In Seattle

Lavender in my mom's garden: this is for Paige!

How I ended up at a rock/metal concert

A few weeks ago I was at Jenn's house for her birthday party. Her friends James and Melinda were visiting from Baltimore with their super cute daughter. We were all chatting, eating, etc.

James, who is a drum player for Division, mentioned that his band will be playing at a club in Virginia. I asked Jenn if she was going to go. She said yes. That's when for some bizarre reason I told her that I would come too.

As soon as the words came out of my mouth I was horrified. Me at a rock/metal concert!? Who was I kidding? That is so not my scene! I think Jenn was shocked just as much as I was.

Then, to save my "little" behind, I said that I'll go unless I'd have a hot date. Right. That was very smart of me. A week later, with no hot date (or any date) in site, Jenn picked me up on a Friday night and we drove to Springfield, VA to see James's band in concert.

First, however, we had to pick up ear plugs. Turns out, you have to wear ear plugs the entire time you are at the concert (the only time I wear mine are when my neighbors are too loud or the person next to me breaths too loudly or snores!).

Well, I survived my first (and probably last) rock/metal concert. It was definitely quite an experience. I felt like a fish out of the water, but it was entertaining none the less (nonetheless?). Unfortunately, it's still legal to smoke in clubs/restaurants in VA, so I came home reeking of smoke.

I'm glad I tried something different. I'm sure many of you who know me are quite surprised by this...after all, I skipped a night of salsa for this :) It was amazing to see how many people were "into" this music and how dedicated the band members were! It takes a lot of energy to play for 1.5 hours, not to mention the hours it takes to practice, etc.

Hmm, what should I try next?!?!?!?

A little bit of everything

So my Monday dancing nights at Lucky Bar have been anything but lucky lately. Instead of taking a chance of making myself miserable again, I decided to start a mini boycott and spend the next who-knows-how-many Monday nights away from dancing (at least for now).

Instead, I decided to buy some wine and make pasta at home. I was so excited about this! Alas, when I opened my pasta maker, I was horrified to see that the cutting rolls had rust on them. Crap!

I immediately went and tried to research solutions to this problem on Google. Alas, using rubbing alcohol and white vinegar (separately) did not take all of the rust off. (I still managed to make pasta and will post the results on Mango & Tomato later this week.)

It was then that I decided to consult the manual for my pasta machine. Turns out, you are not supposed to wash the machine or let water anywhere near it!

If only I was like my dad...he's an engineer, and doesn't even attempt to start using a new appliance before reading its manual cover to cover! I, on the other hand, just jump into things and hope to figure them out as I go.

You should have seen him teaching Anna and I how to drive: there were diagrams involved, and he even took Misha's toy cars to show us how the wheels worked. As if I cared: I just wanted to drive :)

Anyway, I will try to see if I can return/exchange my pasta machine.

Oh, and the earrings in this post are the ones I made for Jenn's birthday: she looks adorable wearing them :)

Jewelry Re-do

A while ago I made some sunny yellow jewelry.

I've gotten quite a bit of wear from the bracelet, necklace and earrings, but last night decided to re-do the bracelet. Let's face it: I was bored, couped up in my apartment for the last 4 days and did not go dancing. (On the positive note, I'm finally feeling better!).

before

For the after, I used silver tone beads in-between the yellow ones. Alas, I was missing one silver tone bead, so this bracelet is not perfect, but then neither is life.

4th of July Fireworks

Here are a few photographs from 4th of July: I went to the Mall with Laura and some of her friends after pigging out on awesome food :)

The views were gorgeous, the fireworks were amazing, and we had a ton of fun listening to patriotic music on an ipod hooked up to mini speakers provided by David & Sarah.

(click on images to see better detail)

Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned....

Well, maybe sinned is too harsh of a word, but I did break my vow of not buying any jewelry/clothes/shoes for two months!

Yesterday I met Anna's friend from Birmingham, Angela, and some of her friends at Eastern Market. And let me tell you, you cannot go to Eastern Market and not buy anything!

I happened to be wearing a yellow skirt (I actually wore it as a dress) and my turquoise necklace, which took me several years to find (I finally purchased one in Dallas a few years ago). While looking at some jewelry stands, I saw a pair of turquoise earrings for $5!!!!!!!! Now, how could I have passed that by? I could not: so I bought them. I think they match so well!

As far as "What I am Eating," I haven't been writing things down, but I definitely keep track of my food intake in my head. So far I've been doing pretty well. Of course, there was quite a bit of eating at Laura's bbq for the 4th of July, but overall I haven't had any of the let's-eat-everything-in sight episodes!