Completely Random

This is going to be one of those completely random posts that doesn't really seem cohesive, so be warned. 


First, my friends have had some awesome links that I'm loving.

• My friend Kristen, amazing author of theFrugalGirl.com, had a post today with her thoughts on surviving whatever may happen with gas prices in the upcoming year. Read it here.
• My best friend's precious daughter teaches us a great lesson about life. Read it here.
• My friend Aliesha made some homemade Chinese Takeout that has my mouth watering, and I'm absolutely dying to try it. Check out her Chinese Sesame Chicken here.
• One of my favorite people (and also the photographer from our wedding) - Brooke and her husband TJ are opening up a store! Please please go check out their video about the launch here (and also Walk In Love's website here).
• And last but not least...if you need a little puppy lovin', here's one of my favorite posts from one of my favorite bloggers who I'm friends with in my dreams. Otherwise known as Pioneer Woman, or Ree Drummond. Oh Charlie, what a dog.

Second...random pictures from recently. Because it's not a random post without random photos.

Anthropologie has won the award for best presentation of your birthday coupon. A little envelope with stars on it arrived in my mailbox, and inside the envelope was a little fabric pouch with a star-shaped button on it, and inside that little pouch was the birthday coupon. Talk about marketing!

One advantage of being up early is getting to see the morning sun on the city buildings. Love.

What in the world are all those dots?

Goosen! This was taken this weekend from the dock at Scott's parents house. We think these were snow geese. So beautiful and serene.

All the storms lately brought a new tree up to the surface near the dock. This picture doesn't do justice to how big it actually is - I think it's there to stay for a while.

Scott, jumping for joy that it's not below 30 degrees. Or maybe just because I told him to jump. You guess.

This should make you all feel better about the winter. This is my parents' driveway in Vermont as of yesterday, where they are no longer able to snow-blow and can barely even shovel because the snowbanks are nearing six feet tall in some locations. Believe it or not, there is a fence that ends at that light-post. you can almost see it peeking out. Oh, by the way, they got MORE snow this morning.

And last but not least, I found this gem on my cell phone. Scott's best friend Christian, and a frequent visitor to our house. We love him.

I think that's all my random for today. Hope you all had a great weekend!

Birthday Love and Life List Goals

I meant to post this yesterday, but since my work day began with spending two hours standing in the snow while our building was examined by the fire department and the energy company to investigate a strong electrical odor...I didn't get much else done last night.


However, my birthday and Monday off were fantastic! My precious friend Samantha drove an hour to come visit me with her sweet girl Ella.

Waiter! More coffee!

...we're getting her started young.


The rest of my day looked like this.

Ahhh...the luxury of a day in bed when you're not sick.


For my birthday, my parents gave me a gift that's getting me one step closer to my Life List goal of becoming yoga certified.

This program came highly recommended by several people. The center book is actually textbook-sized, and is a really interesting read. I'll probably be elaborating on various things later on, as many topics are also relaxation techniques that would be very handy for my working friends. 


Looking forward to a birthday celebration with friends this weekend. Thank you all for your birthday wishes - it was a truly wonderful day!

Love-ly Events

I know I've been hiding out lately, but for good reason! Scott and I went to his parents' house for Valentine's weekend, and spent Valentine's Day having some much needed, computer-free alone time. I hope you all had a great day of celebration too! Here's some of what we've been up to.


I was surrounded by a few very happy cheese-heads with the Packer's Superbowl Victory - woohoo!

We spent Saturday morning watching our niece scare away every other teammate. She's like a freight train - our future soccer star!

Scott's wonderful mom treated us and Scott's two older siblings to a Valentine's day treat at Kilby Creamery - YUM.

Our nephew Jadon opted for a PB&J instead of ice cream. How cute is this little boy?

Nothing like eating ice cream on a day that looks this cold. And it was COLD. And windy, which made it ten times colder.

Silo at Kilby Creamery.

This would be the cat that was begging us to adopt it. Such a sweet animal - mewing and poking and rubbing, trying to demonstrate to us how good of a pet it would be. If it wasn't for the intense fear of having to replace all our furniture, this little guy would have come home with us.

Valentine's Day cuppy-cakes.

My treat when I got home from work - my hubby knows me WELL!

Chocolate-covered strawberries to eat while we watched An Affair to Remember. Yum.

