Ohio State players dissapoint

Yesterday afternoon five Ohio State players were suspended for five games in the upcoming2011 season. These young men were caught selling Ohio State memorabilia including their gold pants given to OSU players after beating Michigan, and Championship rings. They were allegedly given free tattoos for selling the hearts and spirit of those they are supposed to be playing for. Although these players have proved themselves physically on the field, they seem to have come up short of integrity off the field.

As someone who has seen the dedication and motivation that the coaching staff puts forth to these players in an effort to shape them into a championship worthy team, I am appalled that these players have taken this for granted. It is such a shame that 95 percent of the team has the sensibility to do the right thing, and a few bad eggs can bring such shame to a football program based on pride, integrity and the Buckeye spirit.

I hope these players learned a lesson. Be thankful for the opportunities you are given, and never take for granted the coaches and fans that support you.

Go Bucks.

The Newseum

Unfortunately I have not been to many museums here in DC, but recently I got to visit THE museum I was really looking forward to seeing. The Newseum is the Museum of media, and is located conveniently on the Yellow Line right next door to the Canadian Embassy. Sing with me! "O Canada..." My favorite part of this museum was the section dedicated to those affected by Sept. 11, 2001. There were newspaper front pages from papers all over the world on that day, a dedication to a freelance photographer who died that day, and a video featuring media who were there as the World Trade Center was collapsing around them. I was truly touched by the honesty and sincerity of this exhibit. The Newseum also includes Pulitzer prize winning photographs, newspaper front pages from hundreds of years ago and artifacts from some of the most notorious American crimes in history including the Unibomber's cabin and mobster memorabilia.
This museum is a must see for any media buff... and for those who get their news only from Perez and E! News.

We enjoyed goofing around out front where they feature a different front page everyday from a select city in EVERY state. See New Hampshire here!

And you must check out the view from the patio on top of the museum. Beautiful!

Five things I love about birthdays

People seem to cringe at the word "birthday" as they get older. As a woman in my mid-twenties creeping up on thirty I cannot disagree more. I still love birthdays. Am I one of those girls who has a birthday week? Umm no. But I do enjoy the fact that I feel special for a day and people give me gifts adorned with sprinkles and bows. Here are 5 things I love about birthdays, not necessarily my own:

1. EATING
Why would this not make the list!? I love going out to eat, and specifically getting to chose where I go out to eat. What's that? You don't like sushi? Too bad! It's my birthday. Sashimi for everyone!

2. USING THE BIRTHDAY EXCUSE TO GET OUT OF TROUBLE
I've gotten out of a lot of trouble over the years by simply stating these words: "But it's my birthday." This includes two parking tickets, a speeding ticket and a long line for the bathroom at a sporting event. With a sad face added in this is a surefire way to get your way.

3. MORE THAN ONE COCKTAIL ON A SCHOOL NIGHT
What are the odds of your birthday being on a weekend? I'm horrible at math, but I'm pretty sure you only get a birthday on a weekend once every seven or eight years. This means that the chances your birthday dinner will be on a school night are pretty good. This also means that you will most likely have a designated driver and a reason for an extra glass of wine. You deserve it. Those last 365 days of breathing were such an accomplishment!

4. BIRTHDAY CARDS
I love birthday cards. They can be funny or serious, but the important thing is you can tell a lot about someone from what card they pick out. I save them every year, and love looking back at them every year. I just love to line them up for a couple weeks on my counter and let them be a decoration until the Christmas cards take over.

5. AND MOST OF ALL... FRIENDS AND FAMILY
I didn't get to be home this year for my birthday, but it was so nice to be around good friends. I think I saw this in a Lifetime Movie: "Friends are the family you choose yourself." It is so true. I can't wait to reciprocate on their birthdays :)

Cake or small fire?? You decide.

Let them eat cake

So I tried my hand at baking, and made this luscious four-layer pumpkin cake (no really that's what it was called). It is SO easy, but looks like it took forever. I actually think it looks like pancakes, but the cream cheese icing makes it AMAZING.

