27 May, 2008
Weekend on the water

Woo! Fun times yesterday out on the water!

Tubers!

Can you hear my terrified screams? Haha.

Kyla got so mad at us. I put her in the water for a little swim and when Jimmy tried to rescue her she got pulled under twice, swallowed a bunch of saltwater and barfed. Haha poor baby.

We redeemed ourselves though when we took her over to the little beach and let her off leash for a while. Oh the adventures!

Evel Knievel AKA my brother Noah. He loves to throw people off this thing. All those awesome photos were taken by my Mom.

Jimmy and I also checked out the strawberry festival on Saturday. I loved seeing the gorgeous animals. I wanted to buy them all to keep them from being bought and sold to their death. :( This guy was the blue ribbon winner.

Also sadly, I don’t think Jimmy’s cut out for a career in rodeo.

28 April, 2008
Dockdogs!

Fly, Reina, fly! Friday after work Jimmy and I headed over to Virginia Beach to watch Michelle and Reina compete in dockdogs. If you’ve never seen this sport, it’s awesome to watch. I had such a great time. You can tell how much the dogs love it, they get so excited!

Reina set her personal best record this weekend (15’10”), earned her senior title and she and Michelle placed 5th in the entire competition! Wooo!

Here is team awesome. She is such a good girl and loves everyone.

Frankenstein legs!

I think if you have a dog who is well-socialized and likes water, you should definitely look into this sport! The dogs just love it. Lots of people enter whose dogs have never jumped before. There are a few trainers on site to help the dogs get into the water, I saw several take their first jumps, it was great. Awesome way to spend a Friday afternoon and congrats Michelle & Reina!

21 January, 2008
Road trip!

Roxy the world famous Doxie! I love this little dog, she is such a snuggle bug. Genevieve and I had a totally awesome girly weekend!

  

First we ventured out on the metro and went to the Adams-Morgan area of DC to hit up Meskerem, which is an awesome Ethiopian restaurant. The metro was having all kinds of issues and delays and we had to walk pretty far in the cold, but we finally made it! It was like a little exploring adventure.

  

We killed some sambosas, mango drinks and had a big vegetarian platter. It was so good! I’ve cooked Ethiopian food at my own house before but never had it in a restaurant. I am happy to say that the dishes I’ve made tasted really similar to what I had, so yay!

The injera bread was soooo good but I got serious injera-belly, I think it kept expanding in my tummy for a few hours after. Or maybe I just ate way too much, not sure on that.

  

We finally got back to the apartment around midnight and zzzzzz. Saturday morning we headed over to Parma Spa where Gen’s friend Ginger works (Gen is getting her esthetician license as well but their school isn’t open for appointments on the weekend, boo hoo) and I got my first ever deep pore cleansing facial (Gen’s treat!!). I really loved it and my skin felt awesomely clean afterward. I also got my bushy ol’ eyebrows waxed. After that we headed to Tyson’s Corner and I loaded up on LUSH and Dermalogica stuff. Genevieve has me on a skincare regimen since I have been slacking, so before long I’m gonna have awesome wedding-ready skin. We ate lunch at Sunflower (my fave!) and headed back to the apartment. We spent the rest of the day knitting, snuggling with Roxy and watching Dexter which is so good.

Girls and dog. Friends!

It was a much needed girly weekend, I had so much fun! Going back to work today = not my favorite.

02 January, 2008
Happy New Year!

Yum yum yum. We have here some of the delicious food Mary and I whipped up for a little New Years Day vegan brunch we threw yesterday. Homemade granola, black eyed pea salsa, tons of fruit, muffins, scones, oh my!

Altogether around 20 people showed up including some very cute kids. I think Max was showing everyone his belly covered in (temporary of course) tattoos right here.

It was a gorgeous day and we were able to leave the windows open and let a breeze blow through. I think everyone had a good time and we got rave reviews on the food!

Pumpkin cranberry scones. I made these, they turned out good although I’m not a big scone fan. Recipe is from Veganomicon.

Coloring table for the kiddos in the craft room.

  

Joanna’s rosemary home fries (sooooo good) and carrot spice muffins Mary brought.

  

Max was a source of endless jokes and entertainment for everyone. I’m inviting him to every party from now on haha.

Pumpkin waffles, another big hit (recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance). I love my Belgian waffle maker. Behind the waffles you can see some apricot granola Amanda brought, they disappeared lightning fast! We also had cheezy grits (from the Papa Tofu zine), tempeh bacon that Mary brought, tofu scramble, coffee, tea, OJ, etc. What a great way to start out the year. Big thanks to everyone who came and for Jimmy and Mary for all the help. I think it was a big hit!

