Merry Christmas!

It's hard to believe that Christmas of '07 has come and gone so quickly. All of the preparation, shopping, and anticipation led up to a great Christmas celebration...and it's not over for Frank & I yet! This past Sunday, my mom, dad, and sister came to visit and the girls baked cookies all day (peanut butter snickers, chocolate chip, sugar, Hersey Kiss thumbprint, gingerbread, pecan nut, spritz...all soooo yummy!), then we headed to Georgetown for dinner at our new family favorite restaurant, Bangkok Joe's. After enjoying our delicious Thai meals, we opted to hang out in Georgetown instead of trekking over to the National Christmas Tree. The waterfront was so quiet and empty - and very festively decorated. The warm weather made for a great night in G'town.

Christmas Eve consisted of food, food, and more food! We started out with homemade cranberry scones and then the food fest started around 1:30pm - We feasted on crab stuffed mushrooms, asparagus wrapped in smoked salmon, bacon wrapped scallops, fried shrimp and calamari, antipasto, and linguine with clam sauce. Phew - I'm stuffed again just writing about it all! :) After celebrating with my dad, Frank, Laura, and I headed to Winchester to meet my mom for midnight mass. We then spent Christmas day at mom's, which was quite relaxing. I woke up first (as usual) and preceded to wake the entire house so we could open presents! We were then able to hang around and relax most of the day since mom wasn't having dinner. (Andy's sister, Carolyn, had Christmas dinner.) After dinner, we reconvened at mom's for a few rounds of "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" (which apparently, I am not!) and then watched "Heartbreak Kid" which was HILARIOUS! Unfortunately, Frank had to head back home Wednesday morning for work, but I got to hang out with mom and Laura all day - We did a little shopping to collect on those after Christmas sales. I then met up with my favorite girls, Rachel & Kristy, for our Christmas dinner and gift exchange, where Kristy revealed that her and John are expecting in August!!!! I'm so excited for those two and can't wait to become another Aunt!!

Tomorrow, Frank & I are off to NY for our Christmas celebration with his family on Saturday and my grandparents, etc on Sunday. One good thing about having family scattered all over is that the holidays aren't confined to just one day - Christmas lasts a whole week!!!

Ummm Ummm Good

Yesterday I got together with a few girls for my first cookie exchange EVER - which turned out to be quite a fabulous event - I mean, what's not to love about testing lots of delicious cookies!?!? I made my favorite chocolaty white chocolate chip cookies and oreo snowballs and in return came home with gingersnaps, spritz cookies, almond fruit bars, deeeelicious chocolate meringue bars, chocolate mint wafers, oatmeal cranberry cookies, and a few others! We had a great afternoon of sipping champagne punch, grazing on some lunch time goodies, indulging in girl talk, and of course sampling cookies!!! The afternoon got me all prepped for my upcoming weekend of Christmas baking for my family!

Basement!

Here are a few before & after pics of our basement - We're still waiting on the cabinets, granite, and sink for the wet bar and there is some cosmetic work yet to be completed. All-in-all, Frank & I love the new basement and can't wait to get furniture down there and start using it!!!

Santa will...what!?!?!?

I just came to realize today how truly traumatizing SPAM can be...Every now and then I check my gmail SPAM to make sure a random email didn't accidentally get trashed. This morning I decided to check my SPAM only to find an email promising that "Santa will make your willy longer and harder". OMG - I never want to hear Santa and willy in the same sentence again! Honestly what kind of sick people in this world wish that Santa will bring them that for Christmas???? Please tell me willies are NOT included in the same bag that Santa carries my presents in! Way to ruin the innocent image of Santa I had painted in my head...Sheez!

I'm not sure that I've ever heard of a tow truck fitting into the 12 days of Christmas, but...On Thursday night, Frank & I attended his company Christmas Party at the Clarendon Ballroom. It was extremely cold that night, and not wanting to walk too far, I assured Frank that we could park right across the street in the bank parking lot. I may have said something like "Kelly and I park here all the time and she never gets towed." Well, at the night's end, we crossed Wilson only to find an empty spot where our car once stood...DOH!!!! Luckily Frank's company handed out cab vouchers to everyone so we were easily able to catch a (free!) cab ride home - Retrieving our car from the impound was far from free, though... :(

Winter Wonderland!

The first snow of the season has fallen! As I left the gym at 7am this morning, the flurries were beginning to float in the air - It continued to snow all day and 14 hours later, the flakes have not subsided. Even though it's all only amounted to a few inches, it looks absolutely beautiful outside. Being the true Yankee that I am, I dragged Frank outside at 8:00 tonight for a walk in the winter wonderland. After a few blocks around the neighborhood, we came in and warmed up with some hot chocolate. What a perfect evening!

