Year 2 - Day 180 - June 30

I spent some time helping friends/coworkers with a computer project today. It's so easy to be helpful when this is the view! :) Much nicer than the cinder block walls we have for inspiration at work, right?!

Year 2 - Day 179 - June 29

Today's our third anniversary. We exchanged gifts a couple weeks ago but he did bring me flowers today. Turns out the random golf club in the kitchen is related to his anniversary gift. He learned a new grip from the golf pro last week and was practicing the partial swing in the middle of the house. Hopefully the cat stayed out of the way. ;)

Year 2 - Day 178 - June 28

Tonight we celebrated a friend's upcoming wedding with a fun and relaxing bowling and mexican food girls night out. Of course I don't have any pictures from the evening because I was too busy enjoying it! There were some pictures taken, but I haven't seen them yet. :) I took this one while sitting at a red light after I made a wrong turn. I couldn't believe that gas in Columbia is 40 cents higher than up here! Hopefully this is like that White Marsh Exxon and not everyone down there is still paying in the 3.80's for regular!

Year 2 - Day 177 - June 27

Today's another true summer vacation day - minus the summery sunshine. We went swimming this morning, but got to the pool just as it thundered. There was no rain and no more thunder so eventually they did let us get in. He swam laps in the regular pool, I opted for the smaller but warmer therapy pool. They keep it at 90 and it's salt water instead of chlorine, so it's pretty much built for me. After exhausting myself (how did I survive all those morning swim practices of my childhood in a colder, longer, pool!?!) I read while he finished. This is the One Book One Maryland title for 2011, so I figured I should jump on the bandwagon.

The main character, Junior, decides that rather than attend the local school on the reservation, he's going to go miles and miles away to the white school in a local town. It's a hard decision because the new school doesn't embrace him with open arms but he doesn't feel welcome on the reservation either. In addition to the regular high school stresses and pressures, Junior has to deal with the realities of reservation life - alcoholism, abuse, and loss. It's a really good current day coming of age story, but I'm sure that plenty of people are going to be annoyed and hate it due to the language and things the main character talks about. There's a ton of bad and crude language, but I think it's all pretty realistic because it's a 14 year old boy who is using it. There's also violence but it's almost always related to alcohol use. I'm interested to see what people have to say about it when the One Book One Maryland events begin!

Year 2 - Day 176 - June 26

Tonight we went to see Cars 2 with our cheap Fandango tickets we scored with a livingsocial.com deal a few weeks ago. I had read terrible reviews of it, but I didn't think it was that bad. I didn't cry, but that is ok with me. I don't think that is required for a movie to be good, and based on some of the reviews it seemed like that's what they were basing their score on. I don't like it when sequels are just the same movie over again, and I don't think this one was. This one is James Bond-esque with a reluctant spy. It kind of reminded me of the early seasons of Chuck, too.

Year 2 - Day 175 - June 25

Years ago, I heard rumor of a Mormon musical being developed by the South Park and Avenue Q people. I didn't think much of it, and didn't hear more details, so I forgot about it. Then, late in 2010 the buzz started up again. I don't really care for South Park but I think Avenue Q is hilarious and clever and smart. The broadway message boards had almost universally good things to say about the Book of Mormon in previews, and that is pretty rare. The day after the official opening in March, all the news sites blew up with positive reviews and I convinced Mike we had to get tickets that day. It's good we did - because ticket prices have gone up twice!!! We spent $99 on seats in the balcony for today's show, but now they're going for $155. Ouch!

The show is great. It's dirty, and vulgar, and has the worst language I think I've ever heard in song. However, it's in context, so for some reason you just go with it. What I wasn't expecting was it to have such a sweet and wholesome message about friendship and faith. That was the most surprising thing about the whole experience. I bought the album a few weeks ago when it was on sale for $1.99 but held off listening to it so that I'd be surprised by the storyline. I'm glad I did. The basic gist is that two Mormon missionaries who don't know each other very well go to Africa for their mission and have to find a way to spread the news of their religion, knowing nothing of real life in Africa. How do you help people and share your faith with people who have lost all of theirs?