I was the popular kid at work for a day... well worth it. :)

what you need:
1 pkg. (2 layer size) yellow cake mix
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin, divided
1/2 cup of milk
1/3 cup oil
4 eggs
1- 1/2 tsp. Pumpkin pie spice, divided
1 pkg. (8 oz) PHILADELPHIA cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tub (8 oz) COOL WHIP Whipped topping, thawed
1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
1/4 cup PLANTERS pecans

HEAT 350 degrees F

MIX cake mix, 1 cup pumpkin, milk, oil, eggs and 1 tsp. spice in large bowl. Divide into two greased and floured 9 inch pans.

BAKE 28 to 30 min. Cool 10 min in pans then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

BEAT cream cheese in medium bowl until creamy. Add sugar, remaining pumpkin and spice; mix well. Stir in Cool Whip. Cut each cake horizontally in half making four layers; stack on serving plate with the icing in between each layer. Do not frost top layer. Drizzle with caramel before serving and top with nuts...

Sweater vests for everyone!

A few weeks ago Airmen and Soldiers from the Ohio National Guard were invited to attend a practice at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. As a proud Buckeye and graduate of OSU, I was so excited to attend.

Coach Jim Tressel, head coach for the Buckeyes has been extremely supportive of troops all around the world. In 2009 Coach Tressel visited troops overseas with a handful of other college football coaches. As we toured the Woody Hayes facility, the troops attending were greeted by many military themed corridors and rooms in the facility. The workout room actually has "Combat Ready" scrolled across the entry and Army Core Values lining the room.

My personal favorite was seeing Woody Hayes last words scrolled on a chalk board he kept in his office. He was truly a supporter of our troops, and Coach Tressel has carried on this legacy.

The OSU players and coaches stayed after practice, and signed autographs and took photos with troops. What a nice bunch of young men (now I sound like my grandma...lol).

So as you can see from the photo above, Coach Tressel and I are BFFs... Sweater vests for EVERYONE!

Girls' night in

Tonight I made homemade pizza! Ok maybe not homemade. More like semi-homemade. I just can't say no to DiGiorno frozen four cheese pizza. Yum. To spice it up I added onion, fresh basil and tomato. I told my roommate it was homemade though so... don't tell!

The roomie made sangria to go along with it! You should try it.

Kayla's sangria

1 bottle red wine (Kayla uses Jam Jar)
2 cups brandy
1 tbsp grenadine
a dash of cinnamon in each glass
1 granny smith chopped
1 orange cut in wheels
1 lemon cut in wheels

Combine all. Best when it sits overnight, but who can wait that long?! Enjoy!

Pay Homage

I'm not really big on giving praise to companies here on my blog, but this week I found a really great one, and I just have to share! Homage is a vintage t-shirt shop selling t's made in the U.S.A. Apparently they just opened shop in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio, and a few of my friends are big fans. So I went online to check them out, and I was very impressed. They have a wide variety of t-shirts promoting music, sports teams and different cities in the US of A. You can also find some pretty quirky old school stuff for sale including Big League Chew and Rubik's Cubes. I placed my order, and a few days later I received an extremely small box. Did I order a book?
Talk about efficient packing! I don't know about you, but when I receive an online order, and there is all of this unnecessary extra packing I get so annoyed. Uhh, do you hate our environment? So on top of being an American shop they are also environmentally friendly. LOVE! So the t-shirts are totally dreamy. The kind of cotton t's that you love to wear. Believe me. Also included in my order were a discount card for next time, a "Homage" sticker and a pack of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collectors cards. I am not kidding. These people really are vintage! For a moment I had a flashback to 1990 when I was 8-years-old, and loved the TMNT!! So you should check out Homage. But only if you support vintage, capitalism, America and the environment. Oh, and I found this cool hat on their website. I'm ordering it immediately!

Noisy high heels.. Are you guilty?

Click-clack. Click-clack. We've all heard the sound. Strolling through the hallways at work it's the sound that I hear often, and also the sound that I make. No, I don't wear taps, and I'm not donning horse shoes.

One particularly noisy heeled morning I walked into the office, and my co-worker was laughing at me. "I knew that was you walking in," she said. "I could tell because of the clicking." So this brought me to wonder, is there a way to make heels less noisy? Is this a problem that other women have? So after some google research, I came upon a post by a man calling himself "Jack 'I'm a model' H." Here is an excerpt from his rant.

