Cookie Party

Today I hosted my first ever cookie party!  I have been wanting to do this for a few years but have either been too busy, or just not had the right timing/groups of people to do this with.  In my family, it was a tradition to make my grandmothers sugar cookie recipe, frost them, and hand them out to family and friends.  My dad will never let me forget the year that my brother and I both reached into the oven with bare hands to pull out cookie sheets.  And it wasn't like we did it at the same time.  My brother had reached in to grab it and burned his fingers and then shortly after I managed to touch a pan that had just come out of the oven.  Those are the kinds of memories that really stick with you.  :P

For today's event I decided I wanted to recreate the basic idea of the cookie decorating that I used to do, so I made up a batch of grandma's cookies, rolled out the dough, and cut them all out.  I ended up making two batched of cookies so everyone would have the ability to take home a dozen cookies if they wanted.  We had cookies everywhere!  

Playing with the dough and adding flour to make it not super sticky so I could roll it out

Working the dough to get it all rolled out on my way to small counter.  You can see the tub of peanut butter cookies I just had baked yesterday. 

A few samples of the cookies I cut out.  The F-22s were big hits.  Of course some thought it was a two legged Christmas tree or Sponge Bob Square Pants side kick.  :)

The party was really for the ladies to get together and socialize as much as it was to frost and quality control test some cookies.  We had lots of frosting options and decorations to add on.  Our creations were definitely one of a kind.

I think everyone had a pretty good time.  I hope that this can become and annual event.  It reminded me a lot of all those holidays where my family used to do this.  I think it's a nice tradition to have and one that doesn't involve technology gadgets and hi-tech toys; well unless you count my mixer (god help me if I didn't have that!)  I did learn that I probably made too many cookies, but honestly, is this ever really a problem with you live with a cookie monster?

Company Cheer!

One of the perks of Rob's job is being invited to a real office Christmas Party.  This is the first one that either Rob or I had ever been invited to, so we were pretty excited about it.  Not knowing what to wear, we inquired about the dress code and found out people get really decked out for this event.  Nifty! 

His company threw quite the bash at the Hilton near the airport this Saturday.  The party started at 7pm with a proper cocktail hour and mingling.  I was able to meet a lot of Rob's co-workers and other people at the company.  They had nothing but nice things to say about him.  During the cocktail hour, they had a photographer taking free professional photos of everyone that came.  We didn't know they were going to do this, so I took a few minutes to grab a proper photo of us before we left the house.

 

The dinner was really delicious and was followed up with dancing and door prizes.  We didn't win anything, but it was a lot of fun to see others winning.  I guess we are going to have to buy our own TV.  Oh well.  :)

Hung by the Chimney with Care...

Our holiday sewing activities continue with the making of stockings.  Rob and I had set we bought from Target or some place that were the generic red fuzzy stockings which were cute and all, but lacking some personality.  When we bought the material for the tree skirt, we also decided to use the same fabric to make some stockings.  We thought it would be nicer to have homemade ones that we created.  Years from now we will tell our kids, "We made those the first year we were married."  And it will be all "awww" and stuff.

Having made many Halloween costumes without a pattern, I had pretty good confidence I would do it with these as well.  I used an extremely scientific measuring device to make sure I had enough fabric.  I hijacked a store stocking that was completed and flopped it onto the fabric and then flipped it and told her to cut "about there".  I think she was somewhat amused by this tactic. 

I decided to try and document this process through the wonders of digital photography. 

I didn't buy the store model I used to make the initial assessment of how much fabric I was going to need, but I think I did alright.  I mostly followed the stocking we owned (remembering to allow for seams) and made it a little taller.  The fabric we found was amazing on many counts because it was pre-quilted, two sided fabric.  That left a lot of middle steps out once again and allowed me to pretty much just sew them up.

 Then I hired an assistant.  She was more interested in the pin cushion than anything.

Although she did monitor my cutting progress pretty well.  And she kept track of my stockings after I was finished.

Ok, so maybe the cat was a pretty big distraction in my sewing project, but it was totally worth it.

The cut projects look pretty similar to the model.  I guess we are on track here.   I sewed them up with a 5/8" seam and left the tops open.  