Year 2 - Day 174 - June 24

Today, I finally felt like I was really on summer vacation. I woke up when I wanted, took Mike's car to get checked, wandered around Walmart and bought a few small things, and read a book cover to cover! Years ago, I read the first few Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books. Then later a fourth one came out. I was surprised to see this title recently because I hadn't heard it was coming. This book picks up about 10 years after the last one and the girls are nearing 30. The difficulties the characters face in this book are much more adult & serious than before ... but I liked reading it knowing nothing about what was going to happen, so that's all I'm going to say.

Year 2 - Day 173 - June 23

In my never ending quest to arrange our odd shaped (missing walls, sliding glass door, corner missing, built in bookshelf & fireplace) family room, I moved the loveseat today. This was all based around my idea to move the TV to the other end of the room rather than in front of the fireplace. I was in my next door neighbor's house today and stole the idea from her. Mike's not sold on the idea, but I mostly think that's because it took him an hour to get the whole technology thing setup and working correctly after we moved it last week. :)

Year 2 - Day 172 - June 22

My dentist office is in a cute little house in downtown Havre de Grace. He left some of the old house charm - this is a (no longer working) stove in the waiting room.

I love my dentist. It's a tiny practice, just him and a hygenist that was added not too many years ago. I never have to wait a long time to get in, and I'm out in a jiffy without feeling rushed.

Year 2 - Day 171 - June 21

Another dinner at a golf course! Who would have thought that would happen twice in a little over a week? Tonight's dinner was with my fellow media specialists to say thank you to our leader. It was going to be a goodbye dinner, but circumstances changed and we decided to still have the dinner and enjoy the happiness!

Year 2 - Day 170 - June 20

My morning view for the last time this school year! Bring on the summer time!

Year 2 - Day 169 - June 19

Many moons ago, this quick & easy version of baked brie started making an appearance at parties. I asked for the recipe when I helped host a shower last year and whipped it out again today for father's day at my bro&sis-in-law's house. It isn't as pretty as the last one I made, but it got the job done and it was quickly polished off, so I guess it tastes good. :) I don't eat it, but it's nice to have something to bring that people like!

Year 2 - Day 168 - June 18

To celebrate our friend's 33rd birthday today, we had a kid birthday party! We played mini-golf and then went to Pizza Hut. As she said, the only way it could be more kid-ish is if she was using "Book It" points for her pizza. We had a fun relaxing evening ... and with her 33 stroke birthday handicap, she won! :)

Year 2 - Day 167 - June 17

I was in need of some major relaxation and stress relief tonight - so I opened the Kinect & we moved the TV to the back room. It took the whole evening, and we still don't have TV on the TV, but we can play video games. :) The Kinect is amazing. It's full body dancing or exercising and you don't have to hold a controller. Technology can be super cool sometimes!

Year 2 - Day 166 - June 16

After trying on every dress at the outlets and Dress Barn (which has a ton of great stuff this year, I'm just a weird shape) I walked into BJ's one day and bought this one without trying it on. Thanks to some fancy pinning by Sarah & a white shawl, I have an outfit to wear today for graduation! I even found the iron & ironing board last night to make it look nice. I couldn't believe how hard it was to find the white shawl. I did see many at the outlets, but didn't know I needed one. It took every store in the mall to get my hands on one that wasn't made for grannies! I found them in black & tan & cream everywhere, but no white. So this is a very large kids size from the teenie bopper store. I'll take what I can get. :)

Year 2 - Day 165 - June 15

Continuing our enjoyment of having local friends, we all headed to Duclaw tonight to taste the mystery beer and have dinner. The mystery beer wasn't really a mystery because the internet knows everything. I did have a sip and actually enjoyed it. Since it's 21 percent alcohol, a sip was all I needed. ;) What you are seeing in the pictures are NOT the slider & fries someone had for dinner, but rather the dessert slider & funnel cake fries someone had for dessert! Aren't they cute?!

