Twelve Weeks 'til Christmas!

I enjoyed my friend's post today:

http://steveandrandel.blogspot.com/2008/10/12-shopping-weeks-left.html

This has been on my mind lately. I don't have children, but I have plenty of people I'd like to buy gifts for. I love buying gifts! And I'd be lying if I said I've never used my credit card at Christmas time. But even if I could afford to, what is necessary? What is too much? There is such a thing as generosity, but there is also such a thing as encouraging materialism and over-indulgence. My family has always kept it very simple at Christmas, and although it hasn't always been easy to watch the majority of my peers rake in the cash and prizes, I've grown to appreciate my parents' way of doing things. Although I'll probably always be tempted to overspend in the name of generosity, I'd like to follow their model of 'giving in moderation'. It's nice to see other families keeping it simple, too.

Days of my Life

Sometimes I stop and just look around at this life I'm able to experience. I'm so thankful for it, every day of it, knowing God has me here for a purpose, and He's equipped me to do His will. I'm surrounded by people (at work specifically) who don't share my world view. At all. And I know it's no mistake. Although I sometimes miss being surrounded by at least a few like-minded people. :)

Today I found myself on the top floor of the S.tate Department building in an Un.der Se.cretary's office having cocktails, looking out at the Lin.coln Memorial, right there, just a couple of blocks away. I watched as three P.residential helicopters came in for a landing right down the street at the Wh.ite House. We toasted to a newly-titled Am.bassador, appointed by the Pr.esident. And this reception was after a ceremony led by Se.cretary Rice giving a Disti.nguished Service award to General P.etraus.

What a cool day.

September Love*

Football season, football season, football season . . oh wait, sorry, there are a few other things, too. Blue Moon, mushrooms on everything, mini corndogs, Ghirardelli dark chocolate brownies, eggs benedict on fried green tomatoes . . Mr. Greengenes, lululemon, season premieres, getting organized, seeing family, and making new friends**.

I could write an entire post on each of these things!

But we all know I won’t.

*I'm stealing Slice of Pink's idea.

**Specifically two guys that actually love Jesus with their whole hearts! My good friend KC and I are having fun watching football and golfing with them.

my weekend

I've been dog-sitting for friends this weekend . . and I hope they never come back. Their home is the perfect distance from the city (4 miles, although if I'm honest, I love being one block away). It's cozy and inviting, and the fridge is perfectly stocked with the best snacks I could imagine. I invited friends over Friday night. We ordered our favorite pizzas and played Wii Golf on the flat screen. Every night I climb into their King size bed with the little shih tzu and sink into the mattress. It's difficult to get up in the morning. Living with three girls, I am loving the time ALONE, no distractions, no getting frustrated with messes that aren't mine. It's been a lovely little retreat.

daydreaming

Whenever I get overwhelmed at work, I start biting my nails down to nothing and daydreaming about another life. Why can't I just be an unemployed homeowner who spends her days baking and decorating? That sounds totally realistic to me!

I'm getting there

Weekend Full of Fun

So the first thing I think when I sit down to write about my weekend is: YUM. It was a delicious, high-calorie weekend. Oh, and I also think *yawn*. So exhausting!

My weekend began a day earlier than usual as I headed out for Thursday night dinner with some girlfriends. We sat on the patio at Sette Bello drinking our favorite wines and eating caprese salad and penne with salmon in vodka and cream sauce. (I also gave in and had a dense chocolate mousse cake with vanilla bean ice cream.) I had every intention of heading home early and hopping in the sack at 10pm, but one fun moment led to another and before I knew it, I was dancing to a live cover band, and it was 1:30am. Oops.

Friday evening was a repeat of dinner and dancing, but with a different group of friends. This time my salmon was covered in bbq sauce and served atop a pile of mashed potatoes with asparagus and corn salsa on the side.

Saturday, despite a high of 70 degrees, was spent on the lake. No football game for my team, so I opted out of game-watching altogether. My comfort on the slalom ski has reached a new high, as I continue to set bigger goals for myself each time I go out. My shoulder is not touching the water yet (let’s be honest, not even close) but I’m pretty impressed with how far I’ve come. After boating, the boys and I stopped by their friend’s block party BBQ. He’d been up since 4am smoking the meat, and it was fantastic! He even got the local newspaper to come by and snap a few pictures – too funny.

