Christmas Cheer!

This morning on my way to work, it was cold and I was marginally grumpy. When I switched trains at Metro Center, an older man got on my metro car. Instead of sitting down, he stood in the middle of the car, opened a song book and sang Christmas carols for the next 5 stops. Opera style. He was good and it was really cute. It's not often that I see people smile on the metro in the morning.

A hard day's (night's?) work.

Today on my commute to work, I was on the metro with a woman. A certain kind of woman.

She was of an older profession, for argument's sake, let's say....the oldest profession.

Now, I would think that normally, one wouldn't be able to tell, in a city like DC, if someone were an escort. But this lady? Was not what I would describe as an escort. She looked, to be charitable, lacier. With what she was wearing at 7:30 in the morning clearly at the end of her workday, she looked...well...cold.

I guess pimps don't share their fur-lined coats.

And for my next mini review...

Today, the pie truck came to work. A truck. That brings pie. I'll let you think about that for a minute.

Now, since we already had birthday goings-on in the office, I opted for a savory slice for lunch. It ruled. Hooray for Dangerously Delicious Pies and it's truck. Also, its brick and mortar shop is a couple of blocks from my new digs. This could mean a rough test of my willpower.

Cupcakes Can Fail??!

I don't know if this counts as a review, but the NYC cupcake DC transplant Crumbs?? SUCKS. I went last night to take a colleague for a birthday cupcake and it was horrible. Their cupcakes were stale, like the consistency of cornbread it had been sitting out so long. I have to say, for $4 a cupcake, I expect it to be fresh. It was ridiculous. I took 2 bites. That's it. And for a fat kid, I think that says a lot.

Yikes.

I bought a house. I don't know when I decided that I could be an adult. It's a little scary. It's actually a lot scary.

http://slideshow.mris.com/slideshow.cfm?ListingKey=90188880758

Okkkaayyyy....

I was walking out of the ladies room at work the other day and a man stopped me in the hall. I thought he was lost. It turns out, I was wrong.

"Excuse me, miss??"
"Yes?"
"Did you wash your hands?"
"Uhhhh...yes. Yes, I did."
"Ok. Thanks."

Seriously?? Seriously. I am an adult. I wash my hands. Also, even if I were the type of person who didn't, how is that any of your business random stranger in the hallway. Ew. And mind your business.

On my commute today, the metro was delayed (shocking, I know) and PACKED. Luckily, while being kicked and shoved into the car, I was thrown against a REALLY good looking guy. Is it wrong that I wanted to use the 'too short to hold on to the bar' excuse to cuddle with him? Would that have been wrong?

Where Are All The Good Eggs?!

Lots of reviews. Sadly, they are mostly bad. Think of it as my way of showing my love and keeping you away from all that is gross. Let's starts with the good...

Pupatella:
I like me some pizza, and this place had pretty delish pizza. I'll give it a 4 out 5. Only a 4 because the service was a little slow for my taste. That could be because I was so hungry that it felt like it took forever... The place is also pretty small, so once it got crowded it was loud and and hard to walk through. I would honestly do take out rather than eat in. I had a tomato and artichoke pizza and Becca had some duck, and fancy stuff white pizza that she said was yum. I think my pizza could have used a little more flavor, but the crust was fantastic. I say give it a go if you're into pizza.

now to the bad...

La Cote D'or:
My mother wanted to go to this frenchie restaurant for her birthday. This place belongs on an episode of Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares. It was horrible. The decor was old looking. The clientele for that matter was old, minus Becca and I. The food makes me think they have not changed or updated their menu in 25 years. I ordered a tuna steak salad. It was a handful of lettuce with 4 tomato slices and some strips of overcooked tuna. I make a better tuna salad with no culinary training. It was honestly expensive for what it was. I will never eat at this place again. Neither should you. I give it a 0 out of 5.

Lyon Hall, again:
We tried dinner. Still not good. This is a place to go for little appetizers, but not a meal.

Poste Moderne in the Hotel Monaco
2 out of 5. The service was awful. The food was okay, but it was not good enough to make up for the bad service. Please, please, please restaurants of the world learn to poach an egg. My egg was over cooked and freezing cold. I am telling you I think the last time I had a good poached egg was when Nick cooked one for me. I can not fly to Hawaii every time I would like a poached egg. Where, oh, where are the well poached eggs in this city? Beyond that I really didn't feel that this place offered anything on their menu that I couldn't get at a million other restaurants in the area for less and with more friendly and attentive service. I do not see myself returning here.

