Blargh.

It's THURSDAY! The happiest day of the week! YAY! Post from me!

Okay, excessive use of exclamation points is over. It's Thursday. I'm pretty stoked because I got a free(ish) Southern chicken biscuit sandwich from McDonalds today. It was pretty darn tasty, although not as good as Chick-fill-A. Chicken should've been a little crunchier. I also got a surprisingly good coffee -- it was buy a medium/large drink, get a chicken biscuit free! But I ended up overpaying for my sandwich. I confused the poor girl by giving her 50 cents after she'd rung up my coffee and she forgot to give me an extra dollar back. So instead of spending $1.50 on my breakfast, I spent $2.50. Not too shabby. Today is also free iced coffee at Dunkin' Donuts, so stop by if you get a chance. I'm not a huge fan of the DD's iced coffee, so I'm going to pass.

Today I will also get reflexology done by a friend. She took a class this spring and is now working on getting 100 pairs of feet to be certified. She did my hands a month or so ago and it was sooo relaxing. I hear that it might hurt at first especially when she is working on the toe joints, but that it will be worth it afterwards. We'll see. Trip and I made dinner for her as our payment. It's actually leftover homemade mac 'n' cheese. Normally I make mac 'n' cheese with ham in it, but I had forgotten to take out the ham to defrost. So I thought we'd just have plain mac 'n' cheese. Trip remembered that we had some bacon left -- so he cooked it up (took FOREVER it was sooo fatty) and we put it in the casserole. Soooooo tasty! Of course bacon makes everything better, but it is so fabulous in gooey cheese and noodles. Yum yum yum yum! I will definitely do it again. The thing is that we didn't even cook that much bacon -- just 5 pieces for around 6 servings of macaroni!

So I can't believe that Memorial Day is coming up next weekend. Trip and I will be in the Twin Cities next Friday for his family reunion! I'm really excited for it -- I think it will be lots of fun and it'll be good to see my family too. I just can't believe that it is coming up so soon. The downside is that we are flying out of Philadelphia so we are driving up on Thursday night to stay with Trip's aunt and uncle. Guess what is next Thursday? The big LOST finale! So yes, wah-wah, we might not be able to watch the LOST finale live. :( Oh well! Minnesota, land of no sales tax! Woot, woot!

Summer/fall travel plans have also been taking up a lot of my thinking time...mostly budgeting for them. Trip's cousin Amy is getting married in New Mexico and it seems that flights are just getting totally crazy. And we're driving out to Wisconsin in late August. My parents will be working during the week, so we need to figure out what we want to do to entertain ourselves. I'm hoping we can work out a day or two in Chicago (hotel stay!). The original plan was to visit Jenny and see the Minnesota State Fair, but I'm not sure that will work any more since her housing will be more temporary at the time. But who knows? Any suggestions as to what we should do in the Wisconsin area in late August? We are definitely going to the Sheboygan County Fair over Labor Day weekend -- it will be awesome and we'll eat cowpies and corndogs and other super tasty fried things. Yum yum!

Trip and I were watching the Project Runway finale episode last night. Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham was the guest judge. I found her cheeks to look more round than I was expecting -- she always seems to sharp. Trip kept saying she looked reptilian and angular. Finally, he said she reminded him of the Geico gecko. "Cup of tea anyone?"

Other than weird gecko looking guest judges, it's been an uneventful week. Last weekend was great with the retreat. The highlight for me was s'mores. So tasty and delicious and I thought to hide the chocolate bits inside the toasted marshmallow so they would melt....yum! I love marshmallows and chocolate and graham crackers. So I have decided we will definitely need to go camping this summer. I will eat your s'mores up!

I did come out with a bit of a war injury. We ended up turned around a bit on our way home and so Trip wanted to turn around. While attempting to do a three point turn, we got stuck in the mud. So I got out and attempted to push the car unsuccessfully. The other girls helped and we did get turned around. But I think pushing the car really hurt my arm! I've had this weird pain in my wrist and bicep above my elbow. I am hoping it gets better soon, or else I'll have to see the doctor!