"I'm talking about women who seem to buy the LOUDEST SHOES possible, so you can hear them coming from 300 yards away! It's like a cow bell or something.

And here they come "CLIP CLIP Clickety - Clack Clickety - Clack CLIP CLIP CLIP."
Then you or some guys are scared and want to make sure a stampede or something isn't coming, so you look up at them for a second, and they give a look like "Oh wow are you checking me out? Why doth thou starest so? Am I hot? Oh I know it!"

Ok JACK. I get it. They are loud, and you hate them, but last time I checked a "Sound check" usually isn't part of the shoe trying-on process. So get over yourself...

After checking another site and finding that women really are having this problem, we began to brain storm in the office. My one co-worker suggested felt bottoms on heels. WHAT? Grace is not in my nature. I would most definitely take a nose dive in the Pentagon in front of some four-star and disgrace the D-ring forever. Bad option!

I did however find a great article on how to walk silently. Basically, you can go to a shoe repair place, and they can add a layer of rubber to the bottoms of your heels... or you can wear flats. The choice is yours...

If I were Ohio's PR agent...

Being the resident Buckeye here in my office at the Pentagon, I frequently come under a lot of scrutiny about my state and a few of the WHACK jobs that live there. It seems that my co-workers love to send me lovely and insightful articles about the seemingly endless idiots in the news that reign from the great state of Ohio. And it's not just the people! I recently was forwarded a column that was written in TIME magazine featuring Ohio. It wasn't about some scientist that had cured some horrible disease. It was about bedbugs, and how the state is seemingly riddled with the sleepy little pests. Just today I saw an article about a pot-smuggling grandpa delivering drugs to his imprisoned grandson, and we all have heard of the serial killer recently detained in Ohio and extradited back to Michigan.

Who does your PR Ohio? Is there a spin doctor in the house? If I were Ohio's PR agent, and here I practically am, I would do a few things to get things back on track.

1. Highlight stories that don't make national headlines but really should like the increase in solar fields across the great state of Ohio. Who knew they were making such great strides in clean energy efforts?

2. The everyday heroes of Ohio making news, like the 65-year-old Vermilion, OH woman who scared off a would-be robber from a convenient store.

3. If these initiatives fail, I could just revert every bad news story back to The Ohio State Buckeyes, and the hopeful season that lies ahead of them. The art of distraction is never below me...

No matter what, I will continue to defend my home state and the people that live there. No matter how many stories I see about Ohioans being pulled over on their motorized bar stools or Ohio families who call police after being trapped in their home by squirrels, I will still stand tall and just be glad that I don't come from somewhere awful, like Michigan.

cattitude

So my roommate's cat Hopper is 1. Adorable, and 2. a complete brat. I give him a hard time ALL of the time. "Hopper don't eat that." "Stop scratching the company." "Don't bite my toes when I'm trying to sleep." I'm such a nag right? My roommate's parents call it "cattitude".

I've just recently realized that we have WAY more in common that I first realized! Recently I have been a complete brat and unfortunately to those I am closest with. I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but do you ever find yourself acting out? Do you ever develop your own case of "cattitude" and take out the wrath on those you just assume will understand?

It's extremely unfortunate that a little stress at work, or a fight with a friend can create such a funk that rubs off on the innocent unsuspecting bystander. Well for all of my innocent, unsuspecting bystanders that may have been a victim to my recent bad attitude I just want to say sorry. And for some that is SO hard to say. It's amazing how two little words can change a whole situation. An apology can change so much, and it's unfortunate when people overlook that fact. If Hopper could speak I'm sure he'd say the same.

I forgot about #1! So yes, Hopper and I are both kind of adorable too... when we aren't biting and scratching of course. :D

Cake, I'm in Love...

Thanks to a great deal from Groupon, I was able to slip into a cake induced comatose with this little beauty. This my friends is a CakeLove creation called "Susie's a Pink Lady. Fresh raspberry butter cream floats between layers of vanilla butter cake. And did I mention it has FRESH raspberries and is baked from scratch that day...yum!

It was DELICIOUS! So if you aren't afraid to spend $40 on a cake (or get a great 50% deal from Groupon) then I highly suggest one of these little beauties. My only complaint was this: If I am spending an insane amount of money on a cake, could you please not let a 5 year-old write the birthday message?

