AnibshoProductions, Inc.

Bacon, Need I say More? Okay, Cheese

2011-06-15T21:33:00.004-04:00

Who says I'm not domesticated?? Eat my BLT pie Ma!

It was many many months ago when Husband's grandmother and grandfather told me the story of a mouth-watering BLT pie they had while visiting the Mississippi Delta. I immediately requested a recipe- as anything with bacon, cheese, and... bacon, sounded like a pie I could take my time to learn how to make.

His grandmother sent me a recipe about OH a year ago, and I never tried it. But the other day, after buying the cutest "Plan Your Meals for the Week" notepad online, I wrote it down on my list of things to cook. It's all a part of my personal initiative to learn new things and become more.... well-rounded?

I tend to take too much pride in being undomesticated- mostly because I loved the fear in my parent's eyes while I was growing up when they watched me groan at the thought of anything normal- you know like cooking, sleeping, or dating.

"How are you ever going to get married if you don't learn how to cook?"

"Who says I'm ever going to get married?"

"How did my kids become such commitment phobes??" My mother would sigh. "I'll never get grandchildren."

Lo and behold just four years out of high school and I had gotten myself hitched! See ma, all that brainwashing works!

Unfortunately, being married means I have this other person hanging around all the time wanting nourishment. We practically go giddy when someone asks us over to their place for dinner (Oh boy! A home-cooked meal!) or go into a mini-frenzy when people come into town and we have an excuse to eat out (it's still better than anything we have on a daily basis). Anywho- this person, who I fondly refer to as Husband, is the most supportive person EVER, but only when it comes to me cooking.

If I cook, I am pretty sure it doesn't matter if it taste wonderful or awful, he will never complain- he either stays quiet, tells me he really liked it, or in most cases when I cook.................. he goes nuts.

Quotes from Husband on the BLT pie:

"MMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmm GURRRRRRLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!" (repeat one thousand times)

**Lots of fork-dropping on the plate in disbelief of the goodness**

"Baby, I give this a 1 BILLION out of 10! It was THAT good."

"Boo, I ate half that pie! HALF THAT PIE!"

"Honey, can you make me two more of these before you go out of town?"

And my personal favorites:

"Sweetie, I can guarantee this one was way better than any hillbilly in Mississippi's was!"

"Baby, how is it that you are THIS GOOD at everything you try the first time you try it? I mean, really, it is not right to be as good as you are!"

OBVIOUSLY he was exaggerating on the last one, but compliments are few and far between so I will take them where I can get them!!

BLT Pie- ANIBSHO-style

12	slices bacon, crisply cooked, crumbled (ANIBSHO change-up: microwavable bacon- the whole box in the microwave on two minutes for super crispy bacon that easy to crumble)
1	cup shredded Swiss cheese (4 oz) (ANIBSHO- twice the amount, sliced from a block of cheese, and make it cheddar instead)
1/2	cup Original Bisquick® mix (ANIBSHO- 2.5 ounces of the Shake 'n' Pour Pancake Mix-- just the mix no water!)
1/3	cup mayonnaise or salad dressing (ANIBSHO- yep!)
3/4	cup milk (ANIBSHO- I only had 3/4 of 3/4 of a cup left in the fridge)
1/8	teaspoon pepper (ANIBSHO- pepper and red pepper for a kick)
2	eggs (ANIBSHO- do these ever go bad, because mine were in the fridge FOREVER. Literally, I can't even remember the last time I bought an egg. That's okay, one time in college one of BNIB's fraternity brothers stopped by my place to borrow some eggs and I gave him some that were over 4 months old and I never heard any complaints... but then I again I don't ever recall seeing him again after that..... hmmm. I'm sure it's just a coincidence.)
2	tablespoons mayonnaise or salad dressing (ANIBSHO- approx. Do what feels right)
1	cup shredded lettuce (ANIBSHO- yep!)
6	thin slices tomato (ANIBSHO- yep!)

Step 1:
Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. Or if you are us, take out the pans you keep stored in there because you live in a tiny apartment FIRST, then start pre-heating your oven to 400 degrees.

Step 2:
Spray pie dish with non-stick cooking spray- or in my case, wipe down with olive oil because it is the only thing you keep in the house. Then layer the dish with the cheese block slices that you inevitably made Husband cut into pieces because it is freakin' hard to slice block cheese! across the bottom, like a blanket of cheddar. Sprinkle on top of it MOST of the bacon. Save a little for the top of your pie, give a little to your puppy- he is SO cute after all.

Step 3:
In a shhhmedium bowl, stir bisquick (pancakes!), 1/3 cup mayo, 3/4 of 3/4 cup milk, pepper (use a pepper grinder to do this, it makes cooking fun), eggs (fresh or questionable, if Padma isn't taking a fork to it, I don't think anyone will notice) with a whisk until ***delightfully*** (happy meals come from happy cooks) blended. Pour into pie plate over cheese blanket and bacon bites, and then make it rain shredded cheese over top! If you do that it will come out looking like an Asiago bagel from Starbucks- and who doesn't like those?

Step 4:
Bake for 25 minutes or until top is golden brown. To test if it's done, stab it with a knife and if no blood sticks to it, then you're ready to hide the body! Beware though, it may deflate a little after it comes out (insert "That's what she said" comment from Melissa here). Then spread a thin layer of mayo over top and use your left over bacon bits to crown the top of your BLT that is, without a doubt, worthy of royalty.

Step 5:
Cover with thin slices of tomato-- if you are around others, refer to the tomato as a fruit CONSTANTLY, so they think you are either really crazy or really crazy smart for knowing that it is technically a fruit and not a vegetable-- then whip out that pepper grinder one more time to lightly "pepper" (hardy, har) the tomatoes on top. Otherwise, it just looks naked. Lastly, take your shredded lettuce (if you have kids, I HIGHLY suggest you let them do the lettuce shredding- because (1) It's hard to shred anything wrong, and (2) Husband shredded the lettuce and he said and I quote, "I think I rather like shredding lettuce, it's fun!" which in his child-like, or moreso Sheldon-like way, indicates that small children would also LOVE it) and spread it across your plate to welcome the tasty BLT pie you just made.

If YOU ARE ANYTHING LIKE ME, KEEP READING FOR EXTRA STEP...
Step 6:
Turn off your oven.

The Peep Show

2011-05-26T23:25:00.001-04:00

You would think that finding interesting things to do wouldn't be tough being so close to our nation's capital- but while I have no doubt there are a million interesting things to do, finding out about them BEFORE they happen proves to be more difficult than originally expected. Finding new stuff to fill my time with is a new kick I am on- mainly doing stuff that is a little more out of the ordinary to shake things up a bit.

Naturally then when I got my latest "culture kick" the Washington Post's Annual Peep Diorama Contest Exhibit was exactly what I had in mind. All the "culture" and off-beat vibe I needed, without all the pretentiousness of pretending to like a lot of the things most people are programmed to think they are supposed to find fascinating (see rando art later in this post). Yes, taking in a peep at the peep exhibit was just riiiggghhhhtttttt.

But apparently not for everyone because of the mass email I sent out inviting people I could only rope two other people into trucking it down to the unknown to check it out (in all fairness there was a lot of others who agreed but copious amounts of rescheduling kind of made it lose its luster). But they didn't miss much as the peep displays were spread out throughout the new artisphere building-an attempt to get people to check out the other exhibits as well... which we did- dang museum planners!

Kara and Holmes playing with the giant 3D etcha-sketch.

One of the closest things resembling art at the art museum.

Blue Sweaters sewn together to make a box.
One of the closest things we saw not
resembling art at the art museum.

I thought we looked at all the peeps, but I was sorely mistaken as when I got home to check out the photos online (which I had avoided previous to going), I discovered we had missed some pretty cool looking ones. And each exhibit was numbered-- which at the time we chose to believe was the order in which they had won.

Apparently we were wrong about a lot of things because I discovered the one which I had repeatedly shook my head in disbelief at it not winning had indeed actually won! It's of the Chilean Miners. See picture and WP's video below:

Holmes and I checking out what we thought to be the best one,
but a losing one that was actually the winning one. Get it?

All in all, it wasn't THAT great. But all of use peepers did get pictures with the ones we felt might not have been the best, but were close to our hearts. Mine with the Vincet Van Peep, Kara with the Muppeet Show, and Mike with the Spinal Peep Concert.

The real deal: it gave me faith that I too could become a Peep Show finalist next year! We plan to win the judges over by making every tiny detail out of peeps. Anyone know how to make a cardboard-like platform out of fried peeps?

Husband, Esq.

2011-05-22T22:00:00.002-04:00

This weekend, Husband graduated from Law School!!

I am so exhausted from all the festivities (and food) that I only have enough energy to post the picture slideshow below. But I am so happy for him!

Three years later, and a lot of $tudent loan$, Husband can now...
study all summer to take the bar.

It's not over until it's over. But for now, he can breathe a little easier! Happy Graduation Husband!!

Parknic: A Picnic in the Park

2011-05-10T21:41:00.000-04:00

Last week I had a brilliant beyond brilliant idea. Most of the people I eat with at work all bring their lunches and eat it in the NRA Cafe downstairs. I go through phases of bringing my lunch, going out, or working right through, but I have been boycotting the cafe lately because, well, it's a dungeon. Okay, part of it has to do with just wanting to get away from the building all day and eating downstairs makes me feel like I have been cooped up all day long, but mostly it is just freezing and I can't enjoy a meal if my teeth are chattering.

Anyway, on to my brilliant idea. I would put blankets in the back of my car and then whenever it was sunny out we could all just take our bag lunches to the park to eat! This entire week is supposed to be gorgeous, so today we all planned to head to a park fellow lunch-mate Holmes had scoped out for us beforehand that was only a stone's throw away from work. But sometimes plans swerve in new directions and for a moment there, I thought it might just end up being me and Holmes (and for a moment before, I thought it might just end up being me). I swore to him I wasn't trying to make it a romantic lunch for two- but within minutes of setting up camp on the lush-green fields, everyone else started rolling in to enjoy the sunshine.

Speaking of Mike K. Holmes- we have a guest blogger today! After lunch today I got an email from him recapping the first Parknic Lunch in narrative form...

There was a Tuesday morning… and everything felt like it was the day after Monday, a long Monday. The usual group was at its wit’s end. Amber, our humble protagonist, was having a particularly difficult morning, not that anyone could actually tell due to her usually chipper countenance, but difficult nonetheless. The only one truly able to notice was her iMac, but let’s face it… the lack of opinion and inanimateness makes it fairly useless in this scenario.

She enlisted the help [I told him I needed help snapping out of a bad mood] of a guy with the middle initial of K, but his writer’s block would not let him get past the picture of the mountain goat hanging on his calendar.

Yet, in this day of frustration there was a glimmer of hope, a journey to the land of Kutner [Park]. A small oasis in Fairfax. The protagonist bravely surveyed the land to make sure no other people had come off the road and set up camp (gotta be wary of cannibals [a witty reference to the novel we read in our two-person book club- "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy).

Eventually, the guy with the middle initial of K, also known by some as Holmes, arrived. He was just as impressed with the land as our protagonist Amber, but both were concerned that the rest of the crew would not arrive safely. We were well armed, hoisting a giant yellow club with a projectile [the always fear-inducing wiffle ball and bat] just in case we ran into trouble. We also had two safety blankets with the hopes that it would be enough for everyone.

However, not everyone was as prepared. Person with the first initial of K, also known as Kara, arrived without a safety blanket, but merely a towel. Luckily, we had some room to spare. Eventually more and more travelers arrived filling out the blankets to the brim. It was tight, but it made due.

Unfortunately, it was not safe to stay too long. Around 1:00 the area gets relatively dangerous [and our lunch hour is up], so we had to pick up and travel once again.

The group dispersed and I’m not quite sure how anything resolved. Yes, it is unfortunate that the narrator does not know how it ends, but that always allows for a second or third, or at least an anti-climactic cliff hanger...

The End?

If I was in a bad mood before, I wasn't anymore. The Parknic Lunch was just the pick-me-up I needed, and the narrative recap was icing on the cake.

I have a sneaky suspicion that lunch in the park might just be a reoccurring getaway destination!

Stealin' Away to Steel City!

2011-05-03T22:26:00.001-04:00

The NRA Annual Meetings were so close this year, I couldn't pass up seeing what all the hype was about. Seeing as 95% of my department was already there, it wasn't hard to find someone willing to let us bunk with them for the night. Kara pulled the lucky straw of sharing her enormous room with three other visitors! That's love.

I didn't have any way of getting up there. I mean, I could have left Husband without a vehicle for a few days- but I heard finding parking alone was going to be horrible or expensive so I talked one of my other co-workers who was left behind to make the trek up to Pittsburgh, Pa. via Greyhound. Yes, a dirty, stinky bus ride to a place called The Pitts.

It was all dandy until we realized that when the ticket said "1 Stop" on it, it actually meant "1 30 minute stop, 10 million 10 minute stops" so 7.5 hours later, we arrived in Pittsburgh around 1:30 in the morning where we were greeted by an extensive welcome committee of the only three people left awake in the town.

And that was pretty much the last time we saw anyone besides random meal times. While everyone else was working, my ride-mate Sisco (Francisco during business hours, Frankie when you want to make him angry) and reoccurring blog star Melissakurs!!! escorted me around the city where we basically, ate. You see I came to see the Annual Meetings and Sisco came to eat all the foods we have seen showcased on Man vs. Food. We did make it to a little of both of what we wanted to check out- but by the end of the day we were pretty much just exhausted. Although, we couldn't really complain because we hadn't even been working all week like everyone else had.

Blurry photo of Sisco at the famous DeLuca's, where we ate till we had side cramps.

I am usually a picture crazo when it comes to anything slightly unboring, but this was our first meal and I actually ended up leaving my camera on the table and Melissa and Sisco had to go back for it the next day before we headed out of town. So basically, no pictures of the actual events, or the few hot seconds we got to see other people we worked with, or any of the cool people we got to meet. I ended up with the two pictures above and these two pictures:

On our exquisite bus ride to Pittburgh, we got to taste a lot of.... crappy food. But Sisco assured me that Roy Rogers was money in my pocket- you can see I am holding an approving thumbs up in the picture (it was around midnight at this point) but when I got back on the bus with my food, it was anything but tasty. Sisco claimed it a fluke Roy Rogers experience, but first impressions do make a difference! The beef was rubbery and the BBQ sauce was sweet- thumbs down.

Bettsie did have her camera though, so she got a few shots. She loved my hotel thinking spot- which usually included the sheer curtains being pulled across the ledge too but they were shielding her shot at a good picture so she made me pull them back and look pensive.

And she did get a few shots of the TV Show's biggest fan- Sisco waiting around to meet the stars. I wonder which of the co-hosts is his favorite?

The best part of the whole trip though was that my boss- the top boss- actually let us drive his F150 BACK to Virginia! His wife drove up separately, so they drove back down in her car together.

1. Best person ever!! There are not many bosses that would let their employees drive their brand new truck on a 4.5 hour trip. And he even cleaned it out before we got in it. We left him some fuzzy dice on his rearview mirror as a thank you.

2. Best truck ever!! It was such a smooth ride, and I forgot how much I miss being in a vehicle that is a lot higher off the ground. I asked Husband if he would buy me one in black, but for some reason he didn't take me seriously.

I didn't realize how bad the bus really was until we drove back in his truck.

As always though, the highlight of the trip was everyone's favorite guest-- Yoda:

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

2011-04-06T19:44:00.002-04:00

My new thing is not doing the same old thing. Even when you are having lots of fun or love what you are doing, you can still end up in a rut. I am the first to admit when I have a problem, just ask Husband- he loves hearing about every tiny one of mine.

Kara is a huge ~~Braves Fan~~ Chipper Jones fan, so whenever they come to town we are, as her friends, required to go watch him in action. So in the spirit of shaking things up- we took our fun to the field.

It all kicked off with breakfast mamosas at Kara's swank condo on the metroline, then a pretty eventful metro ride to the stadium, followed by some rain delays (but never any fun delay)-- all culminating in one long day of taking A LOT of goofy pictures.

I tried to get them to go to a cubs game, but they just weren't having it.

Leprechaun Hunting!

2011-04-01T23:59:00.001-04:00

You know what I am really tired of looking at? That hand-puppet photo in the previous blog post.

There are so many times when my brain is on auto-pilot that I will type in my blog's web address into google and click it open with the same dire anticipation I open up my google reader to see if other people have updated their blogs. My heart fills with hope that maybe, just maybe, while under the influence of some other form of auto-pilot-- say a 3am typing fest or a margarita-induced frenzy-- that I had posted something new and completely forgotten about doing it. I know, it's narcissistic to check your own blog for new content, but that is what happens when you want to have a blog, but you don't actually feel like doing the blogging.

