Interesting...

Next time you ask your boyfriend "are my green shoes the same color green as this shirt" and he says "I don't know", now you at least know that he may just legitimately not know.

London Here I Come

So today's the day - well, tomorrow is, but we're leaving the house super early so I definitely won't be blogging - I'm off to London! Off to see the Royal Wedding, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and the Emirates Stadium! I can't wait!

In case you miss me, I have a few posts set to auto-send in my absence, and of course a full recap with pictures upon my return (once I am not jet-lagged and actually functional)!

Adventures in Dog Sitting - Part 2

Sadly the dog-sitting adventures are ending tonight. I really enjoyed taking long walks with her in the evening after work (especially when the weather was nice, like yesterday). I could have done without the morning walks - trying to schedule in an extra 20 minutes in the morning when I am not a morning person was not too much fun - but definitely worth it over all.

I also got to know a lot more of the neighborhood by walking around it everyday - I discovered some really cute houses in the area, and Poppy got to know all the neighborhood dogs (although not that well since she is so shy, aw). 

Well, it was fun while it lasted!

The boyfriend letting the Popsters up on the couch, aka teaching her how to be bad

I Need A Vacation

I can't believe I'm leaving for London this weekend!!! I'm so excited but still need to pack which is looming over me and stressing me out. Once I get that out of the way, I'll be much more excited.

Since I am a planner by nature, I want to start sorting out my summer travel plans. April is covered with London, and then May I'm heading to Ocean City for a weekend beach getaway. June I'm heading to my hometown for a friend's wedding, and that leaves July and August wide open, with the exception of my cousin visiting for a week in July. So many places I want to go - where to start. Perhaps a trip up to NYC? Or maybe a weekend getaway to Pennsylvania. Needless to say, I cannot wait for summer to get here! And of course for this weekend to come so my trip to London will start :)

Adventures in Dog Sitting

A friend of a friend is getting married and then leaving for her honeymoon, and knowing that I love animals, she asked me if I could dog-sit for her while she was gone. Of course I said yes and am super excited. The dog's name is Poppy and she's a giant golden retriever. She is so pretty and one of the most well-behaved dogs I have ever known.

Poppy the (female) dog

Poppy the (male) dog

(Side note: Poppy was also the name of my lovely dog growing up. My Poppy was a male, and he passed away 2 years ago after living a very long and very happy life. So it's strange to be calling out the name "Poppy" again - in a good and bad way.)

When Poppy arrived last night, Moe-Moe (my roommates cat), was extremely curious as to who this new creature in the house was, while completely petrified at the same time. Moe-Moe stood back, observing from afar, a safe distance away. Poppy the dog could have cared less that there was another animal anywhere in the house and went about exploring the house and trying to get pets. Lucky for you, I was able to capture the whole scene with a quick snapshot on my phone. Notice Moe-Moe peering out from behind the doorway, so curiously.

Review: Cakepops

Yesterday while on a quick break from work, my co-worker Amy and I took a nice little stroll over to Starbucks. While I was waiting to place my drink order, I noticed they had some new little treats, all bite-sized and looking delicious. Recently, Starbucks rolled out a new line of food items called Starbucks Petites, which are all bite sized treats that all are under 200 calories and under $2.

It wasn't until about a month ago that I had ever heard of cakepops, but ever since then the term seems to be popping up everywhere! Cakepops are basically cake batter balled up and then covered in icing. They are then decorated in a variety of cute and colorful ways, making them a fun little bite-sized treat. 

Starbucks offered 3 different flavors - Birthday Cake, Tiramisu, and Rocky Road. Not wanting to chance it, I asked the barista what his favorite flavor was and went with that - Rocky Road:

Overall, I thought it was definitely delicious, similar to a brownie but more cake-like. I was expecting the frosting to be a bit firmer so was initally surprised by how soft and mashable the entire thing was. Overall, it was a nice combination of being delicious but not too rich or sweet. You can get them at your local Starbucks, or try to make them yourself (http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/tips-techniques/how-to-make-cake-pops-078637 and http://www.bakerella.com/category/pops-bites/cake-pops/).

