Actually neither of us has lived in our parent’s homes for years, but a lot ... [ more ]]]> As we say goodbye to 2008, we want to take a moment to look back at the year that was, as described through the Greg and Selena blog:

Top Six things about 2008

6. We finally moved out

Actually neither of us has lived in our parent’s homes for years, but a lot of our stuff continued to reside there until this spring. In April, Selena’s Dad finally convinced Selena to move 20 boxes of Happy Meal toys, Cabbage Patch Kids and Brandan Walsh pillows out of his house and into ours. Selena spent two weeks going through it all and finally getting it all put away. Greg mocked her all the while, only to get his when, as part of a Mother’s Day visit, he brought home from Delaware a full car load of Nintendo Power magazines, baseball cards and Jessica Rabbit cardboard cutouts. As of now, it’s all in storage and both parents houses are cleared out.

The top comment came from Stef:

So, Greg, what was the occasion when you got yourself a cut-out Jessica Rabbit? Did she adorn the room of teenage Greg for all those years???

5. We watched too much TV

Again. So much so, that we scooped the preview poster for Season Five of LOST. (Hahaha. That became our only Digg’d/Mixx’d blog post). If there was one reoccurring theme on the blog this year, it was that Selena loves Gossip Girl, there were at least four posts about her addiction to the teen drama. Speaking of teen drama, Greg explained Twilight, but that’s a movie, and we didn’t go to many of them. Instead, we taxed our Tivo, watching so much TV that we held a private draft of who would get which TV channels if we were forced to choose. We also started a bracketology (that we didn’t see through to fruition) of who best character on TV is – of course Selena suggest Gossip Girl’s Chuck Bass.

The best comment was from Kitty agreeing with Selena:

I agree with Selena’s points on Chuck Bass wholeheartedly. I don’t even think we’ve seen the half of his character yet, he hasn’t realized his full potential as a character yet – it’s all the more intriguing!!

4. We did some good eatin’

We are not exactly on the same page when it comes to blogging about food. Greg’s (loosely) qualifying posts include leaving Chinese food on the Metro and spilling coffee into the ice machine. Meanwhile, Selena, who takes food a lot more seriously, picked up where she left off last year, converting more foods into cupcake form, by writing in great length about all the meals we ate on our European tour, in fact, she photographed every meal. She broadcast her entire Thanksgiving menu, which was extensive, and even gave away the secret to Thanksgiving leftovers. Selena also gave a complete detail of the food and wine we tasted on the surprise birthday weekend in Virginia Wine Country.

The best comment was from Kitty again:

One of your Sponsored Links is showing up: Wine Coolers on Sale! How LAME is it, that I got very excited thinking this meant those totally 90’s girly beverages… when, in fact, it meant bags for storing and keeping wine cool??

3. We lost some weight, (well sorta)

Probably because of all those good eatin’, we had to focus on weight loss, which happened when Selena invoked a Biggest Loser challenge in the house. Each week we would take to the scale and determine who lost the most weight and the other person would be saddled with a new chore of the winner’s choosing. The competition became fierce as we both fought to avoid having to do the punishment chores. In the end Greg came away with more victories, but mostly due to a flaw in the scoring system.

The best comment was double-edged from Dancer in DC:

Congratulations, Greg! You have proven the master at losing.
Wait – that doesn’t sound right…

2. We tried new things

2008 was a year for trying new things.

Selena returned to camping for the first time in a long time, once she got Greg to agree on getting an absurdly large tent. The camping was the lodging for a weekend trip to West Virginia to try water water rafting for the first time. We went up to Class 4, pretty exciting times on the river.

Selena also tried sharing Greg’s favorite exercise, running, by joining him in the Rockville five mile race. At the end of the race they gave you two beers, and Selena ran as though someone was chasing her.

Selena also got wind for a new packing system from her friend Alex, the basic concept is everything is individually wrapped in Ziploc bags. We tried it and loved it. It proved a very effective system and indispensable in preparing for the European vacation.

