Cherry Blossoms 08

So I got up at 5 on saturday to get downtown to see the cherry blossoms and take some great pictures before it got crowded. It was FREEEEEZZZZZIIIIIINNNNNGGGGGG!! But there was a beautiful clear sky (doesn't work great for sunrises, but it was still nice later) and I think I got some good shots. I haven't finished editing all of them, and not all of them were great, but thanks to reading a photography blog, I learned how to edit pictures, I think. So if you aren't in town, or won't make it down this year, maybe this will give you a little idea of what you're missing....















After I did the whole tidal basin thing, I decided to go to Eastern Market, it's just a few more stops from downtown. I got a brick at the market breakfast and strolled the kiosks before heading back to suburbia. I got some fun snaps there, too, I think.

Don't those strawberries just make your mouth water?? MMMMM!!!

So now that I'm happy with the pictures I'm taking on a more regular basis, I'm getting the itch to get a really good camera with all the lenses you change out and all. My cam takes great shots, but it's just 4 mp's, and they get grainy pretty quickly which is sucky. So the savings will begin, as well as the research, to get a really fabulous camera. And maybe by the time I have the savings for a good one, the price will have come down, or I can get an even better one than what I'm thinking about right now!

dictionary defn: Slacker....

insert picture of me.

Ok, so I haven't posted for a really long time. Let me just catch you up on what has happened. I'll try to put this in as chronological order as I can.

1. March brought some heavy rain. You know what they say, in like a lion, out like a lamb. Well that lion sure did a number on our house, in a matter of 30 minutes we had 2 inches of water in our basement. For those of you who may not recall, my bedroom is in the basement. Yes, my bedroom had water in it. Luckily not 2 inches like all the rest of the basement, but still.
2. I got very allergy-sick due to all the mold following the water. Go figure
3. I had more than enough of the water and found a new place to live - since then we've been trying to figure out how to get our contract sold at our current house - we don't want to stick around for may and june rainfalls. no sirree bob!
4. I found a new place to live - a delightful little townhouse in Fairfax. Quite excited about that little move, I have to say. Welll, excited about not being in a flooding basement anymore, not so excited about the actual moving.
   
5. I went on spring break to Charlotte, NC to visit my sister and her adorable little family. Seriously, they are the cutest kids in the entire world. See??
6. The last night I was at my sister's Peter Breinholt was in town, so we went to his concert. It was fab. I have a renewed love for some amazing music. Isn't he so cute???
7. We met Peter and the band. We giggled a lot about it.
   
8. My sister's neighbor had just moved in and they put a bunch of boxes out on the street - guess who's moving?! ME!! SCORE!!!!! Good sturdy boxes. Fab.
9. A crazy insane couple of weeks of stress about selling contracts and the impending move and realizing that school is going to get very crazy and difficult.
10. I started a graduate class on incorporating technology in the classroom.
11. We found out we have pretty much sold our contracts - it's almost official, just waiting on word that one has been accepted!

....and here we are! Oh wait, and yesterday I got up at a disgusting hour for a saturday and went down to see the cherry blossoms and have been editing pictures ever since, but I think that will get it's own post.

best line...

from my HT:

His bottom snored.

Think about that kids. Think about that.

Have you ever been....?

....so tired that it takes every ounce of brain power you have to move a finger? That is about where I am right now. OY!! And for no good reason! I was in bed at a decent hour last night, I woke up at the normal time today, didn't have any caffeine yesterday so I slept REALLLLY soundly. But man if it's not just killing me to be upright at my desk today. Sheesh!!!

If I had my wish, I'd have a substitute here, and I'd go home and crawl back into bed for the majority of the day. I could really use a good 30 hours of sleep. Ok, maybe not 30 hours. But a good 2-hour nap would rock. Or an iv drip of caffeine.

But I have 3 energetic classes to teach today, and then the gym and then I might be making dinner too, so off I go. Of course the energy will come to do it all, but at this very moment my bed is calling..... maybe I'll find my office floor for 10 or 15 minutes....

Details??

Um, did you want details? One person complained that she found out about the new object of my affection here instead of in person. Sorry about that - I've been a little... umm... busy. Not dirty busy! Sheesh!! Just occupied busy.

So, Friday night I went out on a hot date with a very nice man. I was about to say boy, but well, he's not a boy. I figure being a homeowner puts you in the category of being a "man."