This conundrum has led to eventually give into the daunting task of actually posting after being out of practice for so long. So to speed things up a bit, I shall post mini-posts for now on. Around the world of Amber in a small series of post-dated mini-posts (which basically means, I can make those dates you see at the top of the page say anything I want!):

So this first post- Leprechaun Hunting may look like a long post, but really, I had nothing to say but Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Mine consisted of getting to rock my new green dress, drinking green beer ( magic coloring by request only) that was served to us by an exact Kendra (one of Hugh Hefner's old girlfriends who now has her own TV show) look-a-like. It was March Madness (I don't even want to talk about my bracket) and St. Patrick's Day so needless to say, the happy hour crowd was aplenty!

Getting Handsy When The Lights Go Out

2011-03-30T22:37:00.001-04:00

Power Outage + Flashlight = Hand Shadow Contest.

Husband's Challenge to Me: "Make a dog," he says-- simple enough, yes? But wait, there's more... "of German Mastiff descent."

Of course, Husband. Of German Mastiff descent. I should have known there would be more.

Did you expect anything less, people?

From me, that is...

Look familiar? Almost as if Rocky Balboa was a pup?

Hands down, I win. That Nationwide Spokesman has got nothing on me, and in this battle, neither did Husband.

Food for Thought

2011-03-16T18:22:00.005-04:00

Food not only sustains life, it sustains story lines. When reading, I find one of the cleverest ways writers give insight into a character is showcasing what they eat. Not how they eat, not where, not when- but the actual what.

Sure, Kathy, a lab-created clone, is fighting for a deferment from the mandatory donation of her vital organs so she can spend more time with the love of her life, but just as importantly she drinks luke-warm water with her dry “biscuits” every night before bed. Okay, so what if Cassia is just discovering that her perfect society is about to crumble from outside freedom fighters? She is about to miss the meal cart that brings her a healthy portion of vitamin-infused mashed potatoes! I know Robert is a nuclear-physicist hell bent on solving the world’s energy crisis but did you know that he can’t start a day without his nutella and banana sandwich?

I thought I was crazy too. Amber, you really think writers spend sooo much time deliberating over what their character eats? Yes, 1. Because writers have mini-anxiety attacks on every tiny, seemingly-insignificant detail when writing the world’s next greatest novel (which all authors hope they are producing- they’re both gluttons for punishment and kind of narcissistic) and 2. Because, whether you realize it or not, those food choices give you insight into the character and his/her entire environment.

What if Kathy the clone was the one eating a nutella and banana sandwich? Preposterous! She leads a simple life. Her story is a serious one. Only such a sandwich would be eaten by a kooky person (or, perhaps, someone who is a little Bananas? It’s almost poetic if I do say so myself). Nutella bananawiches are for the humorous, mad-scientist to digest in a quirky scifi novel— not for the delicate palate of another mad-scientist’s creation in a book challenging morals and ethics and questioning what it means to have a soul. No, luke-warm water and dry biscuits will do just fine for her.

Yeah, the how and the where and the when are important too. But the what! The what tells it all! What does this character choose put into their body? To satisfy their taste buds? What do they pick to give them nourishment during their life-altering journey?

Cheesefries, really? I wouldn’t have picked that. No time for food comas when you're leading the fight against an oppressive government.

These are a few of my favorite things...

2011-02-14T21:34:00.006-05:00

My Nightstand.

More specifically, my new charging station that looks like grass (it makes me wish there was a stronger word for love), my elephant ring holder (purchased on my honeymoon), the jewelry stand holding all my new Sabika jewelry (I'm a new addict), the cutest Buddha ever (who conveniently holds my spare change in his tummy), my blue dog-shaped back-knot-getter-outer-thingy, the box with clay turtles crawling all over it my brother brought back for me from my dad in Costa Rica, and the lime green baby duster for the night stand that I believe was evilly magnetically built to attract every piece of dust in the air.

My Patent Leather Heels.

Especially the ones in bright colors. I have a patent leather addiction, passed down from my mother who can't resist its shiny seduction either. I think I only own one pair of heels that isn't patent leather- and those are sparkly.

The Mickey Mouse Camera Stap.

My grandfather, who died when I was young, had one just like it that he wore all the time and I was absolutely in love with it as a child (or just loved my grandpa that much). It was willed down to my Aunt Lisa but I still always talk about it so my Mother being the ebay-savvy woman she is found me one that looks just like it online. I imagine I will get a lot of looks when I use my camera, but the sentiment means that much to me I could care less.

Surprises.

1. I LOVE surprises. I LOVE unexpected gifts, or just-because I thought you would like it gifts, or this-made-me-think-of-you gifts. Or notes... but those are a lot harder to come by these days. Anyway- surprises, especially when you have absolutely no idea are coming, are the best. I don't know anyone who would disagree with me, but I feel like I have a special love for them- probably because I'm a random gifter myself. I am horrible at giving gifts on actual holidays because if I don't think you'll love it, I find it hard for me to commit myself to buying it for you. I don't want to just get you a gift, I want to get you THE GIFT! I am rambling now.... but random gifts just seem so thoughtful. 2. It's hard to surprise me, I usually know what I am getting before I get it (or in some cases, don't get it) or I can typically tell when someone is thinking about surprising me. So true surprises, the best!

The bag above came in the mail one day in a flat envelope (the bag is the quality of those earth-friendly grocery bags that are everywhere now so it folds up super easy). It was addressed to me by the company who sent it with no receipt inside, no note as to where it came from, absolutely nothing- just the bag. The company's name was even something really general like CDE which with google gets you nowhere-or everywhere depending on how you look at it. After checking it for suspicious, deadly powdery drugs, and/or a bugging device- I settled my pondering who, what, when, whys, and wheres? on that I must have signed up for something or taken a survey at some time to get it free- but it was still a cool surprise.

The Mitt Romney T-Shirt came to my work the next day in a flat envelope too with nothing but a tag from the company it was purchased from- which really freaked me out. I mean, what are the chances of getting TWO seemingly-free, cool things in the mail in a 2 day period?? Upon closer review, and an AH-HA! moment, I found where the tag had a tiny little print note on it saying it was from one of the field reps in our southern region. Liz, who made an appearance in the previous post, "Florida Fast Forward", sent it to me after we bonded in Florida over our comMITTment to Romney in the 2012 presidential run. When I saw the gift and who it was from I was ecstatic- it was completely unexpected and made my day! Liz and I both LOVE (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE) Mitt Romney- (his politics people!) she even had a picture of her and him when she saw him speak at a recent event. I was super jelly, but was glad I found someone who shared in my enthusiasm for him to win in 2012 as well!

My Waterproof Nook Case.

On Christmas break I tagged along with Husband as he visited with a bunch of his high school friends at one of their former teacher's house- a ritual he strictly adheres to every time he is back for the holidays. I decided to come this time and while we were there one of his friends mentioned that her mother loves her ereader and even double wraps it in a plastic bag so she can float around in the pool with hers. I thought that was brilliant because I love reading in the tub. I think I even started doing it the next night while we were on vacation. But it quickly became tiresome after the first two or three times- messing with the bags was a pain and I was still terrified of dropping it. I thought, "someone should make some more permanent form of waterproof case for these things." And like all my great ideas, someone had already thought of it and I easily found one on Amazon. One birthday later, and strict instructions for Husband to purchase it for me, and I was the proud owner of the waterproof nook case you gaze upon above. Unfortunately, Husband would not let me take a picture of me with it in the tub- prude.

I had some more emotionally-centered things to list here. The post above makes me look a little materialistic (Which isn't too far fetched I am sure. I like things to look pretty.), but I think I will make this type of post a reoccurring one and next time I will list all those wonderful intangible niceties that make me all warm in fuzzy inside. You know, like raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens........... ;)

The House Rules

2011-01-30T00:01:00.002-05:00

The picture above was shot at the 1950s Day at my family reunion last summer.
Husband was not too keen on it then, but apparently now he thinks it was a swell idea.

"Why are you turning off all the lights in the house?" - Me

"Don't question what I am doing. We are going back to the 1950s when men were the head of the household and women didn't question everything they did." -Husband

"Oh okay, does that mean I can't blog any more?" - Me

"It means you have to ask for permission." - Husband

"Oh, please continue. What are the other rules of this new engagement?" - Me

"You will vote for who I tell you to vote for. You will...." - Husband

"I'm sorry, could you repeat those after the voting one. I want to type these up for my blog." - Me

"Don't you have to ask something first? Did you ask for permission to blog? Because you're not going to get it." - Husband

Boom Boom Boom

2011-01-29T22:10:00.001-05:00

Last night I topped off my birthday celebration by a joint b-day party for me and two other of our friends' birthdays. We rented out an entire boom boom bus with all of our friends and went from place to place around D.C. celebrating. Except for people saying my dress looked like an accordion all night, it was still a lot of fun!! And I still love my dress...

Unfortunately, I didn't get very many pictures!

Cupcake Cake!

2011-01-28T18:24:00.001-05:00

I don't typically bake- but for really special occasions, for really special people, I will! This weekend is Kara's birthday, so I finally had the perfect excuse to try out the giant cupcake cake mold my mother gave me over Christmas. I think she knew the novelty of the baking pan might be enough to actually get me to bake something. And Moo was right!

Kara's favorite is funfetti cake, so I braved the winter storm while I was "snowed-in" and out of work for the day because the office's power was out. But I got home with the cake mix and realized I didn't have any vegetable oil- and while debating using butter or olive oil instead, I remembered I had just bought a bunch of diet ginger ale and it dawned on me that I had completely forgot about my favorite way of making cake- 1 box of cake mix and 1 diet drink of any kind and wala! We have cake! Diet cake!

And cupcakes for other people at work...

"Go big or go home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll have the kid's cheeseburger please." - Kara

This time she can have her cake and eat it too! Happy Birthday Kara!

Snow Show

2011-01-26T21:09:00.004-05:00

Guess what?! It only took me two hours to drive home from work today! But it is all put in perspective when someone who took the alternate route home not only left way before me and didn't get home until... well, I am still getting the "still not there yet" texts from her. :( I blame it on Obama- apparently his motorcade held up traffic for hours while he skipped ahead of everyone - thanks Mr. President.

I passed almost ten or so wrecks on my way home, I got stuck twice on the street next to our place, and normally I would love to stay home the next day- but tomorrow is free January birthday lunch at work... mmmmmmmm Kara and I (the office January birthdays) picked Potbelly's.

I actually have to take credit for the onslaught of snow. Last night, before I went to sleep, I told Husband I was going to try and fall asleep thinking about a blanket of snow outside (even though we were told it wasn't supposed to start snowing until tonight). I told him I was going to wish it into early existence, possibly in hopes of getting out work today- shhhhh. Husband wrote it off as a not-gonna-happen, as he does most of my wishful thinking. Later, I woke up early in the A.M. around 4:15- checked my phone for the time, looked at the glowing light coming from the windows, flew to flip open the blinds and shrieked in excitement at the sight of the snowfall outside. Note: Husband does not like it when I wake him up at 4:15 in the morning to share in my enthusiasm- no matter if it is snowfall outside or, I suspect, even if I won the lottery. I still had to go to work today, but I have a sneaky suspicion that in light of tonight's never-ending snowfall, I will be out tomorrow.

Random stream of thoughts: What always surprises me is how light outside it looks at night when it has just snowed. And how warm it always seems to feel just before and while it is snowing. I love the first snowfall. I always get this false sense of security on the first night after it snows. Everything is still pure and calm- it looks so peaceful. I feel like nothing could go wrong.

Matlock even came out to play! And he hates the snow... or did. I haven't seen him run around and play like that in forever. He was so energetic I couldn't even get a decent shot of him (the swirled photo above being a product of trying to catch him in action). And it doesn't help that he is camouflaged...

Happy Birthday to Me!

2011-01-22T22:24:00.003-05:00

+ Birthday Decorations

+ Zen (my latest fascination) Flowers from Matlock (and Husband)

+ Margaritas and Mexican with the Girls!

+ Followed by Movie Night: No Strings Attached

+ Coffee while Perusing the Bookstore

+ Pho with Husband

+ 3 Course Dinner at Extra Virgin (Italian Restaurant)

+ Chocolate Chocolate Cake (w/lots o lots of candles)

+ Chocolate Covered Strawberries

+ Cards, Phone Calls, Emails, Texts, FB Messages, etc.
+ A Happy Birthday Video!!

+ Presents!
+ Department-wide Free Lunch (to come!)

+ Boom! Boom! Boom! Party (to come!)
+ and, as they say, many more...

= 25 Years Young

Thanks to everyone who made my birthday so much fun- and those who are

going to let me stretch the celebration out for an entire week!!

Ice, Ice Baby

2011-01-19T21:35:00.002-05:00

I got a delay day yesterday- woke up, stepped outside my apartment in my high heels and before I could even put my foot down, I pivoted back into the door. My heels wouldn't have lasted one step on the sheets of ice that had formed overnight.

It doesn't look bad, but it wasn't pretty in person. I was pretty ecstatic when I got back inside and saw that one of my co-workers had texted me telling me we didn't have to be into work until 10 AM. Just enough time to put on my snow boots and start scrapping (or at least for Husband to wake up and do it for me).

As a side note, I could definitely do more 10 AM start days- I think I was more productive and energized and there was hardly any traffic (then again, most people got off work and school instead).

Not the most fascinating post in the world, but I am obsessed with Matlock and I did promise myself I would try to blog more- so here is my cop-out- a video from Christmas time:

Plus, it's a full moon tonight! Time to get crazy!

BD ON TN DL

2011-01-18T18:45:00.000-05:00

I just got my new driver's license in the mail- and I just want to point out one thing that I can tell is not going to make me (or many other people for that matter) very happy in the future:

Excuse my shoddy photoshop skills, I am feeling lazy-
it comes with old age.

Did you figure out what it could be? Yeah, it's the GIANT birth date billboard across it. Why not just stamp it on my forehead? I'm only turning 25, so it doesn't bother me right now, but I can see this making a lot of women (and men) very uneasy about waving it around. Sorry friends, our days of claiming we are turning 21 over and over again are- over.

But I do love the new heart at the top right corner of my picture. Random, but cute. Tennessee loves me.
Side note: I just googled the heart, it means I signed up to be an organ donor. Ooh that movie "Seven Pounds"- it really makes you feel bad not to be one.

Florida Fast Forward

2011-01-13T08:29:00.009-05:00

I was in Florida ~~on business~~ (I feel too grown up saying that) for work and because of bad weather up North, my flight got cancelled, so I was stuck in Florida, on a resort, eating ridiculously good food- needless to say, it could have been a lot worse. But while I was down there, I downloaded a new video editing software to go with the new HD camera Husband bought me for Christmas, so I had to play with it a little bit. The extra day in Florida permitted me to actually get to go down to the beach for a minute-- the real video was not so interesting, the edited version though...

This is my stroll to the beach- on speed.

I mean, I say a lot of silly things and I probably sound like I'm on speed when I say them, but the video and voice distortion made it all the more funny. More on Florida later, slow mow next time.

Escaping Boredom

2011-01-07T22:45:00.004-05:00

Just did some impromptu, at-home karaoke dueting with Husband. Of course, it all spawned from yet another one of my brilliant flashes of idealistic energy as I tell him about one of the most beautiful and ridiculously awe-inspiring love songs I have ever heard.

In case you have never been privy to being around me on these not-so-rare occasions where my eyes grow to the size of fried eggs while I tell you about the next greatest thing that has come to my mind and I must! (must! must! must!) tell you about it at this very moment and if you don't agree with me or share in my excitement my entire world might just fall apart and I will hate you for anywhere between 5 seconds to 5 days for rejecting something I am so obviously passionate about-- well, then you will not understand what I am talking about, or even worse, probably think I am a crazy person after reading this entire blog post (which neither bothers me or is entirely incorrect of you to assume). But if you do know me, then you can get a nice mental picture of me going on and on while Husband looks back at me like the rambling eccentric person I am.

He whose name we do not speak.

I sing (also not so fun to listen to) the few verses of the poetic-genius that I actually know and then proceed to tell him what the song is actually about- failing miserably to accurate convey my feelings and the song's plot, and knowing that I am altering the story to my liking rather than keeping its integrity in tact- I pull up the lyrics and nonetheless he finally takes the bait. He finally caved and played along with my ever-winding and expeditious conversational path if only to get me to stop explaining and start getting to the freaking point.