Tomorrow I am off, so the big plan for dinner is to make mini-burgers and sweet potato fries. It's kind of nice to have home-made snacky food for dinner on Friday nights. Plus we've got some beer and a copy of Ocean's Thirteen. It's great being married!

It's been a busy couple of weeks for me! I got back on Sunday from a trip to Boston for a work conference. The conference was really fun, albeit small. So there wasn't really the opportunity to sneak out and explore Boston. Luckily, I've been to Boston a few times before and didn't feel like I missed out on a whole lot. Plus it was pretty cold on Wednesday and Thursday, which didn't make me want to go exploring! I did end up going to this fabulous Italian restaraunt near Fenway. I had a delicious dish with shrimp, scallops, and mussels in a tomato and garlic sauce with angel hair pasta. The seafood was spectacular!

I also got to spend some time with Jenny H. She met me on Wednesday night for dinner at a fancy French bistro -- very, very tasty as well! We saw Kiki and Herb: Alive on Broadway -- a very funny cabaret-esque show. It was even nominated for the Special Event Tony. Unfortunately, it lost out to a ventriloquist. After the conference, Jenny and Jon picked me up and we went to Salem, MA for the day. It was quite entertaining seeing all the witches and seafarers stuff. I've got photographic proof up on my Flickr page. Then we went back to their new apartment and Jon cooked up a super delicious lasagna. I also got introduced to the joys of I <3 has said, Katamari is totally addicting. It took me a little while to be able to pick things up (and I'm not quite optimizing my abilities either), but it was quite entertaining. Can't go wrong with Japanese video games!

We also saw a really, really good movie in Boston called Once. It's an Irish movie musical about a busker who meets a girl and ends up recording music. It's mostly about the music -- super beautiful songer-songwriter stuff -- but has a tiny plot too. It's really hard to describe, but it was a really innovative and entertaining movie. I liked it so much that I bought the soundtrack on Monday. I'm planning to take Trip to see it sometime in the future.

As for upcoming plans, tonight I'm planning to make some cherry jam. I successfully made freezer strawberry jam a few weeks ago (super tasty). This time I am planning to make regular jam that involves cooking! Must be more jam-like and not so runny!

I had Monday as my day off, so I get to work both Friday and Saturday (huzzah!). But it's okay. Sunday is the big 5K which I hope I am ready for. I'm planning a long run tonight to make sure that I can do 3.1 miles without making a total fool of myself. Trust me, I feel like it could happen! But I'll be running with my friend Angela, so at least I'll have company. I just hope I don't slow her down too much. And maybe I can get Trip to take pictures of us! That would be fun.

I did not go into comfort food overload last weekend. I didn't even end up making pasties, but I think they'll get made on Sunday this week. We ended up eating a fritatta on Friday night, going out for dinner on Saturday day (pizza with shrimp and calamari, tasty!), and having Chinese at church on Sunday.

This week I've been busy working on deciding what kind of flowers I like and coming up with the name of some to contact. I've got two appointments in early May. I like the idea of doing wine, copper, and cream for the flowers. I think cream might work well for people whose clothing isn't selected by me (i.e., moms and readers). Plus it'll look pretty with the red and copper flowers!

Trip and I are also going to be meeting with a potential photographer on Tuesday. I think they'll probably be the ones that we end up going with, but he's investigating other possibilities too. Fun stuff!

I've started watching Lost (Trip's evil influence) and I really liked last night's episode. A Desmond episode! Where we learned all kinds of fun things, including Korean ghost stories. What else is new in television news...not a whole lot. I'm looking forward to the new season of Project Runway (whenever it starts!) and tonight's episode of Ugly Betty.

The other items that I've started to think about is apartments. We don't have to start seriously looking for an apartment until June/July, but I'm working out where the best location/neighborhood to look in will be. I'm also getting fussy -- I want my apartment to have a washer and dryer in the unit! I hate doing laundry for just me; I can't imagine how I'd feel doing another person's laundry as well. Public transportation should be a major factor (the library is pretty close to all the reliable modes of public transport here in Baltimore), but I like where I live now, which is not the most convenient for taking the light rail or metro, and the bus is slightly less reliable. So who knows?

