It's just way too early

Now, I went to Home Depot today to get some fly paper [we have a fly issue...it's icky] and when I was there I noticed that they have Christmas trees, lights, and ornaments out already. ALREADY!!!! It's September 21st, over three months till Christmas, it's not even October, Halloween or Thanksgiving yet. Now, I don't like to see Christmas stuff really until after Halloween, or even Thanksgiving all that much. This is just insane.

Later in my errands I had to go to BJs to get bulk everything. One thing was 2, 42lbs bags of cat litter. I can barely lift these things over the edge of the cart to get them in, let alone, back out of the cart, into the car, out of the car, and into the house...but the first bag I picked up apparently had a big hole in it. As I heave it up towards my cart, a huge stream of litter pours out...right into my shoe.... Super. Sadly, these bags don't last that long. I would have bought more but it's just not in me to lift 42lbs repeatedly.

Those kitties had better catch a bunch of flies and earn their keep!

J/k. They both gave me super cuddles while I worked today.

2 things

So I tried that Chobani greek yogurt everyone is raving about. 1- when I checked the expiration date right before I was going to eat it [b/c once Giant sold me expired yogurt :-( ] the date was October 10th or so, and I was like- wow, this is some super long lasting yogurt! October! Then I realized that was basically just a month away. Where did summer go?

2- this stuff tastes like eating straight up sour cream. Seriously, it's soooo thick. I got one w/ pineapple on the bottom, but the sweet pineapple didn't do much to help the yogurt. It was good, but I don't really think of it as yogurt. And it so was so thick, I couldn't even eat it all, it was too much! I have another one I haven't eaten yet, it's a honey flavored one, I'll give it a try, maybe it's better.

Ok, still on the food track, so maybe "3 things"- I'm making a Bolognese sauce today. It takes like 4.5 hours...so far it's been 20 mins. I'm browning a puree of onion, celery, carrot, and garlic. Then you add meat, brown, tomato paste, brown, red wine, brown, water, water, water water, brown it, brown it....you get the idea. It's apparently a labor of love, we'll see if we love it when it's done. Andrew is going to make home made ricotta gnocci. I'm excited! Pictures to follow :-)

My First Raven's Game

Andrew got tickets to a pre-season game through work and asked if I'd like to go, usually with the big games he and some friends go, so it was really nice of him to ask. I've never been to a Raven's game so I thought it would be fun. I'm not a big football fan but I know it can be a lot of fun to go to games. I bought myself a cute t-shirt for the occasion and all! The weather was great and I ended up having a really nice time. I did find myself letting my eyes wander around the stadium during the game and then I'd miss whatever play was going on...but it was still fun.

I'm not sure when the season starts, but I really want to attend some Capitals games this year. Last year was the first year I really watched games and it was a great year to start. I think I would enjoy watching in person too. Hopefully we can get tickets to some games this fall.

What is your favorite sport to watch in person? On TV?

Beach Trip Highlights

We had a great week of relaxing, drinking, eating, beaching, pooling, cooking, reading...good times. Here are some pictures of the fun:

Here is our beach fort, it was pretty great, plenty of shade, which I took full advantage of. Also used my beach umbrella bag which worked great!

Me, under the umbrella, big floppy hat, sunglasses and SPF 50! I'm not getting burnt!

Best beach game ever, "Kubb". Google it. You set up wooden blocks and have to knock them down w/ wooden dowels. Everyone that walked by stopped to watch for a while, since most people have never seen this game before.
Pool pong. Harder than you would think. Andrew improvised a speed version which worked out pretty well. Having a pool was actually really cool. You would think it is superfluous, but we really enjoyed having another place to relax and cool off. The ocean was a little rough the first part of the week then filled w/ jellyfish the last few days.
Artsy photo!
Would love to be able to go back to the beach w/ friends and family asap, but will have to wait till next year :-(

beach trip #2

4:45 wakeup
5:30 depart
11:00 arrive in Duck
2:00 beach
4:00 check into house
5:00 poolside
10:00 bed

That was day 1. Down in the Outer Banks again, this time with friends. We rented one of those houses w/ 8 bed rooms. So far it's been pretty great. Haven't seen what the beach is like near our house yet, but the pool in the back yard is pretty awesome. This place has three refrigerators! Pictures and updates to come. Gonna test out that umbrella carrying thingy!

Ready for the beach!

I just finished my first independent sewing project, a beach umbrella bag! We are headed back down to the Outer Banks in a week with 4 other couples. When I was down a few weeks ago I had our only umbrella, which had no carrying case and was kind of a pain to carry. I also bought another umbrella knowing when we were both on the beach we would both want our own shade. To solve the problem of carrying two umbrellas I figured I could made some sort of bag. I looked up patterns for yoga mat bags and based my project after them. I wanted a draw string top and a round bottom and a strap. I sort of fudged the pattern and just did my best. The hardest part was sewing the round bottom into the tube, I didn't really know how to do this and it's got some kinks and wrinkles. So if I were to make something more refined I would have to learn how to do this correctly. But as a first project, I'm pretty proud of the result! It fits both umbrellas and looks cute :-) I'll be sure to take some pictures at the beach too!

Two Down

Finished New Moon today on the beach. These books really are easy reads, and the story keeps you interested and wanting to keep reading. Despite that, I am going to take a quick break and read something else before moving on to Eclipse. That is, if I don't miss the characters and story line too much. H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds is next on my list. I always love heading to the "classics" or "summer reading" sections of the library. There are always soooo many books that I know are going to be good or have at least stood the test of time. Tons of books I feel like I should have read in school but never did. I've read Dracula, Rebecca, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Three Musketeers...and so on. It's also funny to see some of the stuff that makes it onto that list these days too. I've really come to enjoy the library system the past few years. What could be better than free books and movies???

Oh, and since I was going to be in the car for 8+ hours I decided to try a book on CD. I got A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseni. I should be about half way through, its at least 11 cds. It is very interesting so far. Easy book to listen to and pay attention even while driving. The fact that the drive is really easy helps I'm sure. Who knows if the book would be the same if you were reading it yourself. But so far I'd recommend it. The few minutes I was in the car today to get bread from the store I turned it on again, and sort of wanted to sit in the car back at the house to finish the short chapter...but I'll have plenty of time on Sunday.