And so we set off on our duet- Husband of course, not extending himself too much to appease my wild inclination, happily played the part of the vocal instrumental background music (which he did, to my surprise, very accurately for not being all that familiar with the song itself). I, on the other hand, bravely sang till the apartment walls shook (as well as my dying voice), an occurrence I am sure my neighbors upstairs hope is not going to be a reoccurring one, and belted out the scariest version of "Escape" by Robert Holmes anyone has probably ever heard. But I had heart, and fun, so I make no apologies.

Escape? You may know it by another name...

I was tired of my lady, we'd been together too long.

Like a worn-out recording, of a favorite song.

So while she lay there sleeping, I read the paper in bed.

And in the personals column, there was this letter I read:

If you like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain.

If you're not into yoga, if you have half-a-brain.

If you like making love at midnight, in the dunes of the cape.

I'm the lady you've looked for, write to me, and escape.

I didn't think about my lady, I know that sounds kind of mean.

But me and my old lady, had fallen into the same old dull routine.

So I wrote to the paper, took out a personal ad.

And though I'm nobody's poet, I thought it wasn't half-bad.

Yes, I like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain.

I'm not much into health food, I am into champagne.

I've got to meet you by tomorrow noon, and cut through all this red tape.

At a bar called O'Malley's, where we'll plan our escape.

So I waited with high hopes, then she walked in the place.

I knew her smile in an instant, I knew the curve of her face.

It was my own lovely lady, and she said, "Oh, it's you."

And we laughed for a moment, and I said, I never knew...

That you liked Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain.

And the feel of the ocean, and the taste of champagne.

If you like making love at midnight, in the dunes of the cape.

You're the love that I've looked for, come with me, and escape.

If you like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain.

If you're not into yoga, if you have half-a-brain.

If you like making love at midnight, in the dunes of the cape.

You're the love that I've looked for, come with me, and escape.

Yeah, I'm not so crazy after all.

Blog Makeover

2011-01-05T21:22:00.005-05:00

I have been reading a lot lately, and it has been making me miss my blog. But my blog has morphed into a sporadic regurgitation of what I have been up to rather than my not-so-poignant, but at times somewhat entertaining, thoughts on what's happening in my life- like I originally intended it to be.

So in the spirit of the new year and blogging more, I am redefining this blog from here on out and attempting to blog everyday- whether I like it or not (if anyone is starting a betting pool on how long it will take me not to blog one day, I've got dibs on tomorrow's date).

So while I may mention things that have recently happened in my life, like for instance the recent NRA Field Ops party, a.k.a. Field Ops Prom...

... or the bowling we did afterwards....

P.S. Love this picture!

..... or things like trips back home for special occasions....

Mainly I will be filling this blog for the next year (hopefully) with useless thoughts and information, some long most not, to appease my ridiculously large readership.

And since there is no time like the present, I thought I would tell you about my bathtub. Yep, we're going deep here guys, my wonderful, deep bathtub.

Now I'm not the kind of girl who can sit and soak in the tub for hours, surrounded by bubbles, drinking a glass of wine, and listening only to the sound of nearby flickering candles (although the more I type, the more I am thinking I should give it a chance after all)- but I do use it like men use their staycation "bathroom breaks"- you know, the ones where they go in with a newspaper or magazine (or for the real escapees- a laptop) and don't come out for a minimum of 45 minutes.

Okay, before you start thinking about #2, I am really just talking about using the bathroom as your oasis, not actually using the bathroom.

I take a bath almost every other day, for the most part, just to get away. I go into the bathroom, run the water at scolding hot temperatures, and settle in to do absolutely nothing. When I take a bath, I don't want to hear the buzzing of an overheated laptop or commercials playing in the background, I don't even want to see a piece of technology (except my wonderful, do-no-wrong best friend Nook e-reader). I want to close myself off from the world, clear my mind, and most of all---- ignore all traces of responsibility.

Yeah, I want to be lazy and not feel any guilt about it.

So when our deep, wonderful, blissful tub's clog broke from the inside and I couldn't fill up the tub for the few times a week that I get to pretend nobody else exists but me, I about had a mental breakdown. I freaked. How was I going to function without my every other day of pure mental irresponsibility? I threw a fit, stomped around my apartment, complaining for days, until silly me realized that an uncloggable tub may be the better match for my still-developing handy man skills, but it was no match for what Mythbusters has taught us is the most powerful and versatile item in everyone's home- the renaissance man of household tools---- Duck Tape.

Mmmmmhmmm... the answer was so simple. All I needed was a good redneck fix for the problem.

But I was out of Duck Tape, so I used heavy Scotch packaging tape and it works as formidable substitute:

A quick fix for what could have been the straw that broke this camel's back (which is actually kind of fitting seeing as I have constant paranoia that I am developing a hump on my back from slouching too much).

As I used to tell my friend Rebecca in grade school- "Sometimes, Rebecca, irresponsibility pays off!"

In this particular case, taking a bath helps me ignore responsibility well enough to keep me just sane enough to be responsible the rest of the time. In the case of Rebecca, well I am sure her parents didn't care much for me boasting and encouraging a personal motto of irresponsibility. But she still turned out awesome and responsible despite my many attempts to persuade her otherwise... dang will power. I think she rubbed off on me, what does that say about my will power?

I am off now- time to pretend to be irresponsible.

Family Ties

2010-12-03T22:32:00.000-05:00

Quotes from my little sister:

"I want to go to Australia so bad."
"I think I'm nocturnal."
"I want a white car."
"I try not be 'one of those girls'."
"I love giraffes."
"I wish I were older."
"I love [to talk, to act, people, God, etc]."

And that was only within the last three days. When did she become me?

Well, if she is turning into me, at least I know she's having fun.

Scratch that, she also said "I'm playing lacrosse this year," which is close enough to working out that I can rest easy knowing we are not exactly the same.

Speaking of siblings...

BNIB and Who-leeee got ENGAGED!

Man my family just keeps getting prettier and prettier every day.

Happy Turkey Day!

2010-11-25T16:46:00.000-05:00

I am thankful for the best dog- ever.

And Bob Evans, whose microwavable side dishes made for one yummy Thanksgiving Dinner.

I Am Not On Strike

2010-11-11T18:14:00.001-05:00

So this is the story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down and I'd like to take a minute just sit right there and I'll tell you how our jeep went into disrepair.

This is my story:

Twas one o'clock in the morning, when all through the house,

not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

I was out, hanging with friends,

while Husband at home laid down for bed,

When out on the road, there rose such a clatter,

He sprung from his bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the windows he flew like a flash,

tore open the door to see a great crash!
(too early for Christmas?)

Our Jeep did not fair well. Now, I'm not sure exactly what happened- but this is my Van Gogh rendering of what went down:

Now, you would think since they were on the other side of the road and just suddenly turned to hit our car that they were drunk- but they weren't. I have many other theories as to what was going on when this happened, but they would be inappropriate to mention on this blog. Wink. Wink. (wow, I have not said that since middle school- shout out to St.Eds!)

They even left behind this pretty souvenir for us...

Of course, after seeing the damage, I needed a rental car and while I was PROMISED a mid-size SUV, I got stuck with an actual car.

Ahhhhhhhh..... me in an actual car? It was almost unbearable to think of. But I trudged on and took advantage of the power windows like they were going out of style. Sure, it's October (now November), but I only had a limited amount of time to soak up my chance at blasting loud music while the wind blew through my hair. That is, until we received some news..... our Jeep was unfixable.

UNFIXABLE!

But more on that later, as many more things were going down during the two weeks I was cruisin' in the borrowed bumper car.

The time had finally come for the First-Ever Field Ops Potluck Lunch. It was intense as my department had been ragging on me for a month now about my seemingly non-existent cooking skills (self proclaimed of course, but constantly reminded of by my coworkers). Needless to say, I knew I would have to bring out the big guns- which means only one thing to me- Sausage Wontons.

Because my fellow field ops people were convinced I was actually going to show up with a bag of pizza rolls (which they would of probably scarfed down anyway), I was forced to document my entire cooking process should they question if I actually cooked them myself or not.

Now I don't want to say that I completely broke my reputation for being undomesticated.... Ma would be so proud. But I definitely made some strong strides in the right direction. Let's just say, if you want to impress someone, cook these bad boys.

Sausage Wontons

1 pkg dry Ranch dressing
8 oz. sour cream
8 oz. cream cheese @ room temperature
8 oz. sharp shredded cheddar cheese
1 lb. Hot sausage, cooked and drained (like cooking ground hamburger)
1 pkg of Nasoya Wonton wrappers (found in the produce department)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix the Ranch dressing, sour cream & cream cheese with a mixer. Fold in the cheddar cheese and sausage.

Put a wonton wrapper in mini muffin tin. Fill with the mixture above. Bake for about 10-12 minutes until heated and the wonton wrappers are golden brown at the tips.

Make approximately 55 wontons.

Note: I think there are only about 48 wrappers in the package

Cutest picture ever of Melissakurrs Bettsie at the Potluck!

Dang.... this blogging thing is hard- I am worn out.

MUST.
KEEP.
GOING.
OR PEOPLE WILL WRITE ME MEAN EMAILS.

Okay, what is next?

Work has been busy:

Picture to deceive you in thinking I have been really busy
at work and thus not blogging, but really I just like this picture.

Which I have been balancing out with my mad Trivia obsession, Veronica Mars, and Reading:

TRIVIA!

Linchpin for work pleasure, Dashwood Sisters for my sister (finally!),
and God's Debris to bring me back to High School (Dusty Smith)

Veronica Mars- only 3 seasons but I loved every minute of it.
And I won't rest until I find an emerald green leather jacket of my own.

I am so tired. But if I don't finish this blog post soon, I may never finish it.

Oooooo I almost forgot. Betts' mother hosted a bunch of us work people over at her house one day for the Betts' Bestt Korean Lunch!

It was soooooooo tasty. I mean, REALLY tasty. This is her second time doing it- and to quote Melissakurrs from the last time we did it "My Mom cooked everything white people like." And she was right because I am white and I liked it. A lot. If you can't tell- I am sucking up so that maybe she will one day host another one.

One of the most monumental things we did recently was host four people from the Clarksville Crew in our tiny apartment so we could all make our way into the big D.C. to experience the once-in-a-lifetime Colbert/Stewart Rally on the Mall!

Jon Michael, Ashton, Charles, and Will all made the trip up. And while we were expecting HUGE numbers- we weren't exactly prepared for the entire metro system being so backed up that we would have to wait in line for hours if we ever wanted a spot. Luckily! though we ran into one of our friends (and later a lot more- I don't know that many people and I think I saw everyone I knew outside of work that day) and she was taking the bus. We were one of the lucky few who caught on to this public transportation thing called buses and were able to get in line before it became the crazy popular thing to do.

So how did we pass the time while we waited? Starbucks and Will teaching me the history of Starbucks. Videotaping the wait on JM's camera, and generally watching Charles make funny faces anytime a camera came within snapping distance.

The crowds were HUGE... so crowd weaving was a must. I consider myself quit the crowd weaver (Dancing in the District days were good practice) but Charles was the only one who made it behind enemy lines with me. There was one point when everyone around us stopped to watch a guy trying to climb a tree- people were climbing trees, sitting on top of porter potties and stop lights just to get a better view- and we took it as our chance to do some mad-dashes through the crowd.

Needless to say, it ended up being me, Charles, and two cell phones with no service.

I had fun either way. Charles' height advantage allowed him to read every sign in the crowd- and boy did people have signs. Some people (who obviously didn't get the point of the rally) had serious signs, and other people (who obviously did get the point of the rally) had some of the funniest and most outrageous stuff. That, paired with it being Halloween weekend (costumes encouraged) made for a very interesting outing.

Thanks for getting us out of the house Clarksville Crew!!

To round out this blog post- I went out with friends last weekend and wake up on the last day I have our rental car and Kara says the following fatal words:

"What happened to your car?" - Kara

"Ha. Ha. That's not funny Kara. Don't even joke about that." -Me

"No- I'm not kidding, right there in your grille." - Kara

Only me. Only me.

Of course, on the way to drop Husband off at the airport so he could drive back our new vehicle from Tennessee, a concrete construction rod or whatever it is, flew into my car. I, of course, just assumed I had run over something on the road at the time it happened and had no idea that really another vehicle had kicked up what could of been a potentially horrible situation had it been an inch higher and into my windshield.

Kudos to the Rental Car guy at Enterprise- who was possibly the nicest guy ever about it. Then again, we shall see just how nice I think they are after I receive the bill.

But in better news, Husband went and picked up my gangsta! new vehicle in Tennessee and drove it allllllll the way back up here. Dr. PaPa and Husband's dad FIL (or Sam) got us a great deal on the vehicle and really took care of us... so happy!

I would of taken some better pictures, but it gets so dark so early now, I haven't had a good chance to yet. And so begins the fall back daylight-savings depression I go through every year.

I intended for that to be my last tid-bit of information, but I've been missing Witty so much lately I decided I really need some Mexican food (!!) and a funny movie to help me out. Husband and I got to the theater a little early after grabbing some grub, and our Margarita-induced confidence led us to believe we could be triumphant at one of the biggest money-making scams known to kids everywhere: The Claw Machine.

But it was no match for ANIBSHO and Husband! Because we dominated:

Count them- not one, but two! wierdly shaped dinosaur things... It was all about the journey, not the prize.

The best part was that as we were walking out of the theater after the movie, the cutest little seven year old girl was all googly-eyed over the stuffed animals in the machine and mumbling under her breath as she pointed at them through the glass, "look how cute they are... they're so cute."

And in come Husband and I handing one out to her as she turns around to look at her mother- "You want one?"

Now, I love kids. And I have seen some pretty cute kid moments in my lifetime (after all, my little sister Jessie was basically the cutest little kid ever)- but the bug-eyed look this girl gave us made me feel like a guardian angel or like I was in a scene from a movie like Miracle on 34th Street. She just stood there staring at us in silence with the most adorable wide-eyed look of disbelief ever.

We repeated our offer- "Would you like one? I have two."

"Really?"

"MmmHmmm. Really."

Shakes head yes.

"It's all yours." We hand it off to her and start to walk away.

"THANK YOU!" She jumps up and down waving it in the air as we smile and walk out the theater doors. "THANK YOU SO SO MUCH!"

Life is good.

The Cozy Classifieds

2010-10-06T21:18:00.001-04:00

Got the blog itch but don't have anything to blog about, so I show you pre-apartment switch stuff.

When we were trying to sell our couches and Husband's desk (one week out from moving day), I made these for the NRA Bulletin Board (a giant shard email inbox that works as a company classifieds section). I got a lot of nice emails from people around the building, mostly from people I know but thought it was really cool when people I didn't know wrote me too. Unfortunately (and not unfortunately), I got more compliments on my humorous posting than actual offers. It was worth it though!

But I hope I don't need to post on there again because I'm not sure I can live up to the standard I've set for my bulletin posts, ha ha.

Love people who comment. Love people who don't. Just love people.

Flour Power

2010-09-24T21:26:00.001-04:00

My friend mbetts brings delicioso fruit everyday in her lunch. She CLAIMS they taste so much better because her over-achiever of a madre rolls all the fruit in flour and then washes it off and this process gets rid of a lot of the pesticide residue and dirty nastiness of the grocery store. I bought some grapes tonight and they were looking extra yucky, so I decided to test out Madre Betts' technique, and it got messy.

I am obviously not an experienced fruit flour-er, and it didn't help when Husband threw flour in my face.

It was really gooey. Way to kick me while I am down Husband.

I look happy, but I was actually saying, "I'm going to kill you."

Like my new Florida gear too? It was only right that I was wearing it while testing out mbett's technique, seeing as she is the future wife of Tim Tebow.

Fake Rings and Fake Husbands

2010-09-22T08:00:00.014-04:00

Rumors are surfacing again. The buzz is recirculating. The slanderous news is rampant... Husband doesn't actually exist.

I have tried to deny this rumor for sometime, but this calls for drastic measures. Thankfully, Husband just happened to be trying on some new garb tonight and I caught some pictures of him in action.

And yes, I suppose you could always just claim that I'm not really married and I just hire this guy to pose as "Husband"- or that he is actually Matlock's babysitter- or that I have photoshop-ed him into my pictures. But then you would just be running the rumor mill again- tis tis. But seriously, this Husband gig is really starting to clean out my pocket book.

