Boo!

Halloween is THREE days away!! Do you have your costume picked out? My faves in DC and I are all going as pirates. One of my friends, C, is a huge Halloween fan so we have been planning our joint group costume for months. Seriously. Since Labor Day.

Here is a little video that she found on JibJab and had customized... Our dancing skills are pretty accurate, if I do say so myself (I am Frankenstein, btw).

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Anyway, Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. I think for four years straight in college I was "Secret Agent T- Queen Princess of the Flower Fairies". My senior year I even made my own tutu with ribbon, tulle from Walmart, and a hot glue gun. It was amazing.

Halloween is one of those days though that I wish I could borrow a child or a pet to take trick-or-treating. While dressing up and going out to bars/parties is fun, nothing matches the magic of a kid (or pet) in a costume.

This is a great gallery of pets all dressed up-- it's much better than the "why pets hate halloween" email that gets passed around every year.

The squirrel-pup is my favorite but there are tons more here.

via New York Mag  

Glee!!

Are yall watching Glee? If not you should be (9 pm on Fox).

Full of great one-liners, fun dance numbers, and quirky, quirky characters it is one of the highlights of my week.

Here is a sample from one of the most recent episodes:

Not That Kind of Girl

"I'm not that kind of girl" I say, as the boy I just met that night tries to kiss me in a dark and crowded bar. I'm not the kind of girl to make out with a strange when I barely remember his name, in front of the whole world. I'm not that kind of girl.

Fast forward an hour and a few more jack and cokes later and there we are- in front of some random bar on some random street in DC. What next. Your house or mine. Together or separate. We call a truce- a few kisses are shared and into the cab we go.

We end up on the futon of a mutual friend; it seemed like a wise decision at the time. There is the requisite amount of fumbling and x leads to y, yet not all the way to z. I am not that kind of girl.

The chirping of birds wakes us way earlier than necessary. I learn that I don't really like sleeping next to someone that I barely know on a futon. He is sweaty and it's hot and I like my own space.

We walk awkwardly to the metro, getting a bit lost on the way as neither of us is in a familiar neighborhood. Sitting there, counting the stops until I am suppossed to change trains, wondering what to do or say next and wondering why exactly this seemed like a good idea to begin with.

"Bye. This was, uh, unexpected," I say, "I had fun."

Monday morning I remember that I know who he works for. I may not know his last name but I remembered his boss's. A quick search leads me to his last name which leads me to facebook. Yep, I stalked. I am that kind of girl.

A few weeks later we pass in the hall, neither one wanting to acknowledge that we recognized each other. I'm not that kind of girl.

About a year later my office moves--- right down the hall from his office. You see, I remembered his boss's name. My biggest fear is now having to share an elevator.

Knowing looks are shared each time we pass each other. Aknowledging yet not, because you see, I am not that kind of girl.

This continues... now it has been almost two years. I wish I could just say hi, ask how he was doing, pretend to be super cool about what happened in that random bar on that random street.

But I can't, you see, because I'm not that kind of girl.

Bump Like This

For the fast few months I have been attempting to work out more consistently. I have actually started running- kind of a big deal for me- and it only works because of my awesome, kick-ass playlist.

It's called "prance" and is on constant repeat when I am at the gym or running intervals in the neighborhood. Here are some of the songs that are included:

Kelly Rowland- "Like This"



Black Eyed Peas- "Boom Boom Pow"




Missy Elliot- "We Run This"



Cobra Starship- "Good Girls Go Bad"



Beyonce- "Freakum Dress"



What are some of your favorite workout songs??
 

Project Update

Since it was a long weekend, I wanted to make the most of it and try and change something up in my bedrooom. I have been wanting to do something for a while but since I rent (and am a pretty crappy painter) I didn't want to paint my walls. So... I decided to paint my bed.

I talked about it in this post but as a recap, here is a photo of what it looked like before:

One of my most favorite colors is a pinky-red-orange-coral. I have a number of sweaters, jackets, shirts, etc. all in this color and pretty much love it. I saw the bed below on Design Sponge a while ago and fell in love. While I am not about to learn how to upholster something and I wouldn't know where to find that fabric I still had a plan.

