Tenacious Thursday

I don't even really know what tenacious means, but I needed to continue with the alliteration for the week. First, Congrats to Erik and Dorsa on their first baby, Liam! Dorsa had Liam last night around 9PM and he is TINY and really long. I feel like he's a super stringbean. Can't wait to actually see him in person. I think the stats were ~22inches long and 6lbs! Initial pictures were super cute. 

Last night was EPIC. We ended up searching around a bit for a happy hour spot and then begrudgingly decided on Austin Grill. I've actually never been to one before. There's one in chinatown. We walk in to first hear live music -- a guy with a guitar playing acoustic covers. I was already a little happier. We walked into the bar at 6:50 (happy hour was ending at 7). We found two seats at the bar -- perfect. It wasn't too crowded but at least a little full so as not to seem too dead. The bartender, Allie (yeah we're friends now and more on her later) has to be the most entertaining and awesome bartender I've ever met. WHO would have thunk that would be in Springfield and not somewhere more bar-y like DC? Anyways she was really friendly and got us hooked up with drinks and apps super quick before 7PM. 

Quesadillas, wings and nachos

my cheap as hell pitcher

Pictures came out dark but their pitchers of beer are 7.00 and apps 3.00. I basically drank a pitcher by myself -- not sure if I should be admitting this. I then just sat and listened to the crowd. A lot of regulars. Lots of awesome interaction between the regulars and Allie.

Allie:

She works only two nights a week because she actually lives in Arlington and has a day job but kept the job because it was a fun part of her life! She plays a really ooc game which I found highly entertaining. A couple folks try to guess what color/type of underwear she's wearing and winner gets a shot. Everyone there also seemed to love her. 

Ended up chatting with the live music guy as well. He's in a band that tours all around the atlantic coast. I'd def like to check them out somewhere in DC sometime. 

Last night was EPIC because it made me feel a little happier about living in Springfield. Knowing there are fun happy hour spots out that way and also fun people made me happy! Also young folks and one crazy old lady who was hilarious. She just kept talking about how lame she seemed drinking by herself and kept trying to leave but Allie kept making her drink. Fantastic. 

Then I went home and was super productive with pinterest crafting. I did a few things but this was my fav! 

hopefully what's for dinner. 

We'll be mounting some wine racks above this and then a nice wine cabinet below against the wall. Should make that whole space pretty and put together!

Got a bunch of canvases being completed soon. Hopefully some photo transfer to wood too. Hopefully they come out good enough to actually hang up. Using a lot of quotes around the house -- love quotes.

Suggestions for good quotes? I'm mainly going with country song lyrics and Thoreau/Emerson quotes! 

Wishful Wednesday

I really wish it was Friday already. I've had enough of this week. Feeling really blah today.

The weather is supposed to be monsoon-like today. Don't like driving in the rain -- don't like being outside at ALL when it rains. We were supposed to go to dinner with Hirsh and Pratibha tonight but the weather really made me not want to go so I regretfully cancelled. Hopefully we can get together tomorrow night and make it work. Haven't seen them since they've been back and married and such! 

Not much going on today. Just want to be home and in bed. Think we'll go checkout the bars/eats in our area tonight. We haven't really gone out to dinner in the area yet. Still been attached to the city for wkday dinners or just cooking at home. 

I'm very much looking forward to a happy hour beverage today. Sunday is so soon, so much still not done in the house. Fail. Hopefully the rest of the week starts being way more productive at home. Maybe I'll work on one pinterest project tonight since I have nothing else to do. 

On a lighter note, Dorsa and Erik are having their baby today. Excited to see pictures of Liam! Going to have to do a baby post for all of the new babies in life at some point. 

That's it for now, off to a hopefully happy hour. =)

Thiesmann's Tuesday

Gah, all I want to do is complain about work. But I just did that for the past 45 minutes to Sketchy. Thank you Sketchy for listening to my rants. =)

After a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at work, I sat outside in Old Town and enjoyed the ridiculously nice weather for a solid hour 'til I meet up with Brenna for happy hour/life catch-up. Our master plan was to do a happy hour on the water and check out the old town Paper Source. Brenna has still never been to paper source. However, we didn't end up meeting til around 6:30 and Paper Source closes at 7 (SO EARLY). Plan fail.