My post-it note organization system

Today I learned a VERY valuable lesson. A colleague called me and asked me for a phone number that I had written down last week. Now what did I do with that? I knew the number was scribbled somewhere on a piece of paper the size of a post-it note. Because why wouldn't it be? Everyone knows that's the most effective way of logging calls. On a 6-inch square of paper with no name or reference to be found. Just a number. Right next to 5 others with the same area code...ahh! As I scrambled through my filing system, and by filing system I mean roughly 34 pieces of scrap paper, post-it notes and two notebooks, I realized something. Although my perception is that I have my organization system completely in check, the aftermath of me searching for this phone number would prove that I am, dare I say, a HOT MESS.

While I mean well writing down endless phone numbers and to-do lists (I'm obsessed) on these bitty pieces of paper, I'm really not doing myself any good keeping all of these scraps piled on my desk. God forbid the fan trend comes back to the office culture. I would be screwed!

So from now on, I will refrain from scribbling on scraps as my main source of call documentation. I hear they have this thing called "e-mail".... Ya, that might be a good start.

I dream of Frosty

Does this remind anyone else of a diet-induced nightmare? I know I've been chased by a giant delicious Frosty in my dreams many times...

CASH CAB

OK! I was on Cash Cab! The Discovery Channel show that takes place in a cab in NYC! And since it aired on Friday July 23, I can now tell you ALL about it!

First question: Did I win? Umm no. But like my mother always used to say, winning isn't everything. YA RIGHT! How do you think I have become the competitive nut-ball that I am today?! Thanks mom! :D

My roommates and I went through a phase in early 2009 where we would ONLY hail Toyota van-cabs in hopes that Ben Bailey would be hiding inside. We also would ask every driver if this was the cash cab, and they were clearly unimpressed with that.But seriously, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity that not everyone gets to experience. So here's how it went down:

So my friend Angela and I were going to Elmo, a bar in NYC, and hailed a cab. Right when we got in, I knew something was up. I could see the driver was a REALLY tall white guy, with ridiculously long legs. AKA he was not your average NYC cab driver. My friend Ang looked around and said, "I think we're on cash cab." (Which actually we say every time we get into a van-cab in NYC)

LIGHTS! BELLS! BEN BAILEY! "You're right!" He said, "Welcome to Cash Cab, do you wanna play?"

Umm hells yes!

Okay so we fill out our "forms" (disclosure...yada yada) and we are on our way. The first question he asked had to do with Univ. of Michigan, and being that they are Ohio State's arch-nemesis, I definitely knew that one. The next question's answer was my high school mascot (CRAZY!) So pretty much we were on a roll. The first one we got wrong was "Tiger Beat". I must not have gone through that crazy teen-heart throb stage... oops! Then it happened. We were ONE block away. $1300 in the bank, and all we had to do was answer one simple question. "What do you call the Outback of Alaska not accessible by car?" Umm what? We have no shout outs left. Hurry make something up. So I did it. What every good Public Affairs person (and President GW Bush) would do. I made up a word. "Alleghanquey" I screamed. Umm no. Turns out that is not even a real word/region. Ben Bailey was so funny though because you could just tell he wanted to crack up laughing. He just turned and looked at me and said afterwards, "Really? That is not even a word." lol.

So I didn't win. But I did walk away with a really great memory, and the one thing I always wanted when I came to NYC... a ride in the Cash Cab. (and a hug from Ben Bailey...I got one of those too!) :D

My little garden

Like most DC residents, I don't have a yard. But unlike my NYC apartment, I do have windows and a small balcony patio, so I am very greatful for that much! I know my mother and grandmother will laugh, but I've taken up gardening. I think this is much in part becasue I have been watching too much "Beekman Boys" (LOVE), and I enjoy waking up and seeing how my lil' garden has bloomed overnight.

As you can see, my small patio has been taken over by a cucmber vine and tomato tree. Neither, might I remind you, have yielded any fruit...

That's okay. They still look pretty, and I think my good intentions of being more "green" are really paying off. Despite my somewhat fruitless efforts, my one strawberry plant has been yielding many strawberries... although one at a time.