Speaking of Husband, remember when I blogged about one of the diamonds falling out of my engagement ring? Well, I had just been wearing my wedding ring lately- which is I actually prefer because I'm not a big jewelery person (or I am fake-married), but on Sunday I looked down and shockingly! a diamond had fallen out of the wedding band as well.

What the heck?! I exclaimed, in a less than PG tone. (Or would it actually be a more-than PG tone? Please comment so my head can stop reeling through these mind-boggling (or bloggling, ha ha) questions).

Today, a friend of mine (who just started a blog of her own, and I love love her for it!), informed me that I am supposed to get the throngs, or tongs, or thongs, on the diamonds tightened frequently to avoid that from happening. Ooops, my bad.

Anywho- since the jeweler that the aforementioned "Husband" got my rings from doesn't have a location up here, we are pondering our options as to when we can finally get it fixed. In the meantime, the girls from work and I set out on a fake-bling purchasecapade during our lunch today to cover that precious little ring finger of mine. You know, because naturally without one I have people knocking down my door and approaching me everywhere I go- right?

Nobody ever believes me when I say that for some reason. Regardless, my finger felt naked and I hate answering questions about not wearing my wedding ring all the time- so the girls and I picked out some new frosting to hold me over.

It came in a pack of two- so in case I lose one, or a fake diamond falls out of this one- I've got a backup!

I was proposed to twice today. Kara proposed to me in the mall- us being secret lovers and all, it was nice to finally get our relationship out in the open. Really open- since there were a few kiosk and passerby peeps who took it a little more serious than we thought they would. Our new engagement made it really awkward later when Husband also re-proposed to me. Been there, done that. Love it every time it happens. People should get engaged all the time- it's fun.

Husband is real. Really made-up. Mwhahahaha.

Got to go now, I have bills to pay, fake Husband photo shoots to mortgage, you know- normal Tuesday night activities.

Using Google Maps to Find Google

2010-09-21T20:23:00.000-04:00

Some days, you have nothing to blog about. Other days, you visit Google in DC for the kick-off seminar to Advertising Week D.C.!

Okay, the picture doesn't show it but we were at the Google offices in D.C. yesterday. Pretty cool place. Unfortunately, the seminar (not technically given by Google) wasn't so spectacular. For an advertising seminar I was expecting the information to be a little more... interesting. I mean, aren't advertisers essentially communicators? Fun communicators?

Not the best seminar ever- the powerpoint could of used some AdPower, I definitely didn't learn 10 things I didn't know about online marketing, and the speakers didn't really get a chance to speak on the cooler marketing endeavors. I know Facebook and Twitter are rapidly-growing social networking sites (who doesn't?), but what sites are growing that I don't know about? I know online advertising is constantly evolving, but where is it going? I know you can use online advertising to better track the effectiveness of reaching your audience, what are innovative ways companies are using it to attract brand new audiences?

Tell me Ad Week D.C.! Tell me!

It seemed like the panel had all the tools up their sleeves to show us, but they seemed more business-minded rather than ad-focused. Anywho, I went home yesterday and read my favorite marketing blogs and felt renewed.

I have to go now. Glee is on. And we basically cancelled Trivia Nights at work because of it.

Movin' On Up!

2010-09-19T18:08:00.000-04:00

Oh, hello blog? I completely forgot you were here.

Here's what's uP: I had a LONG blog post ready to go for you, but it appears that (a) I don't have a video editor on my computer that I can cut down the video on the new trick we taught Matlock and (b) I was super lazy about downloading my pictures from my phone to my computer, so now the entire post seems kind of outdated. But here's is the jist of what's gone down so far:

Husband is Home! [But really though] Matlock is home!!

School has started back for Husband, and I have been lazy with blogging because work has been busy and... we moved!

To a basement apartment right down the street in the same neighborhood we (and by we I mean Husband) walk Matlock in! It's cheaper, has a fenced in yard for Matlock, a patio area for us, and there is always a parking spot close to our door.

I just finally got the place presentable enough to take pictures of it, and I am super in love with living here. It feels so much more like a home than our old apartment did.

Would you like to see some pics of our new digs?

I tried to get pictures from every which way so you could actually get a feel for the apartment. This is why I haven't called you back yet Mom, because I know you are only calling me to hound me about not blogging about the apartment yet- ha ha.

Bedroom

Our new King Size bed from Walmart. It's a tempurpedic-type material,
and it doesn't require box springs. It is fabulous... (and I got to get new bedding).

From the side.

The Bedroom door, storing our sweaters behind it.

From the other side! Like my closet? I love it!

The $20 desk from IKEA that I made into a dressing table.

Closet again. Extra full.

The view from the bed. Dressers are also filled. Does anyone know how to fix a sagging drawer? All of ours are, and I know how to do it, it is just my fear of screwing them up completely that keeps me at bay.

And last, but not least, the random poll at the entrance of the bedroom.
It's a support beam people!

Kitchen

Isn't it pretty? We started running out of places to put our books...

Love it!

View from the Living Room.

View from the kitchen sink.

Mom will love this. There is no pantry, so to save on a whole shelf of space, I bought these magnet spice containers at World Market that I saw with my mother when I was in high school (that was 10 years ago, I know, I feel like it was just yesterday too). They go on your fridge typically. I love the way they look, and they saved me primo space.

The dining room, which sadly plays host to Husband's golf bag. Drives me nuts.

Laundry Nook & Bathroom

Laundry nook off the kitchen.

Turn left off the Laundry Nook and you come to the bathroom. Exciting, isn't it?
The tub is super deep for those long luxurious baths I take. Except for the long and luxurious part.

Bathroom Part II.

Living Room

New couch! It folds down into a twin size bed and the backs work like
beach chairs so you can recline them as far back as you want them.

View from the front door. See all that junk in the corner,
can't decide what to do with it... I love the brick though.

View from the other corner. Front door to the right.

Matlock loves his nooks. Two currently in the living room, so spoiled.

And last, but not least. One of our favorite parts is the personal patio outside...

The only thing really missing from this apartment was a random closet to put stuff in. We had to get really creative with storing things, and 90% of our stuff is under the bed right now.

Moving has also reminded me how much books are overrunning our apartment... that's why when I made a recent trip to the bookstore to pick up a few books, I decided to buy... a nook! So it isn't as cheap as going to the library, but I started adding up how much I was going to end up spending on books and noticed for a lower price I could buy a nook and buy the books I wanted. Plus, they only really had them in hardback- and I hate hardback so I am always waiting for the paperback versions to come out before I start reading them. The nook nips that in the butt.

I also notice I read faster and keep up with my reading more- I think it's because I am focused on WHAT I am reading and not how long it is going to take me to finish the dang thing. Maybe I am just intimidated by large stacks of paper...

Oh and our friend at work quit to go travel around the world or something. We bought lotto tickets to celebrate and he started a blog to keep everyone update on his travels.

Clearly, we were not lucky lotto winners that day.

And, my friend Kara (Car-uh) who I mention frequently on this blog also started her own blog. All these new blogs are making me extremely happy.

Okay, there is a lot more to blog about, but I think I have done my part for the day. Back to work!

Last Week of Freedom

2010-08-17T20:28:00.000-04:00

You remember when you had required summer reading for school? You would read the book and then two months later you finally got around to writing the actual report- but it wasn't fresh in your mind any more, you couldn't remember those little things that made you laugh or the little signals that clued you into the bigger theme of the book.

Well, that's how I feel about this blog post. It's a recap of my summer reading so to say- and I am afraid I have let too much time go by to remember all the gems that made it so blog-worthy. But for you (Kelsey), I will try. But not that hard...

Last time I blogged, I talked about my going away party- that is, Husband is coming to town so my coworkers fear they will never see me again. Well two Saturdays ago my ~~coworkers~~ friends took me out to the classiest place in D.C. . . .the Boom Boom Bus! Technically speaking, it's a bus that has been gutted and repainted to basically be a dance floor and b.y.o.b. bar inside and it trucks you around to different clubs throughout D.C. It was pretty crazy, as you could probably imagine. But the best part was always the end of the night (or depending on how you look at it, the beginning of the early morning) when we all gather at someone's place.

A few interesting tidbits from the night:

The only picture I got from the whole night.

I wore the exact same dress from the last time we all went out- what? I never go out, I don't have cute going-out clothes.
Yoda made an appearance at Kara's place again (where we gathered at the end of the night) and he was by far the most popular person at the after party. Seriously, I don't know if I can bring him anywhere anymore because I'm afraid I'll never get him back.
After taking our own survey, we can conclusively say that those Cosmo magazines surveys are pretty spot on.
Son got in a dance-war (which I so kindly prompted for him) with some random girls and feeling pretty secure in his dancing he was sure to dominate- because he usually does- and he accepted the challenge only to get completely demolished. In all fairness, the girls did turn out to be cheerleaders so their backflip and worm were a lot more polished than his.
Cab drivers should typically know where they are going, or at least be able to use the GPS in their vehicle, or go faster than 35 MPH ON THE HIGHWAY!
If someone likes boats, walk away the first time they tell you that Kara.
When someone brings a video camera out for the night, make sure you are the one always doing the filming (luckily, I was).

Boom Boom Crew! Oh how I will miss them...

As last week was my last week of "freedom" (you know, because Husband is an OH-SO controlling person)- Kara took over as my social coordinator for the week. Thus explains the rest of my busy schedule...

Next on my blog-roll is Trivia Night on Tuesday!

G.O.GRAPHY! (Trivia humor)

We think it is going to be the new NRA bowling.

Unfortunately, my powers of persuasion weren't as well received last week as they were in times before. The host was not as appreciative of my clever endeavors to get answers out of him. But that's okay, because we all know that we are the true champions- Well, technically because of some bad bonus question wagers we actually came in close to last, which we would have been very happy with because in trivia first place and last place always wins a prize. But we were not so lucky because the team who really came in last openly admitted to purposefully answering all their questions incorrectly for the Swedish Fish prize! Losers.

Well, I suppose you could say we were losers at being winners and losers at being losers. Loser squared. Wait, just for saying "loser squared" I should probably add on another loser on to the count. Throw up that index finger and thumb!

We celebrated our non-victory by taking our business to the restaurant next door where we spent a good amount of our time gushing over the telephone booth welcoming us at the entrance.

I had to use my cell phone outside it though because those sneaky restaurant owners anticipated our fun intentions and glued the door shut so nobody could get inside. Very disappointing.

Okay, onward...

Wednesday= Nails- love having my nails done, not so much a fan of getting them done (or the price tag that comes with it). Convo with woman doing my nails:

ME (talking to Kara and Sarah): Can I just bring lean cuisines to the party? I don't really do cooking.
WOMAN: ha ha, you can really get away with that when you are single- so nice, isn't it?
ME: Oh, I'm not single. I'm married. My ring is just broken right now that's why I'm not wearing it. I just don't really like cooking.
WOMAN: Oh.
ME: (Humming to myself or something else)
WOMAN: Well- you have kids?
ME: Oh, no. I don't have any kids.
WOMAN: ha ha, oh well you can really get away with that when you don't have kids- so nice, isn't it?
ME: ha ha, yep.
ME IN THOUGHT: Note to self, never tell Husband kids might lead to home-cooked meals- he will want children immediately.

Who am I kidding? Husband lost all hopes of me picking up cooking a long time ago...

But I had to get all prettified for the next night's agenda:

Thursday night was the night to end all others as I was lucky enough to go see Legally Blonde The Musical! Oh Bend and Snap! That's right!

But no theater night is complete without a feast before it, but seeing as me, Kara (Car-Uh), Melissa, and Sarah couldn't decide on a place to stuff our faces at- we just chose to have a sit in picnic at Kara's place. The food was so good... Kara made turkey wraps with avocado, Melissa cooked up some really yummy French onion soup, Sarah made a Italian pasta, crab, and vegetable salad, and me being as domesticated as I am- I took the dinner to a whole other level and went all out with everyone's favorite delicacies:

BAGEL BITES AND PIZZA ROLLS! Sorry Ma & Pa, your hopes of me ever becoming domesticated are still only that- hopes.

It was a feast though:

Please note the pink champagne, appropriate for the occasion. Picture of all the girls!

They made me do the hand pose,
I just can't pull it off like Elle does.

The place we went (Wolftrap) also lets you take food and drink in, so naturally I had to bring my pink dog tote to carry our snacks and drinks in with- soooo Elle Woods. I texted my boss this picture and said I was putting in my two weeks notice to play Elle Woods in The Musical to which he promptly fired me for... The tote matched with my hot pink shoes practically had Legally Blonde written all over it.

But not as much as the cool souvenirs I got did!

Literally.

I plan to wear this to as many law school functions as Husband takes me to- so basically, graduation day in May, lol.

Another awesome picture from the night:
You can read a better description of the night on Sarah's blog.

Well, to round out the work week my former Going Away Party Boom Boom Crew found out last Saturday that Husband wasn't coming home until the next Saturday and after doing the math figured out that left last Friday night to throw me ANOTHER Going Away Party! I was all game until Friday at lunch I got really sick all of the sudden and around 4:00 PM left work early to make a mad dash for my apartment. I thought I could still suck it up and go out that night, that is, until I started puking through my nose. That's right... through my nose! It was a new one for me too. Don't you love how no detail goes unforgotten- or unshared- in my blog?

Whatever I had, it was awful! But I did make sure they texted me throughout the entire night- I just forgot to stay awake the whole time so I could text back. Shout out to Unisom for letting me sleep through my sickness and special thanks to Yoda for taking care of me. Below is a picture message I sent the Boom Boom Crew while they were out:

Feel good I did not.

There is a bunch of other stuff I wanted to talk about from my honey-do list, but it's food time (and you know that is one thing I never miss!), so maybe after food I will blog again- but probably not because I am feeling extra lazy right now.

While Husband is Away, ANIBSHO will Play

2010-08-02T18:55:00.002-04:00

You may not believe it, but I used to go out a lot in college. Since getting married, I've become somewhat of a homebody- but my coworkers have been taking full advantage of my Husband being out of town. Just ask my summer scheduler, Kara, who has her own list of things for me to do before he gets back.

This past weekend was girl's night out on the town, which quickly turned into coworkers night out on the town. We started off with pink champagne as I toured Kara's sweet (AWESOME) new condo which she is just putting the finishing touches on. It looks like it came straight out of a Lily Pulitzer catalog. But then again, I shouldn't be surprised, as Kara herself always looks like she just stepped out of a Lily Pulitzer catalog.

ANYWHO, she lives right on the metro so I decided to slumber party it there so we could metro together. We were having so much fun hanging out at her place with YODA (that's right, I brought him to Kara's place) that we were tempted to take him out with us. Ultimately, we decided he had a better chance of surviving the night if we left him at her place to get some shut-eye.

We started out at a Mexican restaurant in Clarendon (well, actually a different restaurant, but they didn't have anything we wanted so we left before ordering) where Nick showed up with his... Capri Sun. Naturally.

The rest of the night was spent hopping from one place to the next- but I did manage to catch one good picture of us while we were out on the town (No boys allowed in this picture):

When every place was closing down, we all took a cab to my boss Jeremy's apartment. It's a pretty upscale place, so we were all required to wear hats while we were there:

Kara and I finally cabbed it back to her place around 5:30 in the morning, when the birds were chirping and when we were never happier to see Yoda's cute little face. They are already planning my "Going-Away Party" in anticipation of when Husband comes back to town and I drop off the face of the earth again. What can I say? I like my Husband.

P.S. This is my 100th Blog Post!! I'm supposed to give something away, but this really isn't THAT kind of blog, so I will give you a piece of advice I once heard Bill Cosby say: "A word to the wise ain't necessary, it's the stupid ones you need to give the advice to."

Did I just call you all wise, or stupid? I can't decide. But it can't be the latter because I know that only the smartest, most beautiful people read my blog- so nobody has anything to worry about.

Yodafied!

2010-07-30T22:34:00.005-04:00

Husband sent me this for our anniversary too... so now the force may be with me at the house and at the office:

P.S. Did I mention I went to Trivia Night the other day with a bunch of people from the office, and we lost horribly (we believe there were some iphone googlers in the crowd), but because of my fantastic schmoozing skills- I wrote "We Love [Insert Restaurant's Name Where We Played Here]!!" on every answer we were going to leave blank- we got the only Honorable Mention of the night. Feel free to hate us for our awesome prize:

Surprise Someone!

2010-07-29T22:40:00.002-04:00

Check!