30 December, 2007
Merry Christmas!

This post is way overdue but after all the insanity and rushrushrush of the holidays, I needed a few days of doing absolutely nothing. This gorgeous little house was all ours for a few days we spent together as a family up in Hot Springs, Virginia. It’s called the Boxwood cottage and it’s one of the properties you can rent at the King’s Victorian Inn.

I highly recommend staying there if you ever want a mountain getaway. The prices are extremely reasonable, especially if you have a large group or several couples traveling together. It’s in a great location near several great ski resorts as well.

  

The cottage was comfortable, clean and fully equipped. The owners were awesome as well and basically left us alone the whole time. I loved it, way better than staying in a hotel. It was also decorated for Christmas and we even got a light dusting of snow which made everything look awesome.

We played a ton of Apples to Apples. I love that game!

  

Friday morning we got up and went up the road a bit to check out the Homestead Resort. It’s an absolutely HUGE hotel and resort that was built in 1766. It has the most gorgeous decor and grounds I’ve ever seen at a hotel. I loved it.

  

We explored around for a while, took a little hike in the woods and picked up some information about other local stops.

  

They had a gingerbread village complete with frosting snow, working streetlights and an ice rink.

  

Good times!

Dusting of snow on the putting green and an Iwo Jima reinactment photo shoot. Ha.

  

Allison & my brother Noah. And my sister Grace & Andrew.

They had a HUGE, real Christmas tree in the lobby of the hotel. It was so awesome! After we got back to the cottage, we headed over to the Jefferson Pools. It was a really unique experience, bathing in the warm bubbling natural springs. I recommend it!
 

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and headed up to Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia. My brother goes snowboarding there quite frequently and showed everyone the ropes.

  

Everyone went skiing and snowboarding except Jimmy, Grace, my mom, Dave and myself. We hit up the snow tubes instead.

Pros.

  

This was so fun! You got pulled up the hill on this moving line. Then you headed down by yourself or hooked to a few other people. It was fast and furious. Just a hint, never ride with my sister Grace. She flipped my tube, ran OVER me with hers and got snow down my pants. Good times!

  

Jimmy built a snowmanbabe. I’m a little jealous of her girlish figure. Just after this, I dropped my camera in a puddle of icy snow water and it died. Sniffle. It was such an awesome trip though. Sunday morning my family headed home and Jimmy and I went up to Roanoke to spend a great Christmas with his family. Then we came back and had Christmas dinner with my family. Whew!

I got so spoiled too. Jimmy bought me a color laser printer which I am so stoked about. My mom got me a serger (!) which I can’t wait to use (I need to get some thread and learn to thread the dang thing). My dad gave me a ton of kitchen gear including a chef’s knife, a mandoline slicer, salad spinner, oil mister, microplane grater, etc. I also got some great bike gear, awesome stocking stuffers, a lil bit of money, a few gift cards. I dunno who told santa I was good this year but THANKS! I hope everyone else had a great holiday!

20 December, 2007
50 years of excellence

Last night I gave my mom a little pre-birthday-trip-weekend present. A surprise website with comments, wishes, stories and memories from people all throughout her life. I think she likes it.

Check it out! www.sherrys50thbirthday.com

My whole family is off to Hot Springs, Virginia, to stay at the King’s Victorian Inn for a few days (we’ve got the Boxwood Cottage), attempting to avoid injury while participating in snow-related sports at Snowshoe, and generally freezing to death in the western Virginia mountains. Then it’s off to Roanoke with Jimmy to celebrate Christmas with his family. I’ll be back soon with lots of pictures. Merry Christmas, everyone!

04 December, 2007
Family Portraits

I had a couple people ask about the family portrait that we gave mom for her 50th birthday so I decided to post a few up here. Here’s the one we blew up. We took these in the Japanese garden at Red Wing Park in Virginia Beach. Nicole is such an awesome photographer, she stood in the freezing cold for three hours to get these just right.

Make sure you click on the pics to head over to Flickr to see them a little bigger. There are lots more as well (and a ton more I didn’t upload).

   

I think we’re a handsome bunch!

03 December, 2007
Happy Birthday Mom!

Yesterday was my mom’s 50th birthday! Happy birthday mom!!! As per usual, we went Christmas tree hunting.

  

Even Kyla helped out. Once we got the tree we headed back to her house for some decorating, eating and presents!

