Well, she didn't say "no"

Thank God the elections are over. When can we get high?

Read more...

Happy election day from a swing state

Hi from Ohio! I was downtown tonight at the same hotel where the Romney/Ryan headquarters are set up.

Work thought they'd be cute today. They put out two platters of cookies - red elephants and blue donkeys - and encouraged people to take one. Based on the number missing, it looks like the office was leaning Democrat. (I just took one of each).

Read more...

Weekend discovery: just as much spice as you need

Tonight we are having beef stew for dinner, which seems very fitting for the drab grey weather that has finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest (moving here right at the start of summer lulled us into a false sense of "the weather here isn't so bad!"-ness).  One thing we are still in the process of doing is restocking our cooking supplies.  We tossed a lot of things when we left New York, including a lot of old spices.

When I pulled out the cookbook to see what I needed as far as seasonings for the beef stew, I was met with a long list of suggestions -- as well as a "required" bay leaf.  I was a little dismayed because buying individual jars of so many spices was more than I wanted to spend on food for this week, even though I knew they would come in handy in the future.

While perusing the spice rack and trying to decide what to buy - the $3.99 bottle of bay leaves, which I use maybe twice a year? a bottle of all-purpose seasoning? - I noticed that Whole Foods sells spices in bulk, priced per pound (priced per ounce on the container).  Super exciting!  Now I could just buy a little of what I needed -- parsley, rosemary, marjoram, tarragon, bay leaves, and celery seeds -- and save a ton of money in the process.  I got everything I needed for just $1.44!

Read more...

My favorite part of the fridge

I love this side of the fridge! It's where we keep our save the dates and wedding (and wedding-related) invitations. In the past couple years many of our friends and family members have gotten engaged and/or married, which is very exciting! (Plus I love weddings!!)

I've been struggling with some friend related stuff for the past few months, but this part of the fridge makes me super happy because it reminds me of all the wonderful people who are in our lives! We can't wait to celebrate with all of you (and loved celebrating with those of you who have already tied the knot)! :)

Read more...

Bath & Body Works is a dangerous place

We went into Bath & Body Works for this...

And we left with all of this, whoops!  They were having a 2 for $20 sale on the candles (which are normally $20 apiece), a 6 for whatever deal on the soap (and I bet this soap is for this year at Christmas only, so we had to get a bunch of those), and the super cute Scentables - I was just going to get the polar bear, but then I saw the reindeer and penguin, and Marek said it would be mean not to get the panda bear.  And of course the LAMBIE slippers!  They're not the same as the old Lambie slippers (which I scored for $3 apiece), but they're still super cute and soft.  Even if I did have to buy a size large!

Read more...

Cross-Country Road Trip: Leaving Massachusetts

Marek picked me up from the airport Saturday morning and we had a bunch of errands to run before we left, which included some grocery shopping.  (We needed snacks for the car!)  I saw this magazine as we were checking out.  How times have changed...this feels more like the cover of Maxim to me than of Glamour.  Does a naked Lauren Conrad (which, don't even get me started on her) really appeal to female readers?

CLASSY

Once back at my parents' house, Claud and I chilled out while we waited for Marek to finish loading some things into our Thule.  Oh, did I forget to mention that?  While I was away, my poor car was saddled with hideous roof racks and we bought one of those Thule hard case carrier things.  Poor, poor car.

Photo by Mom

 Then it was some requisite pictures before we left - there, can you see the glimpse of the carrier there?  Claudius did not feel like posing with me though.

Then it was time to say bye to my mom.  (My dad was at work.)  Cue the waterworks!  Marek caught a bunch of "saying good-bye" pictures including a whole bunch of me crying, but I won't post them, mostly because I'm pretty sure my mom wouldn't appreciate pictures of her in her glamorous bathrobe "all over" the internet.  (Sshh, don't tell her this one is posted!)  My aunt also came over to see us off, so there was more crying, and then we were on our way.

Our first leg of the trip was going to take us from Massachusetts to Washington, DC.

We got all settled in, gave Claudius his pills (so he would stay calm...aka asleep), and then we were off, straight down I-95 for the next 8 hours.

I finally managed to get a picture of the Big Blue Bug!  He is a New England (or maybe just Eastern Massachusetts/Rhode Island) fixture on I-95 and I have been wanting to get his picture for awhile, but I usually miss him because he comes up quickly right after a turn.  I'm hoping some time to get a picture of him decked out for the holidays, in his reindeer antlers and big red nose!

The drugs really did their work.  The little guy stayed mostly passed out for the entire ride.  Whoever was riding in the passenger seat got the fun task of making sure Claudius stayed comfortable (lots of blankets, a place to put his head) and most importantly, cool!  He doesn't like the heat (although he LOVES lounging in the sun, go figure), and there were parts of the drive where we had to get creative to keep him nice and cool (more on that to come).

But of course he always woke up for food.  :)  Especially junk food!

