Weekend Recap!

Happy Monday, party people!! I hope your weeks are off to a fab start! Mine has been pretty good, even though the week has started off stressful at work, BUT I started the day with the knowledge that I have 5 more work days until I am off work for 2 weeks. And with the knowledge that Jamaica's sun, sand, food and drink are waiting for me 7 days from now! Let's say, Jamaica is quite the nice proverbial "light at the end of the tunnel" to have to focus on!

A pic from the hotel we'll be staying at!

But, MG and I have done quite a good job of filling up these past few weekends with really fun activities to help us get through, and this weekend was no different! Friday night we went to our couple friend's place for a St. Patty's day dinner where we had a ton of yummy food, beverage, and we brought those Irish Cream Brownies I mentioned on Friday (recipe here):

The brownies were a total hit....and since there were only 8 of us, there were quite a few leftovers--all of which  are going to MG's coworkers today so that neither one of us goes into a sugar coma and/or gets incredibly obese!

The night went from food and drink to playing Trivial Pursuit, which I can't ever remember playing before, but it was a lot of fun. We split into random teams--my teammate was my girl Jackie--and my team won! It was a really nice time hanging out with good friends, playing games and laughing until past 1am!

But, the weekend wasn't over there! The next day a group of us met up at a local bar near where we all live, grabbed a spot in the outside seating area and enjoyed the amazing weather, good company and celebrated good ol' St. Patrick!

Boys doing shots

Me and my Trivial Pursuit partner/winner!

The day was absolutely perfect--the bar wasn't too crowded (since it wasn't an Irish bar), the weather was beautiful and we didn't get ridiculously stupid! All wins in my book!

Sunday was spent relaxing and MG and I went to see 21 Jump Street with my heart-throb Channing Tatum. The movie was pretty funny, had some over the top stupid parts, but overall was entertaining. And any time I thought it was dumb, I just stared longingly at Channing, and all was ok with the world! The only issue we had was a really loud older couple who commented and laughed insanely loud (like,WAY louder than was necessary) and clapped at weird moments in the movie. They had been loud before the movie even started and everyone moved away from them. Luckily they didn't ruin it all, but after the movie MG and I both commented on how we were surprised that people like that actually exist. But, they do!

Overall, I would say that this weekend was awesome! We did a ton of fun things, hung out with great people, and made the best of the entire weekend and its beautiful weather! Now, just one more weekend to go before travel time!!

I hope you all are starting the week with fond memories from the weekend to get you through the day!

Friday's Fancies: Luck O the Irish and Baileys Irish Cream Brownie Recipe

Happy Friday!! I'm SO glad it's Friday, which means that the weekend is right there waiting at the end of the workday for us! Woohoo!! This weekend is also St. Patrick's Day, which will probably involve copious amounts of drinking (as if I needed to do more of that after my birthday weekend last weekend). In the DC area, as I'm sure is true of other big cities, St. Patty's Day is another excuse to have many many many bar crawls.

Since today is Friday, and that means there is a Friday's Fancies link up, that just so happens to center around St. Patty's day.....

I created an outfit that would be perfect for a St. Patty's Day bar crawl! 

Friday's Fancies: Luck O the Irish by jamiffer featuring fitted shirts

I made sure to have comfy shoes for all of the standing/walking (before tripping/falling over, etc later), a trusty and cute crossbody bag to carry all bar crawl essentials, and the always-present bead necklace for whatever occasion brings you to the bar crawl!

 MG and I are going over to a friend's place tonight for a St. Patty's Day dinner where we are bringing Bailey's Irish Cream Brownies that we made last night:

And, let me tell you, after seeing the sickening insane amount of sugar, butter, cream cheese and all other things horrible for you.....they are amazingly delish!

(This recipe is courtesy of and copied from Wee Kitchen here) 

What you need:

Brownie batter

• 1 cup butter (we did unsalted)
• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs (or 5 smaller which is what we did)
• 1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream Cheese Filling:

• 16 ounces cream cheese (we did 1/3 fat and they still taste good)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 large egg (again, we did 2 smaller eggs)
• 3 tablespoons Bailey’s Irish Cream liqueur (or some other Irish Cream brand)

For the brownies:
Get a medium sauce pan and put the chocolate and the butter in, melt it over low heat, stirring frequently.  Once melted, take the pot off of the heat and let it cool while you preheat the over to 350 degrees F. Get out your baking pan (13 x9) and line it with aluminum foil, and then spray it with cooking spray so the brownies dont stick to it. 

