Istanbul Turkey Photos to Share

Too many photos and too little email space!  This post made especially for our families.  Enjoy!

Our first day there! Strolling by the river

Hagia Sophia

Mothers Day

How did you spend your Mothers Day?  Mine was crafty.  I met my mom and sister out in Annapolis for a beautiful day and paint your own pottery at Clay Bakers.  It is a great way to catch up and no real artsy skills necessary.  We have gone before and the pottery always ends up looking good...  (I think that the sentimental perspective helps out on that one)  They have ladies night, BYOB and the equivalent of pottery "happy hour" a few times a month too.

Over the past few months I've picked up knitting so I gifted my mom with an almost-finished scarf.  Knitting is such a fun, semi-meditative activity.  I love how you can do it anywhere at anytime too.  My favorite spot is sitting out in Logan Circle, people watching after work.  I picked up this particular yarn (I hope to take some photos of the scarf to show when I'm finished!) at Stitch DC (photo below).  Next project?  I am hoping to learn how to make a baby sweater from my colleague for Baby Mallory to come!  Slightly daunting since I have only ever knitted in straight lines... eek

Antes de morir quiero _________

Good morning!  Something fun from last night-  While walking home from a delicious dinner I ran into a group of people pondering this renovation wall that had recently gone up.  As I got closer I realized that someone had put up a “Before I die _______” and “Antes de morir quiero _______” mural and left chalk for people to fill in the blanks!  I called Alec and had him join me on the corner (Q and 14^th).  We spent the next half hour reading others’ answers and adding our own.  Answers ranged from the most ridiculous (Before I die I want to own taxidermy…) to very personal (Before I die I want to see my children grow up.)  As you will note, the board was almost completely filled.  Alec put me on his shoulders so that I could get a top spot!  You’ll see ours below:

A: Visit Middle Earth

I want to go to San Franciso

We saw French DJ Fred Falke at U St Music Hall a few months ago.  Great party.

$2 Tickets and $1 Hotdogs

Our view- Go Nats!

Yesterday a group of us went to the $2 tickets Nationals game.  If you haven’t been to a game yet, I highly suggest making the trip whether you are a baseball fan or not.  Weather was perfect and what better way to spend a Tuesday than with friends outside.  The game is an added perk. 

Another perk is the Bull Pen, an open beer gardenish area outside the park.  Live bands play before the game and you can usually find a few corn hole games going.  The Bull Pen looks out over the metro so after the game it’s a great place to hang out and watch the crowds thin.  

Since I haven’t focused on food in a while, I thought I would mention my love of hotdogs.  I am not a huge meat eater, but the nostalgia of being at the game, eating a dog, gets me every time.  While looking for a photo to exemplify this dog love (with ketchup, mustard and chopped onions) I found this article.  Sigh.  I hope that drinking DC water has upped my stomach immunity!  Props to the Nats for being name dropped as a healthy food stadium!  Do you think my hotdog is included?    

An overall great evening.  Tonight is $1 hot dogs if you’re interested.

Ps: Part 2 of the OC Guide is on it’s way sometime this week 

A Girls Guide to OC- Part 1

A girls weekend in Ocean City in April can best be described through the restaurants and bars that were visited because, let’s face it, that’s what Ocean City does best.  Having lived here for a summer, it is always fun to re-visit old favorites, which we did this time around.  Hope that you enjoy Kate’s Guide to a Girls Weekend in OC!  (Disclaimer:  This post isn’t child friendly-  Sorry… but let’s be real… I’m not sorry!)

To jump or not to jump

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

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...


 

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!

ULTRA!

Hello again!  After Ultra and the flu I am finally back on this planet.  Ultra was epic... Actually the whole trip was essentially perfect, and by perfect, of course there were a few adventures (some may call glitches) along the way that made it perfect.  

Before I get to these adventures I wanted to back it up two Wednesdays ago- the day before our flight- so that I can shamelessly give myself an excuse for things to come a paragraph or two down.  Most of us know apartment living.  I myself seem to be perfecting the art of basement apartment living and have gotten really lucky with the lovely flatmates that live above us.  In general, they are very quiet, respectful, yada yada yada.  


Well, as I was preparing to fall asleep on this one Wednesday, the day before our flight, at 6 am, having to wake up at 4 am, our flatmates decided to party.  Oh jeez.  I don't mean a few friends over for a chat, but rather an Ultra-type bass drumming music beat blaring from upstairs.  After hours of this, at 2 am, and after much deliberation, I finally had to don my robe, head outside, knock on their doors and ask if they could turn down the music so that I could get two hours of sleep.  On that note, they were very gracious about it and already winding down so at 2 am I finally get to sleep, excited for the flight the next day!


So on to Miami...  The festival wasn't until Friday so we had all day Thursday to enjoy the city and beach.  I didn't really know what to expect the "real" Miami to be like, but what I saw I liked!  Blue skies, water, white sand and the beaches weren't to crowded.  Paradise after an early morning.  We headed out to walk the strip for lunch which was incredible.  Vegas by the sea...  South Beach is insanity, a tourist trap, but why not party (and I mean party hard) at noon when you are on vacation?!  TIP: Always ask for rail liquor when in Miami- do not assume that "vodka" means rail (I thought that was standard?  No?)  My vodka/soda/splash of cranberry with a lemon (**signature drink) cost us $15 a pop as the waiter took "vodka" to mean Grey Goose.  With that said, I did tell Alec that it was one of the best I'd ever had.