Hi everyone!

Just wanted to check in...it's Fiscal Year End at work, so things have been crazy to say the least. I just haven't been in any kind of mood to look at my computer screen once I'm home for the night, so blogging is patiently waiting on the back burner. But, I have been trying my best to keep up with everyone's posts.

I'll be back at the end of the week. :-)

I'm ever so slightly in over my head

Look what I found in my drafts folder...

Last Friday's blanks from Lauren at the little things we do...

1. If I could choose my last meal it would be: gnocchi with pancetta, peas and mushrooms, lots of thick, delicious bread, fresh green beans cooked just right and a hot fudge sundae for dessert.

2. My favorite person to share a meal with is Jamie because, we have similar taste in food and both of us are always keen to try something new and to share plates.

3. The best meal I've ever had was an eggplant pasta dish on my 22nd birthday. The eggplants was perfectly cooked with a light breading that wasn't too heavy. And the red sauce was to die for!

4. The one food that makes me feel instantly better when I'm having a bad day is either fresh green beans or a blueberry scone.

5. My absolute specialty in the kitchen is probably quiche. I make seriously kick ass quiche!

6. The city that has the best food is Denver! And my favorite restaurant there is Namiko's Sushi Bar. Absolutely amazing sushi, great service and they have a fabulous, inexpensive Zinfandel on the menu.

7. My favorite healthy snack is apple or pear slices with sharp cheddar cheese. Yum!

8. In my opinion the nationality which has the best food is definitely Italian. I love pasta like a fat kid loves cake, and I love how simple most Italian food, yet it's fresh, colorful and flavorful. You really can't go wrong with Italian.

9. If I could learn to cook anything in the world (and be really good at it!) I'd choose pastries. I'd love to be a pastry chef.

10. The most outrageous dessert I've ever had was ...I don't think I've really ever had a truly outrageous dessert. When I was back in Baltimore I had an ice cream sundae that was literally the size of my head. Very tasty but way too much sugar for one person to consume. Looking back, I think all 5 of us gals that were out could've shared the one sundae.

Baltimore Day 4

We've come to the final installment of my wonderful trip back East. Day 4 was actually spent in Baltimore, unlike Day 1, Day 2 or Day 3. Corey unfortunately had to work this day, so Matt was in charge of entertaining me and getting me to the airport in time for my evening flight back to CO.

Matt and I had a mellow morning that mostly involved putzing around on the computer, drinking lots of coffee and eventually showering and getting dressed. It was actually kind of nice not to be in a rush to get out the door and on to the next destination. But, we did have plans to meet up with Corey for lunch at one of my favorite restaurants in Baltimore, Miss Shirley's Cafe. Seriously, this place is absolutely to. die. for! It's a bit pricey, but totally worth it! So, we grabbed Corey from the office and enjoyed a fabulously tasty meal. Corey and I said our good-byes, which is always kind of sad, but she and Matt will be out in Colorado in August for their WEDDING, so this farewell wasn't too bad.

Matt is my fellow History nerd (seriously, you would want this kid with you if you were ever on Cash Cab) and since it was just the two of us for the rest of the afternoon, we decided to go to Fort McHenry since I had never been. It was another effing hot day, but we had a great time exploring the Fort. I'm not a huge fan of American History, but the American Revolution is one of the time periods that I love reading and learning about. I wont bore you all with the details, but if you're a history nerd and ever in Baltimore, I suggest checking out Fort McHenry.

After a couple of hours at the Fort, Matt and I headed to a shopping area near the airport in order to kill some time before I had to leave. We did a little wandering, both found a few things that we just had to have, waited out a freak rain storm and then it was off to the airport for me! Little did I know that my flight was going to be delayed for 2 hours, causing me to not get back home to Fort Collins until well after midnight...but, that's ok.

I had a wonderful Memorial Weekend getaway, and it was so nice to see my friends.

The window seat

When I was little I had a big window seat in my room,

and this window seat opened up and could store all of my treasures inside of it.

For the most part, my treasures were of the stuffed animal variety.

And sometimes when I was really sad or mad

or the world just became too big to handle,

I would climb inside my window seat,

surrounded by all of my stuffed animals...safe and cozy.

Tonight I kind of wish I still had a cozy window seat to climb into.

The world is just a little too big for me tonight

and I wouldn't mind hiding from it for a couple of hours...

with my favorite stuffed animal, of course.

Baltimore Day 3

The third day of my trip was a HOT one! We're talking high humidity and temps of 100 degrees! But, we weren't going to let that stop us, so we piled into the car and headed to Annapolis. Granted, there was a little whining from time to time and huge sighs of relief could be heard from all three of us when we would walk into any place with AC. But, I loved Annapolis. I had never been before, and I am so glad that we decided to spend the afternoon in the downtown area. It was beautiful! Lots of cute shops, cobbled streets lined with potted flowers and, of course, it's right on the water.