Weekend Recap

This weekend went by so fast and was jam-packed with fun activities. First up was the boyfriend running the Crystal City 5k after work on Friday. Me and our friend Erin went out in the pouring rain and cold temperatures to watch him run, and it paid off because he got his fastest 5k time. Way to go! (Pictures coming soon) After the race, we all went and had dinner to celebrate the boyfriend's awesomeness.

Saturday afternoon was ultra-relaxing. We lounged around, I made the boyfriend brunch, and when we finally left the house, we were on an adventure to go find a DC United jersey for the boyfriend (I of course already had one). Our original plan was to Zipcar out to the suburbs and hit up a sporting goods store, but every single Zipcar in the area was booked. Major fail. Our backup plan was to venture downtown to City Sports, where the boyfriend was able to find this awesome jersey:

Don't mind us, we're just being dorks - but looking good in our jerseys!

 After the successful jersey adventure, we grabbed a quick lunch, did some other errands, and then were off to see DC United take on LA Galaxy. We even did the full fan experience by tailgating before the game with some soccer friends. We got discounted tickets, so our seats were great - in the middle, on the 1st level and only about maybe 30 rows back. The game was super exciting - the Galaxy scored a goal in the middle of the 1st half, and although United had a ton of chances, they couldn't get one in the goal. After halftime, Galaxy was playing very aggressively, and Beckham even tried to start a fight, but his teammates pulled him back. He did get a yellow card though. He was eventually taken out with about 15 minutes remaining, and all the DC United fans booed him. Anyways, with only a few minutes remaining in the game, United got a penalty in the box, meaning they would get to take a penalty kick. United's young prodigy Charlie Davies took it and he scored. The place went wild! It ended up with a final score of a 1-1 tie and was such a fun night!

The boyfriend and I 

DC United GOOOOOOAAAAAAL!

 Sunday morning started off early, because the boyfriend had a soccer game early all the way on the other side of DC. I was tagging along to both cheer him on, and also to help watch 2 of his teammates kids while they played. Did I mention how exhausting watching a small child is! After the game, we headed over to my soccer game, and the boyfriend was just planning on cheering me on. Despite the 15 people who said "yes" to the evite for the game, there were only 7 people there when the game was about to start. The boyfriend had all his stuff with him from his game earlier, so he was a great sport and played with my team since we were down. A few people showed up late, so by halftime we had 12 total, which meant 1 sub. We were able to hold off the team to a 1-1 tie, although I think if we had had more people we could have beaten them.

Needless to say, after all that soccer, the boyfriend was exhausted, as was I, so we chilled at his place for a bit, but then had to leave again to go see my friend Jesica off who is leaving for Afghanistan today. By the time we got home, it was late, so we grabbed a quick bite to eat while watching the Arsenal game that we had DVRed from earlier that day. Then I proceeded to fall asleep watching the game.

Teeny Tiny

This lady lives in a 90sq ft apartment in NYC. Wow!

Hair Fun

Last night, I was feeling inventive so I decided to try and make the Heidi braid with my hair:

My hair is definitely long enough to achieve the look, but my hair is layered, making the ends not have enough space to braid the rest. This, combined with my hair not being extremely long, made the overlapping part extra tricky, resulting in this:

If I had someone else there to help me it would have looked better. Here's what it's supposed to look like:

Photo from: http://joannagoddard.blogspot.com/

And apparently, it's also the style this season to do the Heidi Braid with a ribbon braided into it:

Photo from: http://joannagoddard.blogspot.com/

Jumping For Joy

If you know me and the boyfriend then you know that we LOVE to take jumping pictures! I'm too sure why it all started, but now it's become our "thing" and we do it everywhere we go. While hard at work at home, definitely not at work, I put together this nice little collage of the boyfriend and I jumping all over the US. Hope you and enjoy, and next time you are in front of a tourist attraction, just jump!