'Tis the Season!

I love, love, LOVE Christmas time! Ever since Frank & I lived together, we've made it a tradition to get our Christmas tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving and this year was no different. We treked out to Faquier County to walk through the Christmas tree farm and cut down our own tree. This year's is our biggest tree yet! Our ceilings are 8 feet tall and our tree is about 7'10". :) All last Sunday was spent decorating the tree and the rest of the house and this past Saturday we decorated the outside - just some simple white lights on the bushes and around the door. Although, I have to admit that I kind of wish we had gotten the big traditional, colored lights...Maybe next year! :)

Food, Family, & Fun

Frank & I spent a great Thanksgiving weekend on Long Island with both of our families. We left Arlington at 5:30am on Wednesday morning to avoid traffic and made it in our usual 5 hours. We got to hang out with Frank's sister and our niece on Wednesday and then made last minute plans with my uncle and his family to hop a train into the city to watch them blow up the parade balloons and enjoy a late night dinner. Thursday consisted of gorging ourselves at his sister's house on delicious antipasto, macaroni, and of course turkey with all of the fixings. I even got to spend some time with my dad - He stopped over for dessert.

I woke up bright and early on Friday to hit the Riverhead outlets with the girls - I had a shopping bag in my hand by 6:30am! After shopping until noon, I then headed out to my grandparents for a late lunch. The rest of Friday was spent relaxing and improving our Wii skills! (Frank's sis scored one for her birthday.) After an early dinner on Saturday, we were back on the road to Virginia...A busy, but fun weekend!

Let There Be Light!

After searching many, many stores and online for lampshades to match our bedroom, I concluded that none existed to match my taste. So, I opted to make my own. With a little guidance from my mom, I managed to cover lampshades with material that I'd found that matches our comforter perfectly and added some decorative touches as well - Here's the finished products; What do ya think???

Happy Birthday to me!

Goodness, it's been awhile since I've blogged...My birthday has come and gone - I guess I'm officially 'almost 30' now. I have to say though, it's really not that scary! I don't feel old (and hope I don't look it either!). I celebrated my birthday, 2 weeks ago, quietly in Winchester with Frank and my family. Frank and I headed home Saturday night and spent all day on Sunday at mom's. I had a fabulous, relaxing day, complete with a birthday breakfast (birds in a nest) and birthday dinner (ham and pineapple, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, broccoli casserole, etc., etc.) all care of my wonderful mommy! The day was topped off with way too many great presents and a very chocolatey Peanut Butter Playground birthday cake from Cold Stone. What a great way to spend my 29th birthday!

Week 1 of Renovations

We survived the first week of renovations! When Frank & I bought our new house, we had several renovations in mind - the first of which included opening up our kitchen and updating it...Well, somehow that first renovation project turned into redoing our basement. (Frank has some good persuasion skills!) The current basement was partially finished but severely outdated – I’m talking shag carpet, paneled walls, etc. Our renovations include adding a closet in the guestroom, adding a full bathroom, finishing the washroom, redoing the main area into a media room, and adding a small wet bar – We can’t wait to see the end product! Our contractor started work this past Monday and is on track to finish within the next month. Here’s a before and after picture of the ‘media room’:

DC Celebrity Sighting (sort of)

Frank and I tried a new restaurant in Clarendon with some friends last night, Restaurant 3, which turned out to be quite yummy! As we were enjoying our duck wraps, tuna lollipops, and calamari appetizers, the table next to us was sat with a couple that I knew I had seen before somewhere…I kept stealing glances at the woman, desperately trying to place where I knew her from…Then one of our friends spoke up and said “Do you recognize our neighbors?” Turns out it was Wendy Rieger from channel 4 news and Leon Harris from channel 7 news! After dinner and drinks, they left in time to get back to their respective stations for the 11:00 news…:)

Thought of the Evening

Have you ever wanted to know something about a person’s past just to find out that it was better left untouched? Why is it that our curiosity sometimes takes the best of us and ‘forces’ us to dig into someone’s history? I’ve recently affirmed that the past is better being just that – left in the past. There are some questions that are better left unanswered, despite how badly we think we might want to know. A person’s past makes us who we are, it shapes us as individuals – Sometimes knowing a person today just simply has to be enough to accept and love them.

Up on the Rooftop...

