Year 3 - Day 121 - April 30

As I've mentioned before, lots of the stuffed animals in the library are mine from childhood. These are the bunnies that mark the dictionary section.

The lineup, from the left:

We gave another one of these giant bunnies to my cousin as a birthday present one year. I was young, but not necessarily "dying for a stuffed animal" young. However, I was super excited that a month or so later, I got one as an Easter gift from the Easter Bunny. I do remember being genuinely confused about how the Easter Bunny knew that I wanted *that* stuffed animal!

The other two were gifts from our next door neighbor in PA when we moved to MD. The middle one in the dress was for me, and the other one was for my brother. He couldn't sleep with the stuffed animal in the room because it "had a mad face." I don't remember him saying it but I remember the stories.

Come to think of it, he does have a pretty mad looking bunny face!

Year 3 - Day 120 - April 29

Today we drove down to DC to listen to the Gamer Symphony Orchestra. The concert went along with the Art of Video Games exhibit at the art museum. While I didn't know most of the music (lots from Final Fantasy which are games I am not that familiar with), there were a couple I recognized. My favorite was a medley from the Sonic games, complete with the chorus harmonized "Seeeeeeeeeeeeggggggggaaaaaaaaa" chant ahead of time!

We didn't spend much time in the museum, but I saw this piece and I loved it. (I love license plates! I always play the license plate game on car trips.)

It spells out the preamble of the Constitution phonetically and the states are in ABC order. That's pretty cool!

Year 3 - Day 119 - April 28

I went with friends to the Sugarloaf Craft Festival today. I didn't get any arts or crafts, but I did get some darn tasty seasoning packets to make olive oil dips or marinades out of. I didn't want to anger anyone by taking a picture of their art, so I just snapped a far away (and, it appears, blurry) shot of a jewelry booth near where Sarah bought her art. :)

Year 3 - Day 118 - April 27

I picked up my carpool mate at her house today, so I had a reason to drive through town early in the morning. Since I was ready to go early, I decided to treat myself to breakfast at the bagel shop. Decaf & a salt bagel for under $3. Not too shabby. I really do love salt bagels. It's like permission to eat a soft pretzel for breakfast!

Year 3 - Day 117 - April 26

Can you read that? It's Brian Matusz's glove as shown on the Orioles' game tonight. (Thank you DVR, for allowing me to rewind and pause.)

But wait, that script doesn't say Brian Matusz! It says BRADY ANDERSON! I do know that Brian is one of the many Orioles participating in the "Brady Bunch" (a health, strength, and conditioning group from what I understand) so perhaps Brady let him use it? Who knows, but it caught my eye.

Year 3 - Day 116 - April 25

These are onesie stickers that I buy from Etsy. (PurplePossom seller, the only one I trust!) For this baby book I'm making, they know they're having a boy and the dad is a sports fan so that's what I went with. Now I just have to finish making the book....

Year 3 - Day 115 - April 24

I like to call this portrait, how NOT to eloquently carve a chicken. It sure tasted good though! I love when roasters go on sale. We get 4 meals out of one. First we actually eat roast chicken. Then we have salad with chicken on top. For a quick meal, we toss some in the frying pan with BBQ sauce and have sandwiches. Then we have some with the "Microwave Pasta" recipe we got from Pampered Chef. (We usually shred it after eating the first night and then freeze it so that we don't have chicken 4 days in a row, though.)

Year 3 - Day 114 - April 23

It is STILL raining. After what felt like a year of rain every other day or so, it had tapered off lately. All the way to drought conditions. However, it feels like we've made up for it in the amount of rainfall in the last 36 hours!!

Year 3 - Day 113 - April 22

Four of us headed up to Wilmington, DE (Dela-where?!?) tonight to see Adam Pascal & Anthony Rapp perform at the Grand Opera House. It was a cute, old, theater, but sadly it was not very full at all. Those of us who were there enjoyed the show, I think. I did! They both did original things, but I did enjoy the Rent songs the most. I'm sure that's not what they intend, but oh well for them. :)

Year 3 - Day 112 - April 21

For the second day in a row, I was in Baltimore before breakfast time. Today, the boys ran a 10K. More impressively, I walked almost a 5K. ;) After they left me to find the starting line, I started walking the race route to see how far I could go before the runners caught up to me. At the 1 mile line, I was exhausted and the runners were starting to zip by. I made it all the way to the Science Center before the pack of runners caught up to me. (Glad I got a 15 minute head start!) After waving to the boys (They later said they were impressed I made it that far), I zigzagged back through town and caught up with the last portion of the race route. The winner was minutes ahead of anyone else and passed me with his very own cop on a motorcycle. Then the next few leaders sprinted past me while I chugged, huffed, and puffed my way up a hill. Luckily, Mike was looking for me, because I almost missed him running by until he called my name.