Year 2 - Day 164 - June 14

In just a week, summer will be here! I can get back to reading and blogging. The last week of school is a lot longer than an average week, but lots of books came in at the same time. I also have some CDs to enjoy. I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

Year 2 - Day 163 - June 13

Friday night, I was terribly sad to find out that hockey was on instead of Friday Night Lights. I don't have DirecTV, so I'm several months behind some people. That means lots of spoiler avoiding! I'm really sad that nobody watched this show, because it is fantastic, but the lack of watchers did make spoiler avoidance a little easier. :)

The good news is that on Saturday morning, I found out the DVD was on the new releases list at the library! (Yes, NBC shows the show SO late that the DVD was already released. Insane.) I squealed (for real - ask my husband) and ran to the library to get it. I then spent all of my Saturday afternoon on the couch watching the last string of episodes.

I thought it was a good ending and I am glad the writers knew the end was coming. That always makes for a better series finale!

If you have not seen this show, you need to get your butt on Netflix streaming and get started! I believe some seasons are there. Then you need to rent the rest.  Be warned, much of season 2 is stupid because of a poor storyline followed by the writers strike, but it gets better. It's also one of the few shows that survived & grew from a "reboot."

Year 2 - Day 162 - June 12

Tonight we went to Mountain Branch for restaurant week. Now that Kevin & Tracie have moved to Harford County & Sarah & Bryan are staying with them, we have all kinds of Harford County neighbors! :)

As others have routinely mentioned in their restaurant reviews about Baltimore restaurant week, we'll probably have to visit this place again at a non-restaurant week time to get a true feel.  We all liked our meals, but the salmon eaters found that having just one side dish of green beans might not have been enough. We had a disappointing experience with our waitress as well. She got 5 of the entrees right, but the 6th was wrong and had to be made from scratch. You'd think on a night where there are 4 entrees on the menu that it wouldn't take 20+ minutes to grab a piece of meat, but it is what it is. The restaurant is nice and open and the view (see above) is great! The bread they served before the meal was delicious - a cross between bread and a pretzel with sea salt on top.

Any of my dining companions have anything to add??

Year 2 - Day 161 - June 11

This is a terrible picture, sorry.

I know what you're thinking. That's a lot of frozen sugar. Yeah, it is. But I had a Purina catalina & 2 Nestle catalinas to use, and sales and coupons! The cat food is an odd grocery store purchase for me (cheaper at Walmart, Target, & BJ's) but with the catalina, it was worth it.

Purina Cat Food $6.99
Luigi's Italian Ice $0.99 (x4)
Nestle Drumsticks & Ice Cream Pops $2.59 (x4)

Subtotal: $21.31

Coupons & Catalinas
Purina -$5.00
Nestle -$5.00
Nestle -$5.00 (again)
Luigi's -$0.99 (it was $0.50 but it doubled to $0.99)
Luigi's -$0.99
Luigi's -$0.99
Luigi's -$0.99

Subtotal $21.31
Coupons $18.96

Total $2.35 plus tax

It will take us months to eat this much dessert ... and there are some other things I earned for just about as cheap from the other 4 weeks of this process.  So our second freezer is full of dessert now. :) But if you consider it costs $5 a person to go to Coldstone or $3 a person to go to Blooms, the 24 italian ice cups for free and 30 individual ice creams for 36 cents is a pretty good plan. I like that they're all individual servings, too, because we're good about only eating one. If I scoop ice cream into a bowl, there's no telling how many servings I eat. :)

We also went to the farmer's market this morning, but I didn't get much. I do like the cheddar Parmesan bread at the bakery stand!

Year 2 - Day 160 - June 10

Don't speed on 543. The police will get you. This is a regular sight out there!

Year 2 - Day 159 - June 9

We had big hopeful plans for tonight! We were going to enjoy the hot weather at the pool and have a picnic. (No, we were not going to eat the whole can of Pringles, but it wasn't opened yet & it was the best way to keep them from shattering!) We had a whole picnic packed, got to the pool, and it was PACKED. Swim team practice filled the lap pool and every other human in Harford County filled the fun pool. I tested out the therapy pool, but they keep that one heated even in the summer. So instead of a pool picnic, he went to work out inside and I came home. Then we had a picnic lunch at the kitchen table. :)

Year 2 - Day 158 - June 8

Unlike the zinneas, one of my green shrubs is dying. In 48 hours it went from just as healthy as the others to almost totally brown. I can't figure out why. It gets the same treatment as the others, and the other 5 identical bushes are fine, as are the 3 spireas and the lilac. Grrrr.....

