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????