It was a much warmer day than anticipated. I definitely didn't need a sweatshirt and jeans! The Greene Turtle fed them lunch and beer after they ran, and they got nifty Under Armor jackets too. I'd say "oh maybe someday I'll run a race" but I have given up that aspiration. I'm totally OK walking the Baltimore 5K once in awhile!

Year 3 - Day 111 - April 20

I went to a conference in Baltimore today with lots of media, technology, and other teachers. I helped with a group presentation in the morning and then did some learning for the rest of the day. Broken up by lunch with my former now retired supervisor and some colleagues. To get down there, I carpooled with Mike to work and then took the light rail. While waiting for the train this afternoon, I realized that the tall building in the left side of the picture is now a "Transamerica" building. That's definitely new. The Gallery/Renaissance building has a new name too. I'm so glad it was a nice day for this. I like breaking up the work week with something fun like being the learner instead of the teacher!

Year 3 - Day 110 - April 19

This happened to an outside pane of glass in the hallway at school today. Nobody knows how it happened. The leading theory is that it was hit by either a rock during the lawn mowing/weed wacking, or that a bird hit it and then flew away. There's nothing nearby to give any clues. Luckily, it's safety glass. Also luckily it's the outside pane.

Year 3 - Day 109 - April 18

Last year when I was trying to find a palatable way to add vegetables into my life, I found V8 Fusion. There's a mango peach flavor that is not delicious, but edible.

However, there's a new flavor - grape raspberry. Holy cow. This stuff is so good I drink it by choice. It's a little sugary because of the grape juice, but I can't even taste the raspberry. (I don't particularly like raspberry.) And I *totally* can't taste the sweet potatoes or carrots! ;)

Only one store near me carries it, and it's ridiculously expensive without a coupon, but I buy it anyway. I never thought my splurge item when grocery shopping would turn out to be vegetable juice. That's insane!

Year 3 - Day 108 - April 17

For Easter, we got a basket full of edible goodies from Mike's parents. You should be very very impressed that at this point, a week later, there are still 3 whole pieces of chocolate in this 8.63 oz bag!

Year 3 - Day 107 - April 16

My husband greatly enjoys trail mix, but doesn't greatly enjoy the cheapy fillers that many brands use to make their trail mix. We decided to buy the ingredients he likes and just mix it that way. (For example, no cheapy yucky nuts, and no fake M&M's.)

I now fully understand why trail mix is so darn expensive. Ouch! And looking at this picture, it looks like mixed nuts and a few M&M's ... I promise it really does look like trail mix now that everything is mixed up! ;)

Year 3 - Day 106 - April 15

After waiting for almost a year for the Bel Air Sonic to open, the day is finally here. It opened this morning for breakfast.

However, this drink is not from that Sonic. We were at Costco today and decided to grab drinks at the one down there because we were sure the lines in Bel Air would be horrible. (We were right - we heard stories of cops having to direct traffic!)

So we celebrated the opening of Sonic being 8 minutes away by visiting one 25 minutes away. That's totally reasonable, right? :)

Year 3 - Day 105 - April 14

 We went down to DC today to see one of our friends skate in a roller derby bout. A couple years ago when I first went to a derby in Baltimore, I immediately thought of a few people that would love the derby. It took awhile for us to get everyone down there, but I was right. Shortly after seeing it, she signed up to skate in DC. Right next to the armoy where they skate is RFK stadium. Home to the late 90's version of HFStival and the Tibetian Freedom Concert...the only concert I've been to that's been cancelled on the spot due to a lightning strike. No joke.

I really liked watching derby at the armory. The space is bigger and people are on 3 of the four sides in stadium seating. Plus, no soccer net like in Baltimore. The only downsides were the difficulty hearing the announcers due to the sound disappearing into the ceiling and the cost of the concessions. Other than that, it was nice!

Year 3 - Day 104 - April 13

We went to Duclaw tonight so that the boys could try the newest beer. We were shocked to see how small the menu got in the last few weeks. All the good desserts (except the black and tan) are gone! The Kobe burgers are gone! What is going on!!?!?

We asked the waitress and she said they hired a new executive chef who is redoing the menu. It's going to be fancier, so they're down to barebones while they figure out the new things they'll have to order.

Luckily, the brisket sandwich was still there. Whew. ;)

Year 3 - Day 103 - April 12

It's almost here! Sonic is opening this weekend! I wonder if they're open at 6:45 when I drive by for bloodwork in the morning.

