Bloodymary Time

Ok, this Bloodymary gets 4 out of 5 celery sticks (I'm searching graphics for this depiction). It was beautiful, just a beautiful drink. I was very impressed. I got it when we went out to eat our last day there with Tony's family.
The flavor was great, could have stood to be a little hotter though. The vodka wasn't overwhelming and the mix didn't taste generic. You can see from the picture that it was garnished with a beef stick, a pickle, a celery stick, an olive, AND A CHUNK OF MOZZARELLA! The mozzarella looked better than it tasted, but it definitely added something to have it on there.

Minnesota

Tony and I flew to Minnesota for the week of July 4th. Of course we had the usual Northwest trouble of the flight being about an hour late, freaking out about missing our connector to Duluth, but everthing turned out ok and we made it in late the night of the 3rd.
The best part of our trip was getting to meet our sweet new nephew and Godson, Connor Joseph. He is AMAZING! So beautiful and just perfect. It was love at first sight! I couldn't get enough of him. It's another huge reason it's so hard to live so far away from all of our family...kids grow so quickly, and only seeing them once a year is not enough. I know the next time we see him he'll be sitting up and he'll just be so much bigger. It's too hard to think about. Hopefully something will work out soon to where we can be closer to both of our families.
We went to Tony's aunt's cabin for the day and night of the 4th. It's a really cute cabin and the lake is really nice. We boated during the day and then grilled and shot off fireworks that night. The next day Tony and I went canoeing, which just reinforced our desire to be somewhere where we can canoe as much as we want.
We also got to go up the shore a bit to Tony's parent's land and got to see the new cabin they're building. It's going to be so nice to have a place the family can go to get away from the city. Tony has great memories of 'the land' from when he was a little boy and they would go up as often as they could. Tony and I slept out under the stars that night (I was hoping to see the aurora borealis) and it was just beautiful. Tony fell asleep with one of his arms outside of the sleeping bag and woke up with 27 mosquitos bites on that arm! But spending time with Tony's family was the best part of the whole trip. It was great to play with the kids and visit with everybody. Tony's friend Whalen came up to the land the night we were staying there and it was great visting with him as well, Tony hadn't seen him for a few years.
I'm going to have to put all the pictures in some sort of album, after I find which one I want to use, but I'll try to post a couple of pictures now.

The first picture is of me and Connor.
The second is of me and Tony up on the land.

The BIG 2-6

I know i'm posting this about 2 1/2 months late, but I wanted to post a picture of my birthday party. Some of my friends came to the city to help me celebrate! We went to a tequila bar (always a fun way to start out the night), then went on to another bar. I had so much fun and it was so nice of my friends to come out! There wasn't too much debauchery (sp?), and only one drunk dial to JT, instigated by Sean.
From left to right is Craig, Jen, Adam, Bernadette, Sean, Heather, and myself!
One of the funniest memories of the night were the people dancing in the street beside Lime (tequila bar)...it was south Baltimore's finest. Very good entertainment!

More adventures

While my mom and sister were visiting we also went to Gettysburg. The 5th of July is the anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, so the place is always hopping around that time. We walked around and drove some of the battlefield. We also hung out down by the Harbor and went to Little Havana for brunch!!! ( i love Little Havana!) We had a great time, and I was sooooo glad that they came out to visit me. (hopefully the next time they come to my house to visit it will be in Colorado) Look closely at the picture in front of the Farnsworth House, there are bullet holes from the battle. I'm also going to try and upload a picture in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, on the steps where Rocky ran up.

Going to the Opera

Here's a picture of me and my mom and sister on the balcony of the Kennedy center. You can see DC in the background. We saw the Phantom of the Opera. It was awesome! It was so special to be able to go to such a fancy place together, to get dressed up and enjoy the theater. That night was something I will never forget.

Friends

Here's a picture of me and my friends...I don't really keep in touch with people from HS very well, but these three ladies I have remained close to. We just don't get to see eachother very often!

New Mexico

Wow, I haven't posted in a long time, but I've been busy. I took a trip to New Mexico and then my mom and sister came for a visit. We just got back yesterday from Minnesota. I'll probably post all the pictures I have in different posts.
I had a great time visiting with my family though, I haven't seen them since Christmas! We just relaxed and hung out. I did go get a pedicure though, my first, and it was AMAZING!! I went with my mom and Amy. We also went to Bottomless Lakes and swam around. The best part of all was just getting to be with my family...and it's never long enough. On top of all of that I got to see my friends. Friends that I rarely get to see because we all live in different cities.
The picture above is of me and me padre....

Wine Tasting

My friend Sharon introduced us to a new hangout, The Vine. Which on Wednesday nights has wine tastings. For $5 you can have 5 samples of wine. Sharon and Sean joined us for our first night at The Vine.

The first wine of the night was a white wine, Cascal Garcia Vinho Verde. It was from Portugal. It was much like a sparkling wine. It was crisp and clean, very nice for a warm weather wine. My favorite wine of the night was the 4th, a red, Chateau Haut Marchand. It was a Bordeaux made up of 60% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 15% Cabernet Franc. It tasted of berries, although it was very dry, not as acidic as I expected. It had a lot of tanins. Very good. I thought my favorite wine was going to be the Chianti, as I am particular to Chianti., but this one beat it out. The atmosphere was very laid back, anywhere from men in ties just coming in from work to me, in my boundry water shorts and a t-shirt. The service was good, especially considering how many people were in there, which I was surprised at how many there were. We will be trying to go back to The Vine soon for more tastings!!!!