Then you get to mixing. In a medium to large bowl, beat the sugar (2cups) and  eggs (4 large) together until they are light and fluffy. This takes about 3 minutes. Mix the flour and salt together (it says to sift it together...we just mixed it haha) and then add it into the sugar mixture in 1/2 cup increments (otherwise you get a ton of flour flying all over the place). Once done, add in the chocolate mixture by folding it into the bowl (and then I just stirred it all together until it was one consistent color throughout).

For the cream cheese filling:
In another medium bowl, combine the cream cheese and sugar and beat  them until creamy. Continue to beat while adding the egg (1 large, or 2 small) and liqueur (3 tbsp)

To make the brownies:
Pour half of the brownie batter into the pan then pour and spread all of the the cream cheese mixture over the brownie layer. Pour the remaining brownie batter over the cream cheese layer and use a spatula to smooth it all so it looks nice. To create a marbled effect, swirl the layers together with a knife. Bake the whole thing for 40 minutes (and close your nose because the tantalizing smell that will fill your living space is going to torture and torment you!) and let it cool entirely before you attempt to cut it.

And then give in to temptation (after being tortured for 40+ minutes) and taste test! 

Nothing like a deliciously fattening treat for St. Patty's Day!

Have a great weekend!

It's OK....

It's Thursday and my brain is all stuffy from being sick, so I dont have much brain power to be creative today. Since I haven't done an It's Ok, link up for a bit, I thought, why not today? Less thinking, more blogging!

It's OK....

....to enjoy the super early Spring weather we are having here in DC, but be annoyed that my body and brain are now totally thrown off because now it feels like school/work should be out in a few weeks rather than in a few months!

.....to be sick with the sniffles and coughs and just want it to GO AWAY! Especially so I can enjoy the lovely weather outside.

....to see a picture of your ex and literally feel sick. Not because you miss them, but because you wonder what the heck you were thinking!

.....to be a little nervous that my cold won't go away in time for my trip to Jamaica (11 days!!!) with MG. Fingers crossed the cough and everything clears up by then!

....to resort to immature levels and "put away" (hide) some things in your apartment that your roommate refuses to take care of that are yours. I'm sorry but if you don't know how to put Tupperware away out of the dishwasher, and you don't know how to clean pots and pans after you use them, then you DON'T get to use them. Funny how the same principles I use with the kids I work with, apply to this "adult" I live with.

....to be contemplating staying at a job that I hate, because they are talking about a 10-15% salary increase for next school year (~$5-8K). Happiness is important (and I definitely don't have it here), but so is getting paaaaaaaid. What to do, what to do...

....to be wearing a skirt and flip flops on March 15th, because it's supposed to be in the HIGH 80's today. And to remember that this time, 2 years ago, we were still looking at piles and piles of snow from our 2 insane-o blizzards. Craziness!

....to be totally surprised when MG's mom sent me a birthday package to his apartment this past weekend. I did not expect a gift from his parents, and it was SO sweet of her to do. She sent me all kinds of things to get ready for our trip to Jamaica including sunglasses, SPF, a bracelet and a cover-up. I absolutely adore his parents.

....to hate hate hate captchas!!! Especially since now you have to decipher  TWO words to enter. People, check your blog settings and change it away from this--I think some people have it set on this and don't even know it. It actually discourages people from commenting on your blog.

....to hope that people don't get mad at me for saying that I hate captchas! (Don't hate me! ) :)

....to be totally, 100% ready for the weekend!

WILW and Oh How Pinteresting!

Happy Hump Day, beauties (and handsomes if there are any guys out there reading)! It's my favorite day of the week for link ups, and I'm excited to just jump right in!

I'm loving that MG and my trip to Jamaica is only 12 days away, and that by the end of this weekend, the countdown will be in the single digits! Woot! (You might be getting tired of hearing about this, but I'm not getting tired of thinking about it hehe)

I'm loving the insanely amazing super early Spring time weather we are having here in DC. It got up to 80 yesterday. I remember this time two years ago, we still had massive piles of snow everywhere from the two blizzards. And today I am wearing flip flops!

I'm loving all of the birthday love I got from you guys! It was a really good birthday, despite it feeling (early on) like it was going to be a horrible one. I'm also loving that two of my bloggie/real life buddies, Trish and Pinky were able to come out for my birthday

I'm loving that there are less than 4 months now of living with my spoiled, messy, inconsiderate, rude-for-no-reason roommate.  I can not wait to be living somewhere completely differently from her where I don't have to worry about my things getting cleaned/ruined, walking home to find a hamster cage on the dining room table, her sister living at my place on the weekends, wine bottles/trash left out for days/weeks, or her stink-pot attitude....among many other things. Yay July!

I'm loving that MG's family is having a family reunion this summer and that I was invited. From the beginning it was basically talked about as if it was assumed that I would go, and it makes me feel happy that his family likes me and wants me there (and that he wants to introduce me to the rest of the family that I havent met yet!)