Year 2 - Day 157 - June 7

My multi colored zinneas (spelling?) are thriving. I'm impressed with how much they've been blooming, even through the heat wave. Some days they have to be watered both morning and afternoon, but they perk right back up. It's amazing ... they are so puny and sad looking when I get home and 20 minutes later, post-water, they perk back up. Kind of a visual reminder of why it's healthy to drink water, I suppose!

Year 2 - Day 156 - June 6

I made our Father's Day cards today. I had a few sheets of artichoke and river rock to use up, because they're not in my standard color rotation and I haven't had a reason to use them. It seemed like a dad themed card would work. I used the cricut to cut out the words and my alcohol themed stamp set to create, color, and cut out frothy beer mugs. The reason for the 2 angles is to show the step cut outs that I did with the card. It's called a center step card and I completely stole the idea from Splitcoast. ;)

Year 2 - Day 155 - June 5

We decided to use a BOGO coupon from our Entertainment book today and visit our local mini golf place in Churchville. As a golfing place, it was fine, but it's reaching the point of being very obvious it's not taken care of. I think it might have been in great condition a couple years ago, but it is getting old looking now. We had a pleasant time and it wasn't busy, so it had that going for it. We followed up with a BOGO coupon at Rita's. So really, for a Sunday afternoon of relaxing, $7 isn't so bad!!

Year 2 - Day 154 - June 4

We have done a lot of driving in the last 2 days. In Pennsylvania and northern MD there are no straight roads. You can't get from point A to point B without visiting at least 3 tiny towns in a zigzag pattern. We did just that as we went to Hanover, Gettysburg, and back to MD. Luckily, the drive was pretty. If we weren't in a small town, we were looking at this.

One of our stops was the Gettysburg outlets. I am looking for a dress that is appropriate for both a 5th grade graduation and a not too fancy wedding. There are a thousand dresses out there that meet that description, but none of them fit me! I am very short in the shoulder area, and have to adjust any and all straps to their smallest size. That makes V necked and wide necked dresses difficult to pull off. I could do it for the wedding and just feel uncomfortable and uncovered, but it definitely won't work in the appropriate department for reading the names at 5th grade graduation. :) I show up in all the pictures, so I try not to wear the same dress every year! Some years I really don't like the fashions, but this year there are a ton of dresses I love and I just can't find one to work.

Year 2 - Day 153 - June 3

Tonight we came up to PA to see movies. Mike & his friend saw X-Men, and the girls saw Bridesmaids. (I hear that's a popular thing to do this weekend.) :)

After dinner, they demonstrated the Kinect for me. It's super cool, and I'm pretty sure I need to have one now so that I can dance with a video game for real. It makes DDR seem sooooo 20th century!

Year 2 - Day 152 - June 2

Tonight's project was a graduation card for a family friend. I wanted to do the cool ribbon tassel I've seen on other projects, but I don't have any gold and she graduated from Towson. A visit to the Christmas box sort of solved the problem. It isn't as good as the one in my head made of ribbon, but it works and it's gold! My finger is in the picture because if I don't hold the point down ....

it pops open. Pardon the shadows - they make it look uneven. It's just a triangle fold with a couple corners cut off. The bottom piece of white is the shape of home plate and the top piece of white is a square with a triangle on top. (That makes the pocket to slide in the gift card or check.) I got the idea from Krissie at Strictly Stampin, who does lots of fun folds. I knew I was going to need this one, so I tucked it away. I decided to just use black & white to stay in graduation mode, so it's not very colorful, but I'm ok with that. I didn't want to use yellow after using gold for the tassel.

Year 2 - Day 151 - June 1

We had a baby shower at school today. The year I was married, there were something like 7 babies and 3 weddings. This year, we had this lone shower! We didn't even have any 2nd babies this year that I can remember. This is quite unusual for a staff our size & age, but it was nice to hang out and celebrate and see the adorable things she got for the baby boy to be!