Artwork - amazing photos

My favorite photographer is Craig Blocklock. I first became intrigued by his artwork several years ago while on a trip to Duluth. Rita (Tony's sister) and I went to the Gallery to see Craig's newest exhibit, which at the time was A Voice Within. This photos were mostly nudes of Honey Blacklock (long story there, she started as his model, but then they got married). These pictures took my breath away, and I had to have to book. A couple of years ago Tony bought me another book of his photos while he was back in Duluth, nature photos. Craig is a Minnesota native and his father was also a photographer, as well as his late wife (tragic story). When I look at his photos I'm instantly back in Minnesota, and it makes me homesick for a place I have never called home. The natural beauty that is Minnesota is something everyone should see. Lake Superior still blows my mind every time I see it. Craig's newest book, North Shore will be available in June...I think i'm going to have to go to the gallery when we're there in July and try to get an autographed copy. I tried to attach a picture, but i don't think it's going to come up. But go to the website and see for yourself!

Brunch in Little Havana

Brunch is by far my favorite activity of the week. I look forward to it all week long. We don't go every Sunday, but we try to go most Sundays. Breakfast and Bloody Mary's, what could be better? This morning we went to a new place we haven't been before, Little Havana. It was on the water and it was packed! The cuban style breakfast was delicious, and my eggs reminded me somewhat of Juevos Rancheros....and the Bloody Mary was great!!!! very very good! i would give it 3 1/2 celery stocks out of 5! Just the right amount of spice, right amount of thickness.

Interesting Read

I finished reading The Rule of Four in less than a week. It helped that I had a lot of time to read in NC, but I haven't been able to put it down! The book centers around the Renaissance mystery, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, and the power it has over two Princeton students who are trying to unravel it's secrets. They put their lives on hold to solve the many riddles the book has in hopes that they can find the meaning the author, Francesco Colonna, crypticly placed throughout the Hypnerotomachia's pages. I love books that involve history, I feel like I'm learning meaningful information as I read along. I've really enjoyed the couple of books that I have read that involved Renaissance history, the art work, the philosophy, the books, and the families. The other book that I read that had that history in it was The Birth of Venus, another great book that I recommend. The ending of the Rule was somewhat predictable but exciting none the less. I would give this book a 3 out of 5.

Outer Banks

We went to the Outer Banks last Wednesday to go to our friend's, Renata and Jason, wedding. We got a condo with some of my friends from work. The first picture was at the rehersal dinner. We had a lot of fun just relaxing and going do the beach.
Renata, Craig, Tony and me.
The beautiful bride, me and Cherie. The wedding was supposed to be on the beach, but the weather didn't co-operate, so they had it inside. But it was still very special and intimate.

Sorry I copied these twice, i'm still trying to figure out this blogging thing!

Hang Gliding Part II

Here's a couple more pics. It's hard to see but that's Tony in the air, and in the other one I am getting ready to stand up to take off!

Hang Gliding

This past weekend Tony and I got to try hang gliding in Kitty Hawk, NC! It was so much fun! I was really looking forward to it for the past few weeks, but when we got down to the Outer Banks the weather was cold and rainy, so I was afraid we were going to miss our chance. But then the weather warmed up and Saturday was beautiful so we were able to get into a class. It was a great experience and we would both like to continue doing it. One of the instructors said it would take about 10 classes to be ready to fly solo. The excitement of being a few feet in the air was incredible, i can't imagine what it would be like to do mountain jumps. The place where we did it was Jockey Ridge State Park, and the sand dunes there are rated as some of the best in America. The sand was really soft and forgiving in case you bit it.

Game time

Here's a picture of me and Tony at the O's game a week ago. Friday night is student night, and I guess we can still pull it off! We went with one of our friends, Craig, whose pic is at the top. The O's actually won and the game went into an OT. It was great!!!

(PS. I was smiling at the time, but I really over did it on the hot dogs, peanuts, and a really big coke, not a good time later in the night)

Baltimore Weekend

This weekend Tony and I went down to the harbor to go to B&N and then hang out by the water. The weather was amazing - as you can tell by the happy look on Tony's face!

April concert

In April Tony and I went and saw Bob Schneider in concert at a local venue, the 8*10 club. It was nice to be able to go see him so close to home. Marla introduced me to his music about a year ago, and he was awesome in concert! These pictures were all taken from the balcony of the club.

http://www.bobschneidermusic.com/

Getting Blogging

I thought i'd go ahead and get started with my blog, which i've been putting off for quite some time. No more excuses, i now have a computer and the internet at home, and i have a digital camera. So hopefully i'll keep up with this and post lots of pictures for everyone to see. I'm taking suggestions right now on certain things to blog about, but mainly, it's just going to be about my comings and goings. I'm not very good with this whole new technology of the internet, so this might be a rough start, but bear with me, and i'm always open to ideas. Does anyone know about graphics? Where i can get them? How do i download them to my blog page? I'll have to check that out this weekend. And i'll try to get some pictures uploaded.....
Meanwhile, Tony and I are considering doing this next weekend when we go down to NC for our friend's wedding: http://www.outerbanks.org/activities/air_activities/outer_banks_hang_gliding.asp