So I arrived at Peter's houses around 5:30 after working and getting a good swim in at the gym. Love the gym. Not sure how I'll show it to you, because I think I'd probably get some strange looks taking pictures in the locker room or whatever, but let me just say it's beautiful. Anyway, we made this fabulous chicken salad stuff together. Here's the recipe:

1-2 avocados, diced up
1 tomato diced
1 can white shoepeg corn
1 can black beans
1 cucumber diced
1-2 mangoes diced
the juice of 1-2 limes
some rice vinegar
1 green, red or orange or yellow bell pepper, diced
2 chicken breasts, marinated in teriyaki (optional, I don't always marinate) and grilled or otherwise cooked, and then diced.
1/2 cup cilantro, or more or less, depending on your tastes

I think that's all. Then you serve it on a little bed of lettuce and eat with tortilla chips, or with a fork. Or you can just serve it in a bowl as a side salad and leave the chicken out. Or you can add more chicken and make it more of a main dish. Or you can add more mango. Really, you can edit it to match your tastes. Enjoy with tortilla chips and a gathering of friends. It really is fabulous.

SO we dined on this fabulous nutritious salad for dinner, then went to a town center to stroll and go see a delightful movie. During our strolling we observed some ice skaters. They were all so cute but we both agreed that if we were to skate we'd break both our ankles and probably something else, or two or three. See the skaters? It's a real ice skating rink. Really Really. And a whole buncho of high school kids just zipping around. Super cute.




And what was the movie??? Juno. Have you seen it?? If not, you need to. This was my second screening.



That ellen page is just so dang cute! After said movie, we went back to Peter's house which is also nicely done.

We spent the rest of the evening cuddling and chatting. What woman does not like a good cuddle? Seriously. Boys, girls like to cuddle. Get over it and do it already. It was a delightful evening.

Saturday we gathered ourselves together for a so-yum homemade breakfast. We made bacon (thick cut, of course), pancakes with homemade syrup and strawberries on the side. We also had OJ to drink. YUMMMMMMMM.

all in all, it was a delightful weekend filled with good conversations, good food, and the best company I've had in a while.

Tonight I went to the superbowl party at Darin's. That was a good time - lots of good food and I got to visit with some fabulous people. I always forget to take pictures. I promised to be better, didn't i? If I had gotten there on time, I suppose I would have, but I wasn't so much feeling like the life of the party, so I didn't quite think about it. It was pretty chill.

And that, my friends, was my weekend!

Gross.

Ok so disgustingly enough, I am just ridiculously giddy. After three fabulous dates this week, this pretty much captures how I'm feeling:

How wonderful to know
The things a woman knows;
How marvelous to wait for a date
In simply beautiful clothes!
How lovely to be a woman
And change from boys to men,
To go to a fancy nightclub
And stay out after ten.
How lovely to be so grown-up and free!
Life's lovely when you're a woman like me!

Gotta love the corny Bye Bye Birdie....

Nope, no pictures yet. I suck.

Exciting weekend!

So I'm tooting my horn. toot! toot! It's true, I had a fabulous weekend. Let me just recap for you.

Friday night I had a beautiful little girls night with my delightful friend Cristy. We watched girly movies, made cookies, drank tea, and of course talked and talked and talked and talked. No, I won't tell you what we talked about. How dare you ask!

Saturday night I hosted the dinner portion of a progressive dinner. We had sooooo much fun! I can't take a lot of credit for the amount of fun, because there were some freaking hilarious people who were assigned to come here. We hosted David, Dan, Brad and Steve (all 4 accountants!), Tess, Lisa and Shanna. Also in attendance were my roommates Joy and Kelli. We laughed a ton, it was fabulous. That Tess is a real kick in the pants. Then we went to the harbours for a little dessert, which was also delightful.

Sunday I went over to a boy's house and we just spent the entire evening talking. It was a fabulous time. We talked a ton. The plan was to watch a movie, but we never got that far. In fact, we talked so long that I only got 3 hours of sleep before I had to get up to go to work all day Monday. That made for a long day of meetings, but that's ok. I am more than happy to give it up for some good connecting with a delightful person. In fact, I may just sacrifice the all-coveted weekend sleep for more.

If only I had pictures to document the weekend. How do I manage that? Well, I'll tell you. I absolutely SUCK at taking pictures. I just always forget to take out my camera, so it usually just sits in my room. BUT, I am resolving to do better. Hopefully this week I'll have some fun things of which I can take pictures. Then I can blog. Yay for blogs.