We're finally sleeping in our bedroom! Our bedroom furniture arrived last week along with our mattress and boxspring; however, not without a hitch...The boxspring wouldn't fit upstairs but Frank & I were determined to make it work! We managed to hoist the boxspring onto the 1st story roof and brought it in through the outside door to our bedroom. Actually not too hard of a task - I was quite proud of us! With our new bedding set up, I love it! (Frank isn't quite as big of a fan...I'm hoping it will grow on him - I have to keep reminding him that our bedroom is JMU colors! hehe) Next mission: lamps for the nightstands and curtains!

Where'd they all go?

I was so excited to have a house in a great neighborhood for Halloween. Thinking we would get tons of trick-or-treaters, I definitely stocked up on the candy – I’m fairly certain we had over 500 pieces, easily. (Yes, I may have over done it a wee-bit.) Well, after the neighborhood Halloweenie Roast, all of the kids (about 20-30) migrated from house to house for treats, so I sprinted back to our house to meet them at the door with our basket of goodies. After waiting a few minutes for more ghosts and goblins to show up at our door, I decided I would head back to the block party and watch for them from afar. To my dismay, the only other trick-or-treaters that visited our house were kids from the soccer team (who totally made out, because we divided up the rest of the candy in our basket between the 10 or so of them!). All of that anticipation for only a handful of kids? Which leaves me asking…where the heck were all of the trick-or-treaters? I know the kids on our block only ventured down a few streets – But I remember trick-or-treating for hours. Are parents too worried about their kids eating too much candy these days? My child will be out there loading up on candy…But don’t worry, I’ll make sure he/she doesn’t eat too much…I fully intend to help out as well! :)

On a somewhat related note…With all of the candy I’ve been eating, I felt the need to step up my workouts, so I decided to try my hand at a Spinning class. I’m pretty sure I went a little too easy on the resistance though – Since everyone around me was sweating buckets and I barely broke a sweat! After 45 minutes, I was just left with a sore ass and the need to run a few miles to really get a workout in! I have to admit though, I was a little scared to really crank the resistance, but now I’m fully determined to work it next class!

'Tis the season to be spooky!

They say that Halloween has become one of the most celebrated holidays, right behind Christmas which makes sense since it is just so darn fun! This weekend, Halloween festivities officially began at our house when Rachel and Kristy came into town on Saturday. We started the evening out with some seasonal bites to eat and drinks...Halloween Pasta Salad, Spider's Nest Dip, Spiked Coffee, Black Cat Cosmos, etc...Then the night really got started when we hit the deck for some pumpkin carving! We carved up spiders, ghosts, cats, bats, and even the ol' traditional pumpkin faces! What a great night that was topped off with many rounds of Catch Phrase - Sometimes a night in with the girls just can't be beat.


Here's our Halloween spread...

Our pumpkin masterpieces...

Tonight we had another visitor - The Halloween Phantom Ghost! Neighbors deliver treats in the dark and ring your door bell and run, which means you've been hit by the Phantom Ghost. Now Frank and I have to pick two victims who we want to visit tomorrow evening...How fun! Our new 'hood is so fabulous!

Here a clique, there a clique, everywhere a clique...

This past Saturday was my 10-year High School reunion, which I was really looking forward to. After 10 years, I was excited to see people that I hadn’t seen or spoken to since graduation. I’m not sure what disillusioned world I was living in though – Pretty much everyone that I want to talk to, I do still keep in touch with. The reunion reminded me of one of our high school dances – one group of people at one table, another clique hanging out in the front of the room, etc. We were as segregated as ever! Don’t get me wrong, it was great to see everyone and I really enjoyed catching up with the few people that I did talk to, but sometimes I really wish there was a way to break through the cliques that we formed in high school to all unite as one class…

Here’s a picture of our ‘usual’ crowd – Pretty much same crew as high school, reunited 10 years later…

PS - Check out my new 'do which I am a fan of! :)

Adventurous

Ok, I’ve decided it’s been way too long since my last hair cut - I’m embarrassed to admit that it’s been over 3 months! I am the worst at remembering (and making time) to get my hair cut. Well, I am officially getting tired of my long ‘do and feeling a bit adventurous…So, I made a hair appointment for tomorrow evening and am thinking something along the Katie Holmes line…Let’s see exactly how adventurous I’m feeling tomorrow when I sit in that chair…I’ll keep you posted – Either cheers or tears tomorrow night! (It better be cheers since my 10 year reunion is on Saturday!!)