The steak dinner that was as good as a restaurant, if I do say so myself! More details on the preparation of the steak later, because you all HAVE to try it. So good.

How do you spell love? T-R-U-F-F-L-E-S. Ohh yes.

So there you have it. Care to share any of your Valentine's Day stories? I'd love to hear! I love a good romantic story. :)

"Help...Me...."

Otherwise known as "Texts from Last Night's Concert".


"Did I mention this was a rock concert? Some guy in front of us just turned around and was like...'Are you ready to rock the @#$* out??' ..Yikes."


"I've never seen so many skinny jeans in my life."


"Help...me..."


"The guy from the opening band just smoked 7 cigarettes at once and then ATE THEM. LIT. Where am I??"


"This is the cover of the next band's album. WHAT???"

"Near-death by mosh pit. Is it over yet? Where is Anberlin??"


"The guys keep saying to me, 'I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.' "


(1 hour later)


"ANBERLIN IS AWESOME!!!!!!"


And I got to hear one of my favorite songs live. See below.

In all seriousness, we had no clue what we were getting ourselves into with this concert. We all love Anberlin and were excited to see them. However we were all feeling a bit lazy and didn't really look into who the other bands were.


Lesson learned. Main lesson? Avoid the floor right in front of the band if one of the headliners is a band described by iTunes as "Neo-progressive emo-punk". Otherwise known as lots of angsty, angry teenagers.


And we still love Anberlin and their awesomeness. Just not their opening bands. :)

Photographs by my awesome husband, since I brought my phone and my license, and nothing else.

Thud versus Woosh.

Today was one of those tension filled days at work where everyone came in covered in snow and cranky because despite schools and courts all over the state being closed, Baltimore city was still open and running.


It rained most of the day, and then around 4pm, the frozen precipitation announced its arrival with a huge flash of lightning and loud thunder.


I got to walk several blocks home in something lovely they like to call a "Wintery Mix." Otherwise known as snow, sleet, rain, hellfire, and brimstone, all pouring down from the sky with blustery winds that turn your umbrella inside out.


But I'm not bitter.


In fact, around 9pm, Scott and I decided to be spontaneous and geared up, heading to the roof of our seven-story parking garage. 


We threw snowballs, attempted a snowman, and made snow angels. We listened to the surprisingly satisfying "thud" that a huge snowball makes when you shove it off a ledge seven stories in the air. (Don't worry, we made sure there were no pedestrians nearby.) We also discovered that the same huge snowballs make no sound whatsoever when aimed at subway vents, they just disappear through the grate with a little "woosh". And for a long time, we just watched the snow swirling furiously through the sky scrapers, illuminated in huge rolling waves like the stars in Van Gogh's Starry Night.


I tried to get some photos, but was too afraid of my camera getting wet so I snapped a few and quickly shoved it back in my safely-zippered pocket. So I apologize for the poor quality.


Back to the real world tomorrow, but we had fun indulging our inner children tonight. Hope those of you that had a snow day today got to enjoy it too!

The view out our apartment window. You can always tell when the
weather is bad because the clock tower begins to disappear.

Umbrellas in the street.

View from the parking garage.

Blurry, but look at that grin. :)

I always love how bright the sky is in the city when it snows. It glows
a bright orange-y pink.

A beautifully lit vacant building. The story of Baltimore.

Not too many people braving it down our street tonight. 

My snow angel. You can tell by the large rear-end imprint. 

Weekend Brunch

We had a much-needed low-key weekend recently, and one of the highlights (aside from the Packers winning and my husband grinning from ear to ear for about twenty-four hours) was a simple brunch with some of our close friends. It seems like some of the most last-minute get-togethers are the best, and we had a wonderful time just talking, eating, and laughing. 

Because it wouldn't be a brunch without a food photo! 

Nick & Sam's dog Tucker. My sweet boy!

Mary and Kyle were able to make the trip - woohoo!

The fabulous and funny Wes & Theresa

Nick & Sam's daughter Ella, trying to determine if Scott has a tasty hand.
Please note the almost DEAD ON Jim Halpert face Scott has.

Eh, not so tasty.

"GIVE ME SOME OF YOUR FRUIT LADY!"

Ridiculously cute.

Her little outfit for a wedding they were attending in the afternoon. Child model? Yes I think so.

Proud poppa.

Nick & Sam - love these two.

Is it bad that I'm already wanting to plan another brunch?