Then I decided to cut the top folds of the stockings and add the bias tape.  That stuff is awesome!  What is not shown here is the added embellishment of the gold squiggles again.  After that, I sewed the top part into a circle and lined it up with the base to sew it together.  I am not kidding when I say, this took my 15 minutes to figure out which way to sew this on.  I couldn't for the life of me get the flipping from wrong side to right side figured out because of the fold down of the top part on the right side.  If you understand that, then A+ for you.  Eventually I made it, because I did get a finished product.

I think they turned out pretty awesome and are now completely unique items that will hopefully stay with us for many years to come.  Now if I could find stocking hooks that I actually liked, I think we would be in business!

Holiday Sewing Adventures

For as long as I have owned my tree (now going on 5 years) I have always wanted a tree skirt.  I find this kind of odd because I never had one in my house growing up.  We used to make do (and my parents still do) with a white bed sheet that always serves this purpose.  That aside, I thought it would be relatively simple to find one.  The first year I was just happy to have a tree, so I said, "next year."  Since then it has become the running theme.

Most of the ones I do find fit into one of the two categories; Ugly and/or Expensive.  Since I wanted neither of these things I thought I could wait until the after Christmas sale to find one that was at least Used to be Expensive, but pretty.  It never quite worked out that way.  Oh well.  So here we are at year 5 of putting up my tree (which I love) and I decided I had enough hunting with pitiful results. 

The wonderful thing about owning a sewing machine is you can make most anything you need to if you want to. A quick Google search revealed many options for tree skirts.  I was surprised by how many of them still fell into the Ugly category.  I finally found one that was really generic which was perfect.  I am not sure I am really a Sewing 4 Dummies kind of person, but their pattern/instructions was exactly what I wanted.  Nothing too terribly complicated, but ideally spells out all of the things I would need and did some math for me.  I learned the C=2*pi*r, but I really didn't want to figure it out.  Off to the store we went!

I do have to mention we went on Saturday after Black Friday so I was worried the place was still going to be a zoo/really picked over.  They were having a 3 day sale, so the prices were still really good.  So we wandering to the Christmas fabric and started to browse when Rob spotted some pretty awesome fabric.  It was a doubled sided pre-quilted fabric with shimmery red on one side and shimmery green on the other.  The pattern had said that I would need two fabrics to sew together, but with this one, that step was eliminated.  Wohoo!  We located the bias tape we would need and Velcro to keep it closed.  We even went one step further and found some gold bric-a-brac to run along the edge of it.

I am really glad that my grandmother taught my how to sew all those years ago and that it's a skill I have kept in fairly decent use even today.  So assembling this project together took a couple of hours, but that was all.  The finished result looks better than anything sold in the stores (in our opinion) and it was really easy.

So here's the materials needed:
1 1/4 yards of material for each top and bottom - can be the same fabric (2 1/2 yards total) or different ones
6 yards of bias tape
Velcro Strips - found a package of 2 3"inch long pieces
Appropriate thread

We added 12 yards of gold bric-a-brac found in the ribbon aisle.  We had some left over, which is being used in the matching stocking project.  They also mention adding appliques and other embellishments as you see fit.  Anyone who has even limited sewing skills can pull this off.  :)

Total Cost for Project - $22.50 - Thank you sales and coupons!

Deck The Halls

We have paused and given Thanksgiving it's proper recognition and now we can charge onto Christmas*!  And Christmas isn't Christmas without a few sparkles and nick knacks being put up.  It's my tradition to wait until the Friday after Thanksgiving to pull out decorations.  It just seems wrong to do this beforehand, even if there is only one month between the two holidays.  It's bad enough the stores push it, it can wait to come to my house.

I thought it would be a fun idea to put up all the decorations and transform the house while Rob was at work (with his consent), but that didn't exactly happen.  When I was living on my own and decorating my own place, I had everything up in a few hours.  But Rob and I both love this holiday a lot and we have a LOT of decorations.  I am not talking about a couple of boxes.  We take up exactly one entire closet just for the stuff we put out for Christmas.  This equates to six 20 gallon totes, a 7 1/2 foot tree, plus a few paper box style boxes for the over flow that wouldn't fit in the totes.  It's a little overwhelming. 