It was our Admin Breanne's birthday today, and we had strict instructions by our boss (whose wife was throwing her a surprise party later) to ignore her all day and under no circumstances should we mention that it was her birthday at all. You'd think this would be easy, but considering Breanne has told us everyday for the past month that her birthday was today- this wasn't an easy task. In fact, she called me yesterday to tell me exactly what she wanted for her birthday lunch- to which I faked an emergency doctor's appointment so I couldn't "go". We got to work today and needless to say, Breanne was less than pleased (very LESS than pleased) that nobody was recognizing the day or planning a birthday lunch. Finally, a coworker from a different department stole her away for a Starbucks run (Breanne is ADDICTED to Starbucks) and we were finally able to follow through with our master plan of completely covering her desk in her favorite thing in the world (no kidding)- Bubble Wrap!

All hard feelings were forgiven when she saw we hadn't forgotten her after all. They even got her car later when some people from another department completely filled it up with balloons.

I had been saving up the bubble wrap for awhile, claiming I needed it for when I moved to my new apartment. And I also cooked up some random signs to hang around it. I was scared I was going to miss the surprise lunch party because it was going to take me so long to decorate it- but once we started, EVERYONE pitched in, so much in fact that I started getting worried there would be nobody at the surprise party- ha ha.

Here's me and Melissa enjoying the party!! I was camera lazy today...

Surprising someone was on my "Honey-Do List", and while I could check it off... I like surprising people too much, so I think I might just keep it on there for the time being. In fact, I like it so much I would highly suggest you take the time to surprise someone soon too! Spread the love...

Guess what came in the mail today?

2010-07-28T18:09:00.003-04:00

Apparently a lot of things!

When I got home from work just now, there were FIVE sticky notes on my mailbox telling me I had a package at my apartment's concierge desk. I came around the corner and the concierge started sighing, "Ahhhhh, you got so many packages in the mail today."

What's in those packages? Well, half are filled with things I ordered for Husband's anniversary gifts, so no luck seeing those pictures posted anytime soon (Sorry, Husband). But the others- well, I suspect those are MY anniversary gifts- and as far as posting what's inside- that will have to wait for later as I have a previous engagement to attend.

I love surprises! Until then...

Update!

Okay, I'm back! You probably didn't even notice that I was gone, but here is what was in the package from Husband:

It's YODA!! Husband is my Yoda- so when I saw this in stores, I knew I had to have it- especially since he was going to be away from me for so long! Needless to say, Yoda's presence has made VERY happy. I am completely obsessed with it...

He also sent this little gem:

Husband bought me a locket when we were dating, but it didn't turn out as nicely as he had hoped- I really love this one and in the short amount of time I wore it out tonight, I already got many compliments on it. Now I just need to put some pictures inside of it. Maybe I will put a picture of Yoda wearing the locket inside it, ha ha. I leave you with Yoda wearing it:

Like it, you do.

The Honey-Do List

2010-07-27T23:22:00.002-04:00

Technically, it isn't a Honey-Do List. It is more of a do-while-honey-is-gone list. While we were in Tennessee, Husband and I came up with a go-to list of things to preoccupy me while he was gone (as if I don't have a million lists lined up already)- but I have been so busy, I have hardly had time to start crossing things off it.

But being busy is just an excuse- I mean, aren't we all ridiculously busy? Life is hard. True story.

But like most of my lists, each day I am adding to it faster than I am crossing them off. So I figure if I blog about it to you, I can at least guilt myself into remembering to do them. Plus, they are all things I really want to do or accomplish- so I am excited about trying to accomplish it all before he gets back.

As all of us communications majors used to say- we aren't procrastinators, we're just deadline driven.

So look forward to lots of future blog posts on the subject, and go ahead and cross this one off the list:

Got my nails did! Yes, I just took this picture- I am super sleepy, okay?

I promise everything else on my list isn't as trivial as this one- but don't they look pretty?

Happy Anniversary Husband!

2010-07-24T19:24:00.006-04:00

A Poppin' Good Time!

2010-07-22T19:37:00.006-04:00

A few months back, SY got the brillant idea of doing a girl's night out on the town to watch a show at The Kennedy Center- within moments we were looking up shows and the closest one we all got excited about was The Broadway Musical hit, MARY POPPINS!

We bought the tickets forever ago, and finally last night was the big night! The entire day we were brushing up on our Mary Poppins songs and by 4:00 our bosses had kindly agreed to let us leave early to get a jump start on the rush hour traffic. Now, take a Step In Time with me as I relive the night for you...

We had grand plans of getting ready at Kara's new place, but opted to change in the NRA bathrooms instead. Then we were off to Kara's to use her metro-friendly parking spaces. One hop on the orange line later and we were walking into some tiny Italian restaurant underneath The George Washington University Inn that Melissa made reservations for us at. It turned out to be the perfect place because not only were they used to show-goers time constraints (they were super fast!) but it was also within spitting distance (I exaggerate, but it was close) to The Kennedy Center. I can't remember the name of the restaurant, but it was Italian food and it was yummy! The whole time we were there though, I had to keep resisting the urge to ask if I could get a Spoon Full of Sugar.

We walked over to The Kennedy Center and it was so nice to go to some place in D.C. and not have to go through secret service (once again, I exaggerate) security and more so, it was the first time I had been in D.C. in a while when everyone was so nice to us. In fact, people were offering to take our pictures, joking around with us, asking us about ourselves. I think I want to just live at The Kennedy Center, ha ha.

Walking the "red carpet." We asked the security guard to take a picture of us
so we could feel like we were being followed by the paparazzi.

Well, needless to say, but the show was SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS!! Spell check isn't recognizing it as a word, but we all know what it really means. It was Practically Perfect in every way.

Me, actually trying to do the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious dance that
I am positive I could never actually come close to succeeding at.

The Opera House was beautiful (as you can see above) and my only complaint was that the gift shop was seriously lacking. They didn't even have a pen that said supercalifragilisticexpialidocious on it- what up with that? Maybe they need to pull that out of Mary Poppins' bag instead of the random stuff they had there. I wanted a Mary Poppins bag too, but they didn't have one. And most of all, the umbrella she used was $40!! Too expensive for my taste.

Me and Sarah, so sad about the time delay, heat,
and I just wanted a diet coke!

The night was fabulous! And we had so much fun- that is, until we reached the metro where (1) Melissa saw a mouse skid by our feet, (2) we had to wait 20 minutes in the sweltering heat of the metro until the next one came, and (3) we were all super thirsty and tired by the time we got back to our vehicles. I call that short time our Brimstone and Treacle time.

By this morning, we had all forgotten about those little facts and were just holding on the good time memories.

Chim Chim Cher-ree....

P.S. Here is another photo but with just three of us- luckily Sarah was sporting the spring floral look, without her with us we would have looked like we were heading to a funeral rather than Mary Poppins!

We might just institute theater once a month if we can keep it up. As far as for August, we've already got our tickets- LEGALLY BLONDE THE MUSICAL!! I'm practically giddy.

OH! I completely forgot to mention that I never noticed how much Mary Poppins was about drugging kids to behave. Sure, she can fly! She's got those kids high as a "Kite" on whatever she was constantly having them wash down with a spoon full of sugar. Seriously people, watch the musical, study the movie- I think you'll see exactly what Disney is advocating for. Just another one of their clever, subliminal messages.... ha ha.

Sometimes you just want to shut yourself off from the world and think...

2010-07-20T19:54:00.003-04:00

Me, looking pensive as I write.
A photo just so you have a photo to look at while reading this.

I woke up this morning wanting to do something nice for someone else. I was in a really good mood despite that I wasted an hour trying on everything I owned and only finally settled on what I wore because if I spent any more time getting ready I would be even more late than I was already going to be. I spent my entire drive to work today wondering how I could make someone else's (or everyone else's) day a little better. But I should have known something was up. Every time I get one of these urges to do something kind for someone else, my day quickly turns into a test of patience or a war with myself.

Of course, still in my good mood, I let the people who cut me off in traffic whiz by without shaking my fist in the air or honking at them- instead, I said what my Princess Nana always says, "Maybe it's an emergency. I hope they get to where they need to go safely".

I greeted people with big smiles on the elevators, and instead of avoiding eye contact, I spoke pleasantly about the weather or whatever else seemed to occupy their minds at the time. This used to be a regular me. I used to love people, I used to feel a strong urge to always help people, but since moving away from Tennessee, I have become a little hardened, a little disheartened by inconsiderate people and selfishness so blatantly on display, and worst of all, have even adopted a few of these bad habits myself. But more so, I have become aware of just how much people take others for granted, how I take others for granted, how they take me for granted. Why do we do that? Why is it so easy for us to do it?

Truthfully, with all the horrible things happening around the world and the horrible things happening right in our backyards, not to mention our daily encounters with others, I am surprised so many people find the energy to be kind or happy at all. Watching the news everyday has become discouraging, only because they focus on the sensationalist stories which are more often than not tragic or anger-inducing. Stupidity is glorified on TV. Frienemies are a staple of following the it-girl mentality. Maybe it is laziness or a generation of "it's not my fault no matter what" excuses, but whatever it is, I am tired of being surrounded by it on a daily basis. It is so easy to act this way, are we all just taking the easy way out?

I don't think I really helped anyone today. Instead I was distracted by my ever-encroaching "me-mentality" and despite a few of my efforts, I was unsuccessful and mostly received sideway glances more than anything. Most people (where I am), when you try to help, are only considering your ulterior motive- flirting, sucking-up, trying to get information out of you, etc. The last thing people seem to consider is maybe you just wanted to help someone, maybe you are just a good person (or at least for a moment you are trying to be), or maybe you just woke up this morning with an urge to help someone else.

I am far from perfect, and if I was a better person I would probably say I am only being tested in my strength and my courage to overcome unfavorable-circumstances and still prevail regardless of them, but it is hard to believe much of anything but the worst these days. My faith in myself, and my faith in others is shaken on a daily basis and it has become a daily struggle to feel anything but indifference (can you feel indifference? ha ha) or strife. In fact, as I write this, I can already hear people whispering about it later, or laughing about amongst themselves. I can even see myself deleting this tomorrow morning when I have renewed my spirit and regained (from only He knows where) a new confidence in others.

This is more along the lines of a letter I would send to a friend (Jana & Kelsey!) and I could go on and on about this subject (as if I haven't already done so), but I doubt you would be interested in reading it considering the more-emotional I get in my blog posts, the less people actually seem to respond to them. So for reading this far, I will at least leave you with a post within a post:

Something Is Missing

Last week, I looked down and made a shocking discovery... one of the main diamonds in my wedding ring had fallen out! I looked down at it and my jaw dropped but that was about it. I should have been freaking out, but I knew we had insurance so it wasn't a huge ordeal. Still though, I was kind of surprised at how I wasn't as angry sentimentally-speaking.

All-in-all though, I think I felt like it was more on-par than anything. Something is missing in my life right now. Husband is in Tennessee doing his internship for the summer, did I mention that? And while he is missing, I am missing him like crazy.

Wake Up Call!

2010-07-18T04:00:00.000-04:00

It is almost 4:00 AM and I am so dedicated to my blog stalkers that I decided to post at this peculiar state of awakeness and simultaneous sleepiness. I only got back to my hotel room moments earlier from finishing up our last night of our annual youth education summit scholarship program- and I am E.X.H.A.U.S.T.E.D.

We toted 45 high school students around the D.C. area for an entire week, where they participated in group debates, made individual speeches, and learned an extensive amount about our nation's history. I have to be at the shuttle in only thirty or so minutes, so this will hopefully knock out two birds with one stone: get me to post since I haven't in forever AND keep me from falling asleep in my somewhat-swanky, king-size bed de hotel.

I got a really good chance to use my camera during certain parts of the program. I wish I could have been on the photographing the entire time, but I am there to work- not to have fun! But who says you can't do both? We had a little downtime at the FDR memorial before we headed off to the National American History Museum, so I took the opportunity to take, what I called, some "Senior Year" photos of the kids. I got so many good shots, and it really helped make the slideshow at the banquet that night a lot of fun. But, thanks to my YES soulmate (and two-time YES chaperone from West Virginia), Matthew Thompson, I also managed to get a picture with just me and most of the students there too. But you know I can't take a serious photo... enjoy...

We always get the best of the best, and these students were so much fun! I have good stories about all of them, but of course they have all become inside jokes and they would only be funny to me, so I will spare you the details.

Below are just a few other pictures of me and the rest of the staff, along with just a few of my favorite photos taken throughout the week by me and various other people... some of them are so cute it makes me really wish I could have been taking pictures throughout the entire week- Oh the places we go! They would have all made such great pictures. But for this year, you get these:

It was so much fun, but I am seriously lacking in sleep, so I am off to help get these kids on their planes and, hopefully, grab some shut eye for the rest of the day.

YES!

Family Riverunion 2010

2010-07-11T23:59:00.002-04:00

Well people, I am super tired- and since we are moments from officially beginning our big scholarship program- I am going to cheat on this one.

But before you watch the slideshow... just know that:

We had the biggest fireworks display on the river. Rumor has it, there was over $10,000 in fireworks that night. Boats lined up to watch it (like they do every year- we're kind of a big deal), and I was so close I got hit with shrapnel- it was awesome. Not to mention, I love watching everyone and all the dogs run around with neon glow-necklaces on.

We did have a 50s-themed night. Last year was Pirates, and I was hoping we would continue it every year. I can't remember what we came up with for next year... should be good though.

And also know that Husband and I came in first place in TWO of the competitions. We were the Riverunion Champions! I think they should of named us Mr. & Mrs. Riverunion 2010 (it's not a tradition yet, but it could be).

Dominating in the Egg Toss.

Okay, you may now begin watching the slideshow.

To see more, just click on "View All Images". This one of BNIB is my all-time favorite though:

Lookin' good BNIB, lookin' good.

Tennessee, Take Three

2010-07-10T19:59:00.007-04:00

To catch up on the Tennessee Trip- this is going to be my blog post about the more random things I did while I was down there.

I had to show you this picture of Husband with
our niece and nephew, Maggie and Macon.
But it wont load the right way and it is making me very angry.

1. I was sick half the time with sinus stuff. It wasn't so horrible, but there was one day where I literally felt like nothing would make me more happy than to chop off my nose and go to sleep.

Did I ever tell you that Husband NEVER gets sick? Literally, have never seen him sick- ever. He says none of the males in his family ever get sick- he thinks they have some highly-evolved genes or something. This is good for him, but not for me. Think about it- you have someone who never gets sick taking care of a sick person- he has no idea what a migraine feels like, or even stomach ache. He just looks at you like you're making the whole thing up, lol.

2. Before going to Tennessee, I kept telling Husband that I really wanted to eat some good Mexican food while I was there. Not that the Mexican food up here isn't good, but it is... fancier-more Americanized. And not that the food I ate in Tennessee is necessarily authentic- but it is cheap and tasty. Well I kept repeating it to Husband, and for a while there I thought it wasn't going to happen. So MIL picked me and her son up some chips, salsa, and cheese dip to satisfy my craving- and it did! But then the next day, I went to lunch with my parents and brother BNIB and we ate Mexican food! Then, the next day I went to lunch with my awesome friend Kelly, where we ate Mexican again!

I thought I was right back in college every time someone mentioned they would like to go eat Mexican food. I think I could eat it everyday and never fall out of love with it. That and Italian food, and Chinese food. Maybe just food in general.

(Picture right: Me and Lisa in college at our favorite Mexican restaurant - La Cabana a.k.a. La Canasty. It is one of my all-time favorite photos for some reason. Oh, and I had died my hair brown for a short period).

After lunch with the fam, Mother bought me a bouquet of some of my favorite crazy-daisy flowers:

3. After picking up some grub with Kelly (MISS YOU! Plan your wedding already!), I got to go shopping with my other friend, Rebecca! We went to Sam's Club and pretty much tried every free sample they had, it was beautiful. And then we took this awful picture of me (but naturally, a great one of the always-photogenic Rebecca).

4. The night before I went to go see the new Twilight movie, Eclipse, at the midnight showing. That's right, and Husband actually went with me. It was the best of all 3, I think. But I'm no movie critic. We purchased our tickets ahead of time, and the theater used every theater it had to accommodate the large crowds. I was so tired, I kept thinking "Why did I ever think this was a good idea?" and then the movie started and it all became so clear. Team Edward!

Taken with the beautiful, but elementary, Freedom Phone.

P.S. I had to just google why the third book was called "Eclipse" because there was never an eclipse. It's a metaphor for when Bella refers to Edward as her "Sun" and Jacob refers to Edward as Bella's eclipse. Sooo young adult fiction deep, right?