Plan B: We ended up just going to Theismann's which Brenna has never been to and I love (also conveniently located right across from the King Street Metro). 

I would do a Meet Brenna post but I can't figure out which picture to use right now since we have wayyy too many. I'll do one this weekend since I'll be hanging out with her Saturday. Theismann has a nice mix of appetizers and full meals on their HH menu (burgers and fries, sandwich and fries, spinach and artichoke dip, wings, nachos, etc.). Not sure why I haven't gone there more often for hh after work! 

Pictures:

We both actually had the Buffalo chicken Sandwich and I had Sweet Potato Fries with mine. This is something very not-nalini, but their sweet potato fries are actually so good that I break my "I don't like things that are sweet that SHOULD be savory" rule. 

It was, as always at Theismann's, delicious.

The food is good and the atmosphere is great, but the absolute best part of this place and why I love it so much is that it seriously has the coldest beer that I've ever had in the DMV area. This is no joke and not just a one time experience. Every.time. Always think "damn that beer taste so much better cuz it's so cold!" Also their HH list include all their beers on tap -- lots of crafts and seasonals which makes for awesome selection. 

Brenna was hoarding beers. Which you can do since they stay cold for FOREVER. I also love how far Brenna has come in that she can throw back three beers in a few hours and be fine, =). Proud parent. 

I've been craving winter seasonal beers. I went with Virginia's own Starr Hill seasonal -- The Gift. Description: Bock/ A German-style Hellerbock with a few twists, the Gift is Starr Hill's holiday offering. The beautiful golden color only hints at the fire inside. Made with two-row and Munich malts and balanced with German noble hops, The Gift is the perfect accompaniment to any holiday event or festivity. Starr Hill definitely one of the breweries on the list given it's location in VA. 

Anyways, great food, great beer, great time. Will have to make sure everyone eventually knows the awesomeness that is Theismann's. Also a very Redskin's bar, so I feel my native DC friends would appreciate!

Monday Madness

Sketchy mentioned how he hasn't been featured or spoken of in quite some time. So let's talk about Sketchy. Let's talk about how he's growing this crazy ridiculous playoff beard. The idea is not ridiculous, the length and ooc-ness of it is ridiculous. 

Snapped this picture while he was sleeping (stupid camera click sound woke him up!):

Then got this one:

Pictures are dark which is not conducive to me proving my point. But look closely and LOOK HOW CRAZY IT IS. I'm 50% counting down to superbowl and party but the other 50% of me is going to be so happy when he can tame that thing after the superbowl! 

Work was out of control today. It looks like it's going to be like this for the next couple weeks. No.fun.ahead. Also to continue my war with technology... my computer finally is up to speed with all my programs again but now my phone won't dial-out! Blah. I've been using my cell phone when at work but in my fixation on the ice outside and making it down the walkway alive, I forgot my phone at home. Double fail today. 

Definitely cannot wait for this weekend and Superbowl party! That reminds me that I need to get a real headcount of how many will be coming. Must updated Evite. Most people already have Superbowl traditional parties they go to or host themselves so I'm expecting a smaller turnout which might be good! The house will absolutely not be completely put together. 

I think we'll hang up all our photos and wall decor before Sunday but we're going to be missing some of the bigger items. 

The big things left on the list happening in the next couple months:

-Dining room set
-french doors
-fireplace
-bar for basement
-nice bookshelves and wine cabinet

Only a few more items to go before we're complete! Should all be good to go by Summertime. Hopefully the rain/snow/ice will all go away too so we can get started on getting the backyard summer-ready! This weather has made it impossible to do anything whether that be yard work or putting up a fence -- ground way too hard! 

Had lamb stew for lunch -- delicious and the best part of this god-awful day. Tonight we made lamb meal #2:

Lamb cheese steak subs:

Bell Peppers, onions, lamb and seasoning

added some mushrooms on mine.