I woke up on Friday around 10am, got all excited about the day ahead of me and immediately got side tracked by The Hunger Games book.  (Fabulous read btw and thank you Meghann for suggesting it!)  Around 12:30, I decided I need to eat and take a shower.  At 1:30 I figured I would pop in Love Actually and start in on my task for the day.  At 3pm, I still hadn't found all the boxes.  The lights were missing and weren't in the designated closet.  This is when I realized we didn't fit in one closet.  We have some serious issues.  Rob arrived home right around 4pm and found me with half opened boxes, kind of staring around and wondering what to do next.  I unwrapped a good many things I knew we wanted to put out, but I couldn't bring myself to organize them in any sort of fashion.  I did manage to arrange the ceramic Santa's along the mantle above the fire place.  That was my greatest accomplishment. Not exactly the progress I wanted to make.  Truthfully, I was also enjoying being a down right bum. 

Needless to say, I hadn't managed the winter wonderland look I was going for, but felt much better with the idea of reinforcements.  We puttered a bit more and between the two of us got the tree set up properly.  I was having trouble with the lights which seemed to just come on for Rob at the touch of his hands so he fed them to me while I worked them through the branches.  We called it quits and left the ornaments for Saturday.

On Saturday we tinkered with some more decorations and I left the house for the first time in days so we could pick up some books at the library and go to Jo-Ann Fabrics so we could create our own tree skirt.  (Stay tuned for Holiday Sewing Adventures.)  There was still some daylight left after out errands so I decided to put up the outside lights.  Really this is nothing super fancy, just some white lights between the porch rails, but I like it.  This sounds like the simplest task, but I have a way of complicating things to make myself do this twice.  That and I am prone to be a perfectionist.  I started with the lights going straight from my bulb to socket converter with about 7 feet hanging between it and the railing.  I figured I had enough to still do the front of the porch (trying to remember back to how wide my porch was in Atlanta).  I got through all 4 strands before I realized that was way wrong.  So I went back inside, got an extension cord and proceeded to redo the whole thing.  Did I mention that it was about 40 with whipping winds and I seem to misplaced my gloves?  BUT the porch looks fabulous and is brighter than the runway at Dulles.

On Sunday I believe we finally finished putting up everything.  So instead of 5 hours, it took 3 days, but it looks lovely and we were enjoying the process, so who cares?

*For those of you who do not celebrate Christmas, fill in whatever decorating holiday that falls around this time of year that's most appropriate to you.

Black Friday

I thought it would be seasonally appropriate for me to chime in on what is being touted as the "busiest shopping day of the year".  I will go ahead and agree that it is probably the busiest day for the shopping centers aside from the final days before Christmas when people again loose their minds and decide they need to buy 300 other things to make the "perfect Christmas". 

Many people asked me if I was going shopping on Black Friday to which I replied, "Hell no!"  The reactions I got were bipolar in nature.  I either got the people that gave me the sympathetic nod of understanding or, "Why not?!" as if I was some kind of alien.  Let me tell you why not.  First, I hate crowds.  I avoid them like the plague.  There has to be a really good reason for me to deal with crowds (see this post).  Secondly, I would have to get up at 3am or earlier to wait in line in the cold and throw elbows to make sure I wasn't stampeded.  And lastly, I would have to deal with the rude people which when coupled with crowds is toxic.  I tell people I wouldn't be able to handle it and I would be hauled away and convicted of murder before the day is out.

So why do people get all crazed up and brave the hysteria?  I think there are is a small percentage of the population that really targets the stores they want to go to and exactly what they want to buy.  A+ for you guys.  You take advantage of the sales that apply to the things you really need to get.  I believe the rest of the crowd is out there for the "good deals".  And this, I have to say, is really stupid.  There are only a few really super awesome good deals that the stores have which are generally sold out moments after opening.  The rest of the sales from what I could see were good, but not really all that different from sales at any other time of the year.  For instance, the Micheal's ad (I realize this isn't Best Buy but bare with me) that came Thanksgiving day was filled with 40% off sales.  They are always having 40% off sales.  They did have a small selection of items that were on really good deals, but it's nothing I wanted to buy.  The Bed Bath & Beyond was just a 20% off your entire purchase.  Um, ok really?  I have about 20 of those 20% off coupons and if you get the right sales person they will let you do multiple transactions.  No deal.  Saving $150 off a TV, hmm, tempting, but again, you won't have it in stock by the time I get there and well, my sanity is worth $150 to me.  The $1.39 DVDs at Wal-Mart were tempting if you really wanted to own Ice Age 2 or Lord of The Rings (non box set).  The other things I really considered was the $70 Cuisinart Food Processor that was on sale from like $150.  Clearly I didn't make it.