It's spring break week here in Baltimore which means no Confirmation for me! Woot! A free Thursday evening. So what will I be doing? Going to a library event about comics! But it's not at my library (AWESOME!!) and Trip's the one who wants to go...I'm just along for the ride.

Tomorrow is my day off this week, so I'll be enjoying doing things like ordering shoes online, maybe getting my haircut, and purchasing a new battery for my watch. I lead an exciting life, eh?

I have big, big plans for Sunday afternoon. I am thinking about making delicious pasties. I haven't ever made them for Trip -- I haven't even made them myself for several years! So now it is time again to enjoy the deliciousness of pasties. Tomorrow I am going to make dinner as well, but I am not sure what to make. I've got ham left over from Easter, so I should probably come up with something to use it up. I'd like to make mac 'n' cheese from scratch, but coupled with the pasties, it might end up being comfort food overload!

The Easter three day weekend was pretty awesome. I got to do practical things, like grocery shopping and laundry, and fun things like shopping and cooking. Although I sliced off a big chunk of my middle fingernail while cooking, it was a good time.

Friday was the practical day. I did get to try some really awesome doughnuts from the Fractured Prune. Freshmade and dipped in glaze of my choice. I had two -- Reese Cup (peanut butter glaze with mini chocolate chips) and...hmmm...what was the other one I got? Oh yeah -- Morning Buzz (mocha glaze with Oreo crumbs). Way too rich...next time I would go with a cinnamon or fruit flavored glaze. But super duper tasty!

Saturday Trip and I went out for breakfast at Golden West. We have come up with this great idea for one of us to order pancakes or French toast and the other orders an egg dish. And then we split it, getting the perfect combination of sweet and savory for breakfast. This time we had a Goldilox omlet -- it had cream cheese, lox, and capers inside -- and Ginger Pumpkin pancakes. Another excellent breakfast. Then we went shopping on the Avenue. I ended up getting a summer blazer -- it's got cute cap sleeves and it's a bright green. Very, very cute!

The whole goal of going there was to look at paper at Chelle Papiere, a chic paper place, to find some inspiration for the wedding. It didn't have quite what I was hoping for, but we did find a couple of papers that were very pretty. They also make custom stamps, so it looks like they might be a great source for getting that made for the invites etc.

Saturday afternoon/evening Trip and I spent in Delaware having a pre-Easter dinner with his parents and aunt and uncle. It was a really good dinner. My ribbon jello (layers of raspberry, orange cream, and lime) turned out quite tasty. Next time I wouldn't put in quite so many frozen raspberries (a little too tart!), but otherwise it was fabulous!

Sunday Trip and I went to church and saw some of our church friends. Then we went home and made Easter dinner for ourselves. It was a ham with apricot-mustard glaze, a potato-cheese-leek tart-like thing, and aspargus, peas, and radishes. Quite tasty! And I got to use my new mandoline quite successfully! (Except the whole fingernail slicing thing...but that was my own fault for using my fingers to hold the radish instead of the plastic thing they provide.)

So...it was a good weekend! I'm starting to get back into the wedding planning. On Friday I am planning to go to Jo-Ann's to look for potential trim for my veil. I still have to order the shoes from Zappos. I'm not sure which I like best, so I might just order both and return them if I don't like them. I'm also planning start meeting with florists soon to get that sorted away. So many details!!

Oh! And Icebat and Jeero also came with us to Delaware for some Easter fun. Hopefully soon I will have more pics of them up on my Flickr page!

What have I been up to the end of March/beginning of April?

Oh, lots of stuff. I went to the Cold War Kids concert last Wednesday. They were lots of fun. One of the opening bands was also super awesome -- the Delta Spirit. From what I've found online, Delta Spirit must be pretty new, but they were fun and kind of folk rocky. I liked them so much that I bought their EP!

