Best.co-workers.ever

I haven't been in my office all that much recently, which certainly has its perks, but I've missed my co-workers. We're an odd bunch, but we definitely get along smashingly well.

Friday morning, I walked into the office at 8am and came face to face with my vandalized cubicle.

What the heck?

Oh wait, my birthday is on Saturday and clearly my co-workers felt that I deserved a middle school-esq streamer party. Plus, there were balloons everywhere. In every single draw, every single nook, even in my trash can.

It was hilarious. I tried taking the streamers down and got yelled at. Apparently, it's the type of humiliation that must stay in place for the entire day.

All was forgiven when it turns out one of my co-workers made Funetti Cupcakes for a post-lunch treat. She even remembered to make vanilla cupcakes because I gave up chocolate for Lent.


I must say, working in a small office definitely has its perks. Chipotle luncheons in the conference room, easy access to upper management, and birthday celebrations. I've never worked in an office that celebrated birthdays like my current one and I've got to say, I like it.

I'm not going to see my office until March and I'm a bit bummed. :(

Goodbye cruel PC world!!!!

and hello Mac world!!!

Our craptastic Dell died, again. This time it doesn't seem to be worth the time and aggravation to be brought back from the dead.

The hubs and I have talked about "upgrading" to a Mac at some point in the near future. The plan was to do it after we moved because having one less thing to break while moving sounded like a good idea. Then, the computer broke and the hubs was left computer-less for three days.

Not.a.happy.camper.

So, the hubs made the executive decision that we get a Mac. He had me at hello!!!

Last weekend this beauty came into our lives and I don't know how we ever managed without her. She's wonderful and everything people say about a Mac. Ours doesn't have those silly wires for the keyboard and mouse. Seriously, wires are so 2009 (kidding).



The only downside to having a Mac is that I no longer have Photoshop :( But that's the only negative thing I can say.

Stuck in Denver

An incredible opportunity presented itself at my job within the past 10 days. An incredible opportunity that required quite a bit of travel, a whole bunch of nerves, and the willingness to say, "I am not 100% sure of the answer to your question, but I will confirm the answer and get back to you."

So, for my career I put my nerves to the wall and boarded a plane for Memphis on Tuesday morning. It was a race against time to beat the arrival of the 4th snowstorm to hit Baltimore within 10 days. Of course, this latest storm was the second region-crippling storm to hit the area within five days. I believe I was on one of the last flights to make it out of BWI before the airport shut down.

Two hours and fifteen minutes later I landed in Memphis, TN.

Four hours and 31 minutes later I arrived at my destination of Denver, CO.

Unfortunately, I landed in Denver just before sunset and I didn't get to fully appreciate the sun setting over the enormously beautiful Rockie Mountains.

I will say this about Denver- you certainly don't "feel" like you're a mile up in the air. Everything is so flat you imagine yourself just above sea level. There isn't a gradual slope to the Rockies, instead they rise out of the earth like a true force to be reckon with.

But, they are beautiful.

Then, to add injury to insult my entire Wednesday included sitting in the basement of a very nice hotel in downtown Denver. The only time I ventured outside was to run across the street and fetch a cup of coffee at one of the numerous Starbucks locations. I didn't even get to gaze upon the Rockies.

But, I'm snowed in. Not because a major snowstorm has hit the Rockies, but instead because the same storm that I raced against to get out of has still crippled the east coast. BWI is closed, my flight home has been canceled. I'm "trapped" in a city that I've never even seen in broad daylight. I've been put on a later flight, but the travel agent laughed when she booked me,"maybe you'll make it home before Friday."

It hasn't even been two days and I miss my husband terribly. He's been traveling for work recently and I haven't seen him all that often. Now, it's my turn to travel for work. This week I'm in Denver, next week I'm in Florida and then Indianapolis and Phoenix, while he goes to Fort Polk, LA. I miss him. I thought one perk of getting married was seeing each other all the time. I thought I didn't have to sleep by myself anymore. I miss snuggling. I miss fighting for the bathroom in the morning. Sadly enough, we won't spend a whole two weeks together until later in March and even possibly April.

In the meantime, anyone have any suggestions of things to do in Denver? I'm going to be here all day tomorrow and I might as well get out of the Marriott confines and see a bit of the city.