I'm super proud of Sketchy for trying it. He actually liked it! Looks like more lamb dinners in our future. =)) WIN. 

Tomorrow I'll be spending the afternoon post-work in Old Town with Brenna HH-ing and Paper Sourcing it up. Need to find materials for engagement situation invitations. It's supposed to be beautiful outside -- something about 60s? Would be perfect to do outdoor things. Too bad it gets so damn dark so damn early. Sure can't wait for it to start staying light out later! Can get yard stuff done and ride our bikes again! 

Lamb's uh-roasting

Everyone who knows me knows how much I love Lamb. Today I finally roasted a leg of lamb I've been hoarding in my freezer. 

rubbed down.

post roast. 

gah, such beauty. SO MUCH LAMB. Def will be eating various lamb dinners throughout the week!

first -- I made a slow cooker lamb stew for our lunches. Delicious.

Sketchy was in charge of dinner for Sunday. If he's ever in charge that means he brings Chipotle home or he makes badass sandwiches/subs! My quiznos boy knows how to please in the sandwich department. =)

mine.

his. 

I've decided that I hate when veggies and such are in the little produce bags all haphazard in the fridge drawers. My solution? I decided to put each thing in containers. I figured this would also keep the veggies fresh for longer. Then I decided to take it a step further. Chop up the vegetables to make for faster cooking on wknights! Also found a neat dish with compartments which made it easier to house a few veggies. I think I'm going to get a couple of those to minimize the number of dishes in the drawers!

post-chopped

in fridge. I really like that it looks organized. Makes my OCD heart happy!

Now I've saved the best for last. Yes, even better than LAMB! Today we finally got a knife block. I've been eyeing so many. There are so many different colors, handles and blades to choose from. I finally decided on stainless steel handles and a black knife block. I didn't even realize how perfectly it matched everything until after I got it home. I guess my subconscious always knows I like black and steel? 

Such a successful and productive Sunday. Also very well rested. Actually feel ready for Monday!

Reflection and Relaxation

Today we woke up early and headed to the apartment to finish cleaning it out and return the keys. So bitter-sweet. Excited to get rid of the apartment as it's one less thing hanging over our heads, but super sad to leave North Tract Lofts. I actually got a little teary-eyed seeing the place completely empty. 3 years and 3 different apartments later, I'm finally saying goodbye to North Tract Lofts.

NTL was my first grown-up living situation. It was the first place that was really mine. The first place I bought my first bed, had my first christmas tree and adopted my Lucy Lou. I really felt like part of my fun-young life died when we turned in that key yesterday. It was the perfect apartment complex for entertaining in the lounges and bbq-ing in the summertime in the courtyards. Goodtimes were certainly had from pre-gaming Nationals games and country concerts to poker nights and 25th surprise birthday parties. 

I think I'm also pretty attached to NTL because my first year there was coincidently the most miserably confusing yet enlightening year of my life thus far. A lot of who I am right now is a result of that one year.

T.Swift says it so.very.perfect in 22 (i love love love this song with every part of my being):

"We're happy free confused and lonely at the same time
It's miserable and magical oh yeah
Tonight's the night when we forget about the deadlines, it's time
I don't know about you but i'm feeling 22
...
Everything will be alright if we just keep dancing like we're 22." 

After returning the key we headed out to a lunch just the two of us. I always say that we're going to try to do a date night [[just us]] once a month and it never happens. I don't think we've done that for two months consecutively since we've known each other. Anyways, I deemed today a Sketchy&Nalini day. We had lunch at Mehak's Indian Restaurant in DC. It was actually really tastey and I was surprised with the portions.

My lamb and spinach dish and sketchy's cilantro chicken curry dish. The Garlic Naan there was actually the best I've ever had -- and that means something because I don't like naan at all! 

Yesterday I realized that we have not spent any weekend day at home just enjoying the fact that we have a home.  I know. Ridiculous. But I guess not surprising. We have seriously had a very social month. I feel we have been out to dinner with someone every wknight and have hung out with folks for one reason or another every weekend. 