I also went to a whole bunch of birthday parties, including one weekend for Trip's grandfather who turned 97 and Cupcake's niece who turned 7! So there was a lot of cake that weekend. And a pinata.

I working on finding shoes for the wedding right now. I've found two that I like a lot on Zappos -- although I'm trying to also decide on the color.

These are fun Fitzwell Barb. They've got extra gel cushion-y stuff in them, so I imagine they'd be super comfortable. I also LOVE mary jane-esque shoes, so they'd be fab for that. I think they might be a little old ladyish. Thoughts?

These are maybe even more adorable J. Shoes Victoria. They are tiny little kitten heels (1") and come in this really cute light blue and white. I think they're super cute and I'm going to order them for sure, but I'm not 100% sure about getting blue shoes.

The upside with these shoes being from Zappos is that I can order both of them and not pay shipping either way. So if both are totally uncomfortable and horrible looking with my fabulous dress, I can just ship 'em back and not worry about paying for it! Huzzah!

Trip and I also went to the cherry blossom festival briefly on last Saturday. He wasn't feeling good, so we had to cut our trip to D.C. a little short. But it was fun -- the blossoms were really pretty and the weather was pretty good! Sunny and warm.

But now it is cold, cold, cold! I have been so cold lately. Easter will definitely not be a time to break out the spring clothes quite yet.

I'm also looking forward to Easter to eat candy again! I have been quite good this year -- no candy of any sort. And I've been tempted -- Dove chocolate Easter eggs are soooo tasty.

I'm making a Jell-o dish for the pre-Easter dinner with Trip's family on Saturday. It's a striped Jello -- the bottom layer will be raspberry jello with raspberries, the next layer orange jello with mandarin oranges and cream cheese (it'll be the creamy cloudy layer), and the final layer lemon (I think) with pineapple. I have to figure out what kind of container to make it in, since I don't have a Jello mold. But I have a fairly large clear pyrex casserole dish which might work. I have to make sure it'll hold all that Jello! It turns out, perhaps I'll take pictures.

I have to decide if I'm making an Easter dinner for Sunday or if we're going over to friends. If I do end up doing it, there are a couple vegetable dishes I want to try out as accompaments to the ham. A potato and leek dish with gruyere cheese and a mixture of aspargus, peas, and radish. Sounds tasty and spring-y!

Yum, yum! I'm making the New York Time's Fake Baked Beans with Crispy Bacon and the beans cooking with the onion, garlic, and bay leaf just smells AWESOME. I hope they taste as good. I'm modifying the recipe a little bit too. I don't have cloves, so I just left them out. I'm going to use brown sugar instead of molasses because I don't have any. And I love Great Northern beans in my baked beans, so I'm adding a can after the white beans finish cooking. I'll let you know how it turns out, but so far it smells delicious!!

I've been a busy girl this morning. I've already gone grocery shopping, washed and dried two loads of laundry, mopped the floors, cleaned the bathroom, and bought stuff at Target. The Target trip included some new Cover Girl mascara and hair dye. I'm changing my hair color to Biscotti, a Dark Blonde color that purports to give "natural results" with "beige to gold highlights." Typically I go more red, but I think that I'm going to try staying closer to my natural hair color. But who knows? I can always change it back to my typical reddish/brown/blonde color!

In other news, I've been playing my trombone a little bit this afternoon. I am playing a song for work -- a children's program on jazz. So I have to learn how to play 'Round Midnight before Tuesday so I can practice it with the people that I'm doing the program with. It's interesting, but I seem to have kept an idea of the different notes and everything. The hardest part is getting the melody in my head. I have the hardest time doing that. It's like I know that a quarter note is one beat and an eighth note is half of a beat, but actually putting it all together is really difficult for me. I've always had this problem. Sometimes it just feels like I'm playing notes, not a song. But it'll all come together -- I hope!

This weekend I might be going to see Ghostrider with the boys. I'm not 100% sold on the movie -- I'd rather see Music and Lyrics for Hugh Grant, but I'm sure it'll be fun too.