I shop to the lists that people have given me for what they want for Christmas.  I am not getting out of bed at 3am to save on wool socks for my dad.  It's just not going to happen.  Which brings me to another point on these sales.  The sales are on things that no one asked for or on things I don't really need.  The sales on clothes I might go for, but it would be for me and not other people, which just seems wrong this time of year so I don't bother.  I always tell myself, other people are getting me stuff for Christmas and just to be happy with that (not to mention if I still want something after the holidays the sales after Christmas are even better).  They can come out for the super dupper awesome deals, but again, nothing I have asked for is going to be in those ads.  Wait, I take that back, they might be able to use the 50% off at Borders (which goes all weekend) to get me a book.  Also both of our families (Rob's and mine) are born deal hunters and have never relied on the deals of Black Friday for their Christmas shopping.  I don't know if they ever have in the past, but certainly not as of late.  My dad has actually really gotten on the whole on-line ordering.  He says, "If I can shop from the comfort of my own home and get everything delivered to me, why would I bother standing in line at some store?"  You might see where I get my attitude from.

This opinion on Black Friday might change when I have kids and there's some Tickle Me Elmo that will break my kids hearts if they don't get it.  As far as I can tell though, that's a good few years down the road.  For the first 5 years of their life they don't really care what they get because they don't have school friends to tell them what they are missing.  Until then I will enjoy decorating my tree and eating leftovers while watching holiday movies. 

Appliance Logisitics Management

This blog title and my job title are pretty similar so you might think there might be a transferable skill or two that might make Thanksgiving Day Chaos in the Kitchen a little less so.  I have given this all of 5 minutes of thought and decided that yes, there are some skills I have that could be put to good use to determine what to cook when and where.  However, the thought of making a project schedule for Thanksgiving is a little too dorky, even for me.  But if we aren't going to use a project schedule to get everything cooked on delivered to the table while it's pipping hot, then how in the world do you do it?

Magic.  That's the best answer I can come up with.  Given the amount of time the turkey takes in the oven which very few if any other dishes can be cooking at the same time (in us single oven homes) and limitations of a 4 burner stove.  Then there is the question of when exactly the turkey will decide it's done.  Pretty much all of dinner hinges on how finicky your bird is.  Generally you can ball park the half an hour to an hour it will be done given the handy dandy decoder ring that comes on the back of all turkey packages.  But that doesn't help if you guess wrong by 45 minutes.

If you think about it, it's kind of like a race.  There is a decent warm up period where you wash the bird and get it all "happy" as Emeril would say.  Stretch the birds legs, rub it down and toss it on a rack on the oven while trying not to ooze raw turkey germs every place.  Once that oven door closes, it's like the shot is fired and you are off!  You only have 4 hours to mash potatoes, stuff the stuffing, make green bean casserole, bake bread/rolls, get the gravy going, make some sweet potato casserole, find room for all of this in your kitchen, set the table which includes finding serving spoons and dishes for everything you are making, watch 4 pots, and make 3 pies (if you have no sense and didn't do this a day or two before and if that's the case, I really pity you).  Let's not forget the how many times you are going to need to wash/rinse and reuse measuring cups and spoons unless you are crazy and have 2 or 3 sets like Rob and I do.  Oh right, and then calmly come to the table gracefully without hair full of flour or bits of potato on your clothes and preferably not sweating like a pig.  Thanks Martha Stewart.

Some of these things can be done the day before or by innocent bystanders, but they always seem to be really into the game on TV while you are frantically chopping away at the carrots and potatoes.  However, even with all your prep work, that final leg is like a give it your all to win the race finish.  Things are moving in an out of the oven like a revolving door at Macy's on Black Friday, dishes are getting added to the sink as if it should be bottomless and people start to hover in anticipation while things fly to the table.  It's amazing it all comes together (usually) in the eleventh hour.  I do remember one Thanksgiving where my mother had everything on the kitchen table and we ate the whole meal before we realized the stuffing had been left in the microwave.  You win some, you loose some.  More for leftovers later.  :)

So while we are all racing to the finish this Thanksgiving, remember to set a good pace and just finish strong.  Graceful would be a plus, but getting the turkey on the table is all that really matters in the end.

