st. patty's day images.

Ben's friend Marcel from New York.

ben calming down a bar patron.

eddie, eric's tongue, and ben

the bar patron is back and eddie's face is totally warranted.

aw, ben, open your eyes up.

now that's a lovely family portrait. ben, me, trish, and jon

the happy couple.

fellow bartender at ventnor, jo.

notice russ eating my head. how does it taste??


the end.

The NAFTA dinner party. We're so extremely clever. All it takes it a little Canadian beer, some burritos, and some All-American Apple Pie. NAFTA.

Eric and Elif are thrilled.

Koffi is, too.

We didn't have a rolling pin, so Elif used a beer bottle. Genius, woman!

I made my first apple pie, with Elif's help. Ben said it was the best apple pie he's ever had.

Voila.


Emily and Molson's.

It was beautiful.

On Sunday Eric and I were planning on taking the scooters to Trader Joe's to do some grocery shopping. He went outside to unlock his scoot, and when he came back in he asked, "Have you seen what the wind blew in and placed on your scooter?" "No! What is it? Is it gross? Do I need gloves to remove it?" These are one's first thoughts when one lives in the city. "Um...no. You'll see for yourself!" Eric refused to tell me what it was, and as we walked outside I caught a glimpse of red velvet through the front tire of my scoot.

This is the doll we found nestled in my front tire. This is a serious doll. It's heavy and appears to be hand-crafted, and all dolled up for a Christmas party. Initially we thought Ben must have put it there because, really, who goes around putting dolls in people's front tires? Heavy dolls like this do not, contrary to Eric's initial reaction, blow in with the wind. But, no, Ben didn't do it. "A doll on your bike? Huh?"

This leaves us with a big mystery on our hands. And there's really nothing more we can do now except scratch our noggens and wonder "Why?" until another toy or doll decides to show up unexpectedly outside our house. I'll be sure to record any such happening here, you can rest assured.

Currently, the doll is residing in our living room. She's just too pretty to throw away.

Ben's Bunny

Letting the crafty juices flow once more.

Sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day has left me numb and soulless. Okay, that's dramatic and an exaggeration. I get to take a lot of field trips from my desk throughout the day, and I adore my officemates, so I'm hardly numb and barely soulless. But it IS true, however, that this is the most time I've ever spent indoors, at a desk, sitting, for as long as I've been in the working world. I'm looking for diversions, creative pursuits, and hands-on activities to revive me to my former state once more. The easiest of these things for me, something I can dive into for a few hours and have a product to hold up and say "I did this! I am a creative being!" is my knitting.

Mittens...made just in time for Spring!

I knit these mittens in a few days (it also helped that I was home sick from work for a few days this week, and had to cancel my trip to Florida because of it :P ). Of course, as soon as I knit my first pair of mittens, the weather turns nice and I have no need for them. Someone's trying to get me laugh at myself, and I appreciate it.

When Ben watched me knitting the mittens he commented that it was "amazing". It is pretty cool to watch mittens form out of a ball of yarn, I'll admit. And anyone who is that appreciative of my skills (or at least humors me to that extent) deserves some knitted object of their own. We scrolled through the list of patterns on one of my favorite knitting websites, and Ben firmly selected the Bunny pictured above. It is cute, I admit, and the Easter season is soon upon us, but while Ben says it's "amazing" I can make mittens out of thin air, I think it's equally as remarkable that he wants a stuffed Bunny and isn't afraid to admit it. :)

Yes, my knitting days have returned, at least for the near future. I have a bag full of half completed projects that need my attention. How does that always happen to me? Why can't I complete each project as I go, finish one project completely before I begin the next pursuit? Hmmm....is it just me, or is that a major metaphor for the rest of my life. I think I'll end on that note!

We're All Grown Up

Who would have believed, after all these years, that the three of us would all be in DC on a Sunday afternoon celebrating Mark's birthday at a bowling alley. More that a decade of friendship, lots of stories, trends, phases, and hair styles later (who knew the boys would one day wear more hair product than me on a daily basis), we are still friends. Dennis will be leaving us shortly to live in Philly where he will be a super star district manager extraodinaire. But Mark and I will be holding down the DC fort, at least for a little while, and I think we'll see Dennis on more than one occasion if my predications are correct!

So Mark had his birthday party this year at the Lucky Strike bowling alley in Gallery Place/Chinatown. It also happened to be the Chinese New Year celebration, so parking was an issue (or so I heard, since I don't do cars). Everyone eventually made it to the alley, and we began a raucous game of bowling.

Dennis reminded me of the time I had my birthday party at a bowling alley (this was over 10 years ago, I imagine) and the owner gave me a bowling pin to keep as my birthday gift. Apparently my dad thanked this man profusely and insisted that this made my day and what an amazing gift, etc, etc. I believe Dennis because (a) I have no memory of event that happened over 10 years ago and (b) that sound like my dad to a tea.

Enough talking...let the pictures speak for the sweetness of bowling pleasure themselves!

Beer bottles shaped like bowling pins. How darling.

Marky is prepared to roll that mother down the lane.

I can't figure out how to make this picture straight up and down. Sorry! Mac challenges.

Mark is rocking the Lacoste bowling zip-up jacket, new for Spring '07.

Either Dennis just got a strike (he used to be in a bowling league, you know) or he's dancing to the AWESOME music they had blasting over the loud speaker. There was a lot of dancing taking place.

Is that girl checking out Mark's bottom? He's such a stud.

Cake time!

This is Mark's "Um...hi! I'm not eating cake! Nope, not me!" face.

These kids were all up in our space, lounging on our coveted pleather couch. Dennis decided that a good way to try and scare them off would be to take a picture with them. Them he proceeded to scold them: "Please don't lean on the coats. They're designer!!!" I don't think the kids understood, but I thought it was hilarious.
I love taking random pictures of Den Den.

#2
#3. Wrap him up and call him "gifty".
And what a great poster on the wall right when you walk into Lucky Strike. Mark Carter the great!

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I would lastly like to point our that I won the first round of bowling with a score of 125! Beating 6 opponents! I'm ready for the big-time.