Yesterday’s highlight was golfing on a new course! I’m not sure I can go back to my regular course after that! It was a gorgeous afternoon surrounded by ponds, geese honking, and tons of deer roaming onto the course. We had dinner at our favorite sandwich/pizza place (my meal: pita stuffed with chicken, tomato sauce, parmesan and mozzarella cheeses, and garlic), and I stayed up way too late playing the new Scrabble Beta on facebook. Seriously addicting!

dinner

I went over to Cousin J and K's tonight for yummy asparagus ravioli, spring mix salads with dried cranberries, walnuts, and feta . . and a glass of wine. She sure knows how to throw together a great dinner! I've been a little homesick lately, and it's times like these that I'm even more thankful to have family in town.

flag on the play

In the past couple of weeks, I have had a very surprising revelation about the male species. All this time I have thought that we, women, were the emotional ones who said things we didn't mean, things we thought about later and wanted to take back. But oh no, compared to the last couple of guys I've hung out with, I am practically ALL LOGIC. I think about things before they come out of my mouth, and I don't change my mind THE VERY NEXT DAY.

In the past couple of weeks, I've had someone, from a different Big 12 school, promise to come to every Nebraska game watch this season, and he even said he was looking forward to it - ha!

Then I had a guy offer me his frequent flyer miles AND a football ticket. AND he tried to convince me that he had the most important quality I look for in a guy. And no, that quality is not "likes nice restaurants" or "will buy me a boat", although I would take both of those, too.

Both of these guys said these things and had the audacity to change their minds! How dare they? I mean, I was practically packing my bags already! And I saved a seat for Dude #1 at the Pub. Ugh!

My friend and I decided yesterday that nearly every relationship situation could be summed up in a football penalty. And in these cases, I'm calling a false start!

GBR!

For the past two football seasons, I've thought the Pub was fantastic. How lucky was I to be halfway across the country yet have a Nebraska bar where I could cheer on the *best* team in college football every Saturday? Very fortunate.

But now that I've been back to Lincoln, tailgated pre- and post-game, sat amongst the Sea of Red . . I'm completely discontent. My heart is in Memorial Stadium, but tonight my body will be cheering at the Pub.

GO BIG RED!

Home Sweet Home

This past weekend, I was able to fly home to Nebraska for 48 hours before driving down to Kansas for a three day conference, starting today. It was a very fun two days . . delicious food, game night with family, and a Nebraska football game, of course!It was twenty degrees colder in Nebraska than D.C. on Friday, which meant no water-skiing for this kid. But we did enjoy a nice boat ride around the island.As requested, we grilled out steaks, had sweet corn on the cob, twice baked potatoes, green beans, asparagus, tomatoes, fruit, cinnamon rolls, and my favorite dessert - triple chocolate bundt cake.Farmtown Grandma came and brought a ton of kolaches (Czech pastry). Unfortunately I'm not a fan of fruit-stuffed anything, but everyone else was excited. :)
I invited a few extended family members to join us in a game of Loaded Questions. We had a lot of laughs!I was blessed to have two sets of tickets given to me, the second set much better than the first. My brother-in-law was kind enough to give me some yummy-smelling hand soap in exchange for the other set! :) . . . My cousin Ashley and I had enjoyed Nebraska food favorites, Valentino's pizza and Runza, before the first quarter was even over.

It was a fantastic weekend! And once again, I am feeling a bit homesick.

Holiday!

Here I sit, pants-less in my bed on the morning of Labor Day, because I can. My bedroommate is in Brazil for the next ten days, and you know I like to take full advantage of having the room all to myself, which really only means that I don't have to be modest.

The possibilities for this holiday today seem endless. I have no definite plans as of yet. I only know that KC (a girl friend) and I want to be active and outside this afternoon. Around here, that could mean a lot of things.

I spent yesterday on the boat, trying a new trick on the slalom ski. I'm taking baby steps to being a rockstar on that thing, as I am still overcoming my fear of slicing through the wake at a very fast speed. I tend to hang out on either side of the wake, practicing my rooster tail. These new ski gloves, a birthday present from the boating boys, were fun (and cute) to try out. So much for fingerless gloves since my hands are so small!Skiing on water with just enough ripple on a beautiful 85 degree day after eating a fresh crab cake sandwich while country music blasts from the speakers and fun friends cheer you on . . could anything really be better?

Have a great holiday!

Football Season is Here

Here I sit, in front of the television on a Saturday afternoon.

That will be the opening sentence of every Saturday blog post from now through the 15th of November.

This weekend I turned down a weekend trip to the Jersey Shore with all my girlfriends just to watch the first game of the season at the bar. Had it been on national television, thus able to be watched from the beach house, I still would've stayed in D.C. There's just something about being with 300 Hus.ker fans on football Saturdays.

I have been elected the Game Wa.tch Coordinator this year, so my duty is to handle the raffle every weekend. It's a fun way to get people excited, although the prizes are sometimes less than desirable. And the money goes toward a scholarship fund that sends a D.C. kid to school at the University.

I'm about to paint my toenails red and start playing the fight song.

Happy Game Day!

Boston Harbor

Miss her!

