Christmas Time

We chopped down our own Christmas tree last Saturday during a snow storm. Tim had never cut his own tree before (whereas I've always done it since I lived in Connecticut), and he enjoyed it.

I love Christmas movies, so I convinced Tim to watch White Christmas and Holiday Inn with me, and loves them, too. How could you not love Bing Crosby?







Merry Christmas!

this is what i married into? :)

Annapolis

On Saturday, Tim and I had planned to go camping for the night, but the weather said rain, so we decided to take a visit to Annapolis, which is only 32 miles away from our apartment.

We both had never been there before. It was such a beautiful city! Apparently, it contains the highest number of intact colonial buildings of any place in the U.S. We mostly walked around in the historic section of the city. We went to the Naval Academy, walked around and looked at all the colonial houses, saw kids trick-or-treating at the Governor's Mansion, took a ghost tour at night, went to an Irish pub for dinner, bought (and ate) some Annapolis Mud fudge, bought (and ate) some freshly made ice cream, walked along the docks and enjoyed the Chesapeake Bay.


Tim and I both agreed that our day in Annapolis was our favorite day in Maryland so far. In fact, it's actually my favorite little city that I've ever been to in the U.S. If we had enough money and there were enough jobs down there, I would love to live there for a bit (or forver).

Here are reasons why we love Annapolis:


-it's charming
-people there are extra nice and helpful
-there are lots of Navy people walking around (and people in the Navy tend to be nice and polite and respectful)
-the streets in the downtown are cobblestone
-the sidewalks are made of brick
-there are lots of nice shops and food places
-there were about four ice cream parlors on one quarter mile strip of street
-it's right on the water
-it's apparently the U.S. capital for sailing
-the downtown area is walkable
-there are small alleys everywhere, so its reminiscent of europe
-there are lots of different types of people there
-there are many art galleries
-i don't think i'd ever tire of walking the narrow streets, admiring all the nooks and crannies

Here are some pictures:

Has anyone else been to Annapolis?

What else? Tonight, I made pork fried rice for dinner. Tim really liked it:

Good night.

kid umbrellas

You know those plastic umbrellas you had as a kid? Well, I got one yesterday. I needed an umbrella since it was supposed to rain and we were going to spend the day in Annapolis, and I happened to stumble across one in the Barnes and Noble near our house. It was only $5! It made me so happy. I think all umbrellas should be made like kid umbrellas; they're definitely more sturdy than the nylon ones since they're made of thick plastic. Plus, the ends of the metal spokes have plastic balls on them so they can't stab anyone's eyeballs. And, they're a lot prettier than stuffy adult ones; the one I got is a "Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs" themed umbrella, so it has pictures of food all over it along with the movie characters. Look:

What else? Tim and I went to the main branch of the Baltimore Public Library system today (the one within walking distance to our house is small and doesn't have that much stuff). It's huge! That's definitely one of the benefits of living in a largeish city--a largeish library. I checked out some travel writing and Tim got some stuff about the Appalachian Trail (it's his dream to hike it one day). It's not the New York Public Library, but it's still pretty good.

etsy, wegmans, egg nog, sam, kitty kat

As some of you may know, I opened up an etsy shop (brianneelizabeth.etsy.com) to sell the sailboat mosaic things I make. Yesterday I made my first sale! Well, it was to a friend (thanks, Adam), but it was still exciting.

Today, Tim and I went to Wegmans (a grocery store) after he got out of work. We're so thankful to have one down here. The one here is so much better than the one in Ithaca--it's not nearly as crowded and it has more items. I love grocery shopping when I get to go to Wegmans.

We bought some egg nog today! Yes, it's out in the stores. That means it's officially Christmastime in my book, even though I did start listening to Bing Crosby Christmas songs about a month and a half ago.

My sister Sam, who lives in Kentucky, is coming here the weekend before Thanksgiving for a Occupational Therapy conference, and she decided she's going to stay until we drive up to CT for Thanksgiving. So that means all three sisters will be home for the holiday!

We have metal bars on our back windows to prevent people from breaking in. Just a few minutes ago, our cat climbed up them like a ladder. He looked like a human. See:

postcards and mac and cheese

I've been looking for awhile for some type of art piece to put over our bed. It's been white and boring for way too long! Yesterday, I was in an antique store in the neighborhood of Hampden, and stumbled across a bunch of old postcards. I found three postcards of NYC landmarks (St. Pat's, Empire State Building, NBC building (then, the RCA building)) from the 1940s for a total of $6. Today, I put them in frames and put them hung them up. Antique postcards make for some really affordable and simple art.