  

My brother’s obscene greeting card and Jimmy eyeballing the tree for optimum ornament placement.

The most vibrant 50 year old I know.

We played this game called Apples to Apples. It’s pretty fun!

The look of love only an iPod Touch can coax out of someone.

The best present! I had Nicole take photos of my brother, sisters and me. Mom has always wanted this, it was as big of a hit as I anticipated!

  

We also gave her a smaller album with individual photos of us as well as in pairs. She cried. Score! Haha.

We had such a great time and mom seemed so happy. Awesome birthday.

Dad surprised everyone with a champagne toast.

  

We all went around and told mom how awesome she is. It was sort of touching.

Happy birthday, Mom! 50 down, 50 to go!

20 November, 2007
Happy birthday Max!

Saturday was Max’s birthday party at Bowlarama. Duck ball! Woooo!

  

[bowling!]

  

[presents!]

[cupcakes!]

[exhaustion]

30 July, 2007
Shark Week Party!

I hope everyone is aware that this week is the 20th Anniversary of Shark Week. Last night we rang in the most important week in television with a swingin’ shark week party!

Look we’re under the sea. I loved the balloons (my sister’s idea). Check out the blow up crab on top of the TV. I also had an octopus but Kyla sort of bit it.

Sharks in the bathtub. Ooh scary.

We watched Ocean of Fear and munched some shark goodies. The shark eggs (veggie dumplings with food coloring) were a little scary to everyone but they all got eaten! We also had under the sea cupcakes.

My favorite was the penguin. The food was a bigger hit than the tv show I think, it was all gone except for a few cupcakes! It was all vegan too which surprised some of the boys, I think, especially the “chicken” nuggets (they were supposed to be in the shape of fish heads but that didn’t work out).

Tropical fruit skewers and starfishwiches (tomato & cucumber with vegan cream cheese). We also had chum (strawberry lemonade that Jimmy whipped up), which I apparently didn’t get a picture of! Doh!

Fun party, thanks for coming, everyone!

23 July, 2007
Diamonds on my neck, di-diamonds on my grill

Sweeeeet weekend! Genevieve’s birthday was last Wednesday so Friday after work I headed up to Fairfax to hang! Our plans to do karaoke were foiled, but we still had an awesome time. Gen, Hannah, Beckah, Kate and I went to On The Border where we ate way too much guacamole and successfully flustered a waiter.

Then we headed out for some serious bowling booty dancing. Kate is multitasking here. If this were me I could totally see myself throwing my camera down the lane. Disaster.

There was some serious creepy behavior by an individual with a sketchy mustache next to us. It was out of control.

CREEPYSTACHE! We also did some serious shopping and some serious eating at Sunflower. I tried to squeeze the secret recipe for the General Tso’s Surprise out of the owner, but he was emphatic that, “YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS AT HOME.” I will conquer you, soy protein with the perfect texture! I’m ON IT. Happy birthday Genevieve!

18 June, 2007
Wedding Season

I really don’t like how they called me a chicken like that. And no, I didn’t eat chicken, vegan police. I know you’re out there watching! Saturday Jimmy and I went to my friends Megan and Drew’s wedding. Everyone looked lovely.

Including us, all dressed up. I wish someone would have taken a picture of us standing around somewhere, we looked all kinds of snazzy.

I took a few pictures at the reception. This flower girl was twirling around and around.

We sat by Meredith, Derek, Steve & Katie during the reception. Good times were had by all.

Megan and her dad had a very sweet dance together.

The hot couple! Congrats you two and I wish you all the best.

31 May, 2007
I love surprises!

Thank you Nicole for talking me out of even LOOKING at that nasty old moonpie yesterday and THANK YOU for the treat! Yes, it WAS much better than a moonpie. You rule. (Attn: everyone else, I bet your coworkers aren’t this cool. Neener neener.)

29 May, 2007
This is a chopstickup!

This weekend was a blast! My lady Genevieve came into town and we went on a roadtrip, ate delicious food and listened to many cheesy pop and hip hop songs. I got to drive her fancy Audi automobile around, people thought I was seriously cool.

We headed down to Winston-Salem to get my tattoo finished up. See how stoked I am. I’m really happy with it though, it needs to hurry up and heal. I was really freaked out about this session because the last time I went it was very hurty and miserable and I was knocked out for the entire weekend afterward, but this time was really a breeze. I promised myself I wouldn’t tense up and I think it REALLY helped, plus Genevieve is the ultimate person to take with you when you get tattooed, she is good at keeping your mind off things!

On the way back we ate at Boba House in Greensboro and it was seeemply delicious.