5. Before the Eclipse, me and MIL enjoyed some time in the sun. They have a sweet salt-water pool, and Matlock hates it when I am in the water so much, he usually barks at me until I get out. But I wasn't budging, so I told Husband to put him in the pool with me. Every time I put Matlock in the water with me, he becomes a frozen rock. It is the cutest thing ever.

Taken by Husband's much higher-quality camera phone.

I even put him on that pink float in the background for awhile, which made him a little happier, but still not pleased. He finally settled on chilling outside the pool, helping his daddy hit some golf balls.

6. Ever since Husband and I got married, I have been talking about going to Ireland. I don't know where this fascination suddenly came from (yes, I'm part-Irish, but I don't think that's where I am getting it), but I have been wanting to travel outside the U.S. for awhile now and have never had the time, nor the money, but I go through kicks of where I want to visit the most. Right now, Ireland seems to be the forerunner. Well, after meeting up with Rebecca (sorry this is so out of order), I drove back towards Clarksville to pick up Husband so we could go see our friends, Clay and Amy, who live in Erin, TN.

All Husband knew about the place was that it was a very small town about thirty minutes from Clarksville, and I told Husband it was supposed to be a mini-Ireland. He didn't believe me, but once we got there I made Clay and Amy (of Clamy blog) give us a walking tour of the tiny-town. They live smack in the middle of "downtown" so we got to see all the best sites.

Clamy: Clay and Amy

Surprise! Bobo came too!

I am pretty sure the locals thought I was nuts for going around the sleepy town and taking pictures, but I thought it was awesome. I told Husband he could rest easy now, that I had been to Ireland.

There was, of course, lots more. But I think that's enough for now.

Oh wait! I forgot to mention that I finally got to retire the Freedom Phone with my new Droid Incredible. I'm finally back in touch with the world! Isn't it pretty? I still miss the Freedom Phone, so I am entertaining the thought of bedazzling a clear phone cover as a tribute to the old red, white, and blue.

Next up: 2010 Family Riverunion!

Wedding Crashing by Invitation Only

2010-07-08T23:03:00.004-04:00

Summer is the season for weddings, so when I was in Tennessee I decided to just crash some random church and it ended up being one of my best friend's weddings!

JJOHN and ANIB, now JHARR and A(NIB)SHO.

Okay, I was lacking in inspiration for this blog post since I just posted about my brother's wedding party and how much fun it was and then I was scared I would just sound like I was repeating myself, so I made that first part up.

I took brother BNIB and Julie as my date, seeing as the groom is in my brother's fraternity and the bride was in mine. BNIB ended up being a terrible date as I hardly saw him the whole time I was there, but he did pay for my meal later so all was not lost.

Okay, back to the wedding. Doesn't JJohn just look like a perfect barbie doll? Gorgeous! I was so happy to see her, but I had to hang back it being her wedding day and all- I didn't want to monopolize her time (well I did want to, but I didn't). I did manage to save her (momentarily) from the cutest flower girl ever, who was convinced JJohn was a real princess and wanted to be in her arms at all time.

And I got to see all my O.B.I.C. girls (am I still allowed to say that?).

KBray (I had so much fun talking to you!), Jenna, Jana, Me, and Julie.

WHAT UP Jana?! I feel like I didn't get to see enough of you. And guess who I didn't get to see at all? Kelsey. (That's right, I'm calling you out Kels- some Assistant Executive Chair you are- remember when everyone was so mad I started calling you that at meetings? ha ha) Don't worry, I'm not mad, just sad. I was expecting my fill of Jana and Kelsey and didn't even get a morsel of what I expected. I guess that means you'll have to come see me now...

Christine, Savannah, and Me!

Ooooo and SavvyAnna was there! And my big diamond sister, Lisa, was there too, and her dad thought I was Christine's sister- which was a really funny conversation for a second because I didn't recognize him at first and couldn't remember exactly how I knew him. I kept running through my mind of everyone I had ever met through JJohn.

I got to see a lot of old KA's too, one of which (Evan) was mistaken by sorority sister (Jenna) as my husband. That was an equally funny conversation. Oh, and don't let me forget Jessi Curtis, who is going to start a blog now- because I want her too, right??

Later, when the bride and groom broke for the exit, we decided to keep the party going at the Hooter's in downtown Nashville (which was INSANELY packed for some reason). I hailed a Doubletree hotel shuttle in the rain and told the driver we were staying there (i think at least someone in our group was staying there so it wasn't a complete lie) and could use a ride to Hooters. Clyde happily obliged and when we all packed in for the literally two block ride, he awarded us with little debbie oatmeal cakes when we answered his Tennessee trivia correctly. The line at Hooters was horrible, so to make the time go by faster, Christine and Lisa's boyfriend (not pictured) had a hula-hooping contest in the waiting area. Oh to be in college again.

Okay, I forgot to mention a ton of people, but it is 100 degrees in my apartment right now and my mind can hardly process anything right now. JJohn, I love you, and I can't wait till all of us are finally able to institute our "Blood Marys on Back Porches" days we talked about so many times.

Jeremiah was a bullfrog...

Way down yonder on the Chattahoochee....

2010-07-07T23:19:00.007-04:00

My annual summer vacation to the Volunteer State was pretty much bursting at the seams with seeing people. I just got back on Monday night and I am pleasantly-exhausted. But because there is so much to talk about, I am going to string along the rehashing of details (and pictures) in a few, and hopefully a week's-worth of blog posts. The first to take stage was the action-packed "got hitched" party my brother, CNIB, and my now sister-in-law (SIL!), Faith, threw for all (and I do mean ALL) of their family and friends in Chattanooga.

To shake things up a little bit, I thought I would put the description of the eventful night to the tune of but what else than Alan Jackson's infamous country song, "Chattahoochee"?

That's right peeps, I went way down yonder on the Chattahoochee,
where it got hotter than a hoochie coochie.
We laid rubber on the Virginia asphalt,
we got a little crazy but we never got caught.

Down by the river on a Friday night,
pyramid of solo cups in the jazz club light.
Talkin' ta family and dancin' 'with friends,
never had a moment, just wishin' it wouldn't end.

Yeah, way down yonder on the Chattahoochee,
never knew how much that party would mean to me.
But I saw an old friend and I saw my old man,
Tried to spend time with everyone I can.

Well...

We made a lot of noise, always had to shout,
and even took pictures with a cardboard cutout.
It's a bad beer when it's hot, a bad beer when it's cold,
but there was no line at its keg, so we drank Fat Tire like it was '49 and gold.

Down by the river on a Saturday night,

Can you even tell that my Princess Nana is standing next to
a cardboard cutout of the bride and groom?

pyramid of solo cups in the jazz club light.

Talkin' ta family and dancin' 'with friends,

never had a moment, just wishin' it wouldn't end.

Yeah, way down yonder on the Chattahoochee,

never knew how much that party would mean to me.

I swapped shoes with my sister and still got a blister,

Wore the same dress as another, but it didn't even bother.

'Cause I learned a lot about lovin' and a little about livin'.

Blew the couple a kiss, said cheers to Faith and Chris.

Chanted USA! USA! USA! but then I couldn't stay.

Phew! That was tougher than I thought it was going to be... wonder if I can at least insert the background music onto this thing so you can at least TRY to sing along. I am pretty sure my syllables aren't matched up correctly and that I added or forgot a whole other verse, but I am very okay with that.

Well, in case you didn't follow the lowdown I gave you in the beautiful lyrics I wrote above, here it is again for all of you who aren't exactly the "read-between-the-lines" type of people (men everywhere). I went down to Chattanooga for CNIB and Faith's wedding (you gotta have Faith! - George Michael), where they apparently know every single person in that town. Seriously, I think they have a fully-blown addiction to friends. Sure, you say, a person can never have too many friends. But I beg to differ, one such time a person might have themselves thinking they have too many friends would be at... say... a wedding where they were footin' the bill.

They had a HUGE crowd at their wedding, and it was so much fun. My aunt looked at me during the party at one time and said, "Where the hell did they get all these people? They can't know all of these people." It was purely logical though- she was in a sorority, he was in a fraternity, they had the party in their college town- it was only natural... AND FUN!

Holritz Photography captured the feel perfectly. I was just looking at all the
professional pictures of the party and they are spectacular.

I hardly sat down the whole night. I got to dance for the first time in a long time thanks to my little sister J who doesn't mind doing the goofy kind of dancing I like to do (once you roll out the shopping cart, it is only a matter of time before the sprinkler is in full-force and roger rabbit makes an appearance).

It was awesome getting to see all my family (even though I would be seeing them shortly at the 2010 Riverunion! *future post*), and I even got to see some of Chris' old high school friends. Speaking of old friends, I ran into Krystyn Cochran! I feel like the last time I saw her we were moon-bathing, emptying one of those Sam's Club-size Cheetoball Tubs onto her trampoline, and sticking people's underwear in the freezer while they slept. Oh, the good ole days.

My dad, who lives in Costa Rica, even made an appearance (which I learned about the day before I went). PHOTO OPT! (I am hoping to eventually have some better pictures for this post, but I didn't take but one while I was there and now I am at the mercy of others for pictures.)

Hmmm... I believe that is all I can say on the matter. I mentioned the cardboard cutout, right? Awesome.

I mentioned that the bartenders couldn't keep up with the amount of people at the party, right? Hilarious.

I told you about the pool party before the actual party, right? I didn't?! Well, the wedding party was actually on my brother's birthday, so we all went to his house for a pre-party party, where he received a gift that lit up his entire face... a truly CNIBerish gift... I will also leave you with this gift...

It was a dark and stormy night.

2010-06-23T06:53:00.009-04:00

Husband and I were enjoying a nice evening of watching our latest Netflix obsession, Roswell (anything about Aliens and I am in), when the storm outside started brewing. Of course! I thought, there wasn't a cloud in the sky earlier and I had chosen that very day to get my car washed. Go figure. Then, right as I am about to publish the best blog post to end all other blog posts- the power goes out!

Now, this isn't the first time the power has gone off in my apartment. Sometimes it is because the hair blow dryer is going at full speed at the same time I am watching TV. But this time, the whole building's electricity came to a screeching halt. Right after the lights went out, I heard a roar of "Oh my goshes" coming from outside our window. People from our building were hanging out outside next to the pool area and saw the entire building's lights go out. I wish I had been out there, that must have been such a cool experience.

Husband quickly turned into panic-mode because the lights being out meant that not only would we not get to finish our Roswell episode, but now we were forced to find some other form of entertainment that didn't involve the computer, television, game systems, or technology in general.

Husband goes into a deep depression
after the power outage.

"Now what are we going to do?!" There was no light in the room, but I could still see him shaking his fist in the air with utter desperation.

And then I said what no Husband ever wants to hear...

"Well, I guess we could just talk."

A "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" rang silently from his head.

He knew I would be excited that all the lights went out. After all, I love candles, I love anything that breaks up the monotony, and I love peace and quiet. After lighting all the candles we had (Note to self: must buy more candles), I decided to take this opportunity to use try out my new camera in the candle-light.

I couldn't see a lot of the buttons, so a lot of it was blind trying. But I did manage to make a cool star out of the candle lights by moving it in a star pattern as I took the picture. So simple, but so much fun to try. I couldn't believe it actually worked:

Once Husband saw me having fun with technology, he snatched the camera from me to take some of his own.

The power outage lasted until the middle of the night (don't worry, I went and turned off every light so in case that did happen, I wouldn't wake up to a million lights on). But I think it must have been the entire block, because I slept so well without any light streaming through my windows.

Husband thought someone probably crashed into a light pole and hoped everyone was okay. I preferred to think it was a spy trying to steal something from someone's house or apartment, and to avoid making a scene- he/she needed to cause a huge distraction and turn off everyone's lights instead. Then, I went searching for my cell phone and couldn't find it anywhere. Maybe I was the one being spied on...

Probably not though, I eventually found my phone because the bling on it caught the flickering light of the candle and exposed its hiding place. That is, unless the spy is really good and stole it and then put it back in time for my second-search party. Dang, they are good.

Say Cheese!

2010-06-10T22:00:00.001-04:00

As you already know, I have been working hard to lose weight. It started out as a healthiness thing, then it turned into a goal thing, and now it has turned into a done thing! I woke up this morning and had officially reached my goal weight of 130!

To show Husband I wasn't lying later, I took a picture to document this momentous occasion. I know a woman is never supposed to tell her weight (or age), but I am 24 years old and weigh 130 pounds, and I'm pretty freakin' happy about it. Any poundage I lose after the fact will only be an added bonus.

I still don't look super-skinny or anything, and if you haven't seen me in awhile you probably wouldn't think I really looked any different, but there was some definite bulge developing and I wanted to nip it in the butt before it got a chance to spiral out of control.

Did I mention I LOVE eating? Seriously, wish I could be eating 24/7. I blame my mother for being such a good cook- I've never done drugs before, but I imagine her food has the same addictive qualities as crack. One taste of her mouth-watering sausage wantons and- well, there really is no such thing as eating just one of them, and I think that says it all. But if you don't believe me, just ask Husband's family. How do you think I won them over? I brought my mother's delectableness the first time I went to Christmas with his whole family, and two months later, he proposed. It turns out, you don't have to be a good cook to hook a man, you just need someone who will do the good cooking for you so you can pass it off as your own. Thanks Ma!

Okay, enough parental-blaming for the time being. Since losing weight, the best part has just been feeling so much better! I've tried and failed before (haven't we all when it comes to dieting?), but then again, I did have a sweet incentive waiting for me at the finish line....

AN AWESOME DSLR CAMERA!!

Unfortunately, I had to take pictures of it with my old camera. It's like the best dentist in town having to get his teeth done by the second best dentist in town. He is the best dentist in town and he's the one that has to live with sub-par teeth! And a bad set of chompers on the man who makes his money off of making them look good, is not good for business. I know, craziness, right?

I knew my Olympus Evolt E-620 was going to be in the mail today, but was so sad when I got home and opened it up and I didn't have the right memory card for it. Shake ya fist! My stepfather, a camera enthusiast/expert, picked it out for me and I thought for sure that him knowing me so well and all that he would know I wouldn't read the fine details of the description and notice that I was going to be missing a very important part of the picture-taking process. Fear not people, one trip to Target later and I was ready to start shooting!

It is kind of loud when it takes a picture, but I LOVE LOVE it- especially the swivel live-image view screen:

I am also stoked that I finally got to purchase a LugLife bag. I saw a LugLife bag forever ago and kept trying to think of good excuses to purchase one. Then, when I was waiting for my new camera to be shipped to me, I did a lot of online shopping for a camera bag that wasn't so, well, camera-bagish. I couldn't find much, and especially nothing great for under $100. But after an exhausting night of googling, I remembered my long lost-love of the LugLife Puddle Jumper. I thought it would be a little too big, but was willing to make it work if the price was right. When I went to LugLife's website I was so happy to learn they had since developed a mini-puddle jumper!

Is that lucky or what?! As an organization lover, who is using it as a camera bag, I figure I should at least give you proof of why it is so awesome. Here are some pictures that may explain why it is so perfect (for anything really):

Look at all those pockets! It has a pocket everywhere, for anything you can imagine. Perfect for all those bulky or tiny camera accessories. But the selling point for me (not that I really needed one to seal the deal or anything), was the easy access pocket I could use to put my camera in (which is advertised as a nice place to keep a change of shoes, but I think the larger one is better for that. If you ride the metro and keep a comfy pair of shoes in your bag, I recommend the regular size puddle jumper!).

The secret pocket also keeps it safe from all the other items in the main storage section of the bag. The whole bag is also really nicely padded- making it perfect as a camera bag! And it comes in a bunch of fun colors! I went with black though, because it goes with more outfits.

Now, to retire the old camera and show you some shots from my new one. These are just on auto without flash, but I still think you can really tell the difference in the quality. I didn't have anything interesting to shoot, and am still waiting for the battery to fully-charge, but here are the quickies:

The first shot with the new camera!

I never thought I had odd looking feet, but they are kind of freaking me out in that picture.

Me trying to figure out how to use the live-image swivel view screen to take a picture of myself.

After finally convincing Husband to take a picture with me. Don't be fooled, he only looks really happy because we were watching something really funny on TV. And finally...

You know I can never resist taking a picture of the pup!

Can't wait to play with it more. I'm already annoying enough with my regular camera, I can only imagine what is to come of me now. Say Cheese!

Prepare To Be BeDazzled!