On a happy note, it is Halloween weekend. We had a Halloween parade at work yesterday and the best costume in my class? A pigeon. Complete with a tracking bracelet around the ankle. When I asked the child why a pigeon, she said because they are scary, they peck. Well put kiddo, those little disease carrying pests are scary.

You Could Drink Whole Milk If You Wanted To

My funny for the day happened at Starbucks this morning. The guy working at the cash register repeated my order to the barista and I was pretty sure that he forgot to say skim milk, so I was watching to make sure skim went into the steaming cup. It didn't. I told the barista that it was supposed to be skim milk rather than what he put in. He looked at me and said, "You know it's only 2%, that's not too bad for you." I agreed, but told him that I really preferred skim milk. He looked at me and said, "Why? You're skinny." I thanked him and insisted that skim milk is still what I need. Then he looked me up and down and said, "In fact, I would give you whole milk."

I got Napoleon Dynamited. awesome.

Our First Review! (and some funny stuff)

So we have decided that since we eat out every now and then (eh hem, or constantly) that we should start sharing our culinary wins and fails. So today we being with a double win.

Win #1 : Lyon Hall. We had brunch at this super Frenchie restaurant this afternoon, and if I am being honest I will give it a medium win. Like maybe a 3.75 out of 5. I had a version of eggs benedict- poached eggs on top of autumn squash, spinach and mushrooms on a piece of baguette. It was supposed to have some brown butter hollandaise on top, but I did it without. Everything my eggs was on was amazing and delicious. My poached eggs were over done and I am a HUGE stickler about properly poached eggs. So, that made me sad. I do want to give the place a go for dinner because I think the dinner menu looks yum. Today was only their second day doing brunch so they get a slight pass on my eggs. Also, these guys are responsible for Liberty Tavern, of which I am a fan, so I am putting some trust in them.


Win #2: Bake Shop. This is a BIG win. I'm talking 5 out of 5. Look how cute that cupcake is! Being the connoisseur of cupcakes that I am I had to try this place out. We got a six pack of cupcakes (buy 5 get one free BTW!) to try out. I personally had the apple cake cupcake. I want to eat this everyday. I also bought some vanilla cream pies that looked delish to send away as a gift. The cupcakes are the perfect size and they have the perfect cupcake to icing ratio. Beyond the cupcake being awesome the people at the shop are super awesome. The girl who was working was super friendly and even gave us an extra chocolate/peanut butter cookie. sweet. Go here and have a cupcake. You will be glad you did.

Now for the funny. So, Becca decided she wanted infused vodka for her birthday. So we went to the ABC store to get some vodka. The guy who works at the store was KILLING ME! We get up to the counter to buy our stuff and he tells Meghan, Becca and I that we all look to young to buy alcohol (normally a compliment) because none of us have on wedding rings. He then informs us that he could find us some nice men and we can leave our names, phone numbers and addresses for this purpose. Um, what? He says he will get us a tall, medium and short variety for our respective heights. He offers me a 7 foot tall guy he knows and when I tell him I have a boyfriend he offers the 7 footer up to Becca. More conspired in the conversation, including him telling stories about tall men and short women that he knows have worked out (apparently he thought this would help convince Becca). I don't even know what to say about this encounter. It was hilarious.

So, eat (at the above), drink (the guy at the ABC store can get you a date as well) and be merry. Not a bad day at all.

Back to Real Life

This was a perfect DC weekend. Went for a nice long hike up Old Rag...

Went shopping, got the hair and nails did. Walked around the city in fantastic weather (with a couple stops for sushi and frozen yogurt). All the fun things that should be in a summer ending weekend. A weekend that reminded me, again, how great living in the DC area can be.

A good way to say goodbye to summer, because tomorrow is the first day of school. Back to real life. Sad to see the summer go, but YAY for a new school year! (did I just out dork myself?)

Pretty? Slow? Pretty Slow?

Today, on my way to work, people were complimenting me...the starbucks guy, the shoe shine guy. It was nice...but then I started to wonder.

1. Should I wear this dress every day now?
2. Should I be sure to look in the mirror on the other days...did I miss something damaging?
3. Why is everyone speaking to me slowly?
4. Do they think I am...slow...ly?

