wrote lacked class.

While I don't expect Urbanspoon, Yelp or any other community website to police every comment for their respective content guidelines since it's a totally unrealistic request,  I do expect more out of us.  As members of this community, we need to step up and start policing ourselves and keep it classy.

So listen up: foodies, casual restaurant goers, and 19 you year olds out there that know how to use the internet (but don't know your butt from a hole in the ground).  We're kicking it old school and bringing it back to the basics, with a set of restaurant review guidelines that we should all be able to pledge our allegiance to as functioning members of society.

As a responsible member of a community, when reviewing a business within the hospitality review website:

• Thou shall not write reviews online that thou would not say to the owner's face
• Thou shall not threaten nor extort a business in any manner
• Thou shall not add irrelevant content that won't affect a potential customer's experience
• Thou shall not only write about negative reviews if thou wants to be seen as credible
• Thou SHALL write reviews that thou would be proud to show thou's grandmother or boss
• Thou SHALL assume that thou's review is being viewed every time the business is searched for online
• Thou SHALL remember that service industry employees and business owners are people, that are part of families
• Thou SHALL be a good Samaritan and flag inappropriate reviews to keep thou's site clean of scum

While I know that the battle upon review websites has only begun, let's see what we can do to show the professional reviewers out there that we're not uninformed morons and that we can be responsible.  

As to those people that are uninformed and hateful morons... if they've proven that they're not capable of handling of the responsibilities and affects that the world wide web now offers...then let's ask that their irresponsible and potentially harmful reviews be removed. 

Well, now that we've had he pep talk...I leave you with two hilarious videos of real actors, reading real Yelp reviews and a story about a unique use of one restaurant's negative reviews:

Can you think of any guidelines that I've missed?  Do you think that I'm dead wrong?  If so, why?  Any thoughts on the issue?  

Your Name is Ann Marie Too? Wha?!

This is the story about last weekend, when I got to meet my blogging idol, The Pioneer Woman.

While Ree started out blogging and still does, she has also branched out a bit.  She now has multiple books that have been on the best-sellers list, has been featured and performed guest appearances on quite a few TV shows and now has her own Food Network Show.  Oh yeah, .and she's been challenged to (and won) a "Throwndown with Bobby Flay" which is what I'm most jealous of!

When I read on Twitter that she was coming to the Mall of America to do a book signing, I was beyond excited!  So I packed grabbed her cookbook, my iPad so that I could read while waiting (which I found out was dead in line---super), and ventured off to the MOA, where no sane Minnesotan goes from November-January.

While in line, since my iPad was dead, I compiled my list of things that I wanted to tell her.  As the hours rolled, by I got more excited by the minute to tell her all of these things cooking in my head:

1.) First, to ask if that is Marlboro Man watching over you, very husband-like, from the balcony? If so, when I get out of this line, do you think that he'll sign my cook book on the page that showcases his cowboy butt?  Is that weird?  Sorry...

Might not look like him in this photo, but, sure did in person...plus, the CASE hat had me wondering.

2.) Thank you for introducing me to hound dogs!  She was the person that got me to fall in love with hound dogs...and now I have one that she's signing a "Charlie and the Christmas Kitten" book for.  Yeah, I know that it's pathetic, I don't even want to hear about it.

3.) Thank you for running around field filled filled with poo to take pictures!  Sometimes her pictures of the farm life make me hurt for small town life (and even tear up on certain days when city life is really getting me down).  This country-girl-gone-city enjoys it more than you know!

3.) Thank you for introducing me to blogging!  I have been reading her blog since 2007 when I was forwarded a link to her "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels: A Love Story" series that she had written about how her and her husband met.  Which is now a published book and apparently is no longer posted on her website (tried to find today).

Back in 2007 I didn't know what blogging was and I sure has heck didn't know who these people were.  Yet, I found myself spending hours reading witty, quirky and funny commentary on things that I thoroughly enjoyed.  While it took me quite a few years to start, I ended up with one blog that I didn't like, and took over a year to establish  what I want to write about...I think that I've finally found my stride.  So, thank you for opening this door for me!

Now that you can see how excited I was to meet The Pioneer Woman, let's get back to last Sunday and all of these oozing compliments that I wanted to share with my idol.

She is probably the only thing that would get me into the Mall of America during this time of year.

Holy horse poo, I'm almost there!  There she is!

I made it!  It was my turn to tell Ree how great I think she is and ask my questions!  Here's how it went:

Ree: opens her cook book to page where my name is 
Ree: "You're name is Ann Marie?  Mine too!?"
Ann Marie: "Oh my gosh, I had no idea!  That is crazy!"
Ree: "It's even the same spelling, with no "e""
Ann Marie "Yeah, I've had quite a time changing my name this summer without the hypen in there."
Ree: opens the Charlie book
Ree: "Who's Wallace?"
Ann Marie: "He's my dog, I don't have any kids...so he's the next best thing."
Ree: "What kind of dog"
Ann Marie "He's a cute little beagle mix."
Ree: "That's great!"
Ree & Ann Marie: taking one picture that was a fail and then one better one

Ann Marie & Ann Marie

Here's how the the commentary running through my head went, illustrated in purple:

Ree: opens her cook book to page where my name is 
Ree: "You're name is Ann Marie?  Mine too!?"
Ann Marie: "Oh my gosh, I had no idea!  That is crazy!" OMG, now she thinks that I don't read her blog and I'm some kind of creep getting my book signed because I watch the Food Network or something!?
Ree: "It's even the same spelling, with no "e"" Seriously Ann Marie, how could you have missed this one?
Ann Marie "Yeah, I've had quite a time changing my name this summer without the hypen in there." Honestly Ann Marie, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Why in the WORLD would she give a donkey's behind about your silly issues with your name change??
Ree: opens the Charlie book
Ree: "Who's Wallace?"
Ann Marie: "He's my dog, I don't have any kids...so he's the next best thing." And now she thinks I'm a weirdo because I'm having her sign a book for my dog.  Holy crap, I am a weirdo, what am I doing??
Ree: "What kind of dog"
Ann Marie "He's a cute little beagle mix." I am so nervous I could puke, why am I sweating?
Ree: "That's great!"
Ree & Ann Marie: taking one picture that was a fail and then one better one
Ann Marie: Oh my goodness.  I totally forgot to ask her about Marlboro Man, among everything else.  I wonder if I can turn around and go back and ask?  Oh man, there is a security guard packing heat there that will probably take me down if I try to turn around and ask.  CRAP.

As you can see, while my intentions were there.  But, the execution was extremely poor.  Dangit all to dog biscuits.

Maybe the next time that she comes to the Minneapolis, I can just cut to the chase and give her a letter with my "thanks" instead of acting like a freak-o-la.

Or, maybe I'll get just as mental and sweaty as I did this time.  Oh man.