Hello Blogtober!

I heart the fall.

Once October hits, my favorite 4 months of the year are in full swing...October through January, is where I am happiest.

And I have been a pretty slack about my blog...mostly because we've been world travelers this summer...well this whole year...and taking on new jobs working freelance has actually been keeping me busier then one full time job ever did. 

 But it makes me happy, so I digress...


Thankfully, this delightful blogger I 'know' posted a challenge... #blogtober14, to write every day this month, and you know what?  I'm going to try and do it.



Without further ado...post 1:  If I won the lottery I'd...


I actually said this phrase out loud today - isn't timing funny? - and it was something along the lines of "If we won the lottery, we could have a house in Minnesota on a lake, and then a house somewhere at the beach."

With family spread out all over the place, it would be nice to have places to stay to see everyone. 

Also, I'd finally fulfill my dream of becoming an illustrator- drawing every day, getting better at what I love to do most, and write my cheesy little children's books. 

Weird that part of the "what I'd do if I won the lottery" involved me working...

And travel.  There are so many places I'd love to see...buy lots of wine...adopt all the animals...and do something really awesome for my parents.  I'm not sure exactly what...but they have been there for me, my whole life (duh) and honestly there is nothing monetary that I can do to thank them for their support...but it's a start :)

Friday Funny

oh cats.

via

The *Blog*mopolitan Quiz with TwoThirdsHazel

I have been MIA from blogging...so I thought fun stuff like doing some link-ups would get me back in the game! 

** of course if you look back, you'll see that I'm slowly catching up with the blog...think I'm up to July and all the draft posts I started and never hit publish for...sheesh! **


so one of the girls I follow on Twitter, Erin of Two Thirds Hazel, put this cute little quiz on her blog that is a flashback to my days of reading Cosmo!

here are my answers! 

you can find the quiz here, if you want to fill out your own!

Never Say No to Panda!

oh, what did we do before YouTube?  I swear I've asked that question more times than necessary...but seriously, it just becomes this downward spiral of videos and before you know it, it's 7 hours later and you are watching 15 minute long montages of cats knocking things off of tables- don't worry, I'll link to that one too ;)


but one of J and my favorite things to do, is to link up the television with YouTube...thank you smart tvs!...and find some funny new videos to make us laugh till we snort.


we hit the viral video jackpot this time...or at least we think so...with Never Say No to Panda...it's an ad campaign for a brand of cheese in Egypt...but sit back and enjoy!






oh, and if you want to see the cats knocking stuff down...here you go!

and then my closet exploded

I'm sure it will not come as a surprise to anyone when I say, this has happened before. 

sometime back when I was in High School, we heard this loud crashing sound come from upstairs...and discovered that the bar in my closet had broken in half, and all the clothes were in a nice big pile.

fast forward, oh about 15 years later, to my new apartment...and this is what I found when I came home the other day:

of course this time I had put some heavy boxes up on the shelf...so lesson learned...boxes go on the floor :)

believe it or not...

Ripley's that is.  another place I'd never gone in the Inner Harbor was Ripley's Believe It or Not museum.

and what did we find?

a T-Rex made of tinfoil

the Zoltar fortune teller from the movie Big!

the NYC skyline made of toothpicks

and a bear made of shredded money!

oh...and not to forget...Happy Father's Day!!  :D  I've got one of the best around!!

fooooooooooooooooooood!

seriously.  we can eat.  and Baltimore has no shortage of restaurants for us to try.  in the last two months we have yet to eat at the same place twice...and we could probably keep it up for the rest of the year if we wanted! 

but one of my favorite restaurants in Baltimore is La Tavola, and not just because the owners are friends of mine, but because their food is to die for. 

again, I was too busy eating to take more than a photo of our appetizer...but a few hours later we were really full, of delicious, freshly made Italian foods...and the sidewalk seating was perfect because of the breeze coming down the street towards the Inner Harbor.

a great place for a date night!!

Happy Birthday Roomie!

celebrated Nicole's birthday Baltimore style...eating crabs and drinking beers :)

can you just sense how much more relaxed we are since school is out?