It's thrown off my day. Don't get me wrong, it was nice. But it made me think. And I don't care for thinking this early in the day.

On My Mind

Hawaii, I miss you...

Taking it Back....Way Back

I would like to politely ask the people at work to 'save the drama for your mama'. Yes. I said it (typed it?). I have no idea when it became ok to yell at each other in the office. I don't want to hear it, I don't think it's professional, please do not involve me or talk to me about 'your side'. Sit down. Do your work. That is all.

Also? Ambieishome!Ambieishome!Ambieishome!Ambieishome!Ambieishome!

The Last Aloha

Crazy how fast 7 weeks can go. Crazy that I have 3 1/2 days left in Hawaii. 3 1/2 people! What?!
My last few weeks in Hawaii have been pretty fun though, take a look...

Our garden continues in its awesomeness. These tomatoes are gorgeous, and were promptly eaten by the birds. Fail. Net= smart move.

Look at my rockstar. He has pods! Pods that will soon be ready to harvest. When I am in VA. That's okay though, he still rocks.

I went to this beautiful beach. I got badly sunburned. I seriously look like I have some strange skin disease. Off in the distance we saw the Black Pearl from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, (they are filming the next one here now) but I didn't have my good camera with me so I couldn't get a picture of it. The beach is a good second best.

Nick took me to a super fancy brunch at a fancy hotel. We still talk about the food because it was that good. The hotel also had lots of fish and turtles and DOLPHINS. Awesome.

I want to rub his belly. Is the weird?

Then we went hiking. We saw a crashed helicopter. It was being filmed the next day for an episode of Hawaii 5-O. We hiked through lots and lots of mud. I have not seen that much mud since the rainy season in Kenya. There was also a waterfall, and bamboo forest and very cool trees like this one.

This is us at the top- don't we look sweaty? Too bad you can't see our feet, it would help you believe that I am not over exaggerating about the mud.

This past Sunday we went on another hike. Ka'ena is the westernmost tip of the island. It is one of the more beautiful hikes I have done. I took lots of pictures. Nick patiently stood there while I took lots of pictures. He's a nice guy like that.

Can you see me? I am standing on this arch. Looking slightly awkward. There were some closer ups taken. Like I said, looking slightly awkward, so instead take in the scenery.

The coolest part, minus the majesty and beauty, is that the point is a natural area reserve. Albatrosses nest there. In holes in the sand. It is very hard to take a picture of a bird in a deep hole. I tried and failed. There are also monk seals. They are cute, and fat and lazy. Nick said I was not allowed to go and hug them.

I have no complaints, it has been a pretty amazing summer. I've seen and done some pretty cool things, met some pretty great people, and grown to love it here. So, Aloha for now Hawaii- but I'll be back.

It happens THAT often??

I recently went to buy some new running clothes and ended up ordering them to be delivered as my size was not in stock. Fast forward a few days later and I am wonder where my stuff is already??!! I find the tracking number and look online to figure out what the problem could be. Train derailment. TRAIN DERAILMENT. I didn't realize that it happens often enough that UPS has an exception code for it on their tracking system.

Also, why are my shorts traveling by train?

My New Favorite

This may be my new favorite place. I know, I have all of Oahu at my fingertips, and I choose to love Nick's backyard. I like to keep ya guessing. But seriously, it is pretty hard not to be in love with this backyard now that we have planted a little garden. Yours truly has a black thumb. I kill house plants. I once even killed a cactus. I didn't think you could do that, but I did. Lucky for me, Nick has better luck in growing things. I'll give you a sample of photos of some of the plants, because I am guessing pictures of every plant is not as exciting to most of you as it is to me.

Like this plumeria tree. It reminds me of Mombasa. That makes me smile.

Yep, those are limes. How cool is that?

Some green onions:

Some oregano:

Some thyme:

Yep, I am painting the names of the herbs on the pots. I am cheesy like that.

Cute cherry tomatoes. We have some big tomatoes too, but these are cuter and currently more colorful.

This is my rockstar. The soybean plant. I picked him out on a whim. He was small and kind of weak looking and now he is rocking the garden. Seriously, everyday he gets bigger and more awesome. I do kind of worry he will soon take over the other plants.