A Three Hour Tour

Frank and I were up bright and early on Saturday for our big furniture shopping adventure to Farmville, VA – We had many people recommend that we go to Green Front Furniture to check out their many warehouses of great furniture. So, we left the house at 7:30am on Saturday for southern Virginia. Three hours later, we arrived in the small town of Farmville and entered the first of about 10 furniture warehouses. The warehouses are converted tobacco buildings, each about 3-4 stories. After searching through almost every floor of every building we came up with NADA, ZIP, ZILCH! Needless to say, we were very disappointed – The furniture was just not what we expected nor even close to our taste. After stopping at a few furniture stores in Woodbridge on our way home, we still found nothing! Over the past few weeks, we have scoured numerous furniture stores looking for a bedroom set and desk to no avail. Where on earth do people go shopping for good furniture?

On a more positive note, our Saturday was not a total disappointment…Frank was able to fix the leaking faucet in our downstairs bathroom! His first home fix-it project…a success! :)

Weekend with the Fam

This past weekend, Frank's family came to visit us and help us continue to settle into the new house. We had a great time with everyone - Mom, Danielle, Tony, Kate, JoAnn, and even the dogs! Hopefully they enjoyed their trip despite Frank & I putting them to work. :) By the end of the visit, we had installed our new 'DeMarco' door knocker, installed a new ceiling fan with dimmer switch in the master bedroom, removed the awning from the upstairs window, demolished two old wardrobe/closet things that were left in our basement, and cleaned out the unfinished portion of the basement - Quite an accomplished weekend! We even managed to find time for Falls Church's Farm Day, eat lunch at Chic-fil-a and enjoy some DQ ice cream (per JoAnn's cravings). Overall a great visit - They better come back soon to visit! Here's a picture of Frank with his Goddaughter (somehow we always manage to only get pictures of our little Kate!):

R.I.P.

George the Beta
November 2004-October 2007

Sadly, George left us yesterday for a better place. He was a great fish, pet, and friend over the past almost three years. He'll be missed dearly.

Channeling My Inner Martha Stewart

I love decorating for the holidays and seasons!!! Now with a whole house to decorate, I am in heaven! Both my mom and Martha Stewart would be quite proud of my mantle which is now fall-themed. I have to say – I’m very happy with how it turned out! The mantle, coupled with my cauldron table center piece, Halloween placements, few fake cobwebs on some windows, and the pumpkins and mums on the outside steps, I’d say I’m ready for fall and Halloween!!! Now I just have to sit back and wait for 10/31 and those little rugrats to come trick-or-treating at our door!!! I can hardly wait!

New York Minute

Frank and I made a very quick trip to New York this past weekend - We were there for a whooping 26 hours although it really only felt like a quick minute! We made the trip for my cousin's wedding on Friday, so we arrived early Friday morning at 2:30am and then left early Saturday morning at 4:30am! Despite the short trip, we managed to enjoy ourselves - We got to spend all day on Friday with our neice, Kate, who is growing up so fast! We decided to skip Gary & Maggie's wedding ceremony to spend a little more time with Frank's family, but made it to the reception right on time at 7:30pm. After dinner, dancing, dessert, and a few drinks, we managed to get in a few hours of sleep before hitting the road back to Maryland - Yes, Maryland - The reason behind our early departure was a 10am soccer game in Frederick, MD.

Uncle Frank & Aunt Regina babysitting Kate on Friday...














Congratulations Gary & Maggie - We had a great time at the reception. I especially enjoyed the bag pipers and the chocolate fondue fountain! We are so happy for you two!

House Pics!

I finally found my camera cord and was able to download some pictures of the house last night! We've done a lot of unpacking but still have a ways to go - Check out our progress in the pics below!

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Home Sweet Home

Well, it’s official – Frank and I are homeowners and couldn’t be happier (or more exhausted)! We closed on the new house on Friday and started work right away. My Dad and Uncle were at the house waiting to start painting as soon as we were handed the keys. They managed to get all three bedrooms painted by Saturday evening! (They came out looking great!) And with the help of our great family and friends, we were able to get everything moved into the new house by noon on Saturday. Moving the boxes and furniture was only half the battle, though – My mom, sister, and I spent all day on Sunday cleaning and unpacking. Man, Frank and I have a ton of stuff! Now we just need to figure out what goes where and what just goes! It’s coming along slowly and starting to feel like home. Once I find and unpack my camera cord, I’ll download some pictures and post them - Here's one that my dad took for now...

You Forgot Someone!

Rachel and I have ALWAYS gone on trips together – Jamaica, Florida, Cali, South Padre…This morning my girl left for Venezuela without me! One of our good friends from VT is tying the knot on Margarita Island on Friday and unfortunately I had to pass up the amazing trip. (I just couldn’t justify it after the wedding & honeymoon – Needless to say it was a good decision in hindsight – It wouldn’t have worked out so well if I missed the closing for our house!) Last night Rachel came into town and we caught up with Kel for some Mexican where Rach had the first of her many margaritas that I’m sure she’ll be enjoying over her vacay in South America. We managed to clear enough space for Rachel to camp out on our couch last night and she was out the door bright and early this morning for her 7:05 flight from National. Be safe girl! Wish I could have gone with ya! :(

Less than One Week!!!!

