Wordless Wednesday: Strawberries and Champagne

...and an Amaryllis (:

Ketchup!! :P

Ok, an entry!

I am currently at work and in between phone calls so I decided it was time to do a blog entry. I will write it in my email, post the pictures and then post the entry when I get home. Complicated much?

So rewind a few days.

Lobstahs

On Friday, one of our clients sent a box of 50 live lobsters to the office. Why? He was vacationing in Maine and wanted to share! So I bring home two lobsters in a bag of ice for me and the hubby to share. Meet Jean and Claude!



And yes, they were alive! I felt a little like Julie from Julie/Julia because I really didn't want to put a live lobster into a boiling pot of water. So Ryan held up the lobstahs, I cut the rubberbands off the claws, and he dropped them into the boiling water.





We boiled the water with some thyme, had corn and lots of melted butter. We, living in the semi-South, do not have claw crackers or even a nut cracker so we had to use our kitchen shears to break the lobstahs open! The claw meat was so sweet and the tails was delicious, neither of us are brave enough to eat the middle gooey guts parts! Mine was definitely female as I had a LOT of little red eggs in mine! I didn't eat those though. Week one of work spoiled me, birthday cake, margaritas, and lobstahs!



Baseball

After dinner (and cleaning up since we were quite messy) we went over to the ballpark since we had tickets to the Nationals vs Marlins game. Our neighbor Rigoberto (who I have blogged about before, he is the awesome chef) has season tickets and passed them onto us for this game. We were in the third row on the third baseline!!!



Amazingly awesome seats. I had my new camera so I got to play around with a lot of settings, including my sports one which takes 25 pictures in about 2 or 3 seconds. It rocked my socks off. I feel like I need to make a flip book!




Funnily enough one of the Sgt Majors from the barracks was sitting in front of us and we were chatting back and forth most of the game. We ended up getting a free tshirt for Rigoberto that they tossed to us and having some delicious Boardwalk Fries! The Nats lost *surprise* but we had a blast.

I am not sure, but I think some guys on the Marlins lost a bet???



And my favorite: FIREWORKS



Art Fair



Saturday was a lazy day. Ryan has had a cold for a few days and even resorted to taking MEDICINE! I was shocked. Only Nyquil to get by without coughing all night, but he never takes anything when he is sick so it shocks me still. We watched tv and lounged around a bit before I ran into Rigoberto outside again. I gave him the tshirt from the game and he mentioned there was an art festival of sorts going on down on King St. Ryan and I drag ourselves from the house, me with new camera in tow, and go explore. I loved looking at all the artwork and wished I was uber rich enough to buy some of it! But I also got quality camera playing time!

Playing with Shutter Speed: 1/2000



1/2000



1/350 or so I think.... so you can see the difference in shutter speed!




Playing with Aperature:





and some of the photographer...

and the gorgeous hubby....



Nick's

We then walked all the way to the top of King St and I showed Ryan where my new office is located. When we were sitting on the benches near the fountain Ryan's friend called and invited us to Nick's, a country bar not too far away, to hang out.



We took a cab there (ended up being pricier than anticipated, $15!) and had a good time. We got some food and drinks and I really wish we did the line dancing lessons that were going on before the band started. Once the band started it seemed like everyone knew all the complicated dances and we couldn't do any of them!!! We slow danced to one song and even then people were spinning all around us!

My friend Kim (and one of my bridesmaids) is coming to visit next weekend. She is a huge country buff so we decided we have to go back next Saturday. She is wicked excited and I quote, "Imma gonna bring mah boots!!!" I am wearnig mine too! Mine are my mom's from back in the 80s. Kinda excited.

After the bar we decided to walk to the metro, almost got lost in a paving plant (don't ask) but made it! We even survived the speedwalk home!

Chores

Sunday was chores... Ryan had a C-Bag (I am sure you Marine S.O.s know what those are!) FULL of our laundry. I mean we couldn't close the thing. 2 people 2 weeks 2 much laundry! I went grocery shopping, still made it in budget with lots of frantic running around, and cleaned the apartment. Our bathroom sink was badly clogged for a day or two so I got some Draino for that and poured the entire bottle in the instant I got home. Three hours later, nothing happened. Crap. I was convinced I would have to call our maintenance guy. But I kept cleaning. I was just finishing the kitchen when I heard a horrific grinding noise. I look in the dining room and black things and shards of ice are FLYING out of the airconditioning unit. I had to grab my apron to shield myself to turn the darn thing off! Then I had to reclean the entire dining room. So that thing has not been on since Sunday, luckily it is cooler out. Ryan needs to call maintenance to come fix it! This stuff only happens when I am home alone. I honestly thought the window broke and glass was flying in but it was ice....how does that happen??? And with black leafy looking dirt things?? But the good news is our sink cleared overnight so that works again somehow! It just needed 12 hours or so to sit instead of half an hour like the bottle says?

