Happy St. Patricks Day!

Today makes me nostalgic for college. Green beer, decorating T-shirts, random kissing, being drunk. This truly is the perfect college holiday. Maybe not what St. Patrick had in mind, but oh well.

Since I am no longer in college I need a new way to appreciate this fine holiday. I'm thinking a trip to Ireland might do the trick.

(image found here)

Sigh. Maybe someday. For now I'll just wear a green cardigan.

In other exciting news my fabulous real life friend, JM, started her own blog called DC Food Love. It's going to be all about food, wine, and entertaining. Check it out!

cute valentine idea...with a twist

Maryland's governor, Martin O'Malley, was somehow able to "officially" extend Valentine's Day until February 21st. I didn't know that was a gubernatorial privilege, seems like a lot of power to me. But oh well.

This morning they were talking about it on the radio show I listen to, specifically, what to get your special someone for a present, since you have time. Now I have a short drive to work so I didn't hear everything, but it seemed like it had turned into an argument about if it is it easier to shop for a present when you have been with someone a long time or when the relationship is new.

Anyways, just as I am pulling into work this woman calls in and says instead of giving each other presents for Valentine's Day, her and her husband go to the mall and play "30 in 30 minutes." They each get 30 bucks and have 30 minutes to buy each other presents. After 30 minutes they meet in the food court, eat and exchange the gifts.

I think that this seems like a great idea and a lot of fun. Especially if you are on a budget, which K and I definitly will be on next V-day. Plus I love that it is kind of like a fun adventure. It wouldn't have to be for Valentine's Day either. Maybe for a girlfriend gift exchange you could meet at the mall, find gifts, then exchange over dinner. And you don't have to eat in the food court either. Most malls have nicer resturants nearby or attached.

Here is the twist...when I got to work my (new) boss came in and was talking about how she just got through on the radio and what she had called about. The woman I had heard was her! I was pretty impressed.

So would you ever do "30 in 30 minutes" for a holiday?

v-day weekend wrap up and some random thoughts

-K and I both got our taxes done. Last year I got a pretty big return so I was hoping for the same thing again, sadly that wasn't the case, but at least I didn't owe anything.

-One of these just opened up by my parent's house. It is so good!

-There is a bird caught in our dryer vent, this has happened about 6 times since we have lived in our apartment and it is SO ANNOYING! It's making all kinds of noise right now. We told them about it, them being the apartment management, on Friday and they still haven't come to get it out. I need to do laundry and I'm not sure it turning on the dryer would kill it or drive it out.

-We didn't do anything big for Valentine's Day but it was still very nice. K surprised me with flowers and a latte in the morning then we went out to brunch.

My pretty flowers!

New Years recap

I have always been firmly in the "New Years Eve is totally overrated camp." Especially, since for the past several years I have had to work until about 5:30 each New Years Eve. Not fun.

This year I had no expectations and was in fact looking forward to a calm and relaxing evening. My sister was having her 4th (and minor) knee surgery during the day so K and I were going to go over to my parents, eat Chinese food and possibly stop by a family friend's party.

Around 4:00 I called my parent's to check and see how Sister's surgery went, no one was answering their phones so I started to get a little worried. I did that annoying thing where you just keep calling and finally my dad answered. He told me that while my sister's surgery had gone fine and she was at home with her boyfriend, R, my mom was in the ER.

Apparently right before my sister went into surgery my mom got really sick and started throwing up uncontrollably. She said the room was spinning like she was drunk. Luckily they were at a surgical center so lots of doctors around who suggested that she go to the regular hospital ER right away. My dad took her and they left R with Sister.

It turns out Mom had some weird inner ear thing that gave her vertigo (she is fine now) but needless to say no one felt much like doing anything New Years Eve. My mom made my dad, K, R and I stop by the party then we came back and all fell asleep in the living room. I was dead to the world when the ball dropped.

The next day was nice because we all hung around the house. I helped my Mom make a big breakfast and lots of snacks during the day. We were planning on eating G&M crabcakes for dinner (aka the best crabcakes in the world) but since my mom and sister both didn't feel great we waited until Saturday.

So Saturday K and I headed back to my parents for dinner then we all went to "Sherlock Holmes" which I thought was horrible. I fell asleep, which was by far the best part. Seriously, would not recommended that movie, it was very slow and just kind of boring. It didn't help that the movie theater was about 1000 degrees.

There you have my New Years festivities, not so exciting, but it was good to just be lazy. Yesterday was very exciting...the post is coming soon!

and now I am not eating until Christmas

I'm back! Not that I went anywhere, I just took some time away from the computer over the long weekend...hopefully work will not be too busy today so I can catch up on all of your blogs! Even though it was only 4 days it felt like a much longer time off of work (amazing) and I also probably ate enough food to cover about 3 weeks. I feel like I gained 10 pounds but I am way to scared to get on the scale.

Here is a little recap of my weekend, as usual I didn't take any pictures...I'm thinking about making "take more pictures" my New Years resolution:

Wednesday: K and I went out and bought our NEW TV! (it was our Christmas present to each other) We ended up get the 46" Samsung LCD. Now that I have an HD TV it seems like I haven't even really been watching TV all these years. I would highly recommend Samsung, our TV was very easy to set up and works great.

Thursday: Thanksgiving! We (K and I) started off the day by going to a Thanksgiving wine tasting at this cute local wine store then we headed over to my parents house. It was just my parents, siblings, K, me and the pups so we had a relaxing day watching the parade, the dog show, some movies and of course eating!

Friday: My mom, sister and I opted to go to some wineries instead of shopping, so we spent most of the day doing that. Maryland has a lot of small cute wineries and several of them are pretty close to where I live.

Saturday: We all headed over to College Park for the University of Maryland vrs. Boston College (where my sister goes) football game. Even though I hate football and it was very windy/cold, it was still a lot of fun tailgating.

Sunday: In the morning, K and I went shopping for a fake tree and Christmas decorations, last year we didn't decorate our apartment at all which was a little sad. We got a great deal on a tree from Target that was labeled wrong and some other fun decorations. I spent the afternoon decorating while K studied for finals then we went back over to my parents for Chinese food and to help decorate their tree (which is where all my ornaments are.)


Whew...typing about all that made me tired, it was a jam packed weekend...I feel like I need a nap. Too bad I am back at work today :(