Finally, Selena got back to crafting when she got involved in an Ornament swap, where she made Felt Christmas Cupcake ornaments.

The best comment was from Bill in regard to the oversize tent:

Sounds like a tent from the Harry Potter books…

1. We traveled all over

At this time last year as we were saying goodbye to 2007, Selena and I decided ’08 would be the year of travel.

• We started out well in the first month with visits to the mountains and to Florida
• In March we sipped our way around Virginia wine country
• In the mid-summer we took a camping weekend in Western PA that included White Water rafting in West Virginia.
• Shortly thereafter we took a long weekend road trip up to Boston, Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard with our new mascot, because Greg had never been to New England.
• In August, we took a low key relaxing week at the beach with the Robleto family
• A few weeks later we went on the crown jewel of our year of travel. Our two week European tour took us to England, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and France.
• And to round out the year, we are making a trip to Egypt to visit the pyramids and practice a little karate.

The best comment was from Dancer in DC:

What a wonderful trip you had! Sounds like a blast. I’m jealous.

And that, in a blog post, was 2008. Thank you for reading our blog this past year, and we hope you will be back for more insights, stories, and discoveries of what’s in store for Selena and Greg in 2009.

Happy New Year!

While the Gossip Girl contingent grows at my work, so do the number of links that get passed back and forth about my new favorite show. Last week, a co-worker sent me a link to Chuck Bass quotes. When I thanked her for the link later on, she yelled, “Best ... [ more ]]]>

While the Gossip Girl contingent grows at my work, so do the number of links that get passed back and forth about my new favorite show. Last week, a co-worker sent me a link to Chuck Bass quotes. When I thanked her for the link later on, she yelled, “Best character on TV!” as she breezed by.

I told that to Greg, who said, “Now that can’t be right.” And we spent the rest of the evening discussing who the best character on TV is. We seem to love the deliciously wicked (Ben Linus: Lost, T-Bag: Prison Break, Dexter: Dexter, and of course, Chuck Bass), the bad asses (President Bartlett: The West Wing, Dr. Cox: Scrubs, Tony Soprano: The Sopranos) and the funny (Michael Scott: The Office, Earl Hickey: My Name is Earl). Greg argues some of these choices, as his personal criteria requires a well-rounded character that shows depth and weaknesses.

That’s where you, the readers, and some bracketology comes into play! Who is the best character on TV? Greg and I discussed that including reality show stars and cartoon characters were out of bounds, as reality show stars are not “fictional” and you don’t want to get trapped with Meatwad (Aquateen Hunger Force) and Cliff Huxtable (The Cosby Show) squaring off.

Who will it be? And where are all the good women characters? Post your suggestions in the comments section!

This blog was started to capture all the discoveries Greg and Selena had ... [ more ]]]> As we get ready to say goodbye to 2007, we want to take a moment to remember the year that was, as described through Greg and Selena’s blog:

Top Seven things about 2007

7. We discovered more about each other.

This blog was started to capture all the discoveries Greg and Selena had once they moved in together. Some of the early classics include Selena’s fear of running out of tuna , Greg’s belief that dryer balls work, and Selena’s insistence of turning around the silverware tray some of which even were worked into our wedding vows.

So what would 2007 bring? A few samples include Greg learning that Selena doesn’t know how a dishwasher works, and Selena discovered that all guys (even her beloved Sawyer) secretly have a hidden knowledge of something ridiculously geeky – most likely Star Wars lore.

The top comments received about these discoveries came from Kitty in regard to Greg claiming the inner geek rant was a cheap excuse for Selena to put a picture of a hot guy on the blog.

Hey- if she wants to post a picture of some hot guy (Chris O’Donnell) on her blog, there’s nothing wrong with that! You keep on posting those hot picks, Selena (of Chris O’Donnell)… do it! (Chris O’Donnell : )

And Tanya who became disappointed to realize she was not being referenced in the same blog post.

