Planes, trains, busses and bikes

Had we gone on a boat, we would have traveled by every current means possible on this trip. Next time, next time...

Uncounted months ago, my friend Jess and I decided to go on a trip together. We started small, "Let's go to DC!" which progressed quickly to, "Well, why not take the train to NYC, too?"

Sure, let's visit two of the busiest and most tourist driven cities in these United States. And we can totally do it in 5 days. We got this.

Off I go with my sister from another mister!

Well, yeah, we did got that. Surprisingly well, in fact. We did museums, we saw the monuments, we ate locally and made new friends late at the dive bar (hilarious scenario) and then we got food poisoning got on a bus to NYC (go Mega or go home) and hit Broadway, Times Square, Central Park and a grocery store for crackers. How we both survived 11+ hours of biking and untold miles, neither of us know, but we did! And it was fun!

Our home for the DC leg of our trip.

Visiting the Capitol building.

I think the best and easiest way to sum up what turned out to be one of the most fun trips I've ever been on is in a "Best of" listing:

Best fall down the subway steps: Jess

Best bike bruise: Becca (NYC)/Jess (DC)

Please note, no bruises occurred in the taking of this photo. This was in DC and I already told you who won THAT contest.

Best epic display in a Metro station: Becca

Best use of iPhone: Jess (to be fair, I don't have one, but hers was awesome)

Best map reading: Tie. Outside of one slip-up, we kept each other going in the right direction the rest of the time despite some issues with arrows and Up vs Downtown...the list goes on. But we succeeded!

Best sketch deal: Jess (hey Canal St.)

Best food: Founding Farmers in DC (but I'm pretty sure this is the place that gave me food poisoning, ftw)

Best weather: Tie. NYC/DC! It was epic!

Perfect evening to bike!

Incredible sunset at the Jefferson Memorial and Tidal Basin.

Central Park!

 Best biking: DC (far friendlier than NYC and who doesn't love the beauty of the "mile")

In all, I am so grateful for my friend, Jess, and I knew from the beginning of planning this trip that it would be a smooth, fun, carefree and stress-free trip. Lo and behold, I was spot-on. We navigated Metro and the Subway, we biked around DC and Central Park, we visited monuments and famous sites in both cities and all while asking, "Where do you want to go?" and responding. "I don't care" in unison. For a trip begun on a whim without timed planning or specific stops, outside of a few, we managed to shove two beautiful cities into 6 days of travel.

And despite being sick for two days of this trip, I still managed to have an incredible time on this trip and I cannot WAIT to do it again. Where to next, my friend?

Catch-up! Ketchup?

I have done an abysmal job of maintaining a steady posting stream and I'm only doing myself a disservice (considering there are very few others who read this besides myself...and maybe my mom). I've striven to post on a regular basis to keep my writing skills sharp, my vocabulary broad. Boom, #fail.

So here we go! Let me catch you up on March and part of April real quicklike.

At the beginning of March, the UST/PwC crew made our way to the rodeo for a nice afternoon in the very brisk, chill wind to consume fried delicacies (Oreos are special) and ride carnival rides (Berserkmoes is my ride buddy!) and check out the really smelly animals (yes, I stepped in manure).

Bbot and Tbot

Apparently using this as a landmark was idiotic considering there were four of them throughout the fairgrounds.

Ride buddy!

A quick side note to my awesomeness: I managed to wrangle a dead possum out of my backyard. Yeah, an actually dead one, not just "playing". I did my dad's bee/ocean dance and grimaced and made funny noises and finally said, "No one else is going to do this. No one else is here," so I got serious and made it happen. Never again, please!

Mischief managed.

To describe me as "squeamish" would be an understatement.

For two separate weeks in April I got to dogsit! And my phone promptly blew up with pictures of Bear. Bear and Kyle. Oh babies of all makes and models, why must you be so cute?

A very contented houseguest.

