Today, I am loving...

...our new time sucker, the wheeee!!!, which is what we named our wii. Clever, no? It records the amount of time you spend playing each day and let's just say, I spend a lot of time with a wii-mote in my hand.

...Guitar Hero. To illustrate the point mentioned above, I have already completed the guitar hero quest on medium difficulty. It's so much fun.

...our bread machine, and the fact that I actually had the ingredients on hand to make banana bread. That never happens.

...this picture:

He was so fascinated with the baking process that he stood there looking through the little window for several minutes. He's the cutest.

...the fact that the National Firearms Museum is decorated like a hunting lodge. Which means there were plenty of comfy leather chairs for me to sit (and take a quick nap) on when I was finished looking at guns 5 minutes after we arrived. (Mister spent a good hour and a half there. He was like a kid in a candy store.)

...mango lassi's. Have you ever had one? They're delightful!

...awesome bandaids.

I got two vaccinations yesterday (the first of many) and took the opportunity to use my latest impulse buy at the Urban Outfitters check out counter. Who cares that the actual puncture wound heals after mere minutes?

...Exit Through The Gift Shop, a funny little documentary about street/graffiti artists. I loved that a few of the people that appeared in the film were responsible for some images I have seen while out and about in DC and Houston. You should check it out.

...I got four packages in the mail today. I was expecting them all, but it didn't make me feel any less special.

...Baggu's. I like the idea of reusable grocery bags, but the ones I have collected from Whole Foods are huge and never with me when I could use them. Enter baggu. They fold up super tiny to fit in your purse, so you always have them when you need them. I just got mine today, so I haven't had a chance to test them out, but I love that they have huge handles just like plastic bags, which make it easy to carry a million bags on your arm at once, which I am prone to do. They come in a million awesome colors too. Thanks Danielle for the awesome tip.

...The mixed CD that Lauren made me. It's got some seriously rad songs on it. I think this one is my favorite:



...the fact that I keep running into people who have either lived in Guinea or who know people who currently live there. They will be good resources for me. That is when I finally accept the fact that I'm moving there.

...that it's only Saturday. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Look what I bought!

Who wants to come over?

On a related note: I'd like to apologize in advance for not responding to your phone calls, emails and facebook messages. It's nothing personal.

Stock

For my 30th birthday, my cousin sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers that smelled, of all things, spicy. I had never before smelled a flower whose scent would feel more at home in a chai latte than in a flower vase. I immediately called the florist and learned that the flower emitting that delightful smell was called stock.

While at Whole Foods the other day, I decided I needed some flowers. Guess what they had? Oh, only my beloved stock. I bought two bunches. (And then I went to Goodwill to buy a cheap vase so I didn't have to use my water bottle again.)

Now my apartment looks pretty and smells delightfully spicy. I love it.

Monday

A while back, Groupon was offering Newseum tickets for 10 dollars a piece. Considering they're normally 19, I jumped on it because, while the Newseum is an awesome museum, I have a hard time paying 40 dollars (for two people obviously) to look at stuff for a few hours.

Since we're usually too busy sleeping and lounging in our pj's every weekend, we decided to take advantage of the holiday on Monday to go out for an adventure. We took the metro, a bus, and another metro up to Capitol Hill (they were working on the track at Foggy Bottom) to eat at my very favorite Good Stuff Eatery where we saw Spike (of Top Chef fame) milling around. If you have never eaten there, please go. The burgers are juicy and delicious and their fries sprinkled with sea salt are amazing, especially when dipped in the flavored mayo's they offer. The mango and sriracha varieties are my personal favorites. They also offer shakes and I once had a summer squash shake that was the most incredible thing ever. I dream of it often.

In an effort to burn off a calorie or two of the delicious meal we had just partaken in, we walked down to the Newseum. I loved the Newseum. They have so many cool exhibits, my favorite being the Pulitzer Prize Photography. They have an interactive exhibit where you can get the back story of many of the photographs. I could have spent all day there. They also have a news room that has newspapers of important dates throughout history. I thought this template was pretty awesome. Do they still make newspapers like that? (Probably not huh?)

Also in that room was the first edition of Life magazine, in which my Grandma appears (as a model showing off the turkey that would soon be served at the White House for Thanksgiving). So, I guess you could kind of say that my Grandma's on display at the Newseum. :) I need to find me a copy of that!

There was also an exhibit about the Hurricane Katrina. I thought this note was great. I'd like to think that this person had a little humor in what was such a horrific situation:

Of course we had to go out to the terrace, which offers an amazing view of the Capitol. I just wish the trees weren't bare. The Newseum is great. I highly recommend it.