The first saturday we were in the house was moving day and Kerry spent the night. We went out to U Street. 

The second saturday we were in the house was Goodbye Foggy Bottom Bar Crawl. 

The third Saturday we were in the house was last week when we had everyone over for game night and to spend the weekend.

Finally. Today we're sitting on the couch and just watching TV. Sometimes a quiet night can fix everything in the world. Sometimes, you just want life to slow down and enjoy a minute for yourself. Tonight seems to be just that kind of night and I'm loving it so much! We had plans to go out to Central for date night, but I don't think either of us wants to go anywhere. 

Hope everyone's having exactly the kind of Saturday night they want to be having. Also, I hope people are better than me at paying attention to making sure you have nights for yourself. They really make all the difference! 

Icy Friday

Yesterday, this was my life driving home from work: 

Also, because I'm a child, I did this in my parking space at work =): 

No extra accumulation overnight, but since it remained cold, the melted-ish snow turned into ice. My boss had mentioned that if I didn't feel comfortable driving on the roads because of ICE that I could work from home. Since our roads are curvy and hilly in the neighborhood I took my boss up on his offer. Also, it was supposed to start snowing again around noon, so I figured we'd get out of work early and then I'd really only be in the office for a few hours.

Sketchy took today off so he wouldn't have to drive in the ridiculous weather.

Turns out noon snow never happened. Everything cleared up around this afternoon with some more sunshine to melt the ice/snow. 

More pictures: 

view from my window!

View outside our front window -- it looks so northern!

Our crazy backyard... much prettier when it's snow-covered.

Tonight we're going out to check out our favorite cover band -- The Congress at Whitlow's in Clarendon. The lead chick does the craziest Nicki Minaj cover... and she's this super skinny white rocker-looking chick. It's really amazing to see. 

Happy Friday Night!

Suburban Snow!

This morning Sketchy woke me up around 5:30AM to look out the window. It was so so pretty while it was still dark outside. I took a bunch of pictures on my camera (I'll put em up tomorrow... hopefully we'll have more accumulation tomorrow!). I then freaked out about whether there was snow on the car and whether I'd be able to reach to scrap/brush off the snow. 

Later when I actually woke up, I looked at the car and it looked like sketchy had cleared the windows a little so half of my job was done. What I also noticed that kind Sketchy did was leave his two front windows cracked open a bit. I guess when you open the car with the actual car key if you turn it too much or something then the windows automatically start opening a bit. Guess he didn't notice, but I sure noticed how COLD and wet the seats were!

I spent about 15 minutes cleaning off the seats and windows dumping snow all over my hands and shoes (which are still cold and wet at 3:42PM).

before.

My hands were way too cold for me to take an after shot! Just trust that I could see out the windows. Couldn't get the top of the car so that pile of snow ended up on the windshield as I was driving down the highway. Fail.

After cleaning off the snow, I got in the car and proceeded to drive on a completely snow covered road which was an interesting experience. 

Once out of the neighborhood I hit some clean streets and the driving was much easier. 

It's been painful sitting at work today. I just wish I was at home staring out a window at the snow. Also, the snow is melting already. failface. Hoping we actually get some more tomorrow!

I'm having a seriously urge to cook. Pinterested some really awesome sounding recipes yesterday. Want to make so badly. Also want to bake to take to neighbors and invite 'em over for Superbowl Party!

Cleaning the apartment tonight to give key back to leasing office tomorrow. Been avoiding this because empty apartments/rooms make me sad. I've had a really good year in our apartment that we're giving back. I've always been scared that living with a sig other would be a horrible experience and that we wouldn't get along or whatever, but this past year has been the best. Our living habits truly just make sense. =)

Random sidenote: That last line reminds me of some of my favorite lyrics ever, "life with you makes perfect sense. You're my best friend." Can you name the song without googling it?

Delicious Diner Dining

First, I'm sorry but I have to do it -- I have to complain about the weather. Today was the coldest day in the history of my life. 

It was colder than the day I thought I was going to die at inauguration 4 years ago.