What else? Tim came across this macroni and cheese recipe from Giada DeLaurentis and I made it today for dinner for a special treat because Tim had a long day at work (lots of projects due soon). It's sort of a fancier style of mac and cheese because instead of using the basic cheddar cheese, the recipe calls for parmesan, mozzarella, and fontina cheese (has anyone heard of fontina? I never had). It's very rich--lots of cheese (obviously) and heavy cream. Here are some pics of how it came out:


I highly recommend this recipe if you're looking for a different take on the traditional dish. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• Butter, for greasing dish
• 12 ounces wide egg noodles
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 1/2 cups whole milk
• 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more for pasta water
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cups (packed) grated Fontina
• 3/4 cup (packed) finely grated Parmesan
• 3/4 cup (packed) grated mozzarella
• 4 ounces cooked ham, diced, optional
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Butter a 13 by 9-inch glass baking dish and set aside. Cook the noodles in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Drain well, but do not rinse.

Whisk the cream, milk, flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper in large bowl to blend. Stir in 1 cup Fontina, 1/2 cup Parmesan, 1/2 cup mozzarella, ham, if using, and parsley. Add the noodles and toss to coat. Transfer the noodle mixture to the prepared baking dish. Toss the remaining 1 cup Fontina, 1/4 cup Parmesan, and 1/4 cup mozzarella in a small bowl to blend. Sprinkle the cheese mixture over the noodle mixture. Bake until the sauce bubbles and the cheese melts and begins to brown on top, about 20 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Sorry I haven't written anything in a long time. I didn't know people actually read this blog...

I baked some bread in the oven yesterday with a friend from church. It's a wheat/oat bread, and it was pretty easy to make. Here's how it turned out:

Tim likes it for his lunch sandwiches, so perhaps I'll make it instead of buying bread at the grocery sore. Not having a job really domesticates you.

It's finally starting to look and feel like fall down here. Here's the view outside our bedroom window:

church robbery

This morning, Tim and I went to church to help out at the food drive/health fair. When we got to the church there were police cars and the church was a mess. Apparently, some people broke into the church last night, disabled the alarm and rummaged through everything looking for money. They ended up stealing some petty cash and some tuition money that was supposed to help kids attend Baltimore Christian School tuition free. Who would rob a church? It's a shame...


Our friend from Cornell, Yuriy, is here for the weekend. We're going to a Baltimore Ravens football game tomorrow, which should be interesting. None of us has been to an NFL game before.

Guitar Hero

Kitty kat likes to play the guitar, especially to Bruce Springsteen...


Sorry--you'll have to turn your head to see this one.





I think I've posted too many things about Sealion. It must seem like we're one of those couples obsessed with their cat. We're really not...

Suspenders

Because Tim looked so nice wearing suspenders at our wedding, we decided to buy a pair for him to wear to work. They're black and make him look old-fashioned, which is always good, in my opinion. Tim likes to say, "Once you experience the suspension, you don't go back [to belts]." Weirdo.

Here are some pics of him:


Tonight, we joined one of our church's covenant groups (basically a Bible study/fellowship group). We had a great time, and met some very interesting and funny people. We talked about Luke 4, which is kind of weird, because I had just read that yesterday!

Today, Tim and I volunteered at a community project our church organized. We went around Pen Lucy, the neighborhood our church is in (one that's considered to be full of drugs and pretty dangerous), and did some trash pick-up, gardening, lawn mowing, street sweeping, etc. It was a fun day since we got to meet some people from church and talk to some people in the community.

Later on, in a grocery store parking lot, I saw one of the cutest dogs I've ever seen. Apparently, it was a poodle/terrier mix, but to me, it looked like a chocolate labradoodle. It mostly looked like a chocolate lab, but her face had a little mustache and beard. Her owner let me pet her, and she was so nice and beautiful! She sort of looked like this:

I want to get a dog, but I think we'll wait awhile. I don 't want to keep her cooped up in a small apartment, especially since we'd want to get a big dog.

In other news, here's a couple funny picures of our kitty kat. He likes to sit on Tim's lap like a little kid, and sometimes, Tim pulls his arms apart like this:

Our photographer at our wedding, Rose, sent us a few "teaser" photos!

*all images by Rose Ann Ghabour

Also, Tim and I just met our next door neighbor tonight, and turns out, she played Detective Kima Greggs on the tv show "The Wire," which was based and filmed in Baltimore. We live next door to a celebrity.

Weekend in D.C.

Here are some photos from our little trip to D.C. We went to the Smithsonian Museum of American History, Holocaust Museum, Lincoln Memorial, WWII Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, White House, etc.

The Saturday we were there, there was a huge protest against "big government," health care reform, Obama, etc. People from all over the country were there, wearing American flags and other patriotic attire. Many people were wearing t-shirts with really rude and sometimes just plain ignorant messages. One shirt I saw said, "Kenya called. They want their socialist back." Barack Obama isn't even from Kenya. Sure, his father may have been, but geez. To me, it's reminiscent of the whole sending-black-people-back-to-Africa racist movement. It's absurd. Another shirt said something like, "Everyone welcome King HUSSEIN," with a picture of Obama. Exploiting someone's middle name to instill a false fear of terrorism is just immature. There were thousands of people there, but I personally didn't see a single non-white protester.



This guy below was a counter-protester. I'm glad someone was there fighting against the ignorance.