Oh Shoot!

I spent a good portion of the afternoon on Thursday in a war zone. Really, it was an indoor shooting range, but it felt and sounded just like I imagine a war zone would. I don't know what types of weapons the guys in the lanes on either side of us were using, but they were large, loud, and the shots reverberated throughout my body.

My husband LOVES guns. I sometimes find him gazing lovingly at gun magazines and websites. He also gets to carry one for his job and has several personal firearms. One of those weapons was specifically purchased for my own use, a nasty looking Ruger. This is a good time to mention that I HATE guns, and yesterday was only my second time handling one (having 'one of my own' doesn't mean I've touched it. Just looking at it makes me want to throw up). The first being an antique black powder rifle which is hardly what I would call a murder weapon.

So, somehow, Mister convinced me to join him and his buddy at the shooting range. My plan was to hang back with a book and let the testosterone rage on without me. Sadly, in my panic induced state, I forgot my book, and because it was my first time, these boys were not about to let me get away without shooting. I cried the entire time. Guns are scary y'all! The Ruger wasn't nearly as nasty to shoot as it looked, but the little teeny Glock was all bite. I totally shot that one with my eyes closed. It wasn't until I had sat back down that I realized that thing spits FIRE. Yowza. Now, I have no interest in becoming a card carrying member of the NRA, but I have to admit, there's something quite satisfying about hitting a paper target, a menacing looking human form named Izzy, in the 5 point zone (aka where it counts).

bits and pieces

-I got a gym membership last weekend. I had big plans to go Monday - Thursday to try out all of the Les Mills classes (BodyPump, BodyCombat etc) my gym offers but only managed to go to BodyPump on Monday. Not because I'm lazy, but because of my inability to move. It has been a pathetic two years since I've lifted anything heavier than a bag of groceries and I paid for it dearly. I was in so much pain for a full four days!


-I bought a garmin forerunner with some money I got for Christmas. I pretty much love it. On one hand, it shows me exactly how slow I'm typically running (really slow), but it also shows me that I'm capable of running at a 7 minute/mile pace. So what if it's only for 15 seconds!

-Sadly I've been getting shin splints when I've been running lately, so I really have no choice but to take a break from it. Instead, I'm going to switch to spinning for a while and went for the first time this morning. It was snowing, so it was just me, one other girl and the instructor. I'm usually one to cut corners with exercise, but the intimate setting prevented that. It kicked my butt! We'll see how I'm feeling in the morning, but I'm very excited to go again!

-I signed up to run the ODDysey half marathon with Chloe and possibly Abbie and Erica in Philadelphia in May. It follows the same trail I'd run when visiting Holly, so I'm very excited. Let's just hope my shin splints go away so I can train for it!

-While researching life in Guinea, we learned that a good thing to bring with us is a breadmaker. We took advantage of a sale and a giftcard at Macy's and got one. I am obsessed with orange rolls and the last (and only) time I tried making them it was an orange goo instead of rolls, so of course I had to try to redeem myself (and let the breadmaker do the hard part). Other than the filling spilling out all over when I rolled them, so far, so good. I just pulled them out of the oven and they smell delicious. Let's hope they taste good too.

-Speaking of Guinea, I'm fully in denial of the fact that I'm going to be living there in 9 short months. Several times a day I find myself thinking that we probably won't have to go. Ummm...we're going. I need to get with the program.

Cooking adventures

On my 23rd birthday (or was it my 24th?) my sister and cousin took me to one of my now favorite restaurants of all time, Carlyle Grand in Shirlington. There I tried two food items that had never before crossed my lips: calamari and crabcakes. The calamari was better than I thought it would be and the crabcakes...oh the crabcakes. They were so good I cried. Seriously. I have yet to live it down. After 7 years enjoying (expensive) crabcakes at fancy restaurants, I finally tried to make them myself, using this recipe. I say tried, because this is how they turned out:

It's more of a crabpile than a crabcake. I guess it's a good thing that flavor is determined by the ingredients you use, rather than the shape it's in. Seriously, this was one of the best crabcakes I've ever had, probably because the remoulade is amazing. If you like crabcakes, you should make this. You won't be sorry. And if you do make it, and are successful in keeping them in cake form, please let me know how you did it!

Oh, and Happy New Year! I hope this year is better than all that have come before it.

Confession, this was not actually a New Years kiss...at least in our time zone. We were too busy rocking out to Rock Band at midnight to be bothered with a new years kiss. However, we did take this picture at exactly 2:00 am (although this was the 4th attempt at a kissy picture). So what if we observed it in Mountain Standard Time. It counts...right??