Work work work. Still liking the job. Getting better, getting into a routine. I even made meatloaf last night!

ADD: We lost power at work! After I wrote this the computer flickered three times and died. People were stuck in the elevator, traffic lights were out, no power for like a mile around. So I walked home!!! I am tired now. We'll go back for my car tonight, I did not want to deal with traffic with no traffic lights working and the garage not working either!

I will write about my Doctor Appointment Adventure later....

Thanks for sticking with me guys <3

Birthday Part 2!

Last night Ryan came home with a bottle of Rose Champagne to celebrate my first day of work, and he only keeps surprising me!!! It is my first birthday I have ever gotten to celebrate with him (and the third we've been together) and he has just been wonderful.

First, thank you for the birthday wishes! My facebook of course got flooded. It is interesting people I never talk to anymore still feel the need to write on my wall for my birthday...but whatever! I still love it. I still have lots of texts and I got a fun box from my mom. She sent me some money for work clothes, moonshine jelly from North Carolina, a coca cola bag and bottle opener (<3 Diet Coke! and vintage coke stuff), some candy and candles. Mom even tried to send me flowers and chocolate at the office but I didn't get them :( And thanks for the touching entry on your blog Mommy (:

The girl I work with at the front desk said Happy Birthday but that was it for work for most of the day. So imagine my surprise when at 4:30 we got told to put the phones on Do Not Disturb and to go to the cafe for a "meeting". We go inside and they got me a cake!!!! And a card!! On my second day of work! I was very touched. (:

Now we have a tradition in my family where we hang this special sign every birthday for every person. It was up in my living room when I came home!!! Along with...



My Present from my AMAZING Husband...



Going way back in the blog to this I Want it Wednesday entry you can see how long I have wanted an amazing camera like this. My glorious hubby did me one better, he asked the guy at the camera store his opinion and got a better camera than the one I wanted! I am the proud owner of a Nikon Coolpix P100!! It is AWESOME. I am currently reading the manual cover to cover and we plan to go to the park this weekend to play so I can take pictures and learn while doing. SO psyched.


Ryan had a long day so he is napping before we go to dinner. We're going up to the Italian place right up the street that I have been dying to try, it has sidewalk tables and white lights and looks wonderful.


I love birthdays. And my Ryan <3

Hmm...

*pokes*

Is thing still on? Are people out there? Is there an echo?

Ah well I'll just keep going.

Last night and today was the first round of goodbyes. Patrick, Don, and Karli are all gone. Needless to say I bawled my eyes out saying goodbye to them. I never expected the people I would meet here would have such an impact on my life... to the point where one of them is going to be a bridesmaid in my wedding! So much has changed since August it is enough to make my head spin.

So, now it is time for another inside scoop. The subject... New Year's Eve at Disney.


My honest advice. NEVER EVER COME TO EPCOT OR MAGIC KINGDOM FOR NEW YEAR'S EVE EVER!!!!!

Unless you want to stand shoulder to shoulder with 83,999 other people and wait in a five hour line for Soarin' do not do it. Magic Kingdom was at capacity by 10am. At 6pm they let in 500 more people as some had left. EPCOT reached 84,000 people.

I was on fireworks duty which is like Illuminations on crack/speed/heroin all together at once. SO many people. We had to keep the walkways moving and once the front was full we kept people out. If you had to use the restroom you got a red ticket to come back to your spot. I had a red lightsaber to move people along and too many times I was tempted to hit people on the head with it. I was cursed at in 3 languages (English, Spanish, and Portuguese), called a bitch a slut and a whore, told to fuck off or fuck you.... I have never imagined people could be like that. I was in NYC last year for NYE and it was fun! Pleasant even! This was HELL.

I had one woman from Brazil I would not let in to the front area since it was FULL and he called me those names and proceeded to mock me every time I spoke. I threatened to call security and she was like, "I don't understand." And I snapped, "SECURIDAD. POLIZIA. You understand. Shut up and move away!"

She didn't.

Jenny (who I have become a lot closer with) and I decided we were not Jenny and Allie. We were Jennifer and Allison after the first fireworks show. The gloves came on and the bitch came out! The 7:30 fireworks was regular Illuminations and it was the most hellish. By 11:40, the NYE show, we had a system and it was a little bit better. The finale at midnight was awesome though. I literally felt the shockwave of the fireworks nearly knock me down! And each country around the world show case let off a different set of fireworks and said Happy New Year in their language.



I found this on youtube if you all want to watch! I had my camera and tried to film the finale, I took lots of pictures, but my battery died halfway through the finale! I was mad as hell. Especially when it came back on to take pictures later when we all danced on the fountain and led a couple thousand people in the Cupid Shuffle. Hey, the DJ told us to!

Pictures will follow. Happy New Year readers!