Note to my fellow gardeners: Watch out for pests in your garden. They can really slow down the process! :D

Dog Park Happy Hour

That's right people. I said it. Beagles and booze. Wine and weinerdogs. If there are two things that I never thought would go together it's gotta be dogs and Happy Hour.

One day after a long week of work while gathered around with other dog owners at the neighborhood dog park, we had an idea. Why not do this... but with drinks? The dogs have been couped up all week, and all they wanna do is play, and yes, we could use a drink after all of those TPS reports we did this week.

So the Dog Park Happy Hour was born unto us. Now, all of our friends head out to the doggie hangout at 5pm on Fridays, and bring snacks and drinks and let loose a little. It has truly become a great way to make friends, and allow the pups to play leash-free. I can honestly say that "dog park" is right up there with "pool" when it comes to future apartment searches.
Big shout out to Sadie, the border collie-spaniel mix, without you I'd have very few friends.

You have been de-friended.

A really scary thing happened the other day. My roommate came home, and she told me she had gotten annoyed with Facebook, and how some really random people were her friends. She went on a Facebook cleansing, and deleted a dozen people that she really didn't know that well.

So knowing that I knew all of my FB friends, and that this was going to be a very short cleansing exercise, I sat down and went through the list. Of this list of all of my FBBFFs (Facebook Best Friends Forever) I ended up deleting 38 people from my friend list. Granted I had multiple friends in common with all of them, but once I clicked their profile picture, I was looking at a complete stranger. There were a few that were friends of friends of friends that I had met long ago and OF COURSE we friended each other afterwards because a fun night out once means you should be FB friends. Others were people that were friends with people on FB that I knew, so of course they couldn't be too bad.

One was really scary though. When I clicked on my "friend"'s profile, it was this guy who I had never seen in my life. I had 13 friends in common with him, all pretty females, and ALL of his friends on FB were females my age. I think we call that a creeper... It was incredibly disturbing. At some point I had friended this guy thinking that no harm could come from it, and that since he was friends with my friends he couldn't be too bad. Come to find out, now my friends were adding him because they saw he was friends with me and accepted his friend request. So THIS is what my mom was telling me about Internet predators for! I thought about this, and how for some people, Facebook friend numbers really were a bragging right. Not accepting a friend request could mean you (gasp) fall behind!

Bottom line: Go through your online social media "friend" list, and make sure these people have some real connection with you. Is it worth having 1,245 friends when 58 of them are sexual predators preying on you and your friends? Not really. I think you will be surprised how many people you really don't know from Adam. Do you really want complete strangers knowing your life details? Well, after my Facebook cleansing, I know who is keeping up with me...

Happy belated Birthday America!

Ok so I made the cheater version... but it was still delicious!

Williamsburg, VA

Here ye! Here ye!

This weekend we went to Williamsburg, VA, and I have to tell you I was pleasantly surprised. The food was amazing (try Trellis, and get the Trout), the people were so nice, and it was beautiful weather (minus the 98 degree weather).

The first day we went to Busch Gardens, which by theme park standards is extremely different from anything I've ever experienced. This place is clean. I don't even think I saw an ant anywhere! I rode ever roller coaster they had (which was only four) and sat in the front row everytime. The lines were miniscule, and longest we waited was for a LAME log ride that might as well been a dry ride. I stopped by the restroom afterwards and splooshed myself to cool down... so pathetic. I was disappointed however that 1)there were minimal trashy tattoos, which is admittedly one of my favorite parts about theme parks, and 2)they did not serve beer in Germany. WHAT?!? That is exactly what I said. The park is seperated into countries, and I was SO excited to get to Germany and have a beer. I mean it is BUSCH gardens after all. No beer to be found. O, and somewhere along the line we saw bald eagles and sheep... not together of course.

After sitting in the sun for hours, it was time for something more colonial. If you visit Williamsburg, definitely stay at the Williamsburg Inn or Lodge. It's the only way to go. I searched online for the best deal, and decided to not take a chance on a Howard Johnson or Ramada, and just go to the Inn. I'm so glad I did. the other hotels are on a strip that may as well be Nyrtle BEach without the beach. If you going to Williamsburg and prefer an Applebees to a local establishment then stay on the strip. If you want an original experience close to Williamsburg downtown, spend $20 extra and go to the Williamsburg Inn/Lodge.