The best part of this garden is something you can't see in these photos. My very wonderful and handy boyfriend built a lovely sitting area complete with fire pit and tiki torches that is surrounded by our little garden. Not only do I love that I can come out and pick fresh herbs every night for dinner (and maybe even a cocktail, yep there is mint out there too) but it is also a peaceful place to read a book during the day. By night, it is place for us to relax around the fire and enjoy a glass of wine and some conversation. What could be better than that?


Some days we even get a view like this...

Now you see why this, in the midst of so much beauty, is one of my favorite places to be.

Who's Next?

What could be better than being in Hawaii? How about a friend visiting you in Hawaii-because that's a kind of super awesome. Nick took off for Japan for a week to get his work on, and Meghan came to visit and get her "celebration of life vacation" (aka ignoring her 30th birthday)on. We did some serious exploring, had a spa day, and found majesty and serenity...

In sunset dinner picnics...

beautiful beaches...

crystal blue waters...

crazy rock formations...

The Spitting Cave of Portlock. I am not making that up. It is a real place. It is AMAZING. Bonus, you sound like you visited something out of Harry Potter. awesome.

The Valley of The Temples. We went to this one. We found serenity.

and majesty.

and beautiful statues.

We even saw sea turtles while hanging on the beach.

This is just a taste of our vacation people. I didn't even show you the tropical drinks and hammocks. This too could be yours. Who wants to come visit next?

hmmmm....Work?

I started my new job this week. One of the first things that happened was that my boss resigned. So...I sat at my new desk and organized myself, ordered furniture, played on the internet and tried to generally look busy. I am not too sure what exactly is going to happen when I get in next week. Thank Moses for the long weekend. And I suppose it's a good thing that my resume is still up to date.

Hello.

Interviewing. Woot.

Speechless

I don't even have the words to describe my trip to Hawaii. Beautiful? Awesome? Amazing? Incredible? None of these adjectives seem to do it justice, so I'll let the photos speak for themselves...

Going Green

Hello people out there. Yes, yes, it has been over a month since my last post. I'm sure all three of you that read this blog are very excited that I have gotten my act together to post again. Look at the cookies I chose to break my silence for; don't they look like they're growing mold? Fear not, I did not bake cookies and leave them out to mold. These my friends are a tribute to the most green and drunk of days, St. Patrick's Day. Since drinking at work is generally frowned upon, these cookies had to hit the spot.

So how do you party it up at the old elementary school? You pretend a leprechaun has attacked the classroom and caused all sorts of mischief. You take random things out of every child's desk and stick it in a different child's desk. You leave little green notes hidden around the classroom from the leprechaun that lead the kids on a hunt for these cookies. Yeah, we party like rock stars in elementary school.

So, there you have it. Green chocolate chip cookies, beautiful weather and a leprechaun to boot. Happy St. Patty's Day!

A Change of Heart

I have never been much for Valentine's Day. You see, I'm really not that type of girl. To me it is a day made up by smart people in some greeting card PR department to trick smart people like you and me into believing they need flowers and cards and candy. Those smart PR people got into to cahoots with the flower and candy people and they all jacked up the price of their respective products feeding into the idea that they are a must for all of us to have. Let me let you in on a secret people, I lived in Kenya, the country where the majority of the worlds roses come from and they do not cost $60+ a dozen. They really cost about $4 a dozen. Talk about inflation. BTW men of the world, roses are generic and lack creativity. Tulips and irises however do not.

I don't awww at sweet moments in girlie movies like other girls might. I usually roll my eyes, or burst out laughing and go into some rant about how cheesy and unrealistic it is.

I don't fall for pick up lines. It is rare that anyone actually tries to use them on me, but I have in fact actually laughed in a guy's face once for attempting. I felt really badly about afterward. Okay maybe I didn't, but who thinks those things actually work anyway? I may be what you would call cynical when it comes to this kinda stuff.

Right, so why am I telling you all this? Don't worry, you have not stumbled onto one of those complaining blogs whose point is to hate on this holiday. The reason I am telling you all of this is to intensify the impact of the next sentence. This all may be changing for me. When these beautiful flowers found themselves at the front desk of my building last night AND they were for me, I became one of the girls I make fun of. I gushed and awwed and got all girlie. Then I grabbed my phone and gushed and awwed to the sender. I shocked even myself with how easily I was converted into a gushy girl. I guess deep down I want pretty flowers on Valentine's Day just as much as the next girl. Who knew?

Just don't expect me to be crying at Titanic anytime soon, a girl has her limits.