Bound to Forget Something

Here we are just a few days away from the most complex cooking days of the year.  Of course it results in the most delicious comfort food, but it's not exactly a simple meal to pull together.  I am sure years ago it used to be, but we are the Foodie Generation.  We like different and interesting takes on the classics which usually adds a layer of complexity to cooking.  A lot of times it means just adding some extras to make the dish "yours".  Now remembering to get all those "extras" is a feat in and of itself. 

Rob and I are splitting our holiday cooking with friends of ours that are coming over to celebrate.  So before grocery shopping this week, Rob and I looked at the portion on the meal that we are responsible for and took an inventory our pantry for select items.  We even went so far as to check, ok, got the stuffing*, but what does the stuffing take.  I think 9 times out of 10 that's where people get tripped up; remembering every ingredient that goes into a dish.  It's not a lot of fun to find out on Thursday or even Wednesday that you actually ran out of vanilla last time you baked and haven't replaced it or you are running low on flour and various other kitchen staples.  So we triple checked our list and tried to think of everything.  I was determined to have ONE trip to the grocery store.  Rob was a hero and went after work to deal with the mob and got everything on the list.  Sweet!  That night we made enchilada lasagna for dinner which called for onions.  I went to our onion bag and came to a very sad realization that we only had three small onions, two of which I would need to make dinner.  Dang it all to fudge! 

Needless to say, our one trip out wasn't exactly a success, but it wasn't a total failure.  I had to run to Target today to get some household staples knowing all weekend was going to be a zoo at any shopping center.  Thankfully, Target has decided to start carrying groceries including bags of onions.  Wohoo!

*No, I do not "make" stuffing.  If you are a super foodie you can go harvest your own fruit bowl and exotic breads and make your own special creation, but my Thanksgiving prefers Stove Top.

The next challenge in Thanksgiving cooking: Appliance Logistics Management

Cats

Why we can't leave drawers open

Or paper on the floor

The Jean Quest

For a long time now, I have been on a quest to find jeans that fit me.  The last time I bought jeans that actually fit, I was in DC the first time, roughly 2006ish.  I have despartely been clinging on to the handful of jeans that really fit, but two of the four pairs have holes in inappropriate places and are wearing thin.  Another pair was essentially ruined in my first craptastic job rotation with filing cabinet grease of all things.  I have one last pair that is acceptable to wear in public, so needless to say, the options are getting slim.

Of course, if you looked in the drawer were I keep my jeans, you might say to yourself, "But you seem to have plenty of jeans in here."  And you would be right, but half don't actually fit and the other half have been accounted for above.  I bought 3 pairs of jeans from Old Navy when they were on sale and appeared to fit me really well in the dressing room.  And they did.  And then I washed them and wore them.  They fit every place except the waist.  And you might be thinking, "Doh!  She shrunk them!"  Not at all!  They seem to loosen up after wearing them and so the top really doesn't fit unless they are sitting at my hips which then puts the crotch of the jean about 3 inches lower than it ought to be.  Sigh. 

As best I can figure the jeans fads took a turn for the worst right after I bought my last pairs.  They went from what I will refer to as my "normal" to super ridiculous low rise, show your hoochie coochie, half inch zipper jeans.  Umm no thank you.  That fad hung around surprisingly longer than I expected.  They got rid of every resemblance of my "normal" and put in these impostors that claimed to be the same fit, but came with an annoying gap between the waist and the back of the jean.  This was the problem with the 3 pairs of jeans from Old Navy and in fact is still a problem today with all the pairs of jeans I try on.  Apparently at some point people's asses just morphed into their backs and eliminated the need to have jeans that accommodated us freaks with a waist and a rear end.  Today, the latest fad is the Skinny jean.  Note to all fashion designers - this has been your worst idea ever.  EVER!  Only a fraction of people actually look good in Skinny jeans, but the general public is unaware of this.