  

Sunday we hit up the beach before she rolled out of town and were assaulted by the angry suntan lotion monster.

The weather was awesome and I had such a good time with ma lady. Yay! In other news my air conditioner broke on Saturday and it has been hotter than hades all weekend long. Luckily it got fixed about midnight last night. Ugh! Relief!

21 May, 2007
Munden Point Park

Yesterday was my sister Grace’s 19th birthday so after church and lunch we headed out to Munden Point Park in Pungo to enjoy the gorgeous day.

I can’t take credit for any of these awesome photos. I’m just giving Jimmy the camera from now on!

My gorgeous sister at 19. Happy birthday Grace!

We played soccer and football, chilled in the sun and hung out by the lake.

Kyla sniffed 8 million leaves and had an awesome time, I think. She was fully worn out after we got home.

Me and my moms.

Mom and Dave on the jet ski. I can’t wait to take this thing to the beach, even if I don’t like to be Evel Knievel on it like some people *cough*JIMMY*cough*.

Hangin out, walkin the beast dog.

Kyla wanted to go out in the water and get the jet skis. She was fully convinced she could swim fast enough to catch them.

While I went there to do peaceful, hippie-like activities like hold ladybugs, apparently some jackasses went to the park that day trying to get in a fight. As y’all know, I think frisbee golf is about the lamest game ever, and there is a frisbee golf course at Munden Point. Jimmy and Maegan and I went over to the basketball court (they were playing, I was spectating), and hung out for a while. We were getting ready to leave and Jimmy and Maegan walked over to the shade of a tree where me and Kyla were chillin, which is about 6 feet from the basketball court. As soon as Jimmy walked over, these guys were starting a game of frisbee golf or something, and the first dude threw his frisbee and it hit Jimmy on the back of the arm. Jimmy picked up the frisbee and tossed it back (I would have done the same thing, so would have a ton of people, it’s a frisbee, that’s what you do, no one knows about this stupid game) and the whole group of them WENT OFF.

The dude who threw it started walking toward us, being all threatening, and yelling at Jimmy, “That was so rude! APOLOGIZE NOW!” and calling him names and generally being a douche nozzle. I mean, he was the one that hit Jimmy, but Jimmy’s supposed to apologize? For what? Standing by the basketball court? There’s a playground near the frisbee course too, would he have yelled at a kid if he hit a kid with a frisbee? Sheesh. Jimmy handled it really well but would have been totally justified in punching the guy with the way he acted. I hate drunk/high losers that think they’re so entitled. Ugh.

Anyway it was a fantastic afternoon other than that. We went back to mom’s house, played Cranium (I’m not a fan, literally EVERY time it’s my turn the card is a stupid Club Cranium or whatever), and Grace and Rob opened presents and we ate and got home really late. Tiring weekend!

16 April, 2007
Babies and berfdays!

Saturday afternoon was my friend Laurel’s baby shower. It’s very weird to see how many of my friends are pregnant or already have kids. It’s more than I realized and I don’t think I can count how many times someone hinted at, asked or mentioned the concept of me having a kid like pretty much immediately. Not yet, thanks! I’ll admire all your kids instead.

We gave her some baby slings which were on her list, but I wanted to add in something more personal so I tried embroidery for the first time and made this baby shirt with a design I adapted from Sailor Jerry tattoo flash. I think she liked it, but it might be too small for the baby, which is going to be humongous.

She got a lot of good stuff and a ton of clothes that are too small for Shaka’s son Cohen, which is the biggest baby in existence. He looks about five years old and he’s only 6 months. Seriously.

Audrey’s just about the cutest baby ever, she even makes ugly dudes look good when they’re holding her.

See?

It didn’t even feel like a baby shower, it just felt like a regular party with friends, cooking out, playing pool and stuff. There were just a million little kids around. And some very cute dogs.

Yesterday was my birthday. I’m old and crusty now, at the big 25. Jimmy bought me an amazing, extravagant, gorgeous pair of shoes which are going to be the envy of everyone in viewing distance (they come tomorrow) and my family bought me a video iPod (it’s so awesome to have an iPod again!!!) and an awesome Swiss Army suitcase since mine was destroyed on the way back from New Zealand. It was so much more than I was expecting. Thank you again, I love you guys!

10 April, 2007
Easter Brunch

Saturday morning I headed over to Cassie’s house for an Easter brunch which she so graciously hosted. It was awesome! And what better way to welcome in Spring than with some crazy Virginia weather.