It was colder than the day I stood in Times Square for 8 hours to watch the ball drop.

It was colder than the day I tailgated at a Giants game in December.

I saw my breath in the car, I felt such crazy pain in my feat -- I swear I had frostbite. I wore ridiculous amounts of clothing and nothing helped. It was 18 degrees out this morning. 

AND NO SNOW. 

Tonight we went out to dinner with Catherine, Matt, Kelsey and Ben. We went to Ted's Bulletin on Barracks Row. First, I love this area. Perfect mix of everything: classy bars, fun bars, hole-in-the-walls, nicer restaurants, cafes and bakeries. I went out sometime last year to Cava Mezze (delicious and amazing happy hour) last year and have been wanting to go back to hit some of the other places. This is the area that's sort of between the Capitol and Eastern Market. 

Catherine suggested Ted's Bulletin. The food was great, the atmosphere fun and the decor pretty sweet. It's diner style with a neat menu made to look like a newspaper. The menu is really diverse but also not somewhere for a quick cheap eat. Definitely on the pricier side, but having said that, definitely worth it! Catherine had a lasagna that looked so hearty and heart-warming. Sketchy had a southwest chipotle soup, two random eggs and a chicken chipotle burger. I had a lamb burger on pita bread with fresh feta cheese and tzatziki sauce with a side of mac and four cheese. It was super delicious. We all ate everything before I thought about taking a picture. fail.

Catherine had mentioned that Ted's makes their own homemade poptarts. I had to do it. I had the blueberry cheesecake poptart. The poptart was so fluffy and perfect -- tasted like a giant and perfect shortbreadcookie. 

my amazing poptart.

This was all their flavors in their bakery case when you walk in.

From our spot in front of the restaurant to our drive-way. 

Barracks Row is definitely going on the list of approved weekday city spots. We can get in and out so easily and there's just so much to do there!

In other news Charlie got a new bed which he's really happy about. it's really big and comfy looking. He sleeps so soundly, and snores so loudly! 

Last night was so super cold. We bundled up the doggies in their new fleece blanket. =)

I love the times when they're not fighting and look like they actually like each other. So we're supposed to get snow tonight. Psh. I'm not getting excited anymore because meteorologists just LIE. 

One more day 'til Friday! 

Christmas in Florida

Can't believe Christmas was seriously almost a month ago already! Christmas was spent with Dero and the Kiddos (Anjali + Nikhil). Meet the family:

As a child, I was Dero's shadow. I remember wanting to always spend the night and always spending the night, =). At the age of 16 she had the privilege of practicing her future parenting on me when I moved in. I've basically lived with Dero since then. When I think home in Florida, I always think Dero's home. The kids grow so fast! I feel like everytime I see them they're a year older and 10 years wiser. They're at such a fun age now. Anjali can actually read this and can probably operate a computer much better than me. 

I got to play with my camera a little using the children as my subjects. They were quite the active subjects but I got quite a few good shots. I've saved some in my "photography" tab but here are some that are my favorites: 

Dero got Sketchy and me amazing things in life for Christmas. 

cute little bag

Lots and lots of very helpful gift cards for new house! Also a Target gift card not pictured. 

So what has Dero helped put together in the house with these cards? 

Our first purchase with the cards was this from Bed Bath & Beyond:

I had been eyeing this bedding for a while. Love the colors. Perfect for the guest room! 

Home Depot helped us changed our dead bolts (will add a picture tomorrow) and bought cans of chalkboard paint and oil-rubbed bronze paint which will be featured all throughout the house. Will post pictures of the DIY items I create with those later. The remainder will go towards yard/fencing situation! 

Target is going to purchase our set of home phones. Crazy to have a real landline and real phones again! Picture also to come. 

We're saving the Groupon giftcard for the right deal for a fun date night next month after all the running around/manual labor/house assembling/house warming party! 

The gift cards were the perfect range of stores. So many little parts of our new home made possible thanks to Dero! Giant thank you to her and we both can't wait for Dero and the kids to see the house this summer!