I feel it's important to state that I had never really had a problem finding jeans that fit until this roller coaster fashion wheel of jean designs began.  I haven't really gained or lost enough weight in the last 10 years to really affect how jeans would fit me.  In fact I am still wearing the jeans I bought way back in 2004.  Desperately clinging onto them and hoping that will power will stop them from wearing too thin for wearing in public.

On occasion when I have been in high spirits or have had enough to drink, I get this bright idea to try on every pair of jeans I can.  Rationale, there has to be SOMETHING out there that fits.  Those trips resulted in a lot of anger and no where to direct it.  Today was another one of those such trips.  I felt pretty optimistic as I had insider information on where someone found jeans that fit really well.  Sadly, that turned out to be a giant bust for me.  Like all the other pairs, they fit everywhere but the waist.  I said screw it, I am here (mall), I am going to give it a go.  I tried on another 20 pairs of jeans, different brands, different stores, and finally I had a pair that fit.  Like honest to god fit.  They were long enough, stylish, and had NO GAP!  Holy crap!  Who was the genius behind this invention?  Not Your Daughter's Jeans!  Right, ok, so I don't have a daughter who has jeans to be some kind of bizarrely jealous of, so that part is not quite right. But they fit and I don't give a flying fig!

They were a little more pricey than I am used to paying, but I said, well, I could buy another 3 pairs of jeans that almost fit or one pair that definitely fits and I will wear for another 5 years (if my last purchases are any indication).  So I was kind of cursing myself for leaving my Macy's coupons at home, but I said, whatever, just buy them.  I think the universe was trying to give a general approval of my purchase since when I actually checked out, the sales person gave me some random 25% off (they were not on sale, I checked after).  Umm THANK YOU!  I was tempted to go back and buy another pair, but I didn't want to repeat the Old Navy mistake at a larger price (ugh).  I will make a final decision on purchasing more after a few wears.   For now I will rejoice in what is most certainly the end of my quest!

Purses Galore

I recently bought a fabulous purple purse at Shecky's Girls Night Out kind of on a whim.  Meghan and I were wandering around the show and we came to this booth that had all kinds of purses for sale.  We were both drawn to two different purses, but decided to check out the rest of the vendors and come back later.  We figured if they were still there it was a sign we ought to own them.  When we returned to the stall we found both were still there and immediately made the purchases.  As an added bonus, because we were so polite while two really cranky ladies were harassing the vendor as she was ringing us up, she threw in a purse hook for each of us.  Sweet!

I was so thrilled with what I bought, I had to show it off to everyone at work.  I also emailed the guys I used to work with on the flight line for fun.  They have had a history of teasing me over my purse collection and I thought they would want to know there was a latest addition!  Their favorite was my "shinny bucket" which they always told me was really a weapon or some sort of mirror device to check my teeth after lunch or be forewarned of people sneaking up on me.  It also went against the rule of No Fu Fu on the Flight line!  I got numerous emails back with all sorts of comments regarding my taste in purses.  In fact one of them requested a group photo of my purses so they could see the brilliant collection all together.

I happen to like my eclectic collection and each one of them has some sort of story behind them.  The first couple I ever bought were more of less the functional kind.  One black one (in front) and one brown one (back right).  I branched out with a blue one (back right) because it is my favorite color and I thought the purse was cute.  I acquired a few from gifts and beauty purchases and carefully hand picked the rest.  Those particular ones (Shake Your Coconuts - back left, Red clutch - right center, Patchwork - front center, Swirl Cyclone - front right, and the Purple - back center) all were purchased because they made me feel giddy in some way or another.  After some thought, I have decided this is pretty much my main criteria for selecting what I buy.  The only other thing that gets factored in is price, but that weighs in less if I am head over heals in love with one.  So far that hasn't been an issue as I happen to some luck finding great deals.

I hope to expand upon this collection as time goes on with all kinds of fun options for a carryall.  I just received a $30 gift certificate for completing a survey for eBags.com and I am overwhelmed by the choices.  I have found a handful that I would be really happy with, but picking just one is going to be hard.  But it will be unique and it will make me happy!