Frank and I are so excited! We close on our house this Friday!!! Which only means that we spent this past weekend packing and shopping for the new place. We started out the weekend with dinner and drinks on Friday night with Mike & Chuck and their girlfriends and had a great night packed with loads of laughs (as usual with those guys!). On Saturday the real work began with lots of errands – We picked out paint colors for our bedrooms, shopped for cleaning supplies amongst other fun house items, made our first Home Depot visit for a few homeowner purchases, and packed, packed, and packed!!! The day wouldn’t be complete without soccer, though! Frank played in an Arlington coach’s game on Saturday night and let me tell you – Fall is definitely here! I was just in a short sleeved shirt, jeans, and flip flops and froze my butt off out there watching him!

Other exciting news this weekend – Last night we finished our wedding thank you cards!!!!! I went to Starbucks on Sunday afternoon and committed to knocking out most of the remaining ones – and then Frank and I split the last of them between us last night and they were done in no time. Thank goodness – They were never ending!

It tastes like chicken

Last night my wonderful husband called me on my way home from work to let me know that dinner was waiting for me – What a nice surprise! He warned me that it was a little ‘sketch’ but since I’d only had time to eat a yogurt and apple throughout the day, I didn’t care what it was; as long as it was editable and I didn’t have to cook it, I was looking forward to chowing down! When I got home and saw that he had made pork chops, I thought to myself, “Well, that’s odd since we just had pork chops on Monday night – Frank must be on a pork chop kick.” Not thinking more of it, I enjoyed my dinner and then when Frank got home from his soccer parents meeting, I thanked him for the pork chops and great dinner. His response? “Pork chops? I thought I made chicken.” HAHA He did mention that he thought they looked a little funny, but even after eating them, he still didn’t realize it was pork! My dear husband…so smart, but sometimes just doesn’t have the common sense in the kitchen! :)

Don’t Mess with Me!

Well, I have to admit that I am not the calmest driver out there on the roads but some people really take road rage to a whole new level. For instance, this morning, I was merging from Lee Highway onto Rt. 66 and when it clearly should have been my turn to merge, the car beside me obviously did not want to let me over, as was indicated by his incessant honking. That one extra car in front of him would have really caused him a significant delay in getting to wherever he was going. Well, I usually have the advantage in my SUV, and this case was no different – I continued to hold my own and merged right in front of his smaller Nissan, giving him a friendly wave, which did not go over too well. Once on 66, he flew up beside me so I braced myself for a harsh middle finger, but no – instead, I got something thrown at my car! Really? I didn’t think they gave licenses to 5 year olds – Grow up, dude! Anyway, the incident did shake me up a bit, so I proceeded to follow him and managed to jot down his license plate number and call the state police. A police officer did meet up with me and took down my report, but since there was no real damage (I think it was just ice that was thrown) most likely there won’t be charges pressed unless the guy admits to his road rage. The cop promised me he would scare the guy as best as he could though. I’d like to have a few words with him myself…

Gimmie More

More 3-day weekends, that is! I'd like to propose that every weekend be 3 days going forward - Who needs a 5 day work week? Not that we did anything too exciting this weekend, but having 2 full days to relax and unwind only made me wish for one more! Our Saturday consisted of running errands, more 'Thank You' card writing, briefly attending the Roslyn Jazz Festival (which was the highlight of my weekend because I got a funnel cake!!!!), and watching Virginia Tech lose horribly to LSU. On Sunday, we went to church, walked to a few shops in Clarendon, and I even caught one of Frank's soccer games on Sunday afternoon...Who wouldn't want one more leisurely day like that?

*On a side note, I (sadly) made it one of my Sunday night priorities to catch Britney Spears perform on the MTV Music Awards...Hence the blog title ;) I have to say, aside from her looking 'thick' as Frank described, she actually didn't look too skanky. Do I hear a comeback sneaking up?

Dinner Date

What a nice surprise – On Wednesday afternoon, my sister called me, asking if I wanted to meet my mom and her for dinner on Thursday night – Well, of course!!!! They drove from Winchester just to have dinner with me! :) We met at Rio Grande in Reston and enjoyed a delicious (as usual) meal outside on the patio. Even despite mom’s mishap with the bird (hehe), it was a great evening and I really enjoyed the impromptu dinner rendezvous. Thanks Ladies! (And Laura – Thanks for the yum-o chocolate chip cookies – I dug into them when I got home.)