Wednesday: 78 degrees and sunny
Saturday: freezing and SNOW!

The party was great, Cassie even brought in an executive chef to make crepes.

Interesting people, lively conversation, cute little kids.

He seriously wants a deviled egg.

I met some really great folks and got to hang out at Cassie’s gorgeous house for a few hours. Too bad the entire time I was really sick. It’s been going on all weekend, and it still hasn’t ended. I have to go get some more tests run today.

Easter with my family was pretty low-key, we decorated eggs and ate a ton of good food, and watched movies. I stayed home from work yesterday since I was sick, and got to hear the tree men taking down two huge trees in my backyard. Every time they dropped a branch it felt like a dinosaur was shaking the house. Kyla was not a fan. I haven’t felt too bad this morning but I also haven’t eaten anything so we shall see. Here’s to hoping I get better. I don’t want to be sick on my birthday!

08 February, 2007
LOST Party!

Well since most of my friends are LOSERS and the people who promised to come DIDN’T, I’m going to post lots of pictures of yummy food and good times to show y’all what you missed out on! Kyla says, “LOST is back on, everyone smile!!”

My sister Grace has a fruit skewer and she’s not afraid to use it.

My other sister Heidi & her husband Rob. Aww aren’t they cute.

My hot boyfriend bought me a High-definition antenna so I can pick up the stations that broadcast in high-def, and he took this picture to show how good the TV looked. I love it. We watched Law & Order: SVU in high def the other night and it looks equally as good. Thanks Jimmy!

Shhh no talking.

Oh yeah, food time. Be jealous. Here I present “Lostcakes.” They’re vegan, too.

Tropical fruit skewers, gathered from the island, naturally.

“Fish biscuits” (vegan lemon cookies). Somehow I missed that they were actually red on the show. Oh well!

Veggies and Dharma ranch composite. Mmmm lasts seven years without being refrigerated!

“Raw fish”, straight from the ocean (smoked salmon).

Grilled shrimp (thanks Dad for doing all the meat! Yum!)

“Wild boar” (pork tenderloin). This stuff was so delicious. See, now aren’t you sad you missed out on the partay? Is everyone stoked on the new episodes or what?

29 January, 2007
Good Times

Headed up to northern Virginia this weekend to hang out with my lady Genevieve and do some serious shopping. Right when we got there we angered Roxy the doxie. She’s all, “I hate you with the fire of a thousand suns.”

“No seriously, get out of my face with the camera.”

Genny got a super cool fondue pot for Christmas and we broke it in. Some friends of hers came over, who were all really great. We had yummy cheese fondue first with all sorts of goodies for dipping.

Afterward we had dessert and chocolate fondue, and yes those are my looooovely cupcakes.

There was much dessert consumed, way way too much, and we stayed up til almost 3am girly-talking. We also ended up calling the cops on her upstairs neighbors who were literally having a bowling match at 2:30 in the morning.

That crazed look in my eye says, “Navigating around Ikea with a shopping cart is an insane thing to do!” We did some hardcore Ikea shopping and I got a lot of things I needed to organize my office and craft room, as well as all the curtain hardware I need for the whole house, and curtains for every room but the bedroom. Whew. By the time we loaded it all in my mom’s Tahoe, we were both exhausted and fell into a bowl of guacamole at On the Border. Yum. It snowed on the way back and some last night, but not enough to avoid working today. Bummer.

15 January, 2007
Frisbee Golf?

My sister Grace’s boyfriend Andrew is one of those dudes that looks like an Abercrombie model and plays every sport, including ones we haven’t heard of. Like frisbee golf. Or, Disc Golf, as it’s supposed to be called. So we all went out to Munden Point park yesterday to play.

I’ll sum up: you throw the frisbee. Then you walk to it. Then you throw the frisbee. Then you walk to it. Then you throw… you get the idea. Eventually you make it to a pole with a basket on it and you toss the frisbee in. Congratulations, you’re done with that “hole.” Yes, we did this for 18 holes, and approximately three hours.

Luckily Jimmy was able to show us the correct stance to prepare to throw the discus, otherwise I probably would have fallen asleep during this game.

Sorry to any frisbee golfers out there, but this game was totally lame. It was a gorgeous day though, and I had so much fun on the drive out there with Jimmy. And at least we got a lot of exercise in walking all over the whole park.

And then we went to Cogans and ate fourteen pizzas, eliminating any benefits from said exercise. Fun weekend.

26 December, 2006
Christmas 2006

I hope everyone had an awesome holiday. I sure did.