We wandered around town a little bit, strolled down to the docks and then decided that not only were we dying of heat, but we were starving! So, we found a great restaurant on the water, enjoyed a fabulous meal and lowered our body temps a bit. Stepping back onto the street from the restaurant was like hitting a wall of hot humidity; it was intense. I've had my fair share of experiences with humidity (lots of summers spent in the Midwest), but I am a Colorado girl who loves dry heat, so humidity always makes me a little whiney...this certainly isn't one of my best qualities. Luckily, I wasn't the only one totally floored by the heat and humidity, Matt and Corey were just as uncomfortable as I was. We quickly popped into a local coffee shop for 3 large iced coffees and then darted into stores and dashed from shaded area to shaded area on the way back to the car. The three of us also braved the direct sun just long enough to take several cute pictures near the State Capitol Building. Sometimes you just have to indulge in touristy urges.

Despite Matt's grumblings, Corey and I were able to sweet talk him into stopping at a local Outlet Mall for a bit of shopping (and a bathroom break!) on the way back to Baltimore. She and I were both successful and Matt was very well behaved. I have to give him major kudos for always putting up Corey and me and our shenanigans. He does it so gracefully (is that weird to say about a guy?).

After Annapolis and shopping, Corey and I dropped Matt off at the apartment because we had a girls' night planned! We killed a little time by wandering around Target, bought some candy for Matt as a thank you for putting up with us and then picked up Corey's friend Amy. She was such a sweetheart! The three of us gossiped over dinner and then went to see Sex and the City 2!! I was so excited! But, I have to say that I was a little let down. I loved the TV series and thought the first movie was wonderful, but I felt like the 2nd one was trying too hard to one-up the first movie. The clothes were beautiful, the scenery and locations left me awestruck and of course, the ladies were fabulous. But even with all of that, the movie left me wanting. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I wasn't as blown away by SATC2 as I had wanted to be. Once the movie was over, Corey, Amy and I met up with two other ladies, Carrie and Abby, for dessert and to catch up. I've known Carrie for about a year now and it was great getting to see her. Even though SATC2 was a little disappointing, girls' night was a success!

(Amy, Corey, Abby, Carrie and Me)

A Birthday and Father's Day

It's a well-known fact among my family and friends that I L-O-VE, love birthdays!! Mine, your's, stranger's, whatever. I think everyone should celebrate the day they came into this world. Plus, a day all about you is a wonderful thing, don't you think?

Well, today is my birthday!!

I'm 24 today and I cannot wait to see what this year holds.

I have high hopes for 24, and definitely think it can live up to my expectations.

I'm having a wonderful birthday weekend.

Also, happy Father's Day to my wonderful, Dad! I used to hate having to share my day with you (on those rare occassions when our calendar's aligned), but now I can't wait for our joint evening. I love you, Daddy!

Fill in the blank...Saturday

1. The best thing about being in school was/is being introduced to new ideas and subjects. I always loved learning about the latest Psych studies when I was getting my B.S.

2. The worst thing about being in school was/is homework. I actually didn't mind homework to an extent, but I hated when I would procrastinate so badly that I'd have to lock myself up for a day to get everything done.

3. My favorite subject in school was/is English, History, Math and Psychology...I couldn't pick just one. And yes, I'm one of those crazy people who loves algebra.

4. One subject I wish I could've mastered/would like to master is German. I wish I had stuck with this while I was in college because I've lost my grasp on most of the language.

5. I could never get tired of studying History, especially the Ancient Greeks and Romans and Medieval Europe.

6. The most memorable teacher I had was Mr. Michoski. He was the greatest History teacher I've ever had and one of the most intelligent people I've ever met. He actually made me work for my education in high school.

7. If I could choose between going to school for the rest of my life or working for the rest of my life, I'd choose going to school. I would love to be a professional student who spends her days taking classes. Yep, I'm a nerd!

Baltimore Day 2

Much like Day 1 of my trip back East, Day 2 was spent in total relax mode. We slept in, ran into town for fresh coffee and iced tea and made a quick stop at Wal-Mart for a new, jump-off-of-the-dock-without-flashing-anyone bathing suit for Corey.

Once we were back at the house, Matt, Corey, Matt's cousin Mike and I all suited up, slathered on the sunscreen, stocked the cooler with beer and trail mix and hopped on the boat to head to "Redneck Beach". This is a fairly popular beach area that is best accessible by boat and attracts an interesting crowd, hence the family's name: Redneck Beach.

