Tuesday/Wednesday

Tuesday High: At dinner time we had a normal(ish) diaper for the first time in more than a week. We were so excited and it made the diet worth it!

Tuesday Low: A couple hours later, we had a bad one, as bad as last week before the diet started.

Then we had a re-do on the no sleep thing, the kind of no sleep that comes with an increase in tummy troubles.

Frustration doesn't begin to cover it.

I was so completely frustrated and drained and tired in the middle of the night that when the baby was crying (at a weird time, since it had only been an hour since we went to bed) that it didn't wake me up at all. It took Mike gently poking and then shaking me awake and then talking to me to get me to wake up to make me coherent.

Meanwhile, I was just having a dream with a baby crying in a crowd and getting bumped around, which I guess was Mike poking me. Now THAT is tired. :)

Wednesday High: A really good nap for the baby, which was so necessary!

Wednesday Low: We had friends drive 90 minutes to meet us for dinner. But the restaurant, one of our favorites, was less than responsive/helpful with being able to help with allergen free ordering even though I emailed them last weekend trying to avoid the waitress having to know the answers. So I had to eat at home at 9pm. On top of that, the diapers are not good again which makes it harder mentally, knowing that I am giving my poor kid something he can't tolerate, and we can't figure it out.

Sunday and Monday

Sunday's High - Low key, peaceful day. I did a little scrapbooking, Mike watched the Masters. Baby took a nap.

Monday's High - We successfully went out to lunch in a restaurant as a family of 3! (Pure luck, but we will take it!)

Low of the two days combined - Something is up with the little guy's belly. He's not very happy about it. This led to being awake until 4:45am. Mike stayed up from 12 to 2:30 while I slept and then I came back down and we switched. The silver lining is that it happened on a non-work night for Mike so I wasn't on my own. Thank goodness!

Year 3 - Day 187 - July 5

I picked my mom up at a friend's house today where she has been staying for the first part of her east coast trip. We decided to grab lunch on the way home at the Annapolis Mall since her friend lives down there. I haven't been inside the mall in quite some time, but we happened to be driving by a section of mall with a few parking-lot-facing restaurants and I spotted a Potbelly! I really enjoy their sandwiches and their milkshakes. See? The milkshake straw has little cookies around it! They taste like Girl Scout Trefoils. My sandwich was delicious too - some kind of Italian creation with all kinds of salted, cured meat like pepperoni and salami. :) YUM.

Year 3 - Day 181 - June 29

Today is our 4th anniversary. I got flowers!

Then for dinner, we used our Melting Pot gift card. They have changed a little since we were there last. The meals have gotten slightly larger and believe it or not, slightly cheaper.

It used to cost an arm and a leg to go to Melting Pot which is why we rarely go. But tonight, we got this dish for 2 (we swapped food so he could have my shrimp and I could have something that used to walk on land) plus cheese plus a salad for just $30 a person. That's much more reasonable than before. I also like the new white dishes - much nicer than the old metal style.

Year 3 - Day 153 - June 1

We were supposed to go to the food truck gathering in Hamden tonight. I was really excited that it was happening on a day I could go! However, the weather didn't cooperate. When we saw the giant storms that were headed our way, we decided not to drive to the city. Turns out we probably made the right choice. It was still a bummer. Instead, in between storms, we grabbed dinner at Red Robin. We used to go there all the time, but we hadn't been in awhile. I have been on a "medicine holiday" (Well, medicine and doctors in general - nothing that makes alcohol illegal!) for the last several weeks, and so I've tried a few different drinks. This one was just like a Sonic Cherry Limeade, but it had some kind of alcohol in it. It was good, but I could have 6 at Sonic for the same price, so I'll stick with my Sonic. :)

Year 3 - Day 152 - May 31

I had lunch with my "library camp" friends today to celebrate the retirement of one of the ladies in our group. We ate at Gertrude's at the BMA. I didn't even know the BMA had a restaurant, let alone a decent one. If I knew they had one, I probably would have assumed it was like a snack bar or something. They have all local food and a pretty big variety. Some of it was a little pricey, but my BBQ sandwich was $10, which is a pretty common price. Since I got there a little early, I took a run through the gift shop. This knitting book (with sample!) made me giggle - Knit Your Own Cat. I presume it had patterns for different style cats. If you were a knitter, and you had friends with cats, you'd have a years worth of gifts taken care of!! :)

Year 3 - Day 132 - May 11

We went to Chopstix for dinner tonight. I thought I had mentioned this before, but I can't find it anywhere so maybe I didn't. So without further ado, here's why it's cool that we went to Chopstix tonight.