Wizardary Fun

Last night the boyfriend and I got 2 free tickets to go see the Wizards take on the Pistons and it was so much fun! Our seats were nice too, we were on the 1st level so they weren't too high up, and even though we were on one corner, I thought we could see the whole court pretty well.

Go Wizards!

The game ended up being really close, coming down to the last shot, and the Wizards ended up winning 107 to 105. Towards the end of the game, when it was getting really intense, "G-Man" who is the Wizards mascot or something, came over to our section to hype up the crowd, so naturally we got our pictures taken with him:

Yesterday the weather here in DC was amazing - highs near 80 with a slight warm breeze and lots of sunshine. Besides my lunch break where I sat outside, I was cooped up inside all day at work. When I got home from work it was just too nice to sit inside, so I decided to go for a walk. My first thought was to walk to Georgetown, where I could catch the bus up to the boyfriends place, but then I thought why take the bus when I could walk - so I decided to walk the whole way, all 4.1 miles. This may not sound like a lot but all but maybe 1 mile of that is straight up a hill to the highest point in the city. I got a blister on the bottom of my right foot, but other than that I felt like I could have done even more.

Today the weather decided to do a 180 and its so cold, windy, and pouring rain. But, my friend got free tickets to go see the Washington Wizards game tonight, but she's sick so she asked if I wanted to go! So, the boyfriend and I are off to see the Wizards take on the Pistons after work today. Things are looking up!

Weekend Recap - Sporty Edition

This weekend was a blast - full of sportiness and outdoors. It all started Friday after work when my sister Amy and the boyfriend ran the Crystal City 5k. Also, special shout out to the sister's boyfriend for cheering us all on and holding my stuff during the run. I didn't run quite as fast as I was hoping for, but it was still a great time and much more active than my usual Fridays after work. My sister did spectacular in the race, she came in 9th place overall for the girls! Congratulations and way to go!!!!

The boyfriend and I 

My sister

After the race I dashed off to go change back into my work clothes so I could go meet up with friends for my friend Jesica's going away party - she is leaving for Afghanistan today to go work there for about 2 months. This is her second time going and I'm extremely nervous for her even though I know everything will be fine. Dinner was a blast - we had a private room at the restaurant, the food was excellent, and everyone was having a great time. After dinner I ducked out to head home since I was exhausted while everyone else went to go out for the night.

The Monument and the Cherry Blossoms

The next morning I had to be on the National Mall at 7am because I was volunteering at the Cherry Blossom Soccer Tournament. The boyfriend was playing it, and I volunteered to help set up for the event and there was a lot to do. From the moment I got there I was put to work but it was so much fun helping out. The weather was less than ideal, it was cold, raining off and on, and even hailing at times. Around noon my shift was over, and I spent the rest of the day spectating at the boyfriends games. We also went for a walk to check out the Cherry Blossoms, since we were right by them. By the time we got home around 7:30 I was so exhausted and had been outside for 13 hours straight. 

Me and the boyfriend's teammates

The boyfriend about to score a goal

Me trying to stay warm

The boyfriend out on the field

The boyfriend on the sidelines

The tournament lasted 2 days - the top 2 teams in each group moved on to play the following day (went from 32 teams on Sat to 16 teams on Sunday). This meant that Sunday morning we also had to be out on the mall super early again. His team made it all the way to elite 8 but then lost so they were out. The good news is that since I volunteered I got us 2 free tickets to go see a DC United game!

After the tournament, we headed over to my soccer game. We ended up tying but the game was still fun - the other team was getting super argumentative in the second half, which made the game very entertaining to watch. Once all the soccer games were finally over for the weekend, we had a nice relaxing night with us going out to our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner and going to bed early.