Soooomebody escaped their kitchen jail. And then left all their white fur on my dark brown couch. Sigh.

Get that camera out of my FACE. Ooooh no, sir, I will do no such thing. I suffer...you suffer.

Eat him up!

Over the next few weeks, G and S's wedding became top priority with several weekends of fun showers and then capping it all off with a fabulous wedding (and one really gorgeous bride!). It was such a treat to see this group of girls from UST days so many weekends in a row. With several of them bearing babies and one who moved umpteen thousand miles away (Ok, Ft. Worth, but who's counting?) it can be really challenging to gather the group together to catch up. Boy, did we get spoiled! I won't see these ladies again until JUNE. But, at least scheduling three months in advance gives you something to look forward to!

Franya!

We clean up pretty nicely!

If you don't go "He's sooooo cute" you need to get your eyes checked. I love my little Landosaurus. His parents are pretty boss, too.

Look at that gorgeous bride! Radiant is the best way to describe her. Love these ladies!

I mentioned scheduling events months in advance has it's advantages. Who knows how long ago, my brother, sister-in-law and I decided to schedule a bowling date for Annabelle's first time. It was HILARIOUS. The boo just walks in like she owns the place and proceeds to take it all in stride. She figures out what to do and when and has a great gallop/walk on her way up to the lane. This girl is too funny!

Mid-gallup.

Eat her up!

I didn't get a good picture of it, but everytime she rolled the ball down the lane she threw her hands up in victory.

Another such situation was with my friend, Stacey. We planned a tour of Blue Bell and an afternoon of shopping in January...for April. The weather was more perfect than we could have asked for and the tour of Blue Bell was great! If you haven't been before, I highly recommend taking a day trip to see it. Not only are the facilities really cool and the tour interesting, the little town of Brenham is ADORABLE. There's a great little main street with shops (not just antiques) and a great cafe with probably the most delicious Dutch Apple pie I have ever had the pleasure of consuming. What are you waiting for??

"Moo mooooooo, moo moooooooo"

I have really pretty friends. And ones with good taste...we both loved this old truck!

This picture practically captions itself: us at the cafe!

And to cap off these wonderful two months (prior to my big awesome vacation) was a celebration of the union of my cousin and his new wife who eloped in Paris in January. It was a great family event and the weather was perfect for breezing in and out of the house as appetizers floated past.

"Bread so that this house may never know hunger. Salt that life may always have flavor. And wine that joy and prosperity may reign forever." It's a quote from It's a Wonderful Life and I couldn't resist gifting their new household with this!

The last update for April is coming soon! Can you stand to wait? Because I'll probably end up posting it right after this so your wait time is considerably short. Or WILL I? Dun dun duuuuun!

Been DYEing to try this

Having started my career as a cog in the wheel of Corporate America, my wardrobe has forever since maintained a large number of black clothes.

It's what you do. Be sharp, be crisp, be slick. All that adds up to WEAR BLACK and a LOT OF IT.

Fast forward 5 years (has it really been that long already?) and my blacks are no longer sharp, they are dull. They aren't crisp, they're a little humdrum and sad.

Thanks to a good friend, I learned that you can revitalize your blacks in a very inexpensive way: DYE.

$2 and you get your nearly brand new shirt back. It looks alive and vibrant and when you wear it to work, people think you just went shopping. Talk about money savings! Plus, if you just looooove that one pair of pants that's been with you since day one and maybe it's time to get rid of them but you just can't make yourself...DYE them. :-D Gives them a bit more life.

The process is a bit time consuming (45 minutes in the water) and it can't be left alone (because I did it in a plastic tub, I was the agitator) but ultimately completely worth it, especially on a gorgeous day outside with a great book.

Be sure to measure correctly! It took 12 of these or 48 cups = 24 pints = 3 gallons

All that water for half this bottle based on approximately 1lb of dry clothes

Dry clothes no more! Put them into the hot water sopping wet, then stirstirstir!