When I was little, our go-to local Chinese place was Lee's. It was down the street, everyone in our family liked it. We didn't do the take out thing when I was little - if we were going out, we ate at the restaurant. For this reason, I'd guess they didn't know our names. They definitely knew us as a family though, since it was a small place.

My friend Sarah's family was the opposite. They did take out from the same place. When you stop by to pick up take out, you of course have to give them your name. Therefore they get to know you, right? Right.

So years and years ago, Sarah & I went to a new (at the time) restaurant in White Marsh called Chopstix. When we walked in, the hostess knew Sarah's name and her favorite takeout order from Lee's! Turns out the family branched out.

Then a year or so ago I noticed a Chopstix up here, too! I didn't think much of it at the time, because Chopstix is a common Chinese Food restaurant name, and in fact I saw the exact same sign/logo at a place near my parents house in AZ. But then I read a writeup and they mentioned that it was the same family. So here I am, 32+ years old, eating food from the same family that got me hooked on Chinese when I was little.

Of course as the picture shows, Mike prefers his Asian cuisine raw and rolled up with veggies and rice. There is seriously a skinned eel on top of that thing. GROSS. :)

Year 3 - Day 39 - February 8

Another Wednesday, another month, another free glass from Duclaw! The beer of the month is Double Naked Fish. Something with chocolate and raspberry, but of course it just tastes like beer to me. I don't know what it is about beer or what ingredient blocks my taste buds from tasting anything else, but it almost always just tastes like beer. I just go so that I can have my BBQ brisket sandwich. :) I will say that tonight was the kind of night where if we weren't regulars, we probably wouldn't go back. I don't know if people called out because of the "blizzard" (nothing is sticking, people!) or what, but we only saw 2 waiters the whole night and they just couldn't keep up. It took over an hour and a half to have dinner. I felt bad for them because it obviously wasn't there fault, but they needed serious help.

Year 3 - Day 23 - January 23

Today, I did something I have done in a REALLY long time.

I had McDonalds for dinner. I had a few fries in December when we stopped at McD's before our ATV tour, but I didn't think it was smart to eat a whole meal there for the first time in awhile right before jumping on a 4 wheeler in the middle of nowhere for a few hours. Things I noticed:

1 - Fries - Still delicious. They are so good. I never eat here, but I still think their fries are the best ones out there.

2 - Chicken McBites - They must be piloting them in our general area, because I have been seeing the signs for awhile but didn't see them at the McD's in Arizona where we stopped. They are going for "popcorn chicken" but fall a little short. The few in there that were actually hunks of chicken were decent. Most of my pieces were just fried hunks of breading though. Maybe I got the bottom of the basket? It seemed to me they were almost the Chicken Selects crumbs. However, this container was only 99 cents, so I guess I got what I paid for.

3 - The shake. Oh my goodness. When she first put it on my tray, I thought I had misordered or she had given me the wrong thing. But this is what their shakes look like now! (After a quick check of the ever helpful picture menu) It still tasted like a standard McD's shake, but I liked the whipped cream addition and the cool cup.

4 - My shake cost as much as the other two things put together. The fries were $1, chicken $0.99, and shake $1.89 (they're all small or snack sized portions)

5 - The people watching added to my meal. ;) I had school, a meeting, and then stamping club tonight so there just wasn't time to go home. I don't think I'll go out of my way to go back to McD's anytime soon, but for 5 bucks, it was fun. And I loved my shake and fries. Oh, the unhealthiness!

P.S. I haven't given up all fast food! We really don't eat fast food very often, but when we go for grease it's almost always Chik Fil A. I also love Taco Bell, it's my guilty pleasure. Also, we get Subway on vacation sometimes when we're tired of eating out and don't want to spend a lot. It's a sad fact of getting older that my stomach can't handle fast food that much anymore! :( Give me back that teenage metabolism and iron stomach anyday!! :)

Year 3 - Day 14 - January 14

We're in NYC! We got here this afternoon and promptly jumped on the subway to Brooklyn in order to hunt down the Brooklyn Brewery. When we got there around 3:30, there was a line outside. Assuming it was the line for the 4pm tour, we got in line and bundled up. We were surprised to find that it was actually the line just to get in. The brewery is a giant open space (see above) full of people. You can bring your own food (there was a pizza truck right outside the door) and buy tokens to get beer. It appears that people just hang out all afternoon. We did take the 4pm tour, but it wasn't really a tour about beer. It was more the story of their brewery, which was interesting and involved some funny mob stuff.