I quickly scanned the post and saw the term “TAWN-TAWN” After reading the post, I realized you were not going to reference me, but in fact a star wars animal.

6. We found our Horcruxes

As Harry Potter and Pals tried to solve the case of the mysterious ticking noise stop Voldemort, Selena and Greg got to wondering into what seven items they would split their souls? Selena’s included her VW Bug, cupcakes and her ratty-ass kitty doll. Greg’s included his TiVo and his new iPhone.

The top comment received about the Horcruxes came from Danielle

I object to the use of term “ratty-ass” to describe gross kitty!

5. We watched a lot of TV

Greg and Selena didn’t blog nearly as much as they could have about television, this year they shook up the TiVo, let go of a few old shows, picked up a few new ones, and spent way way way too much time thinking about our favorite Heroes superpowers

The top comments about TV watching came in regards to those Heroes superpower breakdowns. From Heather:

[O]ne person that you omitted because she was on for like two episodes. Hana Gitelman. Her powers is one I would want so I could check my email while I was driving.

And from Joanna:

I guess people would say I’m a lot like Jessica/Nikki with my whole split personalities, remember the Christmas party? Who was that?

4. We dealt with real issues

These don’t get as many hits or as many comments as some of the other topics on this list, but it’s a good feeling when, without getting too preachy, this blog acts as an advocate for a good cause. Greg did this on a very small scale in December offering advice and insight about de-cluttering, but the major groundbreaking post was Selena opening up on the blog and expressing her disdain for offensive speech and jokes towards people with mental handicaps.

The top comment was from Stef.

This is a really great post. Thank you for sharing something so personal, which is a good reminder for all of us to be cognizant of our words.

3. Oops!

On a lighter note, Greg had a few missteps including (potentially) offended I. Scotter Libby when he and others shouted terrorist and un-American in Scoot’s presence (the insults were meant for Selena, because she doesn’t love Tom Hanks). And Greg made further bad choices that resulted in scared the hell out of Selena, one time swiftly coming up behind her on the dark walk home from the Metro and again on the Honeymoon when he yelled “Boogedy, Boogedy Boogedy” to signal he was already in the room.

The top comment was from Jenny.

That’s hilarious! Boogedy… who says that?!

2. We decided who was hot

If this top seven things of the year was based off of sheer response, this one would be number one by a landslide. In January ’07, Selena generated a 64 person single-elimination bracket to determine who Greg considered was the hottest female celebrity (Greg’s finals has Kiera Knightly just lose out to Charlize Theron). The success of this quickly spawned a second hottest mail celebrity bracket (Selena gave the crown to Sawyer, only because she didn’t include Chris O’Donnell).

While the brackets were a hit (and hopefully will resurface updated in 2008), they did not come without criticism. The top comments about the brackets were from Duke:

Who the hell seeded these people?!?!? The matchups were completely messed up. And how did some of these people make the tournament (i.e Debra Messing) and Maria Sharapova not?

And Erich (in response to Greg’s finals)

I think they both pretty much suck.

1 We got married

Surely it is anti-climatic and rather obvious that the number one thing about 2007 according to gregandselena.com is that Greg and Selena got married. Whole pages of this site were devoted to the wedding preparations and pictures, and 40% of the posts this year were also wedding related, including describing the Hurricane concerns, inquiring for the best wedding tunes (Cha Cha Slide explicitly excluded), determining when to open wedding gifts, exploring the sand castle options, documenting the Vows, highlighting the ceremony and reception, and of course ruling out the need for Dolphin Escorts.

The top comment regarding the Dolphin Escorts was from Dancer in DC

I must say I’m a bit disappointed I won’t see this. Are you sure you won’t consider a scaled-down version? Field mice, perhaps?

And that, in a nutshell was 2007. Thank you for reading this far down this unending blog post the Greg and Selena blog in 2007, and here’s hoping you will be back for more insights, stories and discoveries from Selena and Greg in 2008.

Happy New Years!

Hot Men Bracket

The Hot Chic Bracket

Here’s how I put it together: