To jump or not to jump

Never let someone else jump your car...  More to come on Ocean City tomorrow.

Music and The Veranda

On your walk home you may see:

NASA

Did you see the space shuttle yesterday on it's flight to Dulles?  Dan and my dad did.  Check out their amazing pictures taken from the Mall and DC WASA (hence the construction!).  

The Space Program's been a talked about topic in my office thanks to Dan, our space program aficionado and resident history graduate student.  Hard to believe that the era of space travel is (only temporarily I hope!) over for the US...  

Do you have fond space memories?  My favorite dates back to our Florida vacation.  Staying in Cocoa Beach on Disney World trips, waking up at sunrise to catch the space shuttle launch.  As a ten year old it was pretty awesome...  Actually, as a 26 year old that would still be pretty awesome...  Other perks of that trip?  The armadillos!  "Space" dots ice cream!  Signing space junk (or this big wall thing??) that was going up in space!  

Don't forget to match your stache

Movember's transcended November! (What is it? Moustaches worn during the month of November to raise awareness of prostate cancer)  I decided to post these funny photos from a friend's birthday this weekend.  For some reason whenever posing with the moustache I had the need to go for the serious/silly face?!  Hmmm...  Anyways, thanks Mich for providing us all with outfit matching staches!

"The Cupcake"

 

As I walked into the office this morning I was pleasantly greeted with a delicious birthday breakfast.  Lindsey surprised me with homemade vanilla and chocolate cupcakes!  Today I thought I’d blog about “The Cupcake” as it has played a significant part in my 25 year old life.  

Why you may ask?  Of course they are delicious but for Alec and I, they also pay our bills.  No, unfortunately, I am not a career baker.  No secret recipes up my sleeves.  Rather, Alec works on the show DC Cupcakes.  Yes, Sophie and Katherine are just as nice as they appear on TV.  Yes, their cupcakes are delicious.  Yes, while shooting the show we’d have dozens of cupcakes at home.  And, yes, Alec doesn’t like icing so we have a full box of just cupcake bottoms in our freezer from the shop…  My favorite flavor?  Key Lime. 

Looking forward to leftover Easter cupcakes for lunch too.  Thanks Beatrix!


On a totally separate note, the photos in this post are my first ever Instagrams.  Just learned that Facebook bought the company for a billion dollars...  Wondering what that means for them...


 

Viva España

Cheers (chin chin!) to Jen and Brian as they embark on two weeks through Spain and Portugal! 

In celebration of the trip I wish I was joining them on, I thought that I’d relive a wonderful dinner that Brittany and I shared the other week at Jaleo, one of José Andrés’ Spanish tapas restaurants in the city (we actually went to the one in Bethesda… not DC).  

Endibias con queso de cabra y naranjas

José Andrés is a pretty cool guy: a world renowned chef who trained under Ferran Adria, was recently voted Best DC chef in City Paper, great happy hours, just launched the food truck Pepe, etc etc.  His food tastes deliciosa too! 

On our visit we munched on happy hour tapas and sipped on sangria.  As we ate, it struck me that his Endibias con queso de cabra y naranjas (Endive with goat cheese, oranges and almonds), would make an amazing and easy at home appetizer so here it is:

Separate out each endive leaf to make a boat for the tasty ingredients inside;

Cut an orange (or clementine?) slice and lay it in the boat (Im normally a peeler, but cutting the fruit will best juice up the app);

Add some goat cheese and almonds on top

Something else about José that I found interesting and makes me feel better as I fail at this seasonal cooking schtick?  He confides that while he tries to cook local whenever he can, there are just certain times wen cooking Spanish food (or any other cuisine for that matter) that local products won’t cut it…  He doesn’t skip the Spanish imported cheeses or French champagne when local foods can’t embody the tastes and feelings he’s recreating.  I don’t remember when or where I read about this, but I did find a comparable interview here that he gave in Miami which includes some other interesting José ideals.  

Pepe!

Happy Weekend!

It's a Bird... It's a Plane...!

I was actually going to post on something totally different when my colleague sent me this article about flying cars!  Supposedly they are meant for businessmen who don’t want to worry about airport hassles.  That’s one way to solve the problem.  Next up: Ruby Slippers that teleport you to work (baggage fees included). 

 

While up in New York visiting Alec’s family last fall we ran into an Amphicar out on the Hudson.  Instead of air travel, they swim.  Who knew they had been around since the 60’s?!      

My preferred mode of transportation?  My feet.  I am a diehard, stubborn walker.  Unfortunately, it limits my radius a bit…

Amphicar in Paris

German Amphicar Club

Graduate School

I have officially accepted my acceptance into a graduate school program.  In what you may ask?  International Education.  Looking forward to the good stories that will hopefully ensue throughout this experience and for hopefully putting the education to good use.

While googling today I found these clever blogs on the subject:
Graduate Student Survival Guide
100 Reasons NOT to go to Graduate School


Enjoy!


Fact:  Student Rue Lawrence (above) was featured on the Oct. 16, 1950 cover of Life Magazine


 

Eggheads

This weekend we took a mini trip to see friends and family in Annapolis.  At 26 I am still a sucker for dyeing Easter eggs so on Sunday I managed to convince the whole family to partake in the activity.  While rummaging for supplies we found electrical tape, changing how we dye eggs perhaps forever- and resulting in the eggheads below!  The tape is waterproof so we cut out (and hole punched) our way through 36 eggs.  Fun weekend! 

Alec suggested that I take the tres banditos around to all of the "must-sees" in DC Travelocity dwarf style so they may be making an appearance again...

While on Pinterest looking for eggspiration I also ran across these cupcake eggs from Cupcake Project- very clever!