The next day was filled with some shopping and walking around Williamsburg. What a cute little place, and a great getaway.
I call these the fences of Williamsburg...

Overworked...under-blogged

Hi Grandma!!! So there were two very distinct incidents that made me realize I needed to back to blogging. One happened the last time I was at home, and a friend of a friend approached me at the bar. This is a guy that I see maybe three or four times a year, and not someone I have in my phonebook. You know the type. We were hanging out with a large group of friends at a bar in Columbus, Ohio engaging in the friendly chit chat you do with a friend you only see once in a great while. You know, "Hi." "How are you?" "Why haven't you written on your blog lately?" What?!? Defintely not something I expected to hear. It's kind of cool to hear that people you don't expect to care about your trivial bloggings, actually acknowledge your writing... at a bar. Ha! Who would've thunk it?

The other reason is obvious. Grandma said I had to. And everyone knows that is if Grandma's happy, everyone's happy...

So the new job has been keeping me from blogging. That's okay though. Busy is good. I will never complain about busy. What's that saying? Idle hands do writer's... okay nevermind.

DC snow globe

You would probably think that living in a winter wonderland would be amazing. It's kind of like a shaken up snow globe with magical little snow flakes drifting through the water colored landscape of our nation's capital. Little children are making snowmen and engaging in playful snowball bouts. Dogs are frolicking in the white powdery drifts while their human counterparts sip on hot cocoa and various wine products around the crackling fire.

Here's the real deal: This sucks! Day 5.5 snowed in, and the natives of DC snow globe land are getting restless. Steve's quaint little neighborhood has turned into a parking space battleground as neighbors fight for the last spot not taken by mounding snow piles. Apparently 25 percent of the snow plows here are broken, with another 25 percent being 2-wheel drive and it didn't seem that they were being used appropriately when they were in peak working condition. The children have giving up on hot cocoa and snow balls, and they have now turned to complete boredom. The dogs are still frolicking, but I think ours is losing her mind. I caught her licking a bare wall this morning. "The snausberries taste like snausberries!" If doggie cabin fever exists, she is definitely a victim.

Living in a snow globe is officially over rated! The radio stations and news personalities have run out of clever puns abut the storm. I am running out of board games to play, and the wine supply is getting low. I have made every type of snow creature and structure, and climbed the biggest snow mound in the the neighborhood! Every episode of crummy reality television has been watched, and I even caught myself watching TV Land's "High School Reunion"! The madness has set in, and I have aged 40 years, now putting together a 750 piece puzzle of the New York skyline. (I can't wait to finish it. It glows in the dark!)

As a child, I sometimes prayed for a snow day, but now I find myself praying to go back to work! Please send wine...

Snowpocalypse

As the Chicken Littles of the DC Metro area descended into every grocery store and bought every loaf of bread possible yesterday I realized something... What the heck are they freaking out about? And how exactly is bread going to help? I knew I was in trouble when my friend Josh referred to the previous 4 inches we got earlier in the week as "the last snow storm". This one would be significantly bigger. It makes me thankful that I am from the great state of Ohio where the snow plows run free, and the counties don't go into a state of complete panic over a little snow. Yes, I know. This is not going to be a little snow. But it certainly is not a reason to act as insane as some of my DC brethren these last few days. I chatted with a Floridian friend the other day,and was asking her about hurricanes. She said that this reminded her of the reactions of people down south when a big storm is coming. So can't we react the same? Can't we hold one of those "hurricane parties" I hear so much about? I know I will. I will be here my friends, holed up in my apartment with a bottle of Ketel One and my lengthy unwatched DVR recordings.

Now, I have to admit something. I bought bread. I walked into Trader Joe's yesterday, and the chaos and R.E.M's "End of the World" playing on the store's speakers broke me down into the groupthink mentality. I snagged the last 12 grain on the display and rushed out of the store victorious. And as I returned home with my prize I realized I didn't even need it. I already had a loaf and a half sitting on my shelf.

What I am upset about is that they were out of sleds! How am I supposed to dog sled race with no sled? I hear trash can lids work just fine...