I haven’t bitten my fingernails since October 18.  I went with my sister Leslie to get mani/pedis before her wedding, and I decided to get a manicure even though my nails were gross and really short.  Once I had the manicure I couldn’t bite them—they looked so pretty!

Apologies for the blurry picture.  And we’ll tackle not chewing on that index finger at a later date—yes, indeed, that callous you see is from me chewing on it.  Like I said, later date.

Since then I haven’t bitten my nails.  Two or three weeks ago I had to remove the pink polish because it was looking awful.  I considered getting another manicure but decided not to spend the money.  I considered painting my nails myself but I knew that would look bad and defeat the purpose.  So I just kept trimming my left hand nails (I need them really short for the violin) and letting my right hand nails grow  a bit more.  I just remind myself that I don’t bite my nails anymore.  I constantly remind myself of this. 

(I had fake nails put on for my wedding day…they looked great!)

I’ll catch myself with a nail in my mouth, particularly when driving—that is my most vulnerable time.  People have all kinds of suggestions, but it boils down to this:  you can quit biting your fingernails using the same technique you can use to quit anything else.

1.  Decide to quit.

2. Continue not doing it.

Like any bad habit you want to quit, the key is in number one:  deciding to quit.  You have to really want it.  You can’t do it for somebody else, you have to do it for you, and decide whatever it takes, you will quit.

I’m there with my nails.  I’m tired of being ashamed of my hands.  I know it’s taken a long time to get here, but I’m ready.

Look at that white bit at the end of my nails!  CRAZY. 

Yesterday I was pretty stressed out and my nails looked really tempting.  I fought through and ended up not biting them.  I felt pretty accomplished by the end of the day too!  See, you can quit a bad habit AND pat yourself on the back about it. 

Have you ever been successful at quitting a bad habit?  How did you accomplish it?

(Note to readers:  it’s been less than a month for me so I’d hardly consider this a surefire success, but I’m feeling good about it.)

I love Mondays.  I know for many people, Monday is the start of the work week, but for Symphony musicians, it’s usually your guaranteed day off.  Since Chris has the day off, I like to make sure I have an easy day too (especially since as a quasi-symphony musician I often work so much on the weekends I need a regroup day!)  I teach in the late afternoon for a little bit but otherwise have the day off.

We went to see the new James Bond movie, Skyfall, last night.  WOW.  I loved it. 

And not JUST for the eye candy.  It’s a great movie—we went to a 10:15 showing and I didn’t even realize how tired I was until after the movie, so that says something.  We made the mistake of going to the IMAX show though.  We all thought that IMAX meant bigger screen but evidently it also meant SO LOUD THAT YOU THINK YOU ARE ACTIVELY LOSING YOUR HEARING MINUTE BY MINUTE AND OH MY GOD CAN SOMEBODY TURN IT DOWN.  Nonetheless it was enjoyable, much more so after the preview of Jurassic Park was over.  And we got to nerd out to a Hobbit preview.  Chris was concerned on the way home that I wasn’t going to be able to manage the midnight showing of the Hobbit but I think I will.  I used to be able to stay up past midnight!

And thus begins the last full week before Thanksgiving!  Use this picture as inspiration to stick to your diet and workout plans 😉

Interesting fact:  when you do a google image source for Daniel Craig, he looks REALLY odd when he’s smiling.  Other interesting fact:  I think I might be secretly British due to my sense of humor!  Or should I say, humour.

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway for tickets to a Chamber Project St Louis concert at the Schlafly Tap Room!  Ends Monday, free to enter of course, and I hope more of you will enter.  Don’t delay!

My friend Melissa is always finding out about new restaurants.  I tend to think of myself as a fairly “in-the-know” person, but especially for someone who doesn’t live here full time OR tweet (and for a bassoonist, honestly), she leaves me in the dust!  Anyway, she told me about a new BBQ place that opened in Soulard at the Mad Art Gallery, and we made lunch plans.

The joint is called “Capitalist Pig” and is a small, unassuming place.  It says “take out only” but there were a couple picnic tables set up so we managed to “eat in.”

This was me trying to take an artistic photo.  That’s the counter where you order.  I ordered the ribs with sides of potato salad and baked beans.  Melissa had the pulled pork platter with coleslaw and mac & cheese.  We both had corn muffins and Fitz’s Diet Root Beer.

They had a nice assortment of sauces to choose from.  My ribs didn’t need any, but I tasted the House and Sweet & Smokey and they were tasty.  Melissa loved the Blackberry sauce.