8 years ago...

this guy came over for a nice date. We split a carton of Ben & Jerry's ice cream and watched the Opening Ceremony for the Winter Olympics.

Okay, that doesn't sound like the most exciting date, but it was a great night between two extremely tired out college jocks. I had just finished my first week of spring soccer conditioning and I could barely lift my backpack over my shoulders. My date had just finished his first week of two-a-day practices for baseball season.

Yuppers, 8 years ago today, the hubs and I had our first date! I think we're going to pick up a pint of ice cream for this Friday's Opening Ceremony for the Winter Olympics.

I went quickly through a stack of old CDs and found a few older pictures of the hubs and me.

Us with our best friends, the guy is the one who actually introduced the hubs and me.

After my brother's high school graduation.

Before my last ADPi spring formal. The hubs was by far the best dressed guy at formal. I loved that tie so much that the hubs wore it again on our wedding day. I thought that was an awesome touch.

Right after the hubs popped the question.

It's been an amazing 8 years.

Banana Cupcakes with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

I've already shared that the weather wasn't very dry and warm over the weekend. One thing I love to do when the outside temperatures dip down below the freezing threshold is bake. There's nothing better than a sweet fragrance lingering throughout the house and the cozy, warm feeling achieved by a cooking oven in the kitchen. Jewels usually hangs out in her kennel in the kitchen, just so she can absorb as much of the heat as possible.

My love for baking presents me with one minor problem- I hardly work out during the winter months. The only time my slight asthma kicks in is when it's cold outside. It feels like a rhino is trying to sit on my lungs and it is far from a pleasant sensation. Throw in a bad incident where I nearly passed out because I didn't have my inhaler on me and the hubs is not a fan of me running by myself when it's under 40 degrees. Yeah, he's kind of crazy in the sense that he cares about my personal well-being and wants me to stay alive. Minor details.

Since I refuse to join a gym, it's safe to say that my only real exercise is the daily walk I make from the train station to my office. That's maybe 20 minutes of walking a day... yeah I know, that's not good.

In order to quench my baking thirst and keep my clothes fitting properly, I make do by baking things I don't really like to eat. I'm not a pumpkin person, so it works out quite nicely because the hubs loves pumpkin roll. I've lost count of how many pumpkin rolls I've made this winter, so I was looking for something else to make.

hmmm, we have bananas. I don't like bananas. Let's see what I can make with these bananas and not eat all of them.

The answer: Banana Cupcakes with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting from the ever popular Martha Stewart.

Naked cupcakes.


Now, complete with a yummy Honey-Cinnamon Frosting.

Mmmmm, tasty. Yes, I ate more than one and I don't even like bananas. I may or may not have eaten a ton of frosting as well. It happens to the best of us, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Weather forecast = fail

Have you ever noticed that the weather forecast crew can be so off based so frequently, or so it seems, and yet, still be gainfully employed? Then again, if you were a major league batter and you averaged a hit 3 out of 10 trips to the plate over the course of your career, well, you'd have Hall of Fame numbers. Now, I don't know about you, but if I only succeeded at my job as often as professional baseball players and weather reporters, it seems I'd probably be out of my job. So much for picking the right career path!

It just strikes me as odd because it seems so many news channels proclaim that their station provides, "the accurate forecast." I wonder if a weather person's family members even bother asking for a weather forecast at the dinning room table?

There were rumblings at the beginning of last week for a chance of snow this past weekend. Once that rumor hit the water cooler it seemed everyone started playing a game of, "I heard we were going to get *** inches of snow." Seriously, it's like a giant fish story, someone always hears of a larger snow forecast.

By mid-week the rumblings were telling a different story and saying that the storm was going to stay to the south and the greater Baltimore area was only going to receive a dusting of snow.

Enter Saturday, 11am- it starts snowing.

Enter Saturday, 4pm- the hubs takes the dogs outside and cleans the 4-6 inches of snow off of our sidewalks and cars.

Sure, because 4-6 inches of snow might be considered a "dusting" in some areas, but we don't live in one of those areas. I'm only slightly bitter because I've been feeling under the weather (pun not intended) all weekend and I didn't even want to go outside and spend a second in the snow. The hubs was concerned.

At least Jax had a good time:




Jewels, not so much: