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