Happy 13th B&B Party

This year we celebrated the 13th year of the B&B Party.  This year I took a kind of different approach to my costume.  I more or less bought pieces of my costume and assembled them together instead of sewing on leaves or sequins until the 11th hour.  I also had this costume picked out last year.  Of course I still waited until last minute to start to put it together.

I decided to go as Flo from the Progressive commercials.  I figured given my personality, it wasn't much of a stretch to imagine me as her.  There were two things I learned in putting this costume together.  One - the instructions on the iron on patch were not applicable to the apron I was using.  It burned a little, but still mostly looked ok.  Two - How to use a "Bump-It" which I have to say was one of the more ridiculous things I have learned in a while.  The good news, the "Bump-It" had been out for so long, I got it on clearance.  Bonus!  Overall, I think it turned out pretty good. 

Rob was inspired by some tall boots to become his college self.  Mostly it was inside jokes with the people he went to college with, but it was done well.  :)

Rob as his college self

Here are some of the other stars at the party:

The Most Interesting Man in the World

Mr. Tea

Buddy the Elf and Jovie

Marty McFly

Chilean Miners

It was nice to see everyone again and I am still amazed that we have so many original costumes after 13 years.  I already have ideas for next year, but as usual I will probably wait until September to start working on it.  :)

Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear

Living close to DC definitely has it's perks.  Say for instance the closeness to National Events that occur on The Mall such as The Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear that John Stewart and Stephen Colbert hosted recently.  We decided to brave the crowds and head downtown for some laughs and be a part of something that would certainly be talked about for a while.

The Rally was scheduled to be from noon until 3pm so we thought we would be doing well to start our journey around 10-11am-ish.  Oh we were so wrong.  There were lines like I have never seen before in my life to get onto the metro.  Upon closer examination we found out that it was the line just to buy tickets for the metro.  Thankfully we were able to scrounge up tickets for everyone that was going downtown without having to wait in those lines.  We were able to breeze through the turnstiles and make our way down to the platform pretty easily.  When the car pulled up to the Dunn-Loring Metro stop (one from the end of the orange line), it was full.  Or at least what we thought was "full".  Haha, what an understatement.  We all piled on to the car much to the chagrin of the current passengers.  It didn't get better at any other stop we made.  By the time we decided to exit the metro I was literally squeezed in by people on all sides of me. We played telephone through the crowd of people to communicate our plan to exit  and even then we were wondering if we would all be able to climb out in time.  Thankfully, the current passengers wanted more room on the train so they were happy to make a hole for those leaving. 

We made our way from the Foggy Bottom stop down to the mall with droves of other people.  As we got closer the crowd started to pack in and you could see people taking pictures of everyone and every sign.  Honestly, the signs were the best reason to go in person.  Most of the good ones were captured by people and put on this website.  I am proud to say I saw a number of those first hand.  We didn't really hear too much of the Roots playing which kicked off the event.  We did hear John Stewart make his entrance and Stephen Colbert calling in from his Fear Bunker.  We heard the crowd chanting something that sounded like "G-A, G-A,  G-A".  We found out after watching the Rally on TV that he had come up in a Chilean Miner mock pod and was really chanting "Chi-lie".  We were down there long enough to hear Ozzy and then the O'Jays, but left a little after 2 to avoid what would inevitably be even worse crowds going home.  Hey, we still had a Halloween party to get to. 

While we didn't really get to see and hear everything, it was really amazing to see all the people that came out and all the signs that people made.  One of the members of the crowd was passing by us saying, "This is one of the nicest crowds I have ever been in" and I agree with her.  As many people as there were, there was no shoving, screaming, and elbowing.  There was a lot of "Excuse me, Pardon Me" (as seen on a sign as well).  It was definitely an experience to remember. 

Fast Forward Catch Up

It was really my intent to post on everything I had taken pictures for up til now.  I figured those were probably the more significant events that occurred in the last 6 months.  There were also some things were just significant news items with no pictures, but either way, I had a hit list of things to "catch up on".  To be honest, the thought exhausts me.  So I thought I would do a one longer post with a 3 sentence limit on events as they happened.

Right after graduation, our house was getting packed up one more time for our move back to Washington, DC.  I had gotten a job offer with a promotion to work in Rockville, MD for my off program position and I took it.  Let's just say, the older my kitties get, the less the enjoy the long car rides.