Summer Weekend

Not wanting to blog is not the issue. It's wanting to blog at the wrong times. I only feel like blogging at work, and I refuse to do it. Yet when I get home, my life seems much less interesting to write about. But I will write anyway . .

My birthday par-tay last weekend was pretty fantastic, I must say. Not only was it held at a pretty sweet rowhouse in D.C., the food was delicious. One of the hosts made smoked ribs, corn on the cob, two types of salad, beans, and more. My music mixes provided the perfect background noise on the patio, and I had a wonderful time flitting from one guest to the next. I felt very blessed that so many people would come just to celebrate my day . . and I especially loved the ones that brought a bottle of wine! :)

I can't believe my party hosts were people I met at a bar just one year ago (the ones the Texan introduced me to). I can't wait to be back at that bar with them this Saturday for the first football game of the season!

On Saturday, I went to a BBQ hosted by my boating boys and received a new pair of ski gloves for a birthday gift. I hope to try them out next weekend! We played many games of Cornhole (bean bag toss), (in which I consistently kicked some serious butt), threw around the football, and just relaxed. We filled our stomachs with seasoned, boiled shrimp, grilled pork loin, bbq beans, potato salad, pasta salad, and chips and dip. And dessert? was s'mores around the firepit after dark. The perfect summer BBQ.

This summer has been wonderful, and I'm a little sad to see it winding down, but football season will be totally worth it!

mix-making

I've been back from a wonderful birthday weekend in New England, and I haven't said a word about it! My initial thoughts:

• My best friend and her husband are so fun to be with!
• Most delicious weekend I've had maybe ever! I can't believe my pants still fit!
• So much fun packed into three days! And loads of pictures, of course.
• I miss them already!

Currently I am up too late (as usual!) putting together a few mixes for my birthday BBQ tomorrow night. Making a good mix is harder than one would think! Does anyone have any ideas? I need one semi-chill mix for the BBQ and one "groove/funk" mix for later on (not my words). What artists/songs would you put in a mix?

Birthday Celebration #2

Typically my birthday is celebrated only once per year , on my birthday. But this year, I'm totally banking on good food and fun times. Tonight my roommate Lyn, the fabulous cook, made an extravagant meal that has me stuffed to the brim.

On the menu:
Gewurztraminer white wine
caprese salad (tomatoes with bufalo mozzarella and balsamic vinegar/olive oil)
Bul go gi (beef marinated in soy sauce, sugar, garlic, pepper, sherry wine etc.)
Dak bul go gi (chicken marinated in the same)
mushrooms in same oil
white rice
crab cakes with chipotle aioli
cupcakes fresh from a bakery (served with milk)

I know . . you're so jealous. She is amazing!

I'm letting the food settle and going back for another cupcake! I think I'll have the strawberry shortcake.

Birthday Celebration #1

And what a gorgeous night to celebrate!  My friend and I met up on Capitol Hill for Mexican at Tort.illa Coast.  BBQ fajitas and chips and salsa filled my tummy . . but not enough that I didn't have room for dessert.  We headed to Capit.al Grille for one of my favorite desserts, and a stoli doli (pineapple-infused vodka; drink slowly!) for each of us.  On our long walk to the restaurant, I exclaimed (as usual) how much I love it here and tried to snap a few pictures to show why.

And here is the coconut cream pie with its macaroon-style crust, coconut cream, and caramel rum sauce! 

Even though I love D.C., sometimes I still miss home:

Exciting Things

1. Coldplay, of course - only five days away
2. football season - only one month away
3. the possibility of going to Australia in September - I hope, I hope, I hope
4. the Latin dance gym class I discovered last night
5. the Hermes scarf I won from www.stephanieklein.blogs.com

Now if I could only decide how to wear the twilly scarf . . .

I know, the neck thing does not work for me.

This Week's Dinner

Tonight's dinner was delicious! I invited my old roommate over and made Salmon Burgers with Spinach and Ginger and sides of sweet corn on the cob (fresh out of the husk) and baked potatoes with shredded cheese. Another recipe out of The Gourmet Cookbook:

Salmon Burgers with Spinach and Ginger

45 minutes start to finish

1 (1 pound) piece salmon fillet, skinned and cut into 1/4 inch dice
1/4 pound baby spinach, coursely chopped (3 cups)
3 scallions, minced
1 tbsp finely grated peeled fresh ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 large egg white
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp drained sliced Japanese pickled ginger (optional, I left out)

Stir together salmon, spinach, scallions, fresh ginger, salt, and pepper in large bowl until well combined.
Beat egg white with soy sauce and stir into salmon mixture.
Form into four 1/2 inch thick patties.
Heat oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Add patties and cook, carefully turning once, until golden brown and cooked through, 6-7 minutes total.
Serve burgers (with or without buns and with or without pickled ginger topping).

For dessert, it was warm banana pudding. Mmmm. Easy recipe and very delicious!