(see more info here)

When I was telling my mom about this plan she brought up the logistics. I mean- not only would I have to deal with the painting part but it would normally involve taking it apart, getting it down my super steep and narrow stairs, and then putting it back together. So I came up with a backup plan- just leave it in my room, rearrange a few things, and try really hard not to get anythign on the hardwood floors.

Anyway- here is the after photo. I am looking for a new white comforter (right now I am just using my down comforter without the duvet cover and my same shams) but beyond a few drops of paint on the floor I am pretty happy about it.

What do you think??

Planning Ahead

I love the Olympics. No- scratch that. I adore the Olympics. The summer games are my favorite, dating back to the 92 games in Barcelona. I have seen the stadium from the Barcelona games and will always remember going to some of the events during the 96 games in Atlanta. I even kept Michael Phelps as my background on my laptop for an embarrassingly long time.

Last week, when the IOC announced Rio as the location for the 2016 games I was so bummed that Chicago lost out, as it was probably my best chance to attend in person again, although I also started looking at flights to Brazil just in case I experience a financial windfall in the next 6+ years.

However, there is some light on the horizon. The Opening Ceremony for the 2010 games in Vancouver are on February 12th. The save the dates have already been sent for the viewing party at my house (totally not kidding- if you are in the DC area and not creepy, you might get an invite too).

Most importantly- meet my new best friend, one of three mascots for the games- Quatchi. He's a Sasquatch who plays hockey (I am being 100% serious- this is all taken straight from the Vancouver 2010 website and if you go there, make sure to have your sound on to hear him talk).

Apples to Apples

Apple picking on Saturday was quite a success. I ended up going w/ the plaid shirt as I talked about in this post and took everyone's advice and went totally feminine with my accessories- my tory burch reva's, gold bangles, and gold hoops.

I was pretty happy as far as all of that goes except it was super warm to be wearing flannel and jeans but since I had been thinking about this for a while I kept on with my original plan and tried to think cool thoughts. What can I say- I am willing to suffer for fashion.

Anyway, we went to Homestead Farm in Poolesville, MD. There were tons of families with children- next year I may need a child to borrow and drag along as all the kids looked like they were having so much fun and none of my friends (all 20 something young professionals) didn't want to feed the goats, play in the hay bales, or go on the tractor ride like I did. It's their loss...

Last year we went to the same farm and had an abundance of apples- my eyes were apparantly way out of touch with the amount of cooking that I realistically would do. This year we all set a limit for ourselves- 30 apples max. We shouldn't have worried- the crop was a bit sparse this year. There were several rows of Pink Lady apples (my faves) that weren't quite ripe enough but the Golden and Red Delicious apples were pretty tasty. My group- the single girls group as we referred to ourselves as (the others were either married, long term relationship, and just started dating)- actually threw in the towel and ended up going back to the beginning and bought a few bags of already picked apples to round out our meager offerings.
 

Whatever- no one will ever know the difference.

We capped the night off with a feast and a football game-- unfortunately only one was successful (UGA almost broke our hearts on Saturday... sigh). Everything was a little bit apple-y-- we had fruit/veggies and dip, apple bread, baked brie with apple butter (my contribution), apple/cheddar pizza, pulled pork in homemade tortilla bowls with apple relish, swordfish and apple skewers, veggie quinioa (the only non-apple item-- we needed a bit of a reprive), and apple-rum cake. Seriosuly- we all had to be rolled out of there.

Anyway, apple picking is a super fun activitiy that gets you outside and actively doing something. It was pretty affordable too- only $1 or so per pound, much better than what you get at the grocery store, not to mention the satisfaction of knowing that you picked them youself. Apples also are pretty nutritious from what I hear so as long as you don't cover them in sugar, put them in pastry, and bake them- it's a pretty healthy activity too.

My major tip would be to make sure that you hit the orchard at a good time for the variety of apples that you are looking for- otherwise you might have to cheat like we did and purchase some that have already been picked.

Happy fall!

-T

(p.s.- I have included some of my favorite apple specific pictures... a longer post will likely happen later with my pumpkin saga... consider that your warning to have tissues handy as it's pretty tragic)