My ribs did need a stronger than plastic knife, but I managed by using my hands and teeth. (Arguably I could have asked the cashier for something, but I was feeling shy and also felt like this was a moral failure on my part.  Plus the poor lady had already accidentally undercharged me and I didn’t want to make things worse.)

That’s a half slab of ribs.  These were TASTY and MESSY.  It’s weird—usually I don’t order ribs, but for some reason I did.  I’m glad I did, they were delicious.  I was so proud of not spilling on myself too! 

The corn muffins were delicious.  The potato salad was really unique and had capers in it, and I LOVED it.  The baked beans were good, though I think I like Bogart’s better, and Melissa said the cole slaw was delicious and the mac & cheese was pretty tasty too.  They had extra corn muffins so they gave us a big bag of them. 

Oh, and remember how I just said I didn’t spill?  Later in the day I realized I had indeed spilled sauce on myself, somehow.

Seriously, not sure how that even happens.  Then I realized I had a matching spot on the back of my other pant leg,. 

All that being said, I recommend you check out Capitalist Pig.  I think it’s possible that St. Louis BBQ is starting to grow on me. 

As we were leaving Charles De Gaulle airport for home after our Paris Trip, I saw a bunch of pate in the duty free shop.  Chris hates pate—I think he’s crazy, but hey, more for me.  I bought a six pack of cans.  So yesterday I decided to have one of the cans with my lunch.

It looks pretty gross, honestly (I think this is why Chris won’t eat it) but it was DELICIOUS.  I googled to figure out exactly what it is that I ate, and I couldn’t figure it out.  Can any readers help?  This was the story of our visit to France though—eating a bunch of delicious but unknown food.

Other things I’ve been up to this week:

Lots of practicing for upcoming events.  The most fun thing coming up is a concert with Chamber Project St Louis on Wednesday, November 14 at 7 pm, at the Schlafly Tap Room.  Mark your calendars, and there may be a ticket giveaway coming up for local readers who would like to attend…watch this space.

Mozart Duo for Violin and Viola.  Do other musicians make more marks in their part?  I find the less I write the more I notice what I do write.

I’m also now considering going to Phoenix in January to run the PF Chang’s Half Marathon again with Leslie.  It would fit perfectly into our training plans for the Go! St Louis Marathon in April, and January is a great time to visit Phoenix.  Yes, I’ve already been out there a couple times (ha!) this year, but I do have a free place to stay when I visit, so it doesn’t end up being too ridiculously expensive.  Plus that’s just an awesome race.  I ran it two years ago and even though I usually hate crowds, it was AWESOME running with so many people.  Originally I had planned to do a different half in February in Phoenix, but my schedule has changed and I’m no longer available for that one.  So I think this will end up being on my schedule after all.  I’ll decide for sure in a week or two.  Any readers planning to run it?

Oh, and we haven’t gotten a new coffee maker yet.  Here’s the thing (and I’m sure you all know this already): French Press coffee is Delicious.  Though it takes at least an additional five to ten minutes to make and ours only holds 4 cups.  But it’s SO good!!

Chris and I are big coffee drinkers.  We’ve had (or I’ve had, can’t even recall when I got it) a lovely red coffeemaker for years, definitely since Cleveland.  In fact, I ordered a red Kitchenaid Mixer because of my red coffeemaker, even though they ended up being slightly different shades.  And then I got a red blender and a red food processor. 

As a small child, I loved coffee ice cream.  I remember the day I learned about mocha chip ice cream.  What, coffee ice cream WITH chocolate chips?  Sign me up!

Anyway, we didn’t register for a coffeemaker for our wedding because we already had a perfectly good one.  UNTIL.

Yesterday afternoon I wanted a cup of coffee before I started teaching.  I put together the water and coffee, turned on the machine, and left the room.  I returned a bit later and attempted to fill up my cup…and I realized that the coffeemaker, though technically ON had MADE NO COFFEE.  It hadn’t heated up. 

So I tried again.  Unplugged and plugged.  Turned off and on.  Waited longer.  Nothing.

TRAGEDY.

Luckily we have a variety of other ways to make coffee.  Stovetop espresso maker.  Instant "Via" blends.  And what we remembered this morning was:  a french press! French press coffee is quite good.  (Honestly it’s better than drip coffee, but it’s those extra steps that bug me—I want the best coffee I can make easier and conveniently.  I don’t really relish the idea of heating water separately every morning.)

Obviously we are in the market for a new coffeemaker.  I think red might be nice.  Any recommendations?  We have some Crate and Barrel gift cards to use, but of course we also love Target and shopping online, so anything would be good.  What do you use for a coffee maker?  Are you as addicted to coffee as I am?