Shortly after arriving in DC (about a week), we were back into the events of friends in Northern VA with a 4th of July BBQ out in Loudon County.  Jeremy marinated and cooked meat for something like 20 hours and it was delicious although hot as balls out.  After roasting all day, we went over to Jeremy's parent's house for fireworks and s'mores.

The crowd that plays volleyball

The crowd that watches volleyball

The following weekend, Rob and I decided to go "hike" at Great Falls but we didn't make it to far because it was 100+ degrees out and we were just miserable.  Instead we walked the C&O canal and dodged rain drops.

Great Falls, MD side

Later in July, I timed my return trip home to pick up remaining items from NY (including my wedding dress and plants) to coincide with a good friends baby shower.  That was a lot of fun.  She has since had her baby and he is super cute.

Baby Shower Cake for Jenn

At the end of July, we went to Megan and Bruce's b-day party where there was more volleyball.  I have decided being a sports photographer could be a back up plan if being an engineer falls through.

Rob missing the return from Mike

Matt serving it up

Before we knew it we were in August and off visiting our close friends The White's in Newport News.  We spent some of our visit in Colonial Williamsburg, but most of our time was spent playing with Julia, my favorite little person!

Julia with her new bff Tigger (gift from Aunt Sarah)

As we were unpacking, apparently we found some hats. 

The things Sparky puts up with

In the middle of August we went to West Virginia for an adventure weekend of white water rafting and zip ling through the tree tops with an overnight camp trip at ACE Adventure resorts.  For reasons I don't totally understand, I don't have any photos of this.  It was a lot of fun and I didn't die white water rafting; which honestly was a concern.

At the end of August we set out on our next excursion which was down to GA for a wedding of a classmate of Rob's.  We stayed with Bonnie and Alex in TN so we got a nice long visit in all around.  Also, the photographers for this wedding mistook me for someone who knew what they were doing because they were following me around and copying angles I was getting.

The happy couple

 In September I celebrated my "last" birthday by walking around DC, hitting up the German beer garden, and enjoying a 4 day break from work.  We also celebrated Amanda and Collen's birthdays later in the month with various activities.

Rob and I participated in the critically acclaimed Applefest 2010 at the Godfrey's house.  It was a lot of fun and we even got to take home some cider (which was delicious).

Sarah picking some apples

Bruce taking a turn at the wheel while Sarah and Rob feed apples in

Bruce and Rob squeeze out the juice

In October, The White's came to our house for a weekend of fun, pumpkin picking, and hanging out.  Julia even started to crawl a little (a few forward creeps before rolling out of it).  She's growing up so fast!

Andrea, Julia, and Tyler

Julia in the pumpkin patch

SO!  I think that brings us up to Halloween, which I think I can handle it from there.  And if I can't, I am not sure I should continue to have a blog.  :P  Besides I have had a lot of funny thoughts that I haven't posted because I "should really update the blog first".  It's not a rule written down anywhere, but one I impose on myself because I have slight OCD.  Here we go again!

I Are Graduated!

Over the last two years of my life, I have been going through a rotational leadership program at work (amongst other things).  In June, I officially graduated from the program.  When I started it felt like I was on a never ending road.  A year of grad classes, a few business projects, committee work, community service, 3 week long conferences, and not to mention learning a new job every 6 months with at least two bosses, and oh hey, throw in a move too. I am really happy to be done.

Graduation was kind of a two part deal; we had site graduation and then graduation at our final conference which was also held in June.

Allison and I at Syracuse Site Graduation

Tea time bud Shawn and Andy and I

Our final conference was held in Landsdowne, VA at "the compound".  This week long conference was better than others before with better classes and more personal time (a rare and precious thing during these events).  They also arranged for a "Night at the Museum" where they opened up the Udvar Hazy Air and Space Museum at Dulles International Airport just for the conference participants.  The had their docents there to ask questions about planes and history in the museum.Very cool night.

Brent, me, Allison, Bryant, Greg, and Susan

SR-71 Blackbird

Me, Greg, Susan, Brent, Dave, Bryant, LaTisha

It was an interesting two years with a lot of experience.  I met a lot of great people and made life long friends.  But I will have to think long and hard about doing something like that again.  :)