Yes, this is Pre-Packed

So – Take a look…When I tell people that Frank & I are busting at the seams in our current apartment, I don’t think they really get it. All of those boxes, etc are shower/wedding gifts – And that’s only 1/3 of it! There’s another corner in the apartment that is stacked with more boxes – Plus a ton of goodies at my dad’s! Definitely time for an upgrade...Closing is less than 3 weeks away!!!

So Accomplished!

What an evening – I went to bed last night feeling like I had accomplished so much! First, it definitely helped that I left work at 7 and luckily hit no traffic on the way home, so was home and eating dinner before 8pm. After dinner, I started packing a few boxes and got a lot of the little stuff packed and out of the way. After all that packing, I rewarded myself with a nice homemade brownie sundae – YUM-O!!!!! Totally worth those unnecessary calories. (It was light ice cream, so I’m sure it was only 500 calories vs. the normal 1000! HA) After gorging myself on dessert, I then started the daunting task of writing our Thank You cards. The cards and our Thank You DVDs finally came in the mail on Friday – In 45 minutes, I only made out 10 cards! Holy cow – It’s going to take a lot longer than I thought to get through those. At least I got started – And hey, coupled with the packing progress, I’d definitely say the evening was a success!

Soccer Fever

Frank and I spent this past weekend in Richmond at the Richmond Cup soccer tournament – And I have to admit, after knowing Frank for over 5 years, his love of the game is actually rubbing off on me. The weekend wasn’t all that bad! I only caught 3 games on Saturday – I snuck away for a good part of the afternoon and walked the streets of Carytown – a cute stretch in downtown Richmond that’s lined with over 300 shops. I enjoyed a great lunch outside from a local deli and got to meet up with my good friend, Laura, and her husband for coffee. On Sunday, being the dedicated soccer wife that I am, I spent the whole day at the fields – for a total of 5 games! Both of Frank’s teams did phenomenal – The Inferno ended up bringing home 1st Place medals with a 4-0 record; The Firestorm’s 3rd Place standing was very heartbreaking since they also finished undefeated – A devastating last minute tie sent their opponent to the finals even though they whole-heartedly deserved the win. The poor kids were in tears at the end of the game – And the coach was quite upset as well. All in all – each team played their hearts out and had a fun weekend in Richmond…Not too bad of a way to spend Labor Day weekend!

What a Week!

Frank and I had our fair share of excitement this week – First, we finally decided to put an offer on a house that we really like in a neighborhood that we LOVE! Today we agreed on a price with the seller and signed the contract. If all goes as planned, we will close on September 21st! It’s a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom colonial with a basement and a pretty decent yard in North Arlington. An actual house!!! In North Arlington!!! Yeah!!!! We can’t wait to move from our 740 square foot apartment – What ever will we do with all that space???

Second, after a little over 5 years with Accenture, I got promoted to Manager! A nice raise and bonus to help with the house!!! :)

I’m sure there will be many more details about the house to come… :) (Yay, us!!!)

Preseason Action

Sunday night Frank and I took my dad to the Giants/Ravens preseason game as a ‘Thank You’ for helping us with our wedding. I wasn’t expecting much, but for a preseason game, it was pretty fun! I didn’t realize the Ravens fans were so vocal and loyal – It wasn’t much fun being one of the few Giants fans in the stadium. After an unbelievable amount of penalties, we did get the last laugh, though – Final Score: Giants 13 Ravens 12 :)

On a related note – Every time I go to Baltimore, I end up asking myself, “Why don’t we come here more often?” Sunday reminded me how much I enjoy walking around the Inner Harbor and again left me wondering why we don’t make the hour drive more frequently. Frank - If you read this, maybe you can take me to B'more for a weekend so we can go to that Piano Bar that you've been talking about ever since we met!! :)

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Today is my wonderful mother’s birthday. Since Frank and I aren’t able to spend it with her, we spent the weekend in Winchester celebrating with wine, cupcakes, horseback riding, food, food, and more food! I think we literally ate our way through the weekend! I hope mom enjoyed the weekend (and her presents) as much as we did! Love you Mom!