And, as always, I'm loving Pinterest, especially yesterday as it entertained me from my sick bed at home!

This week I've been pinning...

Since it's SO Spring-y here, I am drooling over some cute Spring clothes! 

Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Mac n Cheese  I seriously need to get on this
quinoa train!

More Spring lovelies!

Mandarin oranges, white wine and Sprite
This looks like the perfect Spring/Summer drink! Yummy!! 

Teehee!

What have YOU been pinning this week? I wanna see it!

Birthday Weekend Wrap-up and Giveaway Winner

Happy Tuesday!

I took a day off from blogging cuz I hadn't uploaded my pictures from the weekend yet, and am feeling a bit under the weather (scratchy throat, trouble sleeping), so I took a little "blog nap" if you will.

But, I'm back here to recap my birthday weekend and to announce the winner of my MyMemories Suite giveaway!

{via} this is not my meal but the closest pic I could find 

Friday night, MG and I went to dinner with a couple friend of ours and discovered a really delicious restaurant that has been in the area that we had never heard of before, called The Village Bistro. It was SO good! If you looked up the menu online you'd probably be underwhelmed by the options, BUT when you get there, the daily specials menu is like 4 times as long as the regular menu since all of the fish/seafood they get is shipped in fresh from all over the place (Costa Rica, Hawaii, etc etc). I had been having a craving for shrimp all week (if you follow my pinboards, you probably noticed that trend also! haha), so I ordered the jumbo scallops and jumbo shrimp with whole wheat penne pasta and a creamy pesto sauce. Oh EM GEEEEE it was amazeballs delish! Here's an example of why it was so awesome: I took my butter knife and gently sliced it down the scallop and the thing fell open. It was SO tender. Along with some yummy wine and great company, it was the perfect night.

Saturday during the day MG and I ran some errands and worked on a puzzle that we had started the week before. Yes we are old people. (I just realized how lame it sounds to say that we did a puzzle...lol) Oh well, it's been fun and we've done really well on it. One more "puzzle session" and we'll be done with it I think. After our puzzling, I got ready for the night, and MG gave me my gift before we went out which was a necklace from Tiffany's.  He said he looked long and hard for something that had purple in it (my fav color) and was happy when he saw this. Along with a really sweet card, it was a great birthday gift!

We headed out to grab some pizza at Pete's A Pizza with another couple friend, which was SO good. We originally got this huge pizza and when it came out all of us were like "wow, that's a lot"....let's just say there were only crumbs left on the pizza tray when we were done! haha Afterwards, we went to the bar and had way too many several drinks with my friends. Here are a few shots from the night:

Me and my bloggie-to-real-life buddy, P!nky!

Love of my life :) 

My college friend/roomie Trish (from Tales from Trish), my coworker Kara, and P!nky
all out for me!! 

My friend Jackie who is EJ's good friend's gf

There are a TON of other pictures, but I won't photo bomb you all.  Let's just say, there were many beverages to be had, and I got into my tender place where I made sure to tell everyone how much they mean to me, or how awesome they are. I get sappy when I drink....there are worse things, right? :) I was really glad that Trish was able to come out with her beau, and Pinky made it out with hers as well (and that our bf's got to meet for the first time!) There were a ton of great, and important people in my life there, and it meant a lot to me that they all took the time to come out and celebrate with me!

Sunday was spent recovering, and enjoying the amazing weather we are having here in DC. It got up into the 70's, so MG and I took Cooper for a long walk to enjoy the weather. We also went to dinner with my parents later that night. We celebrated with more yummy food (man, while writing this post, Im realizing why I felt so full all weekend haha) and tiramisu bday cake!

 Overall, it was a really great birthday, and the amazing 70 degree (and more) weather that we are getting this week is making me that much happier!

Thanks for all of the pre-birthday wishes, bloggie friends, and for the support in dealing with the person from my past that I mentioned last week. You all rock!

~.~.~.~.~.~

And, I would like to announce the winner of the MyMemories Suite Giveaway:

Stephanie! (I promise, it was random through rafflecopter, I just couldn't figure out how to get a screen capture of it). Steph, I already contacted you about winning, and I'll make sure to get in contact again with the information!

Hope you all are having a good start to the week!

I'm Being Watched....

First of all, Happy Friday to all of you! I'm super excited that it's the weekend, and not just because it's my birthday this weekend :)

My post was going to be very light and fluffy, but I had something happen yesterday that I just needed to share.