2010-06-09T21:31:00.000-04:00

Long story short, I had a Blackberry Storm which treated me well for awhile but got progressively worse and eventually developed into the most unbearable device I have ever owned, and yesterday it stopped working all together. My mother was kind enough to let me take her upgrade and so I made my way to the Verizon store- I wont go into detail about how mad I get every time I go there, but I did end up finding a phone that I liked. It also happens to be one of the most popular phones on the market right now and nobody in the near vacinity had one in stock. Such is life.

SO I opted to wait it out for a phone I really wanted rather than purchasing something I didn't really want right on the spot. This is actually a pretty big moment for me as I tend to get the "gotta have it right nows" and can be relentless and unforgiving when I get a goal in my head. Some call it impatience or needing instant gratification, smart people know I just get... enthusiastic about things.

While I am waiting for my Droid Incredible (and if you have heard negative things, DO NOT mention them to me. I am a firm believer of self-fulfilling prophecies and I don't want any negative thoughts swimming around in my head. In case I wasn't clear: If you don't have anything nice to say [about the Incredible], don't say anything at all! [pretty please!]), I have to use an old Verizon phone I still had in my desk. This is also remarkable as my old phones usually go in the (1) trash bin, (2) to my brother, BNIB, who breaks phones at an unimaginable rate- seriously, I went to his apartment one time and found seven RECENTLY USED cell phones laying around in plain site, don't let any store tell you they have a phone that is unbreakable, BNIB has proved over and over again that no phone is truly indestructible - or (3) don't work anymore, hence why I got a new phone.

So knowing that I could be stuck using this old school phone, with no email or facebook or anything!, for up to 3-4 weeks, I decided there was no reason I shouldn't shake things up and do what all cool people do and BEDAZZLE IT! That's right, I've pimped my phone, I've blinged it out, I've sparkle-fied it. But best of all- I've made it EXTRA cheesy by giving it a patriotic theme. I wonder if I say it is a Second Amendment theme if work would let me expense it...

U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

AMERICA, AMERICA... Bada-BLING!

THE PHONE OF THE FREE, BABY!

PATRIOTIC PUPPY!

Are those fireworks coming from my ear?! No that's just me talking on my BLINGING cell phone. And just because I love you guys so much, here is another one for you:

That phone is FREEDOM-LICKING GOOD!

To come: random rants, a new camera?, the best bag for organization freaks, and more!

Pandarized!

2010-06-05T15:33:00.001-04:00

When someone is out of the office for a long time, or even just for lunch, bad things can happen. A fellow co-worker of mine extended her long Memorial Day weekend into a mini-vacay- so me and Nick (Finance) decided to mess with the small panda collection she has in her office while also leaving her with a new present for her wall. We had much grander plans, but were still pretty pleased with the results:

Pictured above is one of the pandas who got tied up and blindfolded while Nicole (Event Services) was out. The underage panda beside it decided to take advantage of the situation and got a little too tipsy with the shot glass.

We aren't actually sure what the panda was trying to accomplish by climbing the bowling pin, so we can only assume one of the other pandas tied her up to it. But best of all was the present we made for Nicole. While others at work may have their prize deers or turkeys hanging on their walls, Nicole now has her own prize panda:

Nicole wasn't as disturbed by it as we had hoped, she thought is was more cute than anything. But doing these type of things may be why I always get blamed when someone plays a trick on someone else in the office.

Signs of Summer

2010-06-01T21:30:00.000-04:00

First freckle of the summer! It's on my leg, and I think it's a keeper...

Amber Alert

2010-05-27T23:00:00.008-04:00

Reason I haven't been blogging #4:
This vicious-looking animal has been holding me captive.

(WARNING: This is an extremely long blog post. Readers may experience fatigue, eye strain, and bladder problems from having to hold your pee for so long. Also, this has not been proofread, or reread for that matter, so read at your own risk.)

Amber Alert! I've been missing. And nobody has come to D.C. to make sure I am still alive, very disappointing, but I will still blog because you have at least made comments through facebook, text, email, phone calls, etc. I was holding out for someone to send me a hand written request for a new blog post, but alas I have too much to complain about to wait any longer.

First, my excuses for not blogging. As a warning to readers, you will probably find most of these reasons illegitimate, mostly because they are, but I will tell you them anyway.

1. I have been sick, cough cough. Really I think it has just been the migraines because of the seasons changing. Must do something about that season-changing thing, put that on my to-do list House Husband!

2. I have been busy. Bahahahahaha, aren't we all? Have you ever noticed that everyone always feels busier than everyone else? Why is that? Must figure out the answer, put that on my to-do list House Husband!

3. Let's see what has really been keeping me busy...

I have no idea what order these are supposed to be in, as it has been almost a month since I last blogged (I was trying to wait a full month, but I hate to keep my fan (no there is not supposed to be an "s" at the end of that word) waiting. After all, in that time Mother's Day did pass. Speaking of...

I sent my mother this gift she really wanted, but then it broke in the mail! I sent my Mother-In-Law, affectionately known as "MIL" by me, the same thing and hers got there fine. This is outrageous, I must get me mother something else to make up for it, put that on my to-do list House Husband!

Oh wait, cross that off House Husband, I already did it:

The yellow one is my new purse (Crate & Barrel!) and when I was telling Ma about it, she got the old green eye of envy and then brought up her broken Mother's Day gift for some reason.... haven't figured out why, her thought process is so random... If you didn't know this already, my mother and I have an unhealthy obsession with patent leather. In fact, I used to exploit this many times growing up.

ME: "Mom! Can I buy a new pair of shoes?"

MOTHER: "No. You don't need a new pair of shoes, you have plenty of shoes, we have to save money for you to get your wisdom teeth taken out, read my lips 'no new shoes,' get over it you are not getting new shoes no matter what."

ME: "But Mooooooo, they're so cute. Look, they're patten leather...."

MOTHER: "Oooo those are cute, do they have them in my size too?"

Still never had my wisdom teeth taken out. Count it.

Speaking of cuteness, my little sister got married and my brother came to D.C.! Wait, switch that. I would do it, but my pinkie is so lazy today it doesn't want to reach its little self up to the backspace. Where was I? Oh yes, my little sister was in D.C. this week for her 8th grade school trip!

I got to catch up with her at the mall, not the National Mall, an actual shopping mall. The mall where I met her was only a short five-minute car ride from my apartment, but I hadn't been there since my 8th grade trip 10 YEARS ago. I still never understood why they took us to a mall on our trip, but from the looks of it the schedule hasn't changed in decades, so why mess with a good thing now?

I need to brag on J for a second now. In the past year, she has been in so many school plays, gone through the confirmation process, is going to graduate this weekend, and coolest of all- won a scholarship! They didn't have an awards ceremony or scholarships when I was at our alma mater, but I was so happy because (a) she won it for being a good person- (big sister taught her everything she knows so pat on the back to moi), and (b) it's for $1,000!! It's for private high school tuition, and she needs it, because my other alma mater is super expensive now. But all that fancy edamacation goin' on der really paid off fur me, so I guess it's worth it!

Speaking of classes-- oh wait, my brother GOT MARRIED!! That's right people everywhere, another Niblock is officially off the market. (P.S. did I ever mention that my father got married and my mother told me after she saw the update on facebook? Oh there is not enough blog space in the world for that story, right?). The eldest Niblock child, CNIB (or Chris to normal people), officially tied the knot recently to his long-time girlfriend, his absolutely no question about it soul mate, the ridiculously smart, cute, and funny Faith.

Aren't they the cutest couple you've ever seen?

I don't want to come right out and say they completely followed in me and House Husband's footsteps, but I mean, the similarities are eerie.

The new Mr. & Mrs. Niblock got married by the pool of Faith's house (that's right, she's a homeowner, C knows how to pick 'em!) with only a few people there; House Husband and I got married on a golf course with only a few people there.
CNIB & FNIB are going to the Dominican Republic now to have their official wedding; HHUS & ANIB wanted to go somewhere tropical too, but we were broke.
C & F are then hosting a party when they get back; H & A, yeah we did that too.

CNIB, I know you crave to be like me, but really, a girl is supposed to look up to her big brother- and you are already so much like me as it is, we have the same mother and father (P.S. did you hear that Dad got married? Yeah, it's true, facebook confirmed it).

I (but really my mother, I just made the invitations) threw Faith a Wedding-Shower-In-A-Box since everyone in our family lives all over the place. We all sent my mother a gift and then she took them to Faith (on her wedding day actually) to open at one time. It was like a Wedding Christmas!

My mother blocked out their last name on the invites for privacy,
but after this blog post- the jig is up!

Speaking of showers, we had another baby shower at work! It is in the water up here, but not to worry I only drink diet coke. Liz, one of the bigger wigs in our department is pregnant with her first child! Her husband, not a House Husband, wanted to do a Star Wars themed baby bedroom for their little girl, but that idea won an instant veto by Liz. If you're interested though, Pottery Barn actually has a pretty tasteful collection out. I know, Star Wars and tasteful decor don't really go together, but it's Pottery Barn and they can make anything beautiful. (I had a few clever suggestions for people, items, or places that we should put Pottery Barn in charge of making over, but after little consideration, I decided it wouldn't be very tasteful, or Pottery Barn-esque, for me to make them).

Anywho... for Liz's card, I did print out a piece of paper with two babies dressed as Star Wars characters, and told her "Congratulations! The force is strong with this one." Which went along perfectly with the Yoda-inspired baby robe and butt cream I gave her, her words not mine.

Speaking of (I really need to thesaurus "speaking of" later, put that on my to-do list House Husband!) work, everyone and their co-worker went to Annual Meetings in North Carolina sometime last week or the week before and so headquarters was a ghost town! Okay, far from it, but our department was pretty peopleless, but not less of pretty people. But while Kara's feet where about to fall off from exhaustion in NC:

I was throwing a karaoke party in my office. It got pretty crazy:

Actually it was pretty low key. In fact, I vowed to take longer lunches while everyone was gone, but I kept forgetting to because I didn't have five people reminding me everyday when it was lunch time. So low and behold, hours would pass and the next thing I new I was looking at my clock and thinking "dang it! I forgot about lunch." and I would run out to the local book store or Starbucks, chill and read my book for awhile, and then my super-fast phone clock would tell me to get back before someone did rounds to make sure we all came back from lunch (nobody ever did anyway, but there is always that fear they would do it on the one day you decided to come back late) and I would rush back to work only to realize that not only had I NOT been late getting back, but that I was actually early! Everyday, 45 minute lunches. What is wrong with me? I think it is a form of Stockholm's Syndrome or something.

COMMERCIAL BREAK! Please take a moment to look at the picture below of the show House Husband and I fell in love with over netflix and then had our hearts broken when it ended after only three short seasons. Or go to the bathroom, get something to munch on, and feed your dog, because this is the longest freaking blog post ever.

Speaking of reading (before the commercial break), I read three books this month. That's right people, read it and weap-- three! Okay, so it still isn't very much, but I am getting better about reading more. I read this hilarious book by Joshua Ferris called "Then We Came To The End". I don't know where I read about it, but after clicking a link on website and then another and another (the wikipedia phenomenon, as I like to refer to it) I was eventually reading the first eight pages of his book on Amazon and thought I was going to collapse if I didn't get to keep reading it soon. So I bought it the next day, and was laughing so hard. It is office humor, so if you work in an office environment, especially a more corporate one, I think you could really enjoy it. KELSEY, READ IT, I THINK YOU WILL LIKE IT. TELL JANA I SAID HI.

I read my first-ever Stephen King book and it wasn't even one of his novels, it was a book he wrote about writing. I kept reading in other books about writing that everyone who likes to write should read this book, so finally I did. I didn't see why it was so dire for writer's to read it, but I did really enjoy reading it. You can really tell, or at least it comes off that way on paper, that Stephen King really wants everyone to do well- you can feel his passion for others pursuing their dreams, but he is also very firm on his tips to going from "someone who likes to write" into becoming "a writer".

Speaking of writing, I signed up for a creative writing class. My first assignment seemed well-received enough (there are no grades, just for fun), but I am mostly taking it to make myself keep writing. Kind of like this blog. I did submit a story to Writer's Digest's Writing Prompt "Your Story" Contest and didn't make it into the top five, which is disappointing, but really just confusing because the top entries they did pick were a little... well, not as good as mine- my Mother and House Husband's words, not mine (okay, yes mine too, but I am more biased so me saying it wouldn't really hold that much weight for arguments sake. But neither does my Mother and House Husband's because, well, they are super biased too). Either way, I take pride in being pretty objective about my work, or if anything even more critical than others are, so I was a little baffled. I would post it, but this blog is already too long- plus, I think it was better than the others, but still not that great.

Speaking of losing, I went with some of my co-workers and ex co-workers to see the Braves play the Nationals in D.C. recently. Mostly because Kara is in love with Chipper Jones, why I have no idea, but I was hoping we could recreate that episode from Sex and the City where Carrie catches a foul ball and then starts dating the baseball player. Kara didn't get her date with destiny, but she did get hit on non-stop by a George Clooney look-a-like who sat in front of us at the game. He was apparently a pilot at the pentagon, which is no professional baseball player, but he was a ball of entertainment for all of us watching as he attempted to talk Kara out of leaving Chipper for him.

We saw them again as we were walking out of the stadium and crashed their picture.

Speaking of the Braves, House Husband is a huge Braves fan. Speaking of House Husband, House Husband is now a free man! who is now trapped in the house all day. Exams are over, and the usual law-school studying student Husband of mine is now a full-fledge desperate House Husband until his summer internship starts later this summer. A call to me at work after only a week of playing stay at home puppy daddy:

HH: "Hey, whatchya doin?"

ME: "Workin'."

HH: "Oh, well I just called to say that I miss you..."

ME: "You are bored."

HH: "No I'm not, I just really miss you..."

ME: "You must be really bored."

And then he asked the question you never ask, "well, is there anything you want me to do?" Within 20 minutes he had an email with a list of about 100 things he could do in our tiny apartment. I am super particular, so I knew most things he would do would bother me anyway, but he has been doing better than I expected. Don't get me wrong, he gets the laundry done and folded, but it doesn't always get put away- a small detail I am willing to overlook as he has taken on a new Trophy Husband persona and has been working out during the day, leisure reading what normal people like me consider heavy "intellectual" reading, and taking Matlock on longer walks than usual.

Speaking of looking good, Husband and I made a contract to lose weight and get healthier by May 31st and if we reached our goals, he would get two new suits (which he probably would have got anyway, considering he needs them) and I would get to buy myself a nice DSLR camera (which will go nicely with those photography classes I took in high school, right Ma?). I still have 2.5 pounds to lose before May 31st- check out my hoping to healthiness frog at the very bottom of the blog to track my progress), but House Husband's was more of a "visual" thing as he would be putting on more muscle. And he looks good in his new suits!

This is the only good picture I could get of him since we just got the pants back from the tailor today and he didn't know I had the camera in my hand. I feel like it was only yesterday he was karate chopping in our oversized sweatpants:

Speaking of sweatpants, it's bedtime folks. Tune in on May 31st to see if I meet my weigh in goal. If you don't see a blog post, it probably means I didn't reach my goal, or that I forgot. I've got to remember to blog more, put that on my to-do list House Husband!

Watermelon Wednesday (on Thursday)

2010-04-29T21:30:00.001-04:00

Matlock is his father's son, and therefore LOVES watermelon.

A Little Taste of Tennessee

2010-04-25T22:47:00.000-04:00

Mike Webb, the field rep for Tennessee, who both looks and sounds just like Mike Huckabee, sent me some SUPER yummy chocolates (made by Dinstuhl's, located in Tennessee of course) because he is (a) from Tennessee, and therefor one of the nicest people you will ever know ;) , and (b) just awesome.

Not good for the diet, but very good for the soul! I love fun surprises!

Gripe of the Day

2010-04-20T18:45:00.000-04:00

I have recently become one of those people who is obsessed with reading health articles online to keep me in the weight-loss motivation mode. And I have to tell you, there is one consistent thing that is driving me absolutely crazy about them.

Want to lose 5 pounds? Want to get slim for the summer?

Well, it's not going to happen by eating these things:

Honestly, I start reading an article about how to lose weight or how eating healthier will benefit you and with it comes all these pictures of yummy food with a caption that reads something annoying like, "Pizza is good in moderation, but it doesn't fit into a good everyday health agenda."

Show me the fruit and veggies!
I beg of you, healthy people who write these articles, please stop including pictures of yummy food in your articles, my will power can't handle the torture.

Captain Matlock

2010-04-19T22:18:00.000-04:00

Telling Husband how to steer the ship.

That is all.

ANIBSHO

Please Don't Read This

2010-04-14T21:50:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I wish I would never have told anyone about this blog so that I could write any old thing that comes to my mind. Oh? You thought I was already doing that? You have no idea...