Unbelievable

I am not a dog lover. But I am also not a cruel person (usually). Today I saw something that made me so irate, I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut. Frank and I were walking to our car in the grocery store parking lot when I noticed a dog in the car parked next to ours…with the windows all rolled up tight! Granted, today is not a super hot and humid August day; however, it’s still in the 80’s and I’m sure quite hot and stuffy sitting in a car! I could not believe that someone would really leave their poor dog in the car without the windows even cracked! I looked around, wondering what to do, when I heard the familiar ‘chirp chirp’ of the doors being unlocked. I turned to see a middle aged woman walking towards the car. First, warning Frank that I was about to pull an ‘Uncle Harry’ (as fits of rage are referred to in my family), I then calmly said to the woman, “I can’t believe you would leave your dog in the car with the windows rolled up.” Her excuse? “Ma’am I just ran inside to cash a check.” Looking at the shopping bag in her hand, I have a suspicion that she also made a few purchases. Anyway, after explaining that it didn’t matter how long she was in there, it was still extremely inhumane of her to leave her pet in the car with no ventilation, I was then told to “shut my mouth” and called an idiot. Really? I’m the idiot? Maybe you should sit in your car with the windows rolled up and pull down your visor to look in the mirror. And please don’t call me Ma’am again; I’m not that old!

Who says you can’t go home?

This weekend, Frank & I are heading to Winchester and I am sooo looking forward to it. I haven’t been home since May! (Which is quite pathetic considering I only live an hour and a half away!) Going home always provides such a comforting feeling – the familiar smells, the good snacks, homemade goodies, the quietness, fresh air...I can’t wait to get to mom’s and relax! Tonight I am envisioning sitting on the couch, eating junk food, laughing, gossiping, etc. Tomorrow, a lazy morning, with a (hopefully) late start – Then who knows? Horseback riding? Shopping? Pack’s Ice Cream!?!?!?! I hope Frank is ready for another weekend with the Garone girls!!! :)

Happy Birthday Laura!

Yesterday my little sister turned 24 years old and chose to celebrate her birthday in DC with me! And what a great birthday it was…

Festivities started at my apartment with a treasure hunt – Laura is a HUGE Johnny Depp/Pirates of the Caribbean fan, so we drew out a treasure map for her to use in hunting for her gifts. (With my small 700+ square foot apartment, it was a short hunt, but still fun!) Her discovered booty consisted of money, jewelry, clothes, clothes, and more clothes, and various other loot. After presents, the family and a few friends piled into 2 cabs and headed to Georgetown for dinner at Bangkok Joe’s, where we enjoyed TONS of delicious Thai food (Laura’s fav!). Despite a minor ‘incident’ with the birthday cake (our waitress dropped the cake when putting it in the freezer – luckily it was still in the container and wasn’t too mangled), the evening got off to a great start. From Bangkok Joe’s, we walked to Mr. Smith’s for a lil’ sing-along with the piano man. After a few cocktails, mom and dad left the ‘kids’ to break loose. With increasing numbers, our crew headed from Mr. Smith’s to our usual stompin’ ground, Adams Morgan, where we partied like rockstars at Adam’s Mill and danced like fools at The Angry Inch. After topping the evening off with some Jumbo Slice, we were home safely by 3am! Whoa – What a night and what a fun birthday! I love you, little sis, and hope you enjoyed it!

MLS Debut!

It’s pretty amazing that one person can draw a crowd of over 14,000 – Let’s face it, last night fans packed RFK stadium to see David Beckham, not to see our local DC United play. (Proof in the pic to the left: As the starters were being announced, all of the media were crowded around the sidelines, snapping photos of David.) I cannot deny that seeing Beckham was a major incentive for my attendance as well: He’s one of the soccer greats and not to mention very HHHHHHOT! ;) The game itself had some good action outside the star player – a few yellow cards and then a red card in the 2nd half – Plus a win for our home team! And, the fans got what we wanted - With about 10 minutes left in the first half, Beckham was off the bench, warming up!!! But, why would they put him in right before the half???? The fans were denied! During the second half, down came the rains…but with Beckham continuing to warm up, everyone remained glued to their seats. With about 20 minutes left in the 2nd half, David came to the sideline for the substitution – and in he went!!! It was quite exciting to see his MLS debut in person, although there weren’t many opportunities for him to show off his moves. He did get the chance to ‘bend it like Beckham’ on a free kick, but missed the goal. Also, quite exciting was the after game strip show; where David ripped off his jersey to hand it over to Ben Olsen. Check out the pic below! :)

A Taste of Restaurant Week

Last night, my good friend, Kelly and I met for a late dinner to take advantage of this summer’s Restaurant Week in DC. For those of you who are not familiar with Restaurant Week, two weeks a year, one in the summer and one in the winter, participating local restaurants offer a 3 course lunch special for $20.07 or a 3 course dinner special for $30.07. It provides a great opportunity to try out some of our areas top restaurants at a bargain price!