After an afternoon at the brewery, we headed back up to midtown to find our hotel and put down our backpacks. They sent us to a local sushi place for dinner so that Mike could get his inner city sushi fix. (I had cooked appetizers!) Finally, then it was time for dessert! We decided to walk the 20+ blocks south just to work off dinner and work up a dessert appetite. It was cold & flurrying, but it's not freezing freezing. Behold, our dessert at Max Brenner's:

Fondue for 2! 2 types of chocolate & a butterscotch/caramel dipping sauce along with strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, brownies, and blondies. Plus, a hot thing to roast the marshmallows on! I love the tray it came on, too. It looks like notebook paper! Mike also decided to order the Italian hot chocolate:

Oh my gosh it was so good. The mug is a little squished (and doesn't have a handle) so you can cup it in your hands and drink. (or spill, like we did a little.) See how thick and dark it is? It was really that thick. It was like drinking a melted hershey bar. YUM.

After another brisk walk back to the hotel, we are now ready to never move again. Or at least not until tomorrow. :)

Year 2 - Day 11 - January 11

As you can see, we actually remembered to bring our glass home with us tonight. They're a cool style, with a heavy bottom. I like when we get something other than the standard pint glass!

Year 3 - Day 6 - January 6

Our friends are here for the night and brought this sugar beast with them.

I know it's hard to tell in the bag, but it's a 5 pound gummy bear!

We finally got to La Tolteca tonight. I always thought Mike wasn't into Mexican food, but I guess I made that up in my head. We enjoyed what we had, but the service was slow. It was ok since we had 4 people and lots of conversation and it wasn't terrible, but it did take awhile for someone to take our order. Also, while we were waiting for a table, we sat at the bar. They all had a beer and I had a soda and our bill was 29 dollars. We knew that couldn't be right, but they use a calculator rather than cash register to do the math and she hit the wrong button. Good thing Kadie checked the receipt because our bill was really supposed to be 10 dollars!

Year 2 - Day 361 - December 27

This is one of our favorite restaurants in Tucson. The chef has a gazillion recipes in her head and every day picks a few beef, a few chicken, a couple seafood, and a vegetarian dish for lunch and dinner. Even though I am completely the opposite of an adventurous eater, I have liked what I ordered all 3 times we have visited because they all have a Mexican flair and I like Mexican food. I think I've gotten a beef dish all three times. One other menu option is to get the variety dish. You get smaller portions of 3 things on the menu. You don't get to pick what your dishes are, you have to agree to be surprised. But if more than one person gets the variety platter at your table, they all get a different set. I think all 3 boys have ordered that every time and every time, they've gotten the veggie option, a beef, and a chicken, but I could be wrong about that. I find it hilarious that some people refuse to eat there because it's expensive because it's $25 for most of the meals and I leave stuffed to the gills. I'd much rather pay $25 for real food than something at Outback or Chili's or whatever (even though I love those places too) ;)

Year 2 - Day 348 - December 14

Since I'm so excited to be done with my college class, I decided to splurge and get dessert at Duclaw tonight. It was so good!

Know what's not good? Getting home and realizing you left your free glass on the table!! Boo hiss!

Year 2 - Day 339 - November 26

Even though Mike's birthday isn't until tomorrow, we had his family celebration today. First we went out for "Linner" at Bellissimo's in Bel Air. We had never tried it, but we'll definitely go back. They seem to be an Italian restaurant first, but they have quite the random variety of food. In our group of 6, we had lasagna, fish, a burger, ribs, and two seafood pasta dishes. After "Linner" we headed to the farm for ice cream. Who cares that it's cold?!? :) There was a beautiful sunset tonight! Of course my old iphone camera doesn't do it justice, but it was really pretty.

Year 2 - Day 332 - November 19

It's a little silly that this is today's picture, because we ate so much food today and these weren't the most exciting by far!

We went downtown tonight to use a Living Social deal, enjoy some dessert, and go bowling for a friend's 30th birthday party.

