Oh, HAI!

It’s me.

Loralee.

You know…that frumpled, kind of strange chick with a raging sinus infection that used blog here all the freaking time?

Not ringing a bell?

I have red hair and a prominent nose?

No?

Does this help?

Stunning photo, no?

I think it captures the essence of my emotive beauty.

I think I’ll call it “Furry in New York”.

Either that, or “TOURIST. ROB ME.”

(Just so you know, I ran around the city most of the time I was there in a similar get up.)

(Which means I looked like I was auditioning for a bit part in Doctor Zhivago.)

(In fact, from now on I think you should all refer to me as “Svetlana”.)

(I blame the boots.)

(I bought them at Macy’s before we looked at the windows because I couldn’t walk one more step in the shoes I was in.)

(They are by Baby Phat.)

(Which is owned by model-turned-reality-TV-star Kimora Lee Simmons.)

(AND I LIKE THEM.)

(I know.)

(I feel dirty. Hold me.)

ANYWAY…

It’s been a week.

Did y’all get over me in7 days? (Dang, you people can be fickle! Meh…it’s happened before. I am so forgettable. Sigh.)

I don’t think I’ve gone a week without publishing in a long time.

And I wish I could make this post a great “Hey, this is what I did in NYC” type of thing but one–I feel like I haven’t slept in a year and it’s midnight, two– does anyone really want to hear about that anyway???? Isn’t it like being held hostage at dinner parties and forced to look at travel slide shows in the 70′s?, and three–um….the above photo is the only one I took THE ENTIRE TRIP with me in it.

Well, there IS this one that I snapped accidentally:

But, unless you are into cyclops-like and blurry photos of, um, an eyeball, I really don’t think that is much of a photo to talk about, anyway. (And if you ARE one of those people, we should also probably work in a conversation or four about getting some therapy for you.)

So, until I get some of the photos from the people that actually, you know, took some…that’s all I gots.

I know.

I am a sucky tourist, people.

I CAN post the photo that has created quite a BIT of conversation online today after I found someone posted it on Facebook.

Behold: My senior prom photo-

I know.

Discuss.

I am sick.

I am in New York City and I am sick.

And not in that “I am in New York City because a city with 8 million people in it is the only place on earth I could possibly find others of ‘my kind’” sort of sick way.

This is more of the “I woke up feeling like I’d been thrown out of a train. Then run over by a tractor. Then peed on by the guy driving the tractor.” sort of sick. My throat is so sore that I can only assume that I must have been doing shots of cheap whiskey and toilet cleaner with some random groups of hobos on aforementioned train before being thrown off, run over and peed on.

At least I had fun before all that toilet cleaner and train business.

Besides a jerk-face jackwagon that shut down security and almost made us miss our flight, we got to the city safe and fine. We are staying in an apartment next to the FABULOUS Marinka (I swear I can feel her vibes of awesome wit and hilarity seeping through the walls, people.)

This is Marinka’s favorite photo of us. Don’t we look AMAZING? ;)

We all had a GREAT time at BlogHer’s annual Holiday meet up with the likes of Liz, Lisa Stone, David Leite, Susan and the  fabulous Debbie Wogan from BlogHer (who has followed the course of Brian Joy and Lily Woo and MUST be addressed by full name in all utterences from me) and of course, Neil from Citizen of the Month.

Here we are looking very orange on a couch at the bar.

All that fun and so much work to do and I wake up sick.

I want to kick the universe in the butt.

I will settle for scarfing down some Nyquil instead.

Because, after all, I will STILL be scaring down Nyquil in New York at Christmas time!

Not bad!

:)

I finally got a (rather-inferior-quality-as-I-was-on-my-phone-and-my-bed-faces-a-window) video of Butterlump counting to TWO! (He doesn’t get to three, yet.) (These things take time, ya know!)

HE IS GETTING SO BIG! GAH!!

And since I shared some of the adorable that is my awesome cheeks-of-fatness offspring, I am hoping you’ll forgive me if I am all narcissistc for a moment and tell you about some of the things I have going on right now.

TODAY:

For all my Utah peeps, I am going to be on KUTV (Channel 2) news at noon TODAY (DVR alert!) with my great pal, Chef Bryan Wooley to promote Where Women Cook.

I haven’t been on since with Bryan since I was featured in Parents Magazine last January. (It was so fun! I loved being on and made my ‘family fry up’. SOOO fattening but SOOOO delish!). I am tickled pink that I get to go and cook some holiday goodies (Baked brie in puff pastry and my amazing sugar and spice cocktail nuts) with my great friend and talk about the launch of Where Women Cook. Hope you can tune in! (And yes, I will post a link to the video footage and recipes when I’m done!)

AND I got a SUPER cute new apron from “Saucy Frocks”, which is run by my amazing friend, Erin. (Seriously, y’all will die. SO cute.) (Yes, I’ll post a photo!) (Also? I have a lot of good friends.) (And they are rad.) Roll your eyes to the right and down and you’ll see her Etsy button on my blog. I LOVE her stuff.

Speaking of Where Women Cook, we are featuring Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman, on Amuse Bouche this week.

I heart her.

Cone on over and see what she has to say.

AND on every Friday we have a killer giveaway with both an artist and an amazing kitchen thingy. (Thingy is totally a technical term, y’all!). This Friday, we’ll have a 6.5 Quart Le Creuset French oven. (I am dying inside that I can’t enter.)

And finally, as a reminder, don’t forget to enter my Welch’s giveaway for a $100 Visa card that  I have going on.

And if you have any tips for getting Butterlump to say THREE, I am all ears, dude. :)