Hmm... drive through bloodwork. That'd be a neat invention. My arm is right next to the window! It'd certainly save me time from walking upstairs. :) Don't they do drive through flu vaccinations? Bloodwork is basically the opposite, taking things out instead of putting things in!

I'm going to make millions on this idea, especially if they combine WITH a Sonic and hand you a cherry limeaid on the way out. Genius!

Year 3 - Day 102 - April 11

I could actually use a docking station at work these days in the attempt to allievate some of the wires criss crossing across my work area. Power cord, projector adapter, document camera, smart board dongle, and speakers. Geesh.

It has taught me that it's time to move my work station to the right side of the board instead of the left, because all these cables have to go all the way around the computer which makes the spaghetti of wires harder to manage. If they just came at me from the left, I'd save some space.

Year 3 - Day 101 - April 10

This year when I did the taxes, a horrible thing happened. It turns out that since we both have retirement (albeit not great) through our jobs and we make more than well a hundred dollars a year or so, the ability to write off IRA deductions has greatly diminished. That means it's time to add new things to my retirement plan. My financial advisor (who also goes by Dad) hasn't been impressed with my through-work options, but we found a few things to make it work. They make it ridiculously difficult to sign up though, so this booklet has been sitting next to my couch for quite some time. I'm currently feeling annoyed at the 3 people it takes to anoint my sign up ID, so there's my picture. ;)

Year 3 - Day 100 - April 9

I decided to spend my last day of freedom reorganizing my craft room. 

You know what they say - it has to get a whole lot worse before it gets better. ;)

It does look pretty nice now, however, I was too exhausted to take a picture at that point!!

Year 3 - Day 99 - April 8

I did not take this picture today, obviously. I did not take this picture in 2012, even. However, when I pulled the Hoover Dam pictures off the good camera, this set was on there too and had never been imported. I forgot I even took it. I was messing with the settings on the camera back at Christmas, trying to get the tree blurry and the house clear. This was as good as I could do.

If you look closely, this house is actually "Jenny's Corner Book Shop." It's my favorite one! I only collect libraries, schools, and things that say Jenny. (I have Jenny's Coffee Shop too.) I don't always put them out, but this one always comes out. Sarah found it for me after it was discontinued in stores. She is a good hunter! :)

Year 3 - Day 98 - April 7

This is a terrible angle, but there's a lit up baseball stadium out there. Day 2, win 2! Woohoo!

We are home now. We didn't lose any money in Vegas. I played slots and video poker with a $10 and only lost $1.50. However, Mike was playing at the same time and won $30 so we came out ahead, especially with my TV watching money.

Would I go to Vegas again? Maybe. If I did, I'd pack fancier clothes and lay around or explore during the day and use my fancy clothes to get me into the fancier restaurants at night. We ate at good places, but there were places we were dress-coded out of even thinking about. Also, if I went, it would NOT be with children. I was shocked at how many children are around. The gambling is one thing. I mean, to a little kid, slots look the same whether they're at an arcade for tokens or in a casino for money. But the blatent sex that is everywhere is a little much for kids. At least if it's an infant they are oblivious. I can't imagine that 8 year olds don't notice. I'd probably also talk Mike into seeing a couple shows. They're just so expensive and there was nothing we were dying to see. I'd like to see "O" but it was dark while we were there. Plus, I want to see 5 minutes of "O," not a couple hours.  If we go back, we'd use it as a home base, rent a car, and see some stuff further out as well.

But there are other places to see before we go back.

Year 3 - Day 97 - April 6

Another great day. We started our day by walking north to the Venetian/Palazzo complex to hunt down the Emeril sports bar. We found it and watched Orioles Opening Day from these couches:

The whole restaurant/bar is made of couches and coffee tables. Well, the main area. There are also tables, cubbies, and private areas that you can grab. Lots of TVs and lots of sports. Of course since it's an Emeril restaurant, it's New Orleans themed bar food. We had a giant pretzel that was pretty good.

After the Orioles won, we headed ALL THE WAY down the street to Mandalay Bay. We were assisted by the Belliago -> Monte Carlo and Excalibur -> Mandalay Bay trams and took a break at the pub in Monte Carlo. Every resort is pretty cool, but there are definite class differences. We felt really poor at some of the places. :) 

I talked Mike into one last happy hour at Sugar Factory. This time I had another smores and he tried a Cinnamon Toast Crunch. 

They actually put cinnamon toast crunch IN the drink just floating there. Then you can eat it just like you would in a bowl of cereal. Hilarious. Only in Vegas!