I was contacted yesterday by someone from my past who I had dated for a short while after my long term, long-distance relationship (I won't say any names or initials, if you've been following for a while, you can figure it out), who claims that several of his friends have contacted him to let him know that I have written (or am writing) horrible things about him and the end of our relationship. He told me to take them down or he would take me to court. He then contacted me again, minutes later, saying that he had checked it out for himself and that he couldn't find anything bad.

There are several things about this that either don't add up and/or bother me:

1) A small handful of my actual friends know that I have a blog. None of those people are friends with him. So who these "people" are (who are SO misinformed), makes me wonder...
2) He never knew the name of my blog or the www address. And if no one that we know in common knows about my blog, and I have no facebook groups or things like that that link people to my blog, how would "they," or he, have found it without a pretty decent search, specifically looking for it.
3) I have never written anything bad about him or when we stopped seeing one another. Even though there was plenty that I could have said about the things that went on, I kept those to myself. Like many of you know, your private life is your private life. I share the light and happy stuff on here, but obviously life isn't perfect. I don't talk about the intimate details of my relationships on here. Never have, never will.
4)Why would you accuse someone of something without checking out the claim yourself beforehand?
5) This was well over 6 months ago. It wasn't yesterday or last week. Seems kind of random and out of nowhere.
6) The fact that he now knows what my blog is and has access to my everyday things and personal details about myself and my relationship with MG really weirds me out. There was a reason why we stopped being friends on facebook and stopped communicating. I wanted him to be no part of my life whatsoever. So the fact that he can now check in on me whenever he wants, really just sketches me out.

So, when this all happened, initially I was bummed because I started to worry that I wouldn't be able to share everything I wanted to on here that I would normally share. Not mean stuff (that's not what my blog is about), but the personal things about me and my life that people from my past don't need to, and shouldn't, be a part of.  But, I'm not going to let him stop me.  The whole point of my blog is to connect with other people, but if people in my past want to check up on me and keep track of my life, then that's fine. I'm going to keep going on with my life, and enjoying the people and things that are in it, just like I've always done.  I'm the happiest in my relationship with MG than I have ever been with anyone else I've been with. I love him with everything that I have. And I'm going to continue to share that. No matter who is reading/watching.

So, to spin things into a positive note, what I can take from all of this is the following:

I was talking to a friend about this whole situation yesterday and was telling her I wish that I had never met him. And she said "But what if you had to meet him  in order to find {MG}?"....and of course I paused, smiled, and knew that she was right (and that I had to admit it haha).
I would go through it a hundred times over if it meant meeting MG at the end of it.

There are several sayings that say things like "You have to go through the rain storms to fully appreciate the sun" ...you know the other ones, that basically mean you have to go through some icky stuff to fully appreciate when you have something great.

So that's what I'm taking from this. I wouldn't trade MG for anything in the world, and if I had to go through some crappy stuff to get there, then I'm ok with that. I just hope the icky stuff and the people from my past stay in the past.

So, I leave you with that happy note to end the week and start the weekend with. Now I'm off to get through the work day and get my birthday weekend started!

To Quinoa or Not to Quinoa?

Or, maybe I should have titled this post, "quin-whaaaat?" (get it? get it??)

So, I've noticed a TON of people talking about this funny thing called "quinoa" (pronounced, from what I can tell as "Keen-wahh"--now do you get my joke above?? :) and seen tons of recipes from folks that include it. Usually in place of pasta or rice.

I had heard of it a while back from my mom, but didn't pay too much attention to it. And then all over the blog scene and Pinterest these recipes keep popping up. And now I am intrigued.

I've found yummy things, for example:

Quinoa Mac and Cheese

Weight Watchers Quinoa and Apple Breakfast "cereal" 

Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Mac and Cheese
(can you tell that I like Mac and Cheese? hehe)

Shrimp and Quinoa Salad

Quinoa "Burger"

And I know one of you who I follow (and apparently I can't remember who it was) had one post about a ton of quinoa things that you had made that all looked really tasty!

So....I am thinking that I need to get on the bandwagon and try this little guy out. Apparently there are many advantages to it, some of which include:

• it's allllll protein ("has 9 essential amino acids that are required by the body as building blocks for muscles"  --(taken from BodyEcology Website)
• it's got fiber fiber fiber!
• it's easily digested (for some reason the "Activiaaaaaa" jingle just popped into my head)
• According to the BodyEcology website, it also might be effective in treating and/or preventing artherosclerosis (say what?), breast cancer, diabetes and insulin resistance (BodyEcology)

Apparently there are a butt-ton of other reasons why quinoa is the shizz, too. Dang,  I had no idea!!

Alright, so I guess the answer to my blog title is: To Quinoa!

Anyone had any experience with it? Is it yummy? Is it easy to make? Hook a blogger up and fill me in!!

Happy quinoa'ing!!