who loves food? this girl.

let's get up to date...

july 3rd was amanda's 25th birthday. a group of us went to dinner in rockville and then out to barking dog in bethesda.

the next day was july 4th - z and I had some mango drink creation out on my balcony and then walked down to the mall for the fireworks. we had a great time!

Crazy Birds!

• I had a guitar lesson a few weeks ago. He wants me to practice and my aversion to practicing is the whole reason I still suck. It was a great lesson and now z is learning some guitar. He's practicing a lot more than I am...

• Eli had a pig roast. It was a LOT of fun. Music and food and dancing and friends and z and more music and more food and more dancing and going in the pool in our underwears, etc. Stayed until 1am having a great time!
  

I love Tuesdays. On Tuesdasy, z and I have "date night!" We made fajitas and drank margaritas and it was wonderful.

• I read a short story by one of z's friends. It was really interesting. I'm always intrigued by the brain of a writer.


• So, this past Thursday (which also seems to be a "date night") we walked a few blocks downtown to the Washington Kasltes Stadium. Apparently DC has a tennis team? Anyway, I was pretty high on Wimbledon so I decided to buy tickets to see some live tennis with John McEnroe. Ha! It was comical. Z and I had a lot of fun though. We are such dorks.
  


• Friday was an interesting day...to say the least. Z's car got towed from my parking lot on wednesday. we didn't have any time to go get it until Friday morning because of their stupid hours. So Friday morning, we ended up taking the day off work and we headed over to Northeast DC to the towing lot. It was SKETCHY! We got there around 9:15am (they opened at 9am). Z walked around and called the company but we couldn't reach anyone. We walked up to the gate and another guy was there waiting. He opened the gate and said "the guy is probably sleeping, I'll go check." So he goes in and sure enough, he WAS sleeping. LAME! The guy comes out wearing a shirt that said "you can't knock the hustle" but it almost look like it was in a middle eastern language. Anyway, we see z's car and it's behind three other cars, including a smashed up cadillac. The guy was like "how am I supposed to get this out of here?" Um, it's your freakin' job to give us the car once we pay you an absurd amount of money. FIGURE IT OUT! So he's calling people and tells us a guy is on the way. We wait in my car until about 12:15 and decide we can't stay there all day. We tell him "we'll call you, and you'll tell us that you can get the car out, then we'll come back." So we run some quick errands and find out we can go back and get it. We get there around 4-430 and the car is free, but a different guy is there. He looks at us like "what do you want." Well, jerkface, we're at a towing lot at 4 in the afternoon, hmmm WE WANT TO PICK UP OUR CAR! So he goes towards the office to get the papers, turns around and yells "yo, you got that cash money?" Um, excuse me? Do we have the cash? Yes. We have the $160 dollars in (SKETCHY) cash that the previous guy told us to bring. He says "It's $170." What? The guy told us $160, which makes sense ($100 tow, $20 perday). "He don't even understand English" He seemed to understand pretty well... "How you gonna tell me you know him? It's $170." No, it's $160. "Fine, give me the $160 and I'll just take it out of his paycheck." Great. So we get the car and LEAVE because we had to quickly shower, pack for CT and get to a friend's birthday party. Woof!



• We made it back to VA for an amazing dinner with R, S, z, D, and T. S got lobsters (for the boys), made a delicious spinach quiche (for the girls), potato salad, corn on the cob and PEANUT BUTTER PIE. Dmade an orzo/arugula salad with craisins and feta. I made a fresh fruit salad. Everything was so delcious. We sat around talking and listening to old school rap. It was awesome!