And wait...and stir...and wait...and stir for 45 minutes.

Voila! Finite. In all, I considered this worth my time. For the little bit of hassle, I gave some of my favorites clothes new life and look forward to many more washes and wears before having to do this once again.

Next up, pants and a dress!

Fort Worth Touring

Epic fail, y'all. I went on a trip to visit my favoritest book loving gal pal, D,  in her new home and didn't post a thing. Not one word, not one little snippet since then. Time to rectify the situation!

Tanner and I left work on Friday and hit the road for what should have been a 4.5hour trip. Correction, there is Houston traffic everywhere on a Friday. We took our lumps and settled in, listening to Mitch Hedberg as we sidled out of city limits.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by a very ferocious white furball by the name of Sergeant Doakes but within a few minutes and after a few belly scratches, he was our friend.

Meet the roughest, toughest, ooey gooeyst Srg. Doakes!

The next morning we woke up and traversed to the Giampietro's favorite breakfast spot and chowed down on some killer pancakes plus a Dutch baby which I'm pretty sure is the greatest thing ever invented. Wait, no, that would be Fried Oreos most recently eaten at the Rodeo. Yum, yum, yum!

After stuffing our faces, we were off to tour the brewery! Here's my favorite thing about brewery tours...there's really no tour. You drink. And then you wander. Then they talk about the process for about 20 minutes whilst trying to be heard over the live music and frivolity behind us. And you drink. Let's not talk about the ridiculous line for the bathroom...

Clever, no? And there were some fantastic beards, I tell you.

Disregard the trash can but check out the cutest chick ever. On the right. :-D

My main squeeze and a much better picture taker who said let's NOT be by the trash can. Smart girl...

We were lucky enough (mmm, I go back and forth on the use of lucky) to be there for the beard competition. They have all sorts of categories: mutton chops, GINGERS, length, bushiest, etc, etc. Emphasis on ginger's because who doesn't love a daywalker? With a purchase of some sweet pint glasses plus toting our Beer'd glasses from the tour, we left fully satisfied and definitely entertained.

Our day of liquidity and delicious food surely couldn't end with just beer and pancakes, respectively, so we sauntered over to a nice cafe not far from where my cousin and his now new wife lived to imbibe some well brewed coffee. Mine was with coke! Numnumnum.Then it was time for a pre-dinner dessert...this is completely logical when on vacation. And this also does not negate the enjoyment of post-dinner dessert, either. Boom, logicked.

What a keeper. That guy, on the right. Best TBot in town.

 We sat outside and enjoyed the fabulous weather that despite the wintry month was a cool and comfortable 70*. With some Christmas music to keep us company as we people watched the hours slowly slipped past until it was time for dinner. At a place with a S'MORES FIRE AT YOUR TABLE. Epic. Brilliant. Best restaurant ever?

But why end the fun there? Let's Jenga with absurdly loud live music behind us, but this time let's add in my cousin and his now new wife (note: when this visit happened, they weren't engaged!)

Please note the faces of Sweet D and Fran because TBot really enjoyed playing the jerk and going for the trickiest pieces. Guess who lost? :-D Guess who gloated? :-D

Obviously you cannot forgo the glass to grab the block.

The very nice and safe player, my very own strategy.

The poker. He was nearly as bad as TBot.

The sly one.

Our day in Dallas was done after this and poor Doakes needed a reprieve. Plus, we had to be rested and ready for our delicious breakfast with mimosa's and bacon while we watched Brave. 

The next morning dawned bright and beautiful and we slowly stirred ourselves awake. Apparently D iz far more deaf than she has a right to be and I heard the beautiful gonging of bells for a good twenty minutes as I roamed their very sweet abode. When Doakes and Fran returned from a run, Sweet D was awake and we got breakfast started. With the best griddle from South of the border, Fran whipped up some delicious pumpkin pancakes while I stuck bacon in the oven. We sat down to watch Brave and I just melted with that first accent. There is something about the Celts/Scots/Irish, pick your poison, that just bestills my beating heart.

It was a wonderful way to wrap up our whirlwind trip in Ft. Worth and I was so grateful to have seen my cousin and his wife as well. We made the long drive home with one stop along the way...

Bucee's!!!!! Plus, Beaver nuggets. Must love tradition!

I look forward to visit number two! Get ready, D and Fran...and we mustn't forget the Sarge...

Resolutions

February is a month to celebrate black history, your labor of love in a relationship, and that it's the shortest month in the year (hey, Mr. Popular...but only for cogs in the wheel of Corporate America). Fevrièr is not the month to make a life resolution nor revolution.

But that's what I did. I began the month with a plan which consisted of the following:

1) Map out a meal plan for the month because
2) No more grocery waste is to be tolerated and
3) I need to adjust my relationship with food so I...

A. Created an initially overwhelming and constantly changing spreadsheet tracker for Groceries which had a cash tracker AND a meal tracking tab for each month. Phrew, anxiety attack from Miss Perfection over here.

This was definitely the easiest aspect to creating this file.

Then...
B. Mapped out my month of meals through the end of February. I was encouraged because it (object: February) was about one week shorter than the rest [of the months] so if my plan failed I wouldn't feel too terrible and I...

Boom, detailed. Thank you, Pinterest and my brain for coming up with majority of these meals.

C. Broke down my grocery categories into: Fruits, Vegetables, Meat, Dairy, Grains, Canned goods, and Sundry items. Note: Avocados and tomatoes are fruit, garlic is a vegetable, liquid egg whites are disturbing and contact solution is expensive.

Please note the yellow lines and cue the wop wop noise. That would be some waste of mine [but at least only partial!]. Foiled!

I've learned a lot from this tracker of mine. Let's keep going on the lists, shall we?
I. Fruits and vegetables took about 25% of the overall budget but I purchased double the amount as in any other group.
II. Meat and dairy were in a neck and neck race to the bitter end to become the highest % and $ but ultimately meat won. Organic baby.
III. I wanted to keep my canned goods group small and my fruits and vegetables large: mission accomplished.
IV. Living is espensive. Like. Really expensive. Eating for 1.5 people (Tanner hangs around for a few meals) costs a lot. Yes, buying fresh adds up. Yes, buying organic does too. But these are both okay in my book because I'm keeping my future health costs down (hopefully).

I fully intend on continuing this trend of mine. Mapping out meal plans weeks in advance while still remaining open to spontaneity. Scripting my grocery lists for each Saturday on what I will need for the week and what items I can purchase in advance. I only want to see the friendly faces at Kroger's or Trader Joe's once a week and no more than that!

So far so good! Wish me luck in March (I'm going to be cleaning my crockpot a lot.)

Editor's note: I've now updated the spreadsheet to include a Grocery Lists tab because I was fed up with losing/leaving my lists everywhere and re-writing them over and over!

(Potentially) Never again

A while back I visited my parents to pick up a few items of mine lying about the house and garage when my eyes fell upon two cork boards just chillin', mindin' their own business. I immediately asked my dad what their intended use was as the dream that had been niggling in the back of my brain was given legs to run.

"Can I have those?"
"Sure!" And into my car they went along with a horse lamp and some baby blankets. I've since found a new home for the lamp. And it is prominently displayed in my living room. So yeah...I was obsessed with horses for a very long time but that's neither here nor there...

Back to the good stuff.

It took me awhile to sort out my plan. Did I want two ribbon boards? Did I want a new piece of art? Where are these going and what are their intended uses? Once I'd answered these questions, I saw my future bedroom wall art and a ribbon board for the kitchen. Voila!

Oh, so now I have to pick out fabric? The dreaming was the easy part? I worked so hard to think of what I wanted though...

Ok, how much fabric do I need? What's a yard? Hey, this one's pretty and so is that one over there. Do you two wanna hang out, maybe, just a little bit? I think these other two want to too because I'm dreaming of a basketweave pattern that surely isn't going to be a huge challenge to undertake. Oooooh, look at the burlap!

Lessons learned so far:
1) A yard is a LOT of fabric, especially for small projects where you only use a small cut/strip.
2) Jo-Ann's has really good prices on said fabric and really nice ladies to help!
3) There is too much fabric to choose from. Kinda like how you load your plate up at Thanksgiving and your eyes are larger than your stomach...that's how I felt when I suddenly realized I was toting around 6 different fabrics. I was intimidating myself and I was the one that kept stockpiling the fabric patterns!

Let's get this party started!

Project numero uno, wall art for my bedroom. Some yummy Paris print burlap and a creamy linen to offset.

This should require a license...there were definitely a few *gasp* worthy moments. ALL DIGITS STILL INTACT!

It's working! I'm actually doing this and it's working!

Lessons learned (cont'd):
4) Find a way to NOT have to sit on the cold, hard tile floor for umpteen hours on end without once standing up. The bum gets really sore, just saying.
5) Iron your fabric prior to use (but CAN you iron burlap?)
6) Putting measurement marks in the corkboard frame works...until you cover them with fabric, then you're SOL and left to eyeball.
7) I'm pretty good at eyeballing*.

Finito! *TOLD you I was only pretty good. I'll fix this bad boy eventually...surely.

I was beyond done when I wrapped up this project (get it, wrapped...because I wrapped the fabric all over it?) so I decided to postpone my basketweave.

Dear basketweave, you were a great concept, you were beautiful in my mind, but you did not tell me how difficult you would be. After finishing the Paris piece, I spent a few days mulling over my plan of attack on the weave. But, as with most other things, I planned a little and trudged ahead a lot.

I really dislike ironing, but at least these were very small squares rather than oddly shaped collars and pant legs.

After ironing all four of my patterns (!), I set about cutting them. Which brought me to conundrum #1: how do I layer these horizontally and vertically without overlapping the fabric patterns too often or at all?

And thus began the first of many layouts on the floor of my dining area. Conundrum #2: Does this one work here? Oh, it needs to tuck under...but...that other one on top is blocked by this guy over here. *rolls eyes*

Finally, inspiration (and loss of desire to keep fiddling) struck and I had my pattern!

Up high!

Down low!

And thus began the next two hours of my life. Conundrum #3: If this piece goes here, and this one here, then this one can be stapled now but this one can't. It was a lot of that. I built this bad boy layer by layer both horizontally AND vertically.

Conundrum #4: Trying very hard not to tip all the fabric off the board as I slowly attach each strip. Thankfully all the fabric were super buddies or something because they stuck together like glue! Thank you, static electricity for bringing this beautiful union to fruition.

Yes, that is my pajama pant leg on the bottom of your photo screen. I had to jury rig this picture taking somehow! Granted, using a small Rubbermaid box as compared to my shaking leg was probably best. No cameras were harmed in the taking of this photo! Though not for lack of trying on my part.

The hours passed, my legs waxed and waned sleeping status and my back reminded me that it didn't like being hunched in this position and was sore from bowling a 116 (whatwhat!) earlier in the day. Can you please KNOCK IT OFF? No, back...I rule this roost, you keep working!

Finito! The cards are part of a new system I've devised for myself to 1) cut down on calories and 2) cost during a month's time. Ideally, check out the bottom left pocket that got formed by the end of this process. C'est parfait!

Exhausted. Back, you win. We go rest now.

In all, I really enjoyed this little project of mine and I can't help being immensely proud of myself for actually following through on one of my art projects. I have a terrible track record but completing these two just brought my average up from 1 to 1.2. Game on, life, I'm coming for you!