My mom’s brother came in from out of town with his family, and we celebrated with them for a few days. I’m glad the little girls got a lot of gifts and it was good to meet them.

I got majorly spoiled. My gifts were:

• One hour massage gift certificate
• $75 to The Container Store
• Cast iron dutch oven
• Garmin Forerunner 101 GPS watch
• Fuji F30 Digital Camera
• Starbucks gift card
• A cute shirt for Kyla
• Assorted stocking stuffers
• The Joy Luck Club book

Yeah there were a LOT of gifts and stockings, but to be fair we had 15 people and a dog there. Hah.

Santa had a suspicious-looking bulk under his shirt. He later gave birth to a huge teddy bear.

Which Kyla the Boston terrier terrorist promptly ate.

We had a Thanksgiving-ish dinner on Christmas eve, and prime rib last night. I’m not much of a red meat eater, but that was a delicious (and expensive!) cut of meat. Mmmm.

Since we opened all our gifts on Christmas eve, Christmas itself was a lazy day of sleeping and reading for me and the beast. Then I went to mom’s for Christmas dinner.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and if I didn’t thank you individually, thank you so much for sending me a holiday card. I got a ton this year and it’s awesome! Smooches to all.

30 October, 2006
Mario Bros!

Happy Halloween from my brother Noah (Mario) and his friend Sartaj (Luigi). What a great costume idea. I hear they were a big hit at the parties up at Va. Tech this weekend.

I’m lame and didn’t make one this year. I might do face makeup for tomorrow night, but again, pretty lazy. We’ll see.

24 October, 2006
Loooong weekend.

Hey guys. Sorry I have been out of commission! Gone for the weekend and then out sick yesterday. All is back to normal now (unfortunately) and I’m back to work.

• Lots of stuff going on. First of all, Leon has been working like a madman taking photos for the gym. I’m doing a website for them and he is my professional photographer. Best of all he works for pizza & beer from Tranny Hut since I’m not getting cash off this gig (free gym membership). I love him. The website should be up in the next two weeks.
• I am speaking to a graphic design studio class at ODU. Very weird to be asked to speak in front of college students when I was one myself just a little over a year ago. I’m honored though, hopefully I won’t talk a million miles a minute and sound dumb.
• Kyla’s eye is much better. We go in today for the final checkup. In other Kyla news, I found a new dog behaviorist that I’m going to start working with on a regular basis. My mom’s brother is coming for Christmas and bringing kids, and my goal is to be able to have Kyla around them (hates kids currently). So we will be doing doggie boot camp soon.
• I have a ton of knitting and yarn to show you guys. One of these days I will get organized and photograph it.

So, this weekend I went to DC to visit Miss Genevieve and shop and meet some of my online friends and shop some more. Fall is in full effect and I was really loving the foliage the whole way up. I tried to take some pictures (so safe while driving). Doesn’t do it justice.

When me and Gen get together we always forget to take pictures of ourselves. But at least I took pictures of the weenie.

Ahhh what it’s like being around nice dogs who don’t send messages with their teeth.

Except when you come too close to the crate. I was trying to get the snarl on camera, but I was too slow for this doxie. We tried to go to Ikea, but there were lines of traffic for miles in both directions, so we didn’t visit that particular hell. We went to Georgetown instead and I spent an embarrassing amount of money at MAC and Lush.

I love Lush. I want to eat the whole store. Speaking of eating, we went to a cool Mexican place where they make fresh guacamole at your table. I loved it. We tried to have a late night sleepover Sex & the City party, but I fell asleep at like 10:30. I’m a GREAT sleepover buddy, huh?

The next morning I went to meet up with some of my online friends from one of the craftyish messageboards I frequent. We had lunch at a place called Cafe Salsa in old town Alexandria. Sooo yummy. Then we hit up this really great yarn store/fiber workshop place. They are a non-profit fiber arts school and teach spinning, weaving, knitting, felting, etc. classes. They also have gorgeous yarn. I bought things.

Someone at the shop took our picture (there were more of us but everyone abandoned since we were taking years to wind all our yarn). She had a little trouble focusing the camera. I was like, let me retake that, homegirl didn’t focus.

As you can see I did a much better job.

19 October, 2006
Partay!

The party last night was really fun. Thanks to everyone who came out: Annie, Alicia, Flza, Denise, Cassie, Heidi, Grace, Ashley, Kyle and Chris. I had a great time!

Even though I was rooting for Laura, I’m not mad that NeckTat won, and I thought his collection (minus two looks) was divine. There is a full recap with photos of all four collections coming up later today so watch for it.

