Almost Over

NaBloPoMo is almost over - and I have to say I'm happy about it.  It certainly is challenging towards the end of it to come up with something to post every.single.day.  Although I did come across some other fun blogs through the month, so I'm pretty happy about that.  Would I do it again? Most definitely.  But this time of the school year isn't the best - it's time for me to start preparing for exams which means I am anything but creative.  So I may skip next year since it'll be my last law school year and November is tough.

Anyways, on this Sunday, I'm rooting for my fantasy football players to play super well.  I am currently 7-4, and was in 1st place in my division going into this week.  I only have this week and next week before playoffs start, and if I finish in first place at the end of regular season, I win $50.  That's what I'm going for!  So wish me luck as I head into these next two Sundays!

Damper on my Halloween

Our weekend consisted of carving pumpkins on Friday, dealing with annoying kids on Saturday night and trying to relax yesterday.


I normally like halloween.  But not in the same way other people like halloween.  Most people love dressing up and partying it up.  I like halloween to see all the other people dress up. I've never been big into dressing up for halloween, which is kind of surprising because the thought of getting to wear a costume and do fun makeup sounds appealing.  Then, add in that I married someone who never grew up with halloween, and it means we're pretty much party poopers for the event.  The thought of having to come up with a costume, and then forking over money for any part of it kind of kills it for me.

So instead of dressing up, I like decorating and preparing for the occasion.  Friday night we carved our pumpkins.  Or, rather, Ian carved them because I proved to be terrible at it without the carving kit I've always used.  Ian, who had never carved a pumpkin before, was incredibly grossed out by the whole process.  He thought it smelled like poo and hated having to clean out the insides of it.  I thought it smelled like...pumpkin.  But oh well ha. 

Ian's pumpkin:

Our pumpkins together (mine is a lion):

And look - the pumpkins even have a guard dog!

Saturday, while Ian ran his 20 miles, I went to the gym for a long cardio session.  Afterwards, we went to our fave lunch spot to get cold cuts for the week and some sandwiches.  We both took a short nap after lunch and the prepared for halloween night.

Last year, being in our current house for the first time, we had trick-or-treaters.  I was thrilled!  We decided to get takeout while I sit on the front steps and hand out candy.  And I absolutely love it.  I did the exact same thing this year, except the weather wasn't quite as cooperative.

However, this year we had a few very different trick-or-treaters.  One of the first big groups of trick-or-treaters to come by had about 8 children in it, all different ages.  It looked like 2 moms and a dad were with them.  They came running up the steps to our house (this was before I had gone outside to sit on the steps) and shouted trick-or-treat.  I bent down to grab the candy from the house and as I'm standing back up the eldest trick-or-treater, probably a 12 year old boy, demanded that each child is supposed to get 2 candies.  I was kind of taken back.  And he also was one of my pet-peeves - he wasn't even wearing a freakin costume.  If you're going trick-or-treating and want candy, you better dress up.  So I politely said that I appreciated his suggestion, but that the people giving out the free candy get to decide how much they want to give.

When one of the mothers came with the younger kids, I mentioned that the kids probably shouldn't demand how much candy they get.  She just said oh okay.

5 minutes later, I'm setting up our carved pumpkins on our front window sill and the same group of kids come running up to the window (which was open), along with the adults with them.  The mother shouts "trick-or-treat.  you got candy in there?."  UMMM REALLY?!  I shouted back that yes I do, but they have already been to our house.  She didn't respond to me, but instructed her kids to go to the next house.

Wow.  It's people like that who make me not want to hand out candy.  And what is with the parents not instructing their kids to say thank you?  I understand kids can sometimes forget or be shy or distracted, but parents who don't correct their kids are ridiculous.  And, please, tell your kids to freaking say something when I answer the door.  It's annoying when I answer the door and just see kids with their bags open.

The second annoying thing of the night - older trick-or-treaters coming at 9:45pm.  Um really - I'm not asleep by then but I'd prefer not to have people knocking at my door at 9:45pm and scaring the daylights out of me, and making Tessa bark like a maniac.

Anyways - our halloween was not as fun as last year.  Maybe next year we will have to join in halloween festivities away from our house, all to avoid the few annoying kids.

And I swear I should not be allowed to play in any fantasy sports league.  Ian is hating that I have a fantasy football team.  It's all fun and games until I become a cranky bitch and am yelling because my fantasy team is having a crappy day.  It looks like my 6-1 record will soon become a 6-2 record - and on a week I felt good about my lineup.  Well, I guess there are worse things in life.