The next two pictures are a little hard to see, but they were cars that were also sporting Transformers decals!  We were behind one (first picture) and then next to one (second picture).  I've got an Autobots decal on the back of the car, so it was as if we were hanging out with fellow Transformers (hehe, dork alert!).

The rest of the ride was pretty boring.  Just a lot of driving, sometimes over bridges.  We finally got to DC in the evening and headed over to my brother's place for some dinner and rest.  More to come!

Read more...

Cross-Country Road Trip: The In Between Time

Once we had escaped from New York in tact, we had about a week to kill before we could get going on our trip.  Our lease was up the end of the month, but because we were breaking the lease early, they management company said we had to be out by the 20th of the month, so we were, for all intents and purposes, homeless for a bit, as our lease in Washington hadn't started yet.

On Friday night I went to my parents' house and Marek stayed in the city to hang out with some of his friends.  Then he took the train to his parents' house and they dropped him off in Eastern Mass on Sunday.  Claudius and I woke up nice and early on Saturday morning.  Claudius stared forlornly out the window, looking at who knows what.  He was off to daycare for the day so he could work out some of his energy and not be too barky and get in my parents' way.

When I picked him up from daycare he was very thirsty!  Luckily we still had his McDonald's cup leftover from the day before, so he dove right in.  Silly dog. :)

After daycare, I dropped Claud at home and then my parents and I went out to Chili's (LIVING IT UP IN THE SUBURBS!!!) for dinner.  They have this sparkling pomegranate margarita that is pretty darn tasty.  M only problem with it is that it's too small!

After dinner we went to Kohl's (how exciting) where we proceeded to run into my great aunt and my cousin (they were together) and my aunt (separate).  They all live somewhat in the area, but what are the chances that ALL of us end up at Kohl's at the same time.  I'm sure after dinner and Kohl's, we went home and watched a movie (pretty sure it was Fair Game, about the Valerie Plame incident), and then Claud and I went to sleep.  Sshhh, don't tell my brother Claud was sleeping in his bed! ;)

On Sunday, I had to fly out again to Ohio for work, so Marek stayed with Claudius during the week.  (I don't have many pictures from that time, because Marek is not as free with his picture taking as I am.)  This one cute picture shows Claudius sitting on top of the couch, staring outside.  Apparently he liked to hang out up there (on his blanket of course...very strict at my parents' house - no dog on the couch without his blanket!).

I was supposed to come home from Ohio on Wednesday, but SURPRISE!  Work decided I should fly to San Francisco for Thursday and Friday and work 12-hour days there instead.  So on Wednesday I boarded the plane in the rain and headed west for my first trip to San Francisco.  I'd like to say I really loved San Francisco, but I was only there for a little bit and spent most of my time at work, so didn't get to see much.  (Of course, now that we're on the West Coast, going back should be much easier.)

Mississippi River

While in San Francisco, I spent a lot of time in this building, which has insulation made of old pairs of jeans!  Here's a fun story: I wasn't allowed to rent a car in SF, so had to walk to and from the hotel to the office, which was about a mile.  I wasn't super thrilled about it (I had 4" heels) but it was doable.  Until I walked a half mile in the wrong direction (meaning I had to double back and add another mile to my walk...IN HEELS), and showed up to the office late and with blisters all over my feet.  So much fun.
 

And getting a taxi on Friday to take me to the airport?  I will say this: New York really, really, really spoils you when it comes to taxi availability.  Aside from the horrible hour known as Shift Change, getting a cab in New York was so easy.  Just walk out into the street and sure enough, you'd be able to find one within minutes.  Even after calling a cab company, it took forever to get a cab (and I just got some random one, not even the one I called).

Now it was Friday night and I was really tired.  I like my job a lot, but I think it turns you into a bit of a workaholic.  I'd travelled to San Francisco to work on one project but still had to do work on my other project, which meant I had to be up and working by at least 5 AM both days and then we stayed in office until about 10 PM at night the first night.  So by the time Friday night rolled around, I was exhausted - and I had a redeye home and then we were driving to DC right away.  I had a ticket on Virgin America, and I was seriously considering upgrading myself to first class so I could get some rest, but I kept waffling and finally decided it was too much money.  Marek insisted though and bought me my upgrade, which was totally worth it.

Legroom isn't a big seller for me when it comes to flights - I actually have the opposite problem, because my legs are too short and it makes flying very uncomfortable - but the recline was so great.  I forget how much the seats in first class recline, but as soon as we hit 10,000 feet, I was leaned back and fast asleep all the way to Boston.  It was nice to be able to get some good sleep, because we were off and running as soon as I landed.  (Thanks Marek :)).

So much legroom!

Cute little mechanism for reclining the seat

Read more...

Cross-Country Road Trip: Leaving New York

We left New York in the middle of April - on a Friday.  We spent the two weeks (and more) leading up to that date sometimes frantically and sometimes lazily packing up the apartment.  It was a long and stressful (relatively speaking) process, especially because I'm a hoarder and I never like to throw anything away.