• We left the dinner at around 10pm and headed straight to CT for E's wedding! It was a long drive in little Sadie, but z and I were troopers! We listend to music, talked and enjoyed the ride, though we were exhausted! We made it to CT at 5am! Yikes. We checked into the Holiday Inn - Coco Key Waterpark (ugh, so gross) and passed out. We had to wake up at 8:30am, so needless to say, we were some tired kids! We made it to the church at 10:05am (10am wedding), but we were not late and were not the last ones there, phew! The ceremony was short and sweet. Everyone looked wonderful and it was SO good to see my old friends! The reception right after and we drove to the Aqua Turf Club which was gorgeous. It was also a fantastic weather day! We ate a lot and danced a lot and took advantage of the open bar. It was so much fun. We headed to E's mom's after that and stayed for a few hours. We were just so tired that we had to go back to the hotel. We were in bed my 9:30 (there were screaming children in the pool out our window, so it was a bit difficult to get to sleep initially). At around 2:30am we were woken up by another wedding group who was parading down our hallway and Lady GaGa (as z calls her) was screaming about all the single men and how she "didn't see a ring on his finger" and ...UGH so obnoxious. We had a little delirious conversation and eventually went back to bed until about 9:30! It was amazing. We took our time having breakfast outside on the grass, watching an indian wedding with a horse and a DJ van (equipped with loud music, a DJ, and a flashing light). The drive back was beautiful and z drove this time. We had a great time together <3

Hey, cute boy, turn around! :)

We had a Tuesday date last night. We went to Asian Spice in Chinatown. I got the Thai Eggplant and z got a spicy beef salad with tofu (!) soup. It was all really tasty. We got a table outside and just hung out talking for a while. It was so nice. I'm a pretty lucky girl :)

Things I'm looking forward to:

• Vibrant Vegan cooking class at whole foods TODAY!
• My passport and new clothes coming in the mail this week!
• Z's 30th birthday!
• Z's sister's wedding on August 1
• WEEK LONG VACATION with Z in September!

my new "hobby"

First, let me start by saying, blogging from bed should be a no-no! Oh well...

Here is a look at my recent adventures in the kitchen, inspired by my favorite bloggers:



This is Crazy For Carrot Apple Ginger Juice

I added some OJ to make it more juicy. The flavor was great, but it was a little too chunky for me since I don't have a juicer or a strainer...



This was my really fun post-hour and fifteen minute workout dinner. Slice of whole wheat bread with cashew nut butter, sliced banana and a drizzle of honey with a bowl of nonfat plain yogurt topped with blueberries, goji berries, walnuts and another drizzle of honey. Also, a coconut water for electrolytes/hydration. This isn't my favorite coconut water...so far I like the Zico Mango the best!!


I grew this little guy ALL BY MYSELF! He did just fine growing up in the city! I picked him last night with Z and let him hang out on the counter (the jalapeno, not Z). He was later chopped up with some of my city balcony grown cilantro, a tomato, half an onion, half a lime and salt/pepper for some impromptu pico de gallo...SO TASTY. For some protein, I cooked up an egg white and threw that pico right on top (Thanks Fitnessista!).






I bought a fresh baguette at the farmer's market near work yesterday. Z and I ate some with dinner, froze half of it, and still had about 1/4 of the bread left, so I decided to make a little modified Spanish/Italian Panzanella. I made garlic-lemon vinaigrette with things I had lying around. Soaked the bread for 10 minutes in the vinaigrette and then added an organic cucumber from YES! and the rest of my onion. It looked like it needed more veggies, so I threw the rest of my pico de gallo in there. It looks and smells fantastic. After marinating overnight, it should make a super tasty lunch tomorrow!



I get to have a sleepover tomorrow. I always look forward to those :) I'm so in love...


time for sleep.

don't let the bed blogs bite. hehe

Recently Purchased Albums:

• we sing. we dance. we steal things. - Jason Mraz
• only by the night - Kings of Leon
• back to the river - Susan Tedeschi

The susan tedeschi album is by far my favorite of the bunch. I learned to play 700 Houses which is beautiful Katrina song.

I have my first guitar lesson today up near U Street. I'm pretty nervous and excited at the same time. $45 for 45 minutes. Hope it's worth it...

I also can't stop reading The Fitnessista! She really interests me and maintains a dietary lifestyle that seems totally feasible for me (the working out on the other hand...I'm not up to her level yet). It has also made me start photographing my meals...not sure if this is weird, but it helps me hold myself accountable for what I eat.

I'm ready for a new job. I love the people I work with. I love the convenience of my on-site location. I love that they just gave me a promotion.

But I'm ready to do something that fits who I am a little better. Not the best time to be looking for a new job, but it never hurts to look.

More later...

coffee with soymilk in the morning is so comforting.