Waiting

Well, luckily Friday's mishap was not an indication of the way my weekend would turn out.  I sulked most of Friday until Ian got home and cheered me up.  Then, we got ready and headed to Fells Point for a law school friend's birthday dinner.  We partied it up with those people, then headed home by 11. 

Saturday, we cleaned like maniacs and realized we need to a thorough cleaning more often.  We cleaned for over 4 hours - all because we were having Kim and Jeremy over for dinner on Saturday.  It made us realize we need to have people over for dinner more often in order to keep our house clean!  We had a lovely dinner, yummy organic wine (thanks K&J for bringing it!) and played a round of our favorite game after dinner (Spinner - describing this game this is probably a whole other post in itself).

Sunday, we slept in and then made breakfast together.  The weather was absolutely beautiful, so we finally decided to head to the pumpkin patch after weeks of me begging to go.  We went to North Run Farm in the afternoon.  I was disappointed with this pumpkin patch.  First, you have to pay $7 per person just to walk into the place.  I think that's fine if you have kids who are going to be doing the maze or playing any of the games.  But for us adults, just coming to buy a few pumpkins - I think that's a little crazy.  Then the pumpkins - you had to walk for forever just to get to any decent ones, and there really weren't many decent ones.  I will say that driving to this one is a beautiful fall drive, but otherwise I will not go back to this one.

And we only managed to find one good pumpkin to carve, so we headed to Weber's Farm on our way back.  I liked this one much better - although I would've liked to actually pick my pumpkin from the patch, not from barrels like you do at Weber's.  But, you can't get everything I suppose.  I loved that this one has preserves and a bakery and fresh vegetables and apples.  Ian picked up a pumpkin loaf that is almost gone - it is that good.

And to add to my (almost) fabulous weekend, I won for the 6th week in a row in fantasy football league.

Before I post pictures from the pumpkin patch, I'll let you know that I have not heard from the owner of the car from Friday's incident.  I'll keep you posted if I do hear.

The goat on the right bit Ian's finger - serves him right for not reading the sign that said to not put fingers in the fence.

Why, Hello There

Blog world? Are you there? Well, life in clinic has kind of kept me quite busy and I just haven't had time to say hola!

So here's a quick update. I got my case assignments yesterday and am very happy with the selection of my clients. I am dealing with some business/tax related matters, several family/health related matters, and some criminal matters. Overall, I'm getting a fantastic overview of several areas that are of my interest.

Our weekend was filled with fun times. Friday, Kim and I went to a Zumba class which was super fun. It's essentially a latin/dirty dancing class at my gym. The instructor could probably scratch her butt and make it look beautiful. And even having danced my whole life, I felt very uncoordinated and spazzy. But it was a great workout that had me sweating bullets (not that it's that hard to do that - I have a sweating problem). After the class, the four of us headed out to dinner at The Wine Market. Ian and I had been wanting to check it out and were very pleased overall. The food was great, and the sangria wasn't so bad either!

Sunday we played golf with Stacy and Jon which always makes me happy. There was a lot of sun, cussing and beer - perfect morning for us! Hopefully we can do this more often this summer with those two!

And the highlight of our weekend - we finalized our wedding anniversary plans! I think I'm going to keep it a secret until after the fact. But I can say, I am SO FREAKING EXCITED!

I Need More Balls

Friday we played in the annual golf tournament that benefits the scholarship fund in my grandfather's name. It goes to the same high school which my uncle and brother attended and where Ian and I were married. We had a blast as always and luck must've been on our side because the rain held out until we were all finished! My grandfather was the golf coach at the school and even though I never met him, I'm sure it's the reason golf is in my genes. I love it and almost went to college on a full scholarship for golf - but any good golf schools are far away from my home in DC so I decided against it.

Lucky for me, Ian happens to love golf as well so it's a great activity for us to do together. After all, what is better than beautiful weather, drinking beer, chatting and laughing while riding in a little cart? We often talk about how it'll be a great activity for us to do as a family and for the two of us when we retire one day.

Well, as much fun as Friday was, I did not have a good game - in fact, I think it's just about the worst I've played. I stopped counting how many balls I lost at 6. And for you non-golfers, golf balls are expensive! At the golf shop, 3 golf balls can cost about $12-15. That's a whole lot of money I left on the golf course! It's a good thing the booze was included.

Viva la Vida

Weekend Highlights:

• Packed a ton on Saturday


• We had a lovely time at Mark and Barbara's wedding. They had a lovely reception at National Museum of Women in the Arts. Instead of doing flowers as centerpieces, they had individual cakes for each table. I took quite a few pictures but haven't uploaded them yet. This is the first wedding we attended as a married couple and it felt much different going to this wedding than going to weddings before ours. I paid a lot of attention to details and although we compared certain details to ours, it's really hard to compare your own wedding to someone else's! They had a fun crowd that liked to dance. I was watching how much I drank specifically because we had a big Sunday planned. However, I knew the hubby had too much to drink as I see him on the dance floor (without me - this was already a clue) popping a leg out, grabbing his crotch and making some Michael Jackson-esque "woohoo" noises. It was right about then that I gathered my mom and the boy and decided it was time for us to leave. I'm hoping my mom managed to get Ian's moves on camera!



• Sunday, Ian was quite hungover, so we got a late start heading up to our new house in Baltimore. We took Tessa with us to try to get her used to the house. We had to measure all of the rooms and measurements for blinds and curtains and whatnot. I wish I had taken my camera with me so I could show you how cute our pup was. Currently, we do not have stairs in our place. Well our new places has two staircases and she thinks it's a game specifically designed for her liking. Up then down, up then down, up then halfway down and leap off the rest of the stairs, up then down, and so on. After about 8 trips up and down, she went to the middle of the hardwood empty floors, sprawled out on her side, let her tongue hang out of her mouth onto the floor, and proceeded to pant herself to sleep. Now - if only I could figure out a way to allow this novelty to last, I would have a lot more free time instead of walking her for hours.
• Afterwards, we headed back home where we got ready and went to a delicious dinner at Zengo. I am obsessed with the food here. If you haven't been, GO! We had a quick meal there and then headed to the Verizon Center with Juan and Lauren to see my fave, COLDPLAY! We had seen them once before in concert with my brother in NY and they rocked it out there. They certainly did not disappoint us here. They also played the song we used as our entrance into the reception and this made me jump in my seat and sing along outloud. It was awesome to see them with fellow huge fans. I happened to be able to get us box seats so we had a great view, private bathroom, and no need to stand with the sweaty crowd. I only wish I had remembered to bring my camera. I was able to snatch a few crappy photos on my phone's camera, especially ones of Chris and company coming up the stairs attached to our suite and singing about 15 feet from us. He's an amazing performer and I think I've developed a slight crush on him simply because of what a goober he is. I think seeing him more than once has officially begun my slight obsession - even though he was wearing a purple shirt with skinny pants.

How was your weekend?

Who? What? Where? When?

I'll start with those questions to fill you in as to what we've been up to!


We happened to land us some box seat tickets to the Coldplay concert in DC and we are psyched!!

Since things were so hectic before the wedding and we felt like horrible friends, we've been trying to take time to catch up with friends. I also have been busy trying to get all of my school loans in order so that everything's set for my first day of orientation on August 25. I got my class schedule and got extremely excited. I couldn't fall asleep I was so wired. And I have to say, of the 10 or so schedules I could've had, I think I got one of the good ones. I'm finished with classes by 12 on Tuesday, Thursday and Fridays and on Monday and Wednesdays I'm finished by 3. I rather get up at the same time as Ian and go get classes overwith so I can come home, eat lunch and still have lots of study time before Ian gets home. I'm hoping this schedule will allow me to have a nice dinner with him every night but I have no idea what 1st year life will be like so we'll have to wait and see.

I know I need to finish the honeymoon recap but am happy to say that we finished all of our thank you notes - woohoo!


We've been making multiple trips up to Baltimore to look at houses to find a place to rent. We're moving in less than 4 weeks and were getting anxious to findy the right place. I've been busy doing lots of looking on craigslist and also working with a realtor. By the way - we LOVE our realtor. She's very Baltimore but is such a sweetie.


In total - we looked at about 15 properties. We found one on the first day we looked and were ready to move forward when we got an email from the young owners (who also happen to be newlyweds) saying that their new house that they were moving into had a very bad inspection. They tried to negotiate with the owners of that house to get the issues fixed or to knock the price down, but they were unwilling to negotiate. So they pulled out of the contract. That left us going back to looking.


Sunday we visited a place and fell in love with it. It's a little more pricey than we wanted considering we'll be dropping down to one salary, but it's well worth the price. We went for a night time visit on Tuesday night to see it again, to make sure the area is safe for me to walk through at night, and moved forward with it yesterday! Say hello to our new place:






The pictures do not do this place justice whatsoever. It's a rowhome (similar to a townhouse) in a cute area of downtown Baltimore. The house has just been gutted and completely renovated. It's 2 bedroom, 1.5 baths with a patio, a deck off the 2nd bedroom, a jacuzzi tub in the bathroom, and a fully finished basement. The part that is great about the finished basement part is that I need an office. So instead of putting the office in the guest bedroom, we'll have them as two separate rooms. The kitchen - oh how I love thee - I cannot wait to unpack our new kitchenware and cook in it. I told the hubby that the kitchen made me want to cook dinner every night - I think that just about sold him:)

AAA and Photo Post

I packed all of these little boxes of treats to take to work today and was late for work and flustered when I got here. I grabbed my purse, the bag with all of the treats, and walked into the building. I went to go out to grab something from Whole Foods for lunch, and no keys were found anywhere! Sure enough, they're hanging from the ignition in my car. I locking my keys in the car a lot when I first got my license. So instantly I felt like a kid again when I realized what I'd done. I called Ian and my mom to find a spare key - which is nowhere to be found either. AAA just got here and popped the lock so now I have my keys. On the bright side, it's the 3rd and not the 1st of January - that would've been a bad way to start 2008.

Last night, we went to a Wizards game. Ian and Alex have never seen a professional basketball game. Alex actually had never been to a U.S. professional sports game. I got box seats through one of our outside law firms. The guys had a fantastic time - and Alex took lots of videos to show everyone back in France. Apparently since Tony Parker is from France, the french have become very interested in the NBA. Anyways, it was a good time and here are some pictures:

Alex was excited for the free Heineken:

And there must've been something good going on here:

Hideous photo of me but the only one with me in it:

Gheorge Muresan = Andre the Giant. Look how much bigger he is sitting than everyone else!

I also forgot to mention that the guys went to look at tuxes while my brother was in town. Ian is waiting to decide on the specifics since Men's Warehouse is getting new tuxes. But, his idea is a 3-button black tux with no vest, only a tie (possibly suspenders as they are really in style right now). The groomsmen will wear black ties and Ian will wear a silver or white one. Here are some more photos:

This is Alex and this picture makes me laugh:

And Ian trying to be studly:

It's Beginning to look like Christmas

A quick weekend recap. Friday night we had Ian's parents down for some takeout. It was a lovely time and we talked lots about the wedding, Christmas plans, and poop. His parents really like fart/poop talk so inevitably the conversation turns there.

Saturday, I did not get up from the couch until about 6pm. I watched TV, reruns of movies, and took naps. Saturday night at 8:30, we headed to the mall to try to wrap up most of our Christmas shopping. I was able to get presents for my brother's gf, Ian's brother's gf, my mom, and ideas for the rest of the peeps. All in all, it was a success and I highly recommend going there late at night since the malls are staying open until 11. It was practically empty - just the way I like it!

Last night, we went with Maggie and her girls, Jean (her mom), and my mom to see Happy Holidays by Marvin Hamlisch. We had a fantastic time and I even got Ian to sing to the Christmas carols during the sing-along section of the program. It sounds like a cheesy affair, but it was well put-together and absolutely hilarious in some parts. If you ever have the chance to witness an orchestra led by Marvin, DO IT! He's a very kind and hilarious guy, not to mention extremely talented. My mom turned to Maggie in the middle of the performance and asked how much she thought it would be to hire the entire orchestra for the ceremony at my wedding. She cracks me up.

Also this weekend, we heard from our travel agent and she put together an itinerary for a possible honeymoon to Greece! Here it is:

• Athens for 2 days
• Santorini for 3 days http://www.volcanoview.com/
• Crete for 4 days http://www.minoapalace-chania.gr/
• Back to London or Athens for 1 night and fly home the next day

The links are to possible properties where we might stay. They are nice resorts. The rooms themselves aren't amazing - just standard. But I feel like since we're going farther for the honeymoon, and it costs more to get there, that we'll probably have to stay in more standard rooms. I think it's a toss-up. Go some place closer, stay in nicer rooms or a suite, or go further and stay in nice resorts in standard rooms. I feel as though I'd prefer to have nice scenery in a romantic location we've never been since we'll be spending most of our time on the beach, outside, etc. What do you think?

We're also having her come up with possible trips to Croatia, Italy and Hawaii. We like options!