Nothing bad of course, just that inner "dear diary" silliness that you never want anyone to ever read, and then when your big brother finds your diary under your mattress and reads it out loud you are so embarrassed that someone even knows you have a diary, let alone reading it too. And then add on the fact that you were stupid enough to hide it in the most obvious diary hiding spot known to man? It all is just too much to take (much like this blog post). Which brings me to my next point...

You might be wondering why my blog posts are so short lately? Well, maybe not, but I will rant anyway.

I have lost the ability to concentrate (hence the paragraphs leading up to this one). Focus + Me = Zero. Does that even make sense? I can't focus long enough to tell. Either way, it is driving me crazy. I need remedies (this is a cry for help in case you hadn't noticed)!

Matlock doesn't mind though because I can never remember if I have given him a bone yet or not. He has started quite the collection.

And Mother sent me fake green apples that smell like real green apples. It keeps fooling Husband.

K. Bye!

Laser Bowling

2010-04-11T13:52:00.001-04:00

NRA Laser Tag Night turned into NRA Bowling Night when we arrived at "Shadowland" Laser Tag and were surrounded by little birthday parties everywhere. In hindsight we should have planned it on a weekday.

While we were there, Sarah Young was talking about how she wanted to go bowling sometime soon because she hadn't been in so long. So we all decided there was no time like the present! and we dumped our old plans to go bowling at our usual place instead.

Getting pictures to document the occasion wasn't easy, but the pictures we did get made it look like we were playing Laser Tag at Bowling.

Sarah and her mad bowling skills at play.

Me, after striking out (and not the good way in bowling).

On a side note, my mother is so busy with Tax Season that she sent her Easter gifts to Jacob and I like this:

She was so busy that she didn't even have time to put the money in the eggs, ha ha. When I called her, she denied it and swore she put the money in the eggs so that's why I had to include a picture of how it was impossible for her to have done so because the eggs were inside one another when I got them. Well, maybe not impossible but certainly improbable. I'm not complaining though! Thanks M!

Toodles,

ANIBSHO

Beaten Out By Boy Scouts

2010-04-10T13:37:00.000-04:00

"Clean-up, clean-up, everybody everywhere. Clean-up, Clean-up, everybody do your share." -Barney, the big purple dinosaur.

Today was the Arlington County/Falls Church Young Republicans Clean-Up the Park Day. Unfortunately, upon arriving there we found out we had been upstaged by the local boy scout troop (shake your fist at those youthful do-gooders!). But I guess the early bird get's the trash because those boys did such an awesome job cleaning the place up that we were scrounging for trash on the land like we were hunting eggs on easter.

We did manage to find a few things here and there that the boys might not have been as adventurous to pick up (around the creek and steep hills and such), and after we were finished we had a nice cookout by the pavilion (don't worry, we cleaned up after ourselves).

The Arlington County/Falls Church Young Republicans Executive Board

We never thought we would be so happy to actually find a piece of trash on the ground- but we were so eager to help, we were happy to have found anything to trash. Maybe next time we will get lucky ;).

Kickin' Old Habits To Kick It With New Ones

2010-04-09T22:50:00.001-04:00

Husband and I are on a health kick lately, and while it may be spawned by our recent weigh-ins, we really just want to get out of our bad eating habits now while we are still trainable.

At first, like most diets or changes, it was hard to kick our old habits. A little pizza here, a handful of jelly beans there, it all seemed so innocent in the beginning. But then I got back on to LiveStrong.com and started keeping an online food diary of everything I ate- and, well, those darn little calories sure do start adding up after awhile. But oh how yummy they are...

I wont go into too much detail about the whole thing, but I will say that Husband (who still wont tell me his real weight and I am a horrible guesstimator) is noticing that he can fit into his clothes a little better, and I am also feeling a little more wiggle room in my clothes. Who knows if we will really lose all the weight we actually want to lose? For now, it's more about eating healthy and just not feeling so drained all the time.

But my favorite part of all is looking into our fridge and pantry actually seeing food that is (relatively better) good for me, all the colors make it look so pretty! (I know I am a nerd, I am beyond help at this point)

I will let you know more about it in the future if we keep it up. It's only been 3 weeks or so, but there is someone who is ready for us to stop eating so healthy....

I guess he would rather be eating hamburger meat than carrots- who wouldn't? But he is actually the one losing weight the fastest! Sorry Matlock, it's for all of our good.

My next phase in eating healthy is switching my store-bought soup with the Weight Watcher's Zero Point Soup. I'm not doing weight watchers, but it does only have around 60 calories a cup rather than my store-bought 130 calories a cup- and it isn't full of lots of extras and sodium. My mother and I used to make this all the time while I was growing up (just cause we liked it, definitely not because we were the dieting type), and we could never keep enough of it in the house because it was so tasty!

The downside is that is takes a lot more effort to cook up, but I am hoping this pot will last me at least two weeks. Can't wait to have a cup!

Always,

ANIBSHO

Check it off "The List"

2010-04-09T19:37:00.000-04:00

You know that list of things you want to do or want to happen, kind of like a bucket list, but way stranger because you were so young when you wrote it?

Well, along with wanting someone to write a song about me (Jessica, I still haven't received my birthday present from you... cough, cough), there are many other random things on it from wanting to write a book, to someone calling in a happy birthday dedication to me on the radio station (Check! Thanks KTID, when we were about 13 or so).

Anyway, the list exists- literally at one point and now only in my head seeing as I can't remember where I put that darn thing when I was 12 or so. (Julie Moran, did we bury that one summer?) Well the next thing to check off:

I want someone to get a tattoo of my name on them. Check!

I just wasn't expecting it to be my dad...

The super man tattoo is because my little sister, Julianna, calls him "Super Daddy!" Isn't she adorable?

Dad and Julianna

Now, Jessica, what about that song?

It's A Girl!

2010-04-09T19:16:00.001-04:00

No, I am not pregnant. But my boss' wife is!

Free food, cute minature clothing, and everyone wearing pacifers around their necks made for a fun mid-day baby shower break.

But I ate too much and Kyle, our boss, cuts big pieces of cake.
Quote: "Now that's how you get rid of cake."

Below are pictures of my boss and his super-cute wife, Ashley opening the sunglasses and year-supply of diaper rash ointment I got for them and the wee little one to come:

It was a hard fought battle in the shower's on-going game where if someone catches you saying the word "baby" they get to collect your pacifier from you and the person at the end with the most pacifiers wins:

Jack

Kara (Car-Uh)

We all got back from lunch and were so tired from all the laughing (and eating) we did. If I was good I would have tried to make a mental note to remember all the funny things that were said, but I wasn't, so all you get are pictures.

P.S. Check out this awesome diaper-cake (not a real cake, just a cake-shaped present that includes diapers and a bunch of other little goodies).

Yeah, I'm Feelin Hot Hot Hot

2010-04-07T21:55:00.005-04:00

I would try to blog about something good, but it is so hot in my apartment that I can't even think.... move, sleep, or breath. Apparently, my apartment building (by law) has to provide heat to renters through April 30th. And since my apartment building can't (or won't?) have the heat and the air on at the same time- we have to wait until the first of May until the air conditioning will be turned on.

How much you wanna bet my utilities bill won't have decreased at all though?

How will I survive people? The windows are open, the lights are all off, the fans are blaring (see picture of me with my new best friend), and I'm still sweating. Woe is me.

And to think Husband had the audacity to ask if I wanted to go work out in our building's gym today with him. Even worse, I was actually stupid enough to agree to it. What was I thinking?

I wasn't thinking. It's too hot to think.

My situation reminds me of the time I half-read The Wealth and Poverty of Nations (great read from what I did manage to peruse) and they were talking about how America is a thriving nation partly because of its favorable location in relation to the equator. We have mild-er climates and therefor are able to do more... etc. etc. Would write more, but the computer on my lap is making it even hotter in here.

It is times like these I think back to summer days riding in my brother CNIB's aqua-colored Amigo. What do you mean you don't know what I mean by Amigo? It's a vehicle, a Nissan Amigo. Okay, okay, I will show you a picture so you can see how the eldest of the Niblock children spent his high school and college days.

AMIGO!

This is actually a picture of one that I saw recently in Arlington. Husband and I were on our way into the movie theater to see Blind Side (spectacular) and the sight of it just made me so happy that I about had a fit right then and there (Husband may attest that I actually did).

I sent the picture to CNIB, who didn't seem nearly as excited by my find. Always leave it up to your big brother to make you feel uncool, no matter how old you are.

Stay Cool (both ways),

ANIBSHO

Good, Good Friday Times

2010-04-02T18:00:00.000-04:00

I got into work unusually early this morning because everyone had off for Good Friday and consequently traffic was light. I got into my office, put my things down, and managed to walk all the way to the copier room and halfway back down the same hallway to my office before noticing there were little plastic eggs with candy in them hidden all over the place. I started laughing as I picked one up and then Breanne, our Admin who acted as the mastermind behind the hunt, told me that it was an Easter Egg Hunt Contest and whoever found the most got a gift certificate to any place of their chosing for $10.

My boss and I quickly teamed up and ended up dominating the competition before there was even time for most people to get in to work and realize there was a contest at all. We opted to forego the gift certificates and throw our money towards a Good Friday pizza party for those in our department (with a lot of cash coming in from others to help pick up the extra money we needed to make it happen).

A Permanent Coffee Thank You

2010-03-28T21:56:00.001-04:00

I LOVE getting surprises in the mail! And just a few days ago we got a nice one in the mail from Husband's sister, Kayce, and her husband, Adam (asusong.com)! Adam, like Husband, is always in search for a great coffee brew, and so he passed along some to us that he thought worthy (which means a lot!). Husband LOVES it (so we might have to keep you as our coffee dealer, Adam!)!!

And Kayce remembered how much I love school supplies and permanent markers, so she sent on a pack of BIC permanent markers, which is really funny because I have a whole pack at work and keep thinking about how I wanted some for home too! You read my mind!

But most of all it was just nice to see that they were thinking of us all the way up here in D.C. and took the time to send us a little reminder that we were on their minds. It was so unexpected and sweet- thanks for the pick-me-ups Kayce and Adam! You're the best!

Happy Birthday Matlock!!

2010-03-26T21:04:00.001-04:00

To the greatest dog in the world, Matlock Walker Niblock Shorter, a Happy Happy Birthday and Many More!!

We always seem to forget to celebrate Matlock's birthday when it comes around, probably because we spoil him so much as it is that it seems like it is his birthday everyday. But this year we decided to go big, and after a short trip to Petco I had everything I needed to make Matlock's birthday the best birthday ever.

Here he is posing for his birthday photo with all his new presents:

Most holidays he doesn't seem to notice that we are celebrating something with him, but today he seemed especially on top of the world and every time we brought him something new or said "Happy Birthday Matlock!" he started grinning from ear to ear.

When I told my coworkers I went shopping for Matlock's birthday, they looked at me like I was a little crazy, but then again, I am more than a little crazy about the BEST DOG EVER!!!!

Now for the birthday breakdown:

Matlock isn't a big fan of doggy beds. He won't sleep on the ground, and he is very picky about what kinds of fabric he likes to lay on. In fact, most things that are made for dogs comfort, Matlock seems to turn his nose up at- that's why when I saw the brown dog bed in the picture above, I knew he would love it. If a human thinks it's ultra-soft and comfy feeling, Matlock does too.

To go with it, he got his standard humongous busy bone, a giant bobo (blue), a really long snake (to replace his even longer snake that he carries everywhere with him), a long-awaited kong toy (with peanut butter cheese whiz filling), a new collar (he always seems happier when we give him a new color, like he is so proud), a coordinating step-in harness that is supposed to be comfier and less-restrictive than the normal kind, and last, but not least, a yellow rain coat (he hates going out in the rain).

Okay, now you guys think I am crazy too.

But it was all worth it to see this:

Husband and I are obsessed with Matlock, and can't imagine our life without him. Often times we look at each other and say, "how did we get so lucky to have the best dog ever?" We don't know, but we sure are happy he's ours. Happy Birthday Matlock!!

Always,

ANIBSHO

Can't think of a blog title... it's about Uniforms.

2010-03-23T20:38:00.002-04:00

You know what I am really bad at (besides blogging on a daily basis)?

Putting an outfit together.

Honestly, I am amazed I get to work fully clothed everyday because I loathe getting dressed that much. Not only that, I wake up in the morning and think about what I wish I could wear that day, and it never seems to be in my closet.

Accessories? Forget it. I don't even know how to start with all that- I am pretty sure my wedding rings and a pair of fake pearl earrings make up my entire collection of accessories. Why can't I have a uniform again?

Awww... the old days of Catholic school uniforms and rolling out of bed with my outfit already picked out for me. Those. were. the. days.

I loved having a uniform, but I can't help but think they may have ill-prepared me for the real world. At least in college I could still get away with a t-shirt and jeans.

And since blog posts just aren't complete without a picture:

Shout out to Katie Reynolds (the future Mrs. Joshua Myers) for reminding me of my Moina Newspaper Staff days! Hope some of those articles don't come back to haunt me...

*Moina staff, we need a reunion! I still have my sweatshirt.

Always,

ANIBSHO

Top of the Mornin to Ya!

2010-03-17T21:14:00.011-04:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day people!!

Have you been having as much fun as I have??!

Well, let us just see about that...

I talked Kara into walking in the St. Patrick's Day Parade, which was actually held yesterday and was a slash/ Mardi Gras parade (don't ask) for the Young Republicans. I made signs for people to carry that said "Kiss me! I'm republican!"

For work, I finally broke out one of me poofy dresses from Target- the green one, of course (and was rather disappointed more people weren't wearing green)- and I have to say that I am in love with it- except one of me coworkers did inquire if I was PREGNANT???? Do I look pregnant to you??

Don't answer that. And the correct answer is no.

That's right, this lad was loudly asking, in the office, where everyone could hear, if I had a bun in the oven. Then, to top it off, he told me the only reason he asked was because me tummy bulge was poufing out more today (than usual, I suppose?)- and then once realizing his mistake he blamed it on the dress. On top of that, for the past week and a half I have been eating super healthy to lose weight. It Figures.

Whatev. I SUPO love all me poufy dresses in all their different colors, so he is going to be seeing a lot of me tummy bulge in the future.

We were talking about green whipped cream on our lunch break (and for whatever reasons it was really funny to us). Well, I called Kara a Leprechaun and left to go grocery shopping for St. Patrick's Day dinner. But what did she find on her desk when she came back from lunch?? Dun. Dun. Dun. Dun......

We had a good laugh and all enjoyed dining on the delicious green treat.

I think that is the part I miss most about St. Patrick's Day- the fun stuff. Husband was saying earlier that St. Patrick's Day is one of the only Holidays that is really catered to adults. But I remember having so much fun on St. Patrick's Day as a kid. Me brothers and I would go Leprechaun hunting, tricks were played on people, me aunt would take us to a parade, I would decorate the whole house, Mum was cooking corned beef brisket, potatoes, carrots, and cabbage, and the night before St. Patrick's Day we would leave our shoes out on the front porch and at night the Leprechauns would come fill them up with candy (which is kind of gross to me thinking about it now).

Us with our green teeth after eating the green cool whip:

In the same tradition, I've been feeling a bit peckish lately, and decided to carry on with the food tradition for St. Patrick's Day with me Mum's favorite Irish meal (and everyone else who cooks it on this day):

Except me crockpot wasn't on all day (faulty plug), so I had to boil it when I got home- which was awful! The food turned out alright, but I don't know if it was good to eat or not. It was either underdone or overdone- I can't really tell since, well, I don't do a lot of cooking. If I am sick tonight, then I will know.

So me ould sweat, raise your green beer and cheers to a long life and a merry one, a quick death and an easy one, a pretty girl (guy) and an honest one, and a cold beer and another one!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, and remember, if you're lucky enough to be Irish, you're lucky enough!

Slan go foill,

ANIBSHO

P.S. Watching "Luck of the Irish" on The Disney Channel.... don't lie, you're watching it too.

Knockin' Boots

2010-03-12T19:08:00.008-05:00

Rain boots that is...

For Kara's birthday I bought her some houndstooth rain boots from target. And since it was raining today, we figured it was the perfect excuse to put some wear-and-tear on them.

Above is the cuter picture of us, taken at work. Below is our "awkward family photo" pose, that I am putting up just because Kara called me a loser for having a blog. She even put up the "L" to her forhead... which consequently makes her one too. So you can catch us two losers wearing our fashionable galoshes anytime it rains. Besties!