And of course the most important guest of the party: the food. Here’s all the food I made, minus the bruschetta which was still cooking. Yeah, I made Oreos from scratch, aren’t you impressed?

25 September, 2006
Well it’s on me.

Yes, I did get tattooed this weekend. No, I don’t have any pictures of it yet. This is the most you get. Don’t I look stoked? Haha not.

I’ll have some pics up soon enough.

It looks really great. It hurt really bad. I hear that coloring & shading is easier and I really hope so, because the dull letter opener being dug in and dragged across my skin feeling? Not so hot.

The weekend was pretty fun overall. Friday afternoon I made an appointment for a massage because my back had been bothering me for a week, to the point of where it hurt when I breathed. Carmen beat the crap out of me, but the pain is gone now, I’m really glad I went. Then I met Steph at my house. We picked up Jimmy and went to Doumars, then we lit fireworks and sparklers off at his beach.

We ended up watching a movie at his house, then went home to get beauty rest. We left around 10 and headed down to Winston-Salem. It took just under 5 hours to get there. After some design revisions, I got tattooed. I didn’t cry but I wanted to at some of the music that was playing in the shop. The place was really busy too, a ton of people kept coming in and just spontaneously picking stuff off the wall to get tattooed on them. Some were letting the price of the tattoo determine what they got. Nice!

We had some time left for shading but I couldn’t take anymore after the outline was done, so we got some pizza and got back on the road. The drive back was crappy. I was pretty tired yesterday, just went to church, hung around my mom’s, helped her with some website stuff and crashed early last night after trying to watch JAWS with Jimmy.

I’ll try to get some pictures tonight maybe.

05 September, 2006
Hey kids, it’s September already.

I really believe there’s not much in this world that can give you a self-esteem boost like wearing quality clothing that FITS you. Remember my big shopping list for Fall/Winter? I got a good chunk knocked out this weekend thanks to some perseverance, sweat and a girl named Genevieve. Oh yeah this is her. I mean us.

I wish she lived here, and not 3 hours away. I love hanging out with mah lady. And her lil’ Huffa the weenie dog.

I hope you didn’t think boston terriers were the only dogs that can give the serious STINK EYE. This little weenie hates wearing this shirt and is not afraid to show it. And later, on a walk:

“How am I supposed to plan world domination if I’m wearing this stupid shirt? Remove it immediately.”

So yeah, after a delicious lunch at Sunflower there was much shopping and trying on of a zillion items of clothing. We went to Tysons Corner mall which as you can imagine, was pure insanity since it was Labor Day. I am so glad I had Gen there with me, because she encouraged me to try on stuff I normally wouldn’t have picked out, but that ended up looking great on me. I also was very pleased to discover that I have gone down another size in pants and that I can now buy shirts at almost any store!

Yes, that’s right kids, I shopped at such places as NY&Co. and The Gap. This might sound really dumb to most people reading this site, but fellow fatties can sympathize with the pathetic lack of options for fashion. Now I can fit into a regular XL top and good lord, this is going to make things so much easier (and cheaper). I got some really good stuff including two pairs of trousers that look like they were made for me (expensive), a pair of Levi’s (on sale for $15!), a couple sweaters and boatneck tees (cheap) and some kimono-style tops. I’m really excited about what I got and I spent less than I was planning to. I still have a good deal of shopping to do, but I did get a substantial amount done.

We went into this really cool store called Cusp, which was above my price range, but I fell in love with their displays. One of the sales guys was looking at me weird and kind of following me around since I was taking pictures, but he didn’t say anything so I guess he got over it.

Is that not the coolest chair?

Yeah, those are some Manolo Blahniks in there. They had—wait for it—CAMO BLAHNIKS. They were exactly the shoe that Carrie had stolen from the baby shower, except in camo satin. Too great.

Gen says she’s gonna buy them for me for my birthday. They’re only $645. Chump change, right? Anyway afterwards I was totally exhausted and sweaty. Gen is a saint for waiting while I tried on 8,000 things. I have to say that I think it’s kind of sad (but also great) that someone I’ve only hung out with twice in real life has been a better friend to me lately than some of the people I’ve known for years. I love her.

P.S. I’m getting tattooed the first week in October. Stoked.

22 May, 2006
Happy birthday, Gracie!

My gorgeous sister turned 18 this weekend (hands off, everyone or you’ll have to deal with me). It was an awesome party. Jimmy took pictures, I’m so giving him the camera from now on, he’s quite the photographer.

Cash rules everything around me!