Conversations went a little like this:
Me: Why would I throw out the plunger?  It's perfectly good and I don't want to buy a new one in Seattle.
Marek: Because it's gross.  It's a plunger.  They're not that expensive.

(We tossed the plunger.)

And then finally moving day arrived.  The movers were scheduled to arrive between 8 and 10 AM, so we figured that meant 9:30.  We figured way wrong.  We were up until about 1 AM the night before, packing up the last odds and ends, and Marek had to make an emergency run to the FedEx to buy more boxes because we were running low (after we'd ordered a huge pack from online and then bought some really overpriced ones at a local box store).  I was planning on getting up around 7 to finish up the last bits of packing.

Around 7:30 we heard the buzzer going off and we had to scramble to get up, let the movers in, muzzle the dog (oh, Claudius), and oh yeah, finish packing as the movers start taking our stuff out of the apartment.  Luckily we got it all finished, and at about 9:30 they headed off, with most of our stuff safely stored away in the truck.  I was worried we'd never see it again.

Then I had to make a "quick" trip to Brooklyn to drop some clothes off at the friary that our friend Chris used to study at, and then it was time to pack up the car and drive to Massachusetts.  The car was STUFFED.  Now, the Yaris actually has a pretty decent sized trunk, and we managed to cram that full of stuff (mostly "valuables" (and yes, "valuables" include my Peyton Manning jerseys and other clothes that I would cry over if they got lost (especially now that Peyton plays for Denver!))), and then we filled up the backseat as well.

We were basically going to be living out of the car for the next two and a half weeks, so in addition to all of the things we didn't want to send in the truck (jewelry, laptops, mementos), we had a couple of suitcases and a couple of bags for travel as well.  For some stupid reason I decided not to put the clothes hampers in the truck (for sentimental reasons - one was the one I've had since I was literally five years old and another was my mom's that she gave me when I went off to college so we've also probably had it FOREVER), and those took up way more room than we could afford.

So at around 2:30 PM, I got the passenger seat ready for His Highness, buckled up, and we were off to Massachusetts.  Marek was staying in New York for the night because he was hanging out with his friends the next day and then going to his parents' house after to spend some time with them.  I was hoping that 2:30 PM would let us avoid most of the "It's-Friday-let's-get-the-heck-out-of-the-city" traffic, and for the most part, it did.

Poor Claudius could not get comfortable at all in the car.  Normally he's very insistent that he must sit on someone's lap - preferably the driver's (so safe!) - and he usually just goes to sleep.  We think he gets carsick.  But on this particular day he was just all over the place and I just about had it with him.  Then he started throwing up on the passenger seat, the poor thing!  Someone (we won't mention any names) apparently let him go to town on his Easter hambone while I was in Brooklyn.  When we finally were able to stop at a rest stop, I also found out that he was incredibly thirsty (probably from the salty ham :(), so after he drank a lot of water and I cleaned up his mess, he happily settled in and we continued the ride in peace.

Gross

Read more...

Scenes from the weekend (August 30 - September 3, 2012)

We had a great long weekend!  :)

I got in on Thursday night at a reasonable hour (8 PM instead of 11 PM), so we headed over to Claim Jumper for some dinner - and a mango margarita!  (Marek had a beer.)

After work on Friday, I spent some time reading my book (Bismarck: A Life).  Check out this little bit of German...so many letters...such a specific meaning.

We made (what is becoming) our "usual" trip into Seattle for some food and shopping, and on the way back, Mt. Rainier was so pretty on the horizon.  It's 80 miles away from where we were.

Back at home, we took a little nap together...

...and then later, Claudius decided that the perfect place to sleep would be right on my pillow, so he made himself at home.  This is the pre-digging that is required to get the sleeping spot JUST RIGHT so he can sleep on it.

On Saturday, there was more lounging...

...I tried on some truly horrible pants...

(Seriously! I had seen these previously and had such high hopes for them but they were hideous.  They were thin and look at how you can see those giant, ripe-for-stealing pockets right through them the front. YUCK.)

That night I spent some time with our other little buddy, Eddie.

...Instagram-ed Eddie!  He is such a sweet bird. :)

On Sunday I got up bright and early to get my swim done for the day.  I misread the gym schedule and thought the pool was closed on Labor Day, so I swam 100 laps (+5 extra to make it a full three miles) - my longest distance yet.  And I was very happy with the time - I got the 100 laps done in under 2 hours.

...so I treated myself to some homemade chocolate chip cookies!  Recipe is here.

We spent most of the night watching the rest of the first season of "Game of Thrones".  Marek wanted to have some wine, so decided to try to fit the entire bottle in his Bubba Gump Shrimp Company beer glass.  (It didn't all fit.)

Puppy wedged himself into the corner of my chair and snoozed away while we were watching the show.

Sunday was more swimming (for me) and some Madden for Marek.

We met up with our friends for dinner over in Bellevue.  Just a random ring shot on the way.

When we got home, I went to make get my overnight oatmeal ready and found that Marek had used over 3 cups of milk for his bowl of cereal that morning. Over 3 cups!

Read more...