2 years...DONE!

I never thought I would have survived one week, let alone two whole years as a Baltimore City School teacher...but I did.  Bring it on summer!  time to relax and recharge...because now I really do understand why they have summer vacation...it is a necessity!

last day of school margaritas brought to you by Little Havana :)

when your new boyfriend meets your best friends

I love my best friends.  they know me, they have seen me go through the best and up until recently, the worst times.  so now that things are going great for me, I was so excited to get to spend a whole weekend with Bonnie, Andy and Jim :)

so we planned to go see Drop Dead Sexy...again...because you can never have enough! 

but in typical fashion for the outdoor concerts we have tried to go to in the past.  it rained.  a LOT.  so concert was a no-go...but we still had a fantastic time...dinner and drinks are weather-proof!

 

we went to Carpool in Herndon, right around the corner from their house, after some leftover Red, White and Blue shots from Memorial Day!

makes my heart happy that all my best people get along so great, and that we have so much fun together.  this is how it is supposed to be :)

when animals use FaceTime

why I love my iPhone...

because I can see people I miss...even though we are in different states, we can still feel like we are together sometimes...it makes you miss them a little less...

and of course, if the animals want to chat they can ;)

my favorite text ever

I have to admit, when texting first became a "thing" (side note- my spell check doesn't even recognize 'texting' as a word!) I was really against it.  it just seemed like another way that people didn't really have to talk to each other...more detachment from actual social interactions, and more hiding behind keyboards and screens...and being a teacher made it even more clear that this was bad...kids can hardly carry on conversations with each other, let alone look you in the eye when they talk to you!

but enough ranting...that was a few years ago, and I've since found texting to actually be a useful thing...when you are looking for someone and it's loud...for sending addresses which can automatically be opened up in Google maps...

so I'm on the bandwagon now...especially when I get texts like this from my awesome friends!

oh, and check out these strawberries growing outside J's house!

BBQing fools

I love Memorial Day...it is the official start of the summer season to me...the BBQ grills are out in full force, flip flops everywhere and it's time to start living outside again!

and this year, J and I planned our first get-together together...so add that to the list of reasons it was a great day!

we had about 8 friends over...and somehow again, I got wrapped up in the fun of the day, and forgot to take more photos!  but we did grill...LOTS of food...and we ventured down to the boardwalk with the group!

BBQ success!

the best pancake in the world.

not kidding.  the BEST pancake I've ever had- aside from my Dad's Sunday morning pancakes of course :)

we had brunch at Golden West Cafe in my new neighborhood of Hamden...I've eaten there a bunch of times, and somehow this menu item never jumped out at me...but oh. my. food.  zucchini scallion pancakes with honey butter sauce...

it was almost an afterthought, we had ordered our dishes and just threw the pancake in for good measure...

so glad we did.

of course, I didn't even think to take a photo before we ate it all...there was no time!

playing tourist

I've lived in Baltimore for...almost 9 years now...and there are still some places I've never gone...

so now that I have a fresh set of (super cute) eyes to take around with me...it's been really fun playing tourist in the city I've lived in for so long.

so this weekend, along with *officially* getting the keys to my apartment, having celebratory champagne and chinese food on the first night there, we also went to the Baltimore Aquarium and Zoo!

here are a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend!

Friday we had lunch at Little Havana

and then headed to the Aquarium, hoping to see the Dolphin show!

we found the dolphins! 

and of course it wouldn't be complete without a silly faced photo session...

and then on Saturday we went to the Zoo!

and celebrated all the new and happy things in life with the bottle of champagne Bonnie & Andy got me for finishing my Art degree...I had saved it for the perfect special occasion. 

more new apartment photos!

move-in is officially in t-minus 1 day! 

but here are a few more photos before I clutter it up with all my stuff!

a closet that might even be too big for my clothes!  maybe not the shoes though...

and washer and dryer...right outside the closet!

view from the bedroom/loft into the rest of the apartment

view from the rest of the apartment towards the loft

 

kitchen :)

 

and this little hiding place to store my Jen :D