Per Kel’s suggestion, we tried out Neyla in Georgetown, a cute Mediterranean restaurant with a great atmosphere. We arrived a bit earlier than our 8:45pm reservations, so decided to take advantage of the bar, where we each tried one of the specialty drinks – Kelly opted for their version of a mojito and I went for a strawberry martini – Both were delicious and certainly refreshing after coming in from the hot, humid weather! Once we sat at our table and took a look at the menu, we knew we had a tough decision ahead of us – Everything looked fabulous! After much contemplating, I decided to go with the Restaurant Week menu and chose the Lebanese Tasting for my first course – a taste of Hommus, Baba Ghanoughj and Mouhammara – all of which were delicious! Kelly is a huge scallop fan so tried their scallops 3 ways – 3 huge scallops, each with its own, unique sauce – and each more delicious than the last. I think my favorite was the scallop with the carrot ginger puree. After stuffing ourselves on the first course, out came our entrees: roasted grouper with lobster volute sauce for me, and Fatteh and Chicken Shawarma for Kel. After topping our meals off with the Mocha Chocolate Mousse with Pistachio studded Strawberries and a Cinnamon Clabbered Cream, we were officially stuffed! To make the dinner even better, Kelly treated with a gift certificate she got from work – How can you beat a delicious, FREE, 3 course meal???? Neyla was definitely a good pick – and a restaurant that I would certainly recommend!

HOT, HOT, HOT fun in the Summer-time!

Phew - This weekend was a scorcher here in the DC area. In anticipation of the 95+ degree, humid weather, I started my Saturday super early in order to get in a good run. My sneakers were hitting the pavement by 7:09am for a jog down to the Potomac River, across the Memorial Bridge, and downtown to the Capital building. It felt so good that I actually considered running back home, but quickly decided that 5 ½ miles was adequate enough – So, I took the easy way back and hopped onto the Metro at the Smithsonian stop and rode home!

By 10:00am on Saturday, I was in the kitchen baking desserts for Megan’s BBQ in the ‘burbs. What a productive morning! By early afternoon, with Rice Krispy treats and strawberries ‘n cream dessert cakes in tow, Frank and I drove out to Sterling for an afternoon of great food, friends, and fun. Meg & Brian’s BBQ was quite the success – Frank and I got to see lots of friends that we hadn’t seen in awhile, while also enjoying mucho yummy food! Thanks for a great afternoon/evening, guys!

All Good Things Must Come to an End

Well, after almost 9 weeks, the time has come for me to go back to work. :( I've actually 'officially' been back from vacation for the past 3 weeks, but have been unstaffed, doing odd jobs and training. Tomorrow my routine will change from waking up around 7-8am and gradually settling into the new day, to being up bright and early at 6am for a run and then the gym and then off to the grindstone! Yes, today I got staffed on my new project at Verizon Business. I’m torn between being excited to ‘have a purpose’ again and feeling somewhat reluctant to let go of my days by the pool! See you all on the road during rush hour in the morning...(sigh)

Frank's 30 Minute Meals?!?

Well, I never thought that I would be preparing a meal based on my husband's recipe...

Frank has two recipes in his repertoire – Salsa Chicken and Italian Salmon – Both very basic (chicken with salsa on top or salmon with Italian sauce and capers on top). I was craving salmon for dinner tonight and am tiring of my usual Salmon with Pineapple Salsa and Asian Salmon…So, I turned to my husband’s tried and true recipe and it turned out delicious!!! Frank was very flattered that I used his ‘original’ recipe for dinner…I have to say, it was scrumptious but may have tasted a bit better if Frank had not only inspired the meal, but actually cooked it as well! Maybe he’ll take care of the dishes instead????

This or That?

Frank and I have had our wedding proof books for about 3 weeks and have still yet to decide on a photo for our Thank You cards. Give us a break though - We have almost 1,000 pictures (no, I'm not exaggerating!) to choose from and we've narrowed it down to the final two. Have an opinion? Let us know which one you like better and when you open your Thank You card, you'll see if we really value your opinion ;)

Finally!

For the past few years, I have been obsessing over other's blogs; constantly reading them, intrigued by the events happening in everyone else’s life – Always wondering if my life were interesting enough to blog about. My life seems so mundane and normal, with little to report each day. My husband finally said to me the other day, “Regina, not everyone goes away for two weeks to French Polynesia or goes on runs into our Nation’s capitol every weekend.” Today sitting here at Starbucks (enjoying my Frappacino for .09 cents more), I decided that he had a point; My life and routines may seem boring to me, but perhaps it will be a bit more interesting to others – Hence the creation of “The DeMarco Diaries”! Welcome to our blog – Hopefully it won’t bore you to tears…;)