This is what happens when you give a drama nerd Cirque de Soleil tickets. Note Noah’s expression. We like to call it “Cirque de So-lame.”

 

That’s my favorite picture. Awww.

Dave & Kyla looking majestic.

  

 

Circus dog trying to see what’s over the fence (probably a bird).

Standing guard.

Hey good lookin.

 

We’ve discovered that Kyla hates sprinklers. Good lord you should have heard the barking. And when they receded back into the ground (mom has one of those fancy irrigation systems) you would have thought the world ended.

We also went to the beach. It was seriously windy. There was a new sand dune covering our blanket by the time we left.

Great weekend. I also went to DC on Saturday and hung out with Miss Genevieve. We shopped Georgetown (MAC, Lush, Sephora, etc.) and I ate the most delicious General Tso’s Tofu in the world. Her apartment was in chaos because her roommate was moving out and they needed her every 2 seconds, so we totally forgot to take a picture together, bummer. But I had so much fun, and next time I’m making her come down to the beach to visit me.

So, what did you guys do this weekend?

09 December, 2005
One fish two fish

I saw this lady’s pictures of her reef tank today on a messageboard I visit. So I decided to post some of mine that I had on Flickr. Now I totally miss having my tank. This is the last thing I need, one more hobby/interest grabbing for my attention.

The only place it makes sense to put this is in my bedroom, and I really want it out in the open so people can see it. I just don’t think it’s viable in my house. Maybe when I move into a bigger house.

Anyway, look. This thing was so beautiful. I took it down in April and sold everything thinking I was about to go into apartment life. Little did I know I’d be buying a house. Everything in here was grown from frags (small fragments of larger corals that were given/traded to me), except the white finger leather in the center, which I bought.

I even started a local reef club and we had monthly meetings, it apparently has grown considerably and they still have monthly meetups.

My lawnmower blenny. I called him my dog haha. This fish used to seriously do push ups.

Female lyretail anthias and some softies.

The center of my tank.

Cool white sponge that grew out of the rock.

Frogspawn frag & some striped mushrooms.

Green nephthea.

White finger leather.

Frogspawn

The hygienist

Came with the rock. Didn’t even know he was there for like 6 months. Nocturnal mostly.

The full tank in January. I had it for about a year when I took it down in April.

15 August, 2005
The Longest Weekend Ever

So my weekend started off like this:

I left work and it appeared all hell had broken loose, weather-wise, which made me VERY unhappy, considering I had a cookout going on for Jimmy’s birthday. I went by the store and out to the park, where luckily it was not raining. Whew.

Jimmy got his present. I didn’t even know it was a photo iPod. He should be careful because I’m tempted to switch it for mine. I covet the nice color screen.

Kenny bought him a cake. Note: he is not really 30.

I tell funny jokes and everyone laughs. See what fun I am to be around? Hahah. Here’s Patrick, Adam and Casey. And Dennis hiding behind everyone.

Jimmy getting wasted. On water. And Timmy and Jill.

Kenny performing surgery on a hot dog, just before they transplanted a firecracker into the hot dog. Yes, we are all in our twenties. Aren’t we mature?

Adam and Dan doing the dirty work. Just after this everyone got hot dog shrapnel all up in their ass.

Straight up chillin.

The protagonist and his feast and minions.

The party was good, except a few people not showing up who totally should have. I think everyone had a good time though.

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Saturday I went to DC to go shopping with Kyle and Chris. Here is Chris looking more stylish than everyone viewing this site combined.

Ikea ended up wearing us out and it was the only place we went. The place is humongous. I ended up buying a dining room table and chairs, a coffee table, a storage drawer thing that will replace my dresser and yarn shelves, some accent mirrors, a vase, some mixing bowls. All for about $250. I’m so thrifty.

Kyle playing in the kids section. The toys here were totally weird. Those wacky Scandinavians.

This picture was to prove that they have a WOMB DOLL in the kids section. I mean totally. This thing has ovaries. And eyes. So creepy.

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Yesterday I went shopping with Mom and David at the Navy Exchange and picked up some stuff for the house. Iron and ironing board, towels, pillows, junk like that.

Oh, and the Acredale Saddlery horse got vandalized for the 3254321354th time. That’s what you get for having a huge horse penis on display on top of your business 24/7. You are totally ASKING FOR IT.

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My personal life is quite stormy lately, and it’s not something I’m willing to talk about more than vaguely on here yet. Tonight is a trial of sorts. I am wishing for the best and hoping to be back to my normal, cheery self before long. Who knows.