Another thing that can only be found in Vegas is an old school video game place. We found a place to use our quarters. (Because none of the slot machines take them!!) Mike played Dig Dug for awhile:

While he did that, I lost money playing Centipede. Then, he beat me in Tetris. Talk about embarrassing. That's one of the only games I'm any good at! It was a lot harder to play with a joystick. That's my excuse. ;)

Year 3 - Day 96 - April 5

Today was awesome. So many fun things happened! First, we decided that we were going to explore things going south today. We wound up at MGM watching sports in their sports book. (Yay! It's baseball season!) While walking through MGM, we got offered the chance to watch a CBS TV pilot and give feedback. Mike wasn't thrilled with the idea, but I was excited. The show was ok, but not fantastic. (My review. Mike hit the 'change the channel' button soon after it started.) My ratings on the computer qualified me to participate in a focus group in the afternoon. We sat around and talked about the show and then they paid me $50 cash! That's way better than gambling. :) In addition to the cash, we both got a folder of coupons just for watching the show. We used our $5 each at Starbucks for a drink, and then I used my CBS store coupon to buy a new shirt:

It made me laugh, and will continue to do so even if people don't get it. :)

After hanging out with my parents for happy hour at a Mexican place, we went out to dinner with one of my oldest friends who just recently moved to Vegas. This is two vacations in a row he's happened to live in the city we've visited. We had Thai and chinese food somewhere in the Aria area which was super pretty and swanky. I like days when I'm never bored!

Year 3 - Day 95 - April 4

This morning, the 4 of us crammed into my dad's tiny car and headed to the Hoover Dam. It was really cool to see. Of course we have no pictures of the whole thing, since we were standing on it. But it was impressive. We also had lunch at a little brewery in the nearby town. (Great fries. Wow.)

Then we did some more exploring. We realized that the casino bar side of Sugar Factory has BOGO drinks during happy hour. Of course that meant I could finally justify trying something!

I had a smores martini. It was so good. It didn't even taste like alcohol! They used chocolate milk or something along those lines as the base, but then added chocolate vodka, vanilla vodka (I think) and toasted marshmallow stuff too. Plus real marshmallows on top! Oh, and did you know that to make the cool swirls in the martini glass, the secret is to keep the chocolate sauce really cold so that it doesn't run? Mike's drink was a root beer float with no root beer and no ice cream. It had rock candy flavored vodka, root beer flavored vodka and ice cream vodka. It's crazy. Neither of us ever gets fancy drinks, but this stuff was too crazy to pass up. What was REALLY crazy was the fishbowl of a drink that the girl next to us got! I wish I took a picture!

Finally, to finish off the night we went to Spago for dinner. We happened to walk by Max Brenners, so I had to get a cup of hot chocolate to go. Their Italian hot chocolate is to die for. It's seriously like a melted Hershey bar!

I hope you're not counting my calories through these pictures. I'm not. :) Plus, we're walking miles a day, so that helps. ;)

Year 3 - Day 94 - April 3

Greetings from sunny Las Vegas! Back around Thanksgiving when I realized I had a real spring break this year, we took advantage of a Southwest Airlines sale and got cheap (for these days) tickets to Vegas. We're staying at Paris. The property itself is nicer than where we usually stay on vacation, but the rooms are starting to show their age. However, the price is great so we're happy. When we got here today, we headed up to the Carnagie Deli in the Mirage to eat lunch with my parents. (They're here now too.) We spent some time exploring and I finally got to see a Bellagio water fountain show. (Somehow, I missed it completely last time.)

(It's hard to see, but the fountains are spraying in this picture.) There's our hotel! You can't see our room, because our room looks at the loading dock. I'm guessing you have to pay more than rock bottom prices to get a good view. Tis ok, we're not there much anyway.

We did lots of exploring, including Coca Cola World. They had a great "Soda Around The World" sampler set.

We did not finish them all. The best part was that 14 of the 16 sodas were Jenny friendly! (No caffeine, not diet.) Some were gross, some were ok, and some were fantastic.

After exploring for the afternoon, we went to Sugar Factory (my new favorite restaurant) for dinner. Dinner was fine, but dessert. Wow.

That would be chocolate peanut butter pizza. Holy cow. It was supposed to have strawberry whipped cream on top too, but that sounded suspicious so we went without. It was great. The brownie one looked good too. I'll have to come back someday. :)

Yes, I know I had soda AND dessert today. I love vacation!

Year 3 - Day 93 - April 2

For our faculty Easter Breakfast this morning, I was in charge of Cream Cheese. Well, 3 cream cheeses. I was so worried that I'd forget them that I created 3 of these signs and put them in various places. Car, door, and backpack.

You'll be happy to know that I did NOT forget the cream cheese. :)

Year 3 - Day 92 - April 1

We turned the calendar over to April today. I hope it is better to me than March was, because March was hard. Crossing my fingers! :) At least the sun is shining. That's a good start!