We drank a few beers, played football, swam around a bit and had a great time. Eventually the beach started to get a little too busy for our tastes, so we piled back into the boat and took our party back to the dock. Corey and I layed out until Matt started whining about us not swimming, at which point we both jumped, whole-heartedly, off of the dock! Corey and I get a little wussy about swimming with "things" in the water, so we weren't in the water for too long; just long enough to cool down.

We went out on the boat for one final evening cruise with Matt's Aunt and Uncle and then the three of us piled into the car and started the drive back to Baltimore. It was a quick two days at the Bay, but lovely, fun and entirely worth it.

Woe is me...

I just need a very small minute for a quick pity party:

Today was my Baltimore Bestie's bridal shower back in Virginia and I'm so sad that I wasn't able to be apart of it. The pictures are lovely, my gift made it in time and Corey had an absolutely incredible day, but I'm still very sad.

Ok, that's off of my chest, thank you for listening, and now I will focus on just how big Corey's smile is in all of her pictures. I love my bestie, but sometimes I really hate distance.

Baltimore Day 1

If we're going to get technical, the first day of my Baltimore trip was actually spent in Killmarnock, Virginia, as was the 2nd day. Matt's family has a house on the Chesapeake Bay (technically, an inlet of the bay, but there are too many technicalities going on in this post) and graciously opened up their home to Matt, Corey and I for the holiday weekend.

So, Matt and Corey picked me up from the airport at 12:30 am, we went directly to a 24 hour Dunkin' Donuts (because I'm obsessed & Matt needed caffeine for the drive) and then babbled the entire 3 hour drive from Baltimore to Killmarnock. Once we got to the house, we stumbled through the dark with our luggage and proceeded to find our beds and fall asleep as quickly as possible. It'd been a long day for everyone!

Come morning, the sun was shining, the humidity was rising and the three of us were feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the day. And what a lovely day it was! We started off by going with Matt's cousin, his wife and their 9 month old daughter, Keira, to the pool to soak up some sun and play with the baby. The sun felt amazing, and while Keira wasn't sold on the older boys splashing around the pool, she did give us enough smiles to keep us all entertained.

After the pool we lounged around the house and hung out on the dock, spying for crabs swimming in the water. Corey and I gossiped about this and that, and crawled around on the floor with Keira, enjoying her happy baby talk.

(side note: while we were playing, Keira's dad made a comment about being able to just sit back because Keira was "in the hands of the psychologists, so she's fine!" Made me chuckle because Corey's a legit Psychologist, but I just have a Psych B.S.).

Chesapeake Bay blue crabs were next on the agenda, and I had a little too much fun snapping photos of the feisty (live!) little buggers as they were moved from their basket to the cooking pot. Sometimes I just can't help but play tourist with my camera! I love crab, but up to this point, had only ever had it in crab-cake style. Well, Matt and his Uncle were on a mission to fix that! I enjoyed a wonderful crab-picking tutorial and devoured some of the most amazing crab I've ever tasted.

After cleaning up the remains of our crab smorgasbord, Matt's Aunt and Uncle took us for a spin around the inlet on their boat and we toasted the start of an amazing weekend with Prosecco and graham crackers...we were kind of keeping it classy.

The evening ended with lightning bugs on the back porch and fireworks over the Bay.

Fill in the Blank Friday

Lauren is back from her little blog break just in time for another edition of Fill in the Blank Friday. As always, I just love playing along with this, and think you all should, too!

1. My dream vacation would be to travel all over Europe. I want to see it all, stay in classy, fabulous places, explore to my heart's content and meet fascinating people.

2. The best trip I've ever taken was my first trip abroad to Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It instilled in me a love for Europe (especially Germany), a desire to travel and introduced me to myself and my own abilities. I was only in 8th grade, but I've always felt like it's a defining part of my life.

3. The most important items to take on a road trip are cell phones, money, incredible music, snacks, a sense of adventure and your best friend(s)!

4. The next trip I'm looking forward to is visiting my bestie in Australia next year.

5. If I had to pick one CD to listen to for a long road trip it would be a mix of some sort with a little bit of everything...I really just care about being able to sing at the top of my lungs with the windows down.

6. The biggest disaster I've ever encountered while traveling was a kid losing his passport on an international school trip. Nothing really bad has happened to me (knock on wood) other than flight delays and crappy weather. Although, I did leave a bunch of my traveler's checks in a store in Switzerland once, but I was able to retrieve them quickly.

7. My favorite traveling memory is standing on one of the balconies at Heidelberg Schloss (Heidelberg, Germany) and looking down at the Neckar River and all of the old, red-tile roofs of the city. It was my first day in Germany, heck my first day in Europe, and it couldn't have been more picture perfect!

Hi everyone! I'm back from Baltimore and just wanted to say a quick hello. I had an amazing time and cannot wait to post some pics and tell you lovely ladies all about it, but first I suppose I have to get back into the swing of things here at the office...

Happy Thursday, all!