Weekend in Review

I cannot tell you how good Avenue Q was! Ian and I had fantastic seats in the 2nd row and the people in my row were super nice to slide down 2 to let me have the end seat. Quite frankly, I would've had to crawl over each of their laps had they said no and I probably would've jabbed someone with the crutch by accident.


Those of you thinking of going to see it, BUY YOUR TICKETS! It was nothing I would've expected. A lot more vulgar/racey than I would've thought a puppet could ever be. A brief synopsis without giving anything away is that there are a bunch of characters (all but 3 of them are puppets) who live on Avenue Q, are in their 20's and it's about finding their places in the real world. There is a ton of humor, they poke fun at all ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientation choices. We are now thinking that maybe we'll buy two tickets as a Christmas present for Ian's parents. Although - I might want to steal them and go see it again! We were very sad when it was over.


We had my Christmas party on Saturday afternoon. I wish I had taken pictures because I think that's the only way to get a real feel for what it was like. I felt like I was in another world. It was in a tent at the Kennedy Center and the first thing we noticed were the arobatic people hanging from the ceiling of the tent in these crazy costumes. If you've ever seen Cirque du Soleil, it was more like that type of entertainment than say, a regular Barnum & Bailey circus. The food was YUMMY and they gave each family a snowman kit with the wooden eyes, nose, buttons, a felt hat with hollyon it, the scarf and something else that I'm forgetting - maybe the mittens? Ian fussed at me for taking one because he thinks it would've been nice for a family with more than one kid to get an extra one - but I can't help it - when you see free stuff, you take it!! We'll give it away to my godkids or something.


We got our Christmas tree on Saturday!! We got it up and it looks and smells like winter. We need to decorate it this week. We were just too tired to decorate it after all of our events this weekend.


Last night, I interviewed Marc Wilner from Bialek's. He is the 2nd DJ we've interviewed from there. I liked him quite a bit. We have one more DJ to interview before we make our decision. I am stressed out about this because I really liked Chris Laich - he was super professional, he gets tons of rave reviews on theknot wedding boards, and he just seemed super easy to work with. I feel like the DJ can make or break the atmosphere and it is super important to us that everyone be on the dance floor, that the DJ doesn't say anything on the microphone unless we've asked him to, and that he can really read the crowd. I felt like Marc was great and seemed easy to work with - but I felt like he was more about the mic than I'd like, and I haven't heard any reviews (good or bad) about him. I've posted the wedding boards to see if anyone has used him, but haven't gotten any response. I would just go with Chris, but he is significantly more money (about double). Any thoughts??


We are having square tables that seat 12 people each and are planning on having some tables with low centerpieces and some tables with tall centerpieces. Here are some wedding pictures that are centerpiece ideas:

I like the lower vase on the picture below:

Oh Christmas Tree

Last night, Sarah and Carlton picked up dinner and came over where we had some good indian food, watched Grey's and at commercials watched the Redskins finally win one. I felt that last night's Grey's was slightly more exciting than the rest of the season. Has anyone else been disappointed with it this season? Anyways, we always have such a great time with those two - they're a riot!


For all those makeup recommendations - yes! I want the contact info!


The bridesmaids are ordering their dresses this weekend. Very excited! It looks like Leah, Lewis, Annie and Stacy all are ordering the strapless dress:



I don't know what Bridget is going with - she's going to check them out this weekend.


Lauren is going with this one (but in black):

Abby is wearing this one - but slightly altered to be a bit more covered up since she's only 12 - also in black:

And I think Maggie is going with this one (looks much better in person than on the model here!):

I'm having an issue right now - I feel like I've already posted these pictures - if I have then just forget about it. Yikes! I feel like my mom right now (sorry mom!).

This weekend I think we are getting our Christmas tree. I am VERY excited to pull out the decorations and Christmas music so we can decorate our tree.

We also are getting Tessa back for good! She has been at my mom's house for 2 weeks now and we've missed her a lot. We were going through dog withdrawal so we made Sarah and Carlton bring there 9 pound little pup, Chaz. He's so cute! He was wearing his Christmas costume - and was prancing around and also likes giving wet-willies and trying to french kiss. Fun times!

We have my company party tomorrow at the Kennedy Center. I'm pretty excited about it because normally we don't do a company party since our company has thousands of employees. But this year, we got a new CEO which means lots of new things. They will have all kinds of entertainment, food, and spirits. Sunday, we are going to see Avenue Q at National Theatre in DC. I've heard rave reviews and am quite excited to see it! My mom got us great seats as my birthday present.

I came across this cake - how awesome is it?!

Have a great weekend:)