The Living Social was for Pacific Coast Dining Company which is actually in Little Italy. (It's on the end of the main street with a glass bump out. I know I've been there under different ownership at some point!) Our recommendation is not to bother stopping by. Doesn't "Pacific Coast" mean seafood to you? They didn't know what they wanted to be. There were fish type things on the menu, but Mike had crab risotto and it was sorely lacking in crab. I ordered ribs from the random menu because they sounded good, but then found out they were out of ribs. (That was weird, but not nearly as weird as being out of lemons as I was told when I requested one for my water!) In the end, we both had food that was fine, but we won't go back.

Since we had time to kill before the party, we walked over to Vacarro's. I don't really like italian cookies but I like gelato!! I wound up just getting a hot chocolate since we still had a party to go to, but Mike had  a huge dessert creation with pumpkin cheesecake, chai gelato, and some kind of fancy latte.

Finally, we went bowling at Patterson Bowling Center. It was the craziest bowling alley I'd ever been to - two stories! Just 6 lanes upstairs and downstairs. Our party had the whole upstairs which was pretty fun. It was definitely old school duck pin bowling, but nice to have the place to ourselves.

Oh wait - that WASN'T finally! Our PA friends were also at the party, so we hung out with them for a little while after the bowling party. Since we were in Canton and didn't want to look for yet another parking space, we decided to walk over towards the Outback & assorted places in that area. Somehow, we wound up in the Fieldhouse (used to be Ray Lewis' place) watching the UFC fight in a booth. Crazy, but true. And gross!!!!!!! However, we totally agreed with the judges on who deserved to win. We also agreed that perhaps we never need to watch another UFC fight because the announcers declared it one of the best UFC fights ever. How could any other fight compare? ;)

Year 2 - Day 322 - November 9

Another month, another Duclaw glass. We added to our Devil's Milk glass collection today with the 2011 version. "The Milkman Cometh"

Let us all remember, I don't even LIKE Devil's Milk. But I do like brisket sandwiches, so I'm a happy girl. :)

Year 2 - Day 295 - October 23

Before heading out this morning, we had breakfast at the Dough Roller on the boardwalk. I saw a sign saying they're famous for their wide variety of pancakes so that's what I ordered. Bacon pancakes! Genius idea! Really they just cooked an "X" of bacon strips on the grill before pouring the batter on top, but still, genius. That, added with THIS view made for the best breakfast I've had since my birthday brunch!

Also seen in this picture, the balconies of our hotel. We opted to be cheap and stay on the bay side. It's ok though because you couldn't beat the location and we could still see water! This was the last of our fun meals on this mini getaway and let me tell you - it was fun while it lasted!

Year 2 - Day 292 - October 20

Here we are in Ocean City! Woohoo! I'm helping run the MASL conference today and tomorrow and Mike's here to enjoy the vacation that comes afterwards. At some point today my supposed allergies turned into a nasty cold. Since I'm exhausted we went out for an early dinner and came back to the hotel.

We had dinner at a place on the water 4 years ago, the last time we were in OC for the conference. I don't remember what Mike had for dinner that night, but he has always kept the meal in his top 5 of all times. We couldn't remember the name, but a vague recollection of a bridge view and the assistance of Google Maps led us back to the same restaurant. Turns out it's called Fager's Island.

Great food, a little pricy, but worth it. The view is great, and at sunset they played (and timed perfectly with the sun going over the horizon) the 1812 Overture. Fun! Now we're sitting here watching BBT and I'm going to bed at 8:30. That's just how exciting I am.

Year 2 - Day 286 - October 14

Tonight I attended the Maryland State Teacher of the Year banquet with some of my colleagues. One of my friends and fellow media specialists won the honor at our county level and was a top 7 finalist for the state. Due to those awesome circumstances, the higher-ups in our county paid for a table of media specialists to go and enjoy the evening. While our friend did not win, we had a great time and the person who did win will be a great voice for our state.

There was a tanker accident on 95 in Harford County, so it took 3 hours to get to Martin's West from Perryville. Ouch. Luckily we got there just in time to see the ceremony begin. Whew. If you ever have an opportunity to go, you should because it's a great evening. I saw lots of people I know from other counties, as well, and enjoyed a chance to get dressed up.

Years and years ago, our high school had prom at Martin's West. I have a picture with me and the same three guys from two consecutive proms in this room. (One was from my senior year and one from the year after since the guy I was dating was younger.) The pictures both have this chandelier in the background, and the pictures together in side by side frames made a complete chandelier. I always thought that was pretty cool (and random, because we didn't do it on purpose!) but tonight I realized the same chandelier is hanging in a few different spaces throughout the room, so our pictures were a little less random than previously believed.