UsBrowns + Dozer...

2.16.2009

Baltimore day trip

Saturday we jumped in the car and headed up to Baltimore for the day. Ken and Liesl have year-passes to the aquarium up there and suggested we go, so off we were!
Our stomachs decided we should eat before doing anything too adventurous... We were really bummed to find that Fogo De Chao's didn't open until 4pm, so we settled for P.F. Changs. Probably not as good, but definitely cheaper! :-)
K&L

Us'ns lookin' our best (...not).

3-legged Turtle! Don't know his story, but he sorta just swam in circles... :-P

Most of the aquarium shots didn't turn out the best, but I love all the different fish/textures/shapes in this one!

Panoramic of Baltimore, MD from their World Trade Center - 27 floors up!

Liesl laying on a bed of nails at the IMAX space museum...

... of course, I had to try it too!

Whatever was inside must have been shocking!!

Done for the day!!! We had a great time, decent weather (it only snowed for a few minutes!) and the traffic wasn't even that bad! Mission accomplished. :-)

Thanks K&L for the idea!

Fondue for Valentines Day!

We celebrated Valentines Day a few hours early... Friday night! Troy, Bobbi, Brooklyn, Liesl and Ken came over to our place for fondue. It was AMAZING! So fun to be with good friends, and really, does it get much better than cheese and chocolate?!
Some of the dippins: Bread, Crackers, Salami, Turkey, Sausage, Apples, Bananas, Strawberries, Pineapple, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Red/Yellow/Orange Peppers, Pound Cake, Marshmallows, Nilla Wafers & Cupcakes.
I made two fondue's to dip in, Apple Cider Smoked Cheddar (soooooooooooo good!) and Milk Chocolate Espresso...
This was such a fun party to have!

Flowers from my forever friend! I love him!!!!!!!

I love the grapefruit in the vase... SO pretty.

I'm SUCH a lucky girl to be able to spend my life, not just Valentines day, but EVERY day with the man of my dreams!

1.29.2009

What's for supper?

Ham & Broccoli Quiche
- Mix Cheese, Egg and Ham
- Saute Onions, then mix in Broccoli

Combine, pop in oven & wait 30 minutes!

Quick, easy and the hubby loved it!
I found an awesome blog the other day, and thot I'd share. It's called 'What's for supper Mom?'. The contributors of this blog are constantly uploading recipes and ideas of what to make for dinner/lunch/dessert etc. I love it! I hate coming up with ideas of what to make for dinner, and this blog puts ideas in my head. :)

1.28.2009

Snow finally!

We finally have SNOW! I'm SOOO excited! 3 inches... it's beautiful!
(I'll mention on the sly that it's supposed to turn into freezing rain tonight, ice tomorrow, and melt away by tomorrow evening, but for right now I'm quite HAPPY!)

Here's a glimpse of my new orchid...

See, I'm happy! (and blurry) :-)

This definitely would not be my preferred mode of transportation in this weather! Looks like it stayed home today...

After my stroll in the snow, I came home to this sweet little window kitty. Cute.

1.27.2009

3 blooms, 1 to go!

Pretty.

Another friend gave me an orchid yesterday... That's my next project! :)

Re-building!

Saturday we spent a bit of time at Ken & Liesl's again... this time however, instead of demolishing, we were rebuilding! As therapeutic as demolition feels, it's also nice to see progress in the way of construction. :-)
We spent the day in the kitchen... which looked like this when we arrived. Liesl was already hard at work putting up insulation.

Here's the kitchen when we left that evening! Ready (except for one little piece of missing drywall) to be taped and mudded. K&L are doing that this week.

Ken, Liesl and Peter working on measurements for a very precarious piece!
(Notice the beautiful hardwoods?! - They cover the sub-floor I mentioned in a previous post... looks nice huh?!)

...and here is the aforementioned "precarious" piece! Brilliant the way they cut it!

Another end to a productive day! K&L move in this week!!!

New OLD wheels!

Yep, it's here! This big ole' mud/snow/mountain loving truck made the 2,721 mile trip to the East Coast last week.
I must admit, we stick out like a sore thumb! You can count on two hands how many vehicles are in the City of Fairfax that are over 15 years old... not to mention big, lifted trucks.
Anyhow, we're glad to have a second vehicle again. :)

1.24.2009

Look, Ma! I growed something!

Many of you would know that I did not in ANY way inherit my mothers green thumb. So you can imagine my panic when our Wednesday night elder gave me an Amaryllis bulb to grow. To make this even more stressful, the bulb was bought as part of an annual fundraiser to raise money for research on the awful Huntington's disease, which our elder's wife has.
**Side note: amazing, touching article about how they live day-to-day here.** So, now you can understand why I REALLY wanted to keep this thing alive.
Well, the day has come, and amidst semi-frequent watering, cat bites on the stem, and not-the-best sunlight exposure, it's BLOOMING! :) The little darling has 4 flowers emerging, and is so heavy I had to tie it to the window to hold it up... Yahoo!

Be-ooooo-tiful!

Upon first glance, this photo looks so sweet - Mr. Dozer likes to "smell the flowers". However, if you really look close, he's actually getting ready to take another (!!) tasty little nibble out of that delicious, thick stem. *sigh* I really can't believe the flower has survived my lack of attention, and Dozer's constant attention! So far he's only managed two chomps into it - I usually catch him in the act!

Hope you're having some success blooming this winter too!!!

1.22.2009

Outerbanks, NC

We spent Jan 16th-20th in Outerbanks North Carolina, with some friends, escaping the inauguration mayhem in DC! :)
The motivated girls making the rest of us look bad... (running on vacation??? come'on!)
Red-Jen, Pink-Jania, Blue-Lisa, Yellow-Wendy

The ONLY bad part about the house... NASTY. Apparently they don't keep up the pool chemicals in the winter. They did have the hot tub nice and hot tho!