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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Daddy!

I love dads and I love bleach... this Clorox commercial combines them in a hilarious and true way :)


Oh, I just can't wait for parenthood!

~Tater


Monday, February 27, 2012

The Oscars

We didn't watch all of the Oscars, but I think it's safe to say that the "War Eagle" on the red carpet from Octavia Spencer and Robin Roberts was one of the best parts.

Congratulations to Auburn Alumni, Octavia Spencer, for winning her first Oscar for Best Supporting Actress!

WDE
-Shrimp

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Mojitos & Masterpieces

We set out yesterday with the mission of exploring Adams Morgan and its cultural oddities while enjoying food (as usual).  After hitting a couple shops that smelled like my brother's high school basement bedroom and looked like my grandmother's attic converted to a hookah bar, we decided to fill our bellies with some tapas at Rumba Cafe.  I love remembering Groupons I purchased months earlier, then it feels like free lunch!  The food was great (I absolutely loved the ceviche and Shrimp loved everything) and the mojitos weren't half bad.  We wanted to explore the area a little more after we finished, but all the bottomless drink brunches were over, Madam's Organ doesn't open until 5pm, and the weather was NOT quite as comfortable as last weekend.  Instead we stopped in at Tryst to grab some coffee and a slice of carrot cake, but there were no seats.  And no sign of any seats coming available (as evidenced by the presence of several small gaggles of people trying to look sly while eyeballing every Macbook-using, coffee-drinking creature in the place).  So, we got it to go... this would make great dessert later!

On the way home Shrimp spotted a grocery store we hadn't yet visited.  As foodies, we've been on the hunt for the perfect grocer since moving to the DC area and haven't quite found it yet.  But this little place was great!  Shrimp reports a scarey restroom situation, but the produce (and most else) was so cheap, there were at least three cute older gay men couple, ("Tom!  Tom!  I found the jelly aisle!"), a whole mess of adorable little (well-behaved) children, and an AUBURN fan (insert obligatory WAR EAGLE! here).  Yep, we stopped and talk to the Auburn fan.  That's how we roll.  After filling our hippie granola re-usable grocery bag we hit the liquor store and headed on home.

Immediately upon walking through the front door I whipped up a pitcher of mojitos (what can I say, I was inspired!).  We griddled up some sirloin burgers, and finished up the first disc of Modern Family's first season.  It is a terrifying series.  Not scary in the traditional sense, scary in the oh-my-god-this-is-too-much-like-real-life sense.  I hardly watch TV anymore (save for college football.... War Eagle... again), but I absolutely recommend this show to anyone who wants to feel normal :)  The mojitos helped me feel better about it too.

 Good drinks and good company.  Like my mojito-stache?  I love Urban Outfitters!

Then it was project time.  Yep, Saturday night and these exciting girls decided to try their hand at exciting internet-inspired, hallway-quality art.  I gathered all the acrylic paint and canvas in the house, and we sat down with (more) mojitos to make things happen.  But the yellow paint was dry. Oh no!  Our night was practically ruined!  Not to fear, there is a craft store about two miles from our place that is open until 9pm, and I managed to save the day.

We made it through most of the project with lots of laughs and limited "I suck at thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis"es from Shrimp :)  She downright enjoyed herself, until she got tired and tipsy and just wanted to go to bed.

Shrimp, aka Picasso, hard at work on her masterpiece

And at the end, we had beautiful art!

The final products... Shrimp's on the left, mine on the right.

Like I said, hallway-quality!

Don't be confused, we didn't intentionally hang our art at 11pm when we finished, there are these two GIANT screws with anchors in the wall that we just don't feel the need to pull, but are always looking for something to hide them with.  This week, OWLS!

In the end we forgot the carrot cake even existed until crawling into bed last night, so cake for breakfast?  It's about that time!

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Falling up escalators is part of falling in love

We had an awesome weekend last week.  I mean awesome.  It didn't have to do with any big event, just all the little small things we love that make us "us."

We headed out early on Saturday for a run on the National Mall.  BEAUTIFUL!  You could not possibly ask for nicer weather in February.  Running past the monuments and then to the White House with the sun shining, not even needing long sleeves was amazing.  We like to jog through the crowds and gossip about what might be going on with the families and other couples, etc. who we pass.  It's kind of our thing.

Chillin' in front of the Washington Monument during our run... 
"Excuse me!  Random tourist!  Can you please take our picture?!"


Then we hopped on the metro and headed to the Eastern Market for the first time.  I.  Am.  Hooked.  The atmosphere, people and families walking around with their dogs, vendors, artists, FOOD everywhere, was great.  We did a quick walk-through (we intentionally only brought as much cash as we could strap to our arms with our running gear and no cards), then sat down for lunch at a little Italian Cafe.

Yum.

It was almost like being in Italy again.  (Sigh.  Can I study abroad again?  Those we the days!)  Small tables.  Awesome, fresh food.  People outside enjoying themselves.  I love the sidewalk feel, I only wish all this was closer to our townhouse! 

We decided to head out and spend the night at home with a couple movies.  On the way out of the metro, I challenged Shrimp to a jog UP the DOWN escalator.  I made it to the top, she wasn't so lucky.  She made it almost all the way to the top before... yeah, I bet you can imagine what happened.  Her foot slipped and she was sprawled out clinging to the top of the escalator.  I should have thought immediately, "Oh!  She's probably hurt!  I should help her!"  But instead, I laughed.  Hysterically.  I found it freaking hilarious.  She somehow managed to roll onto her back while the escalator was still running under her butt, holding her knee and (so you know I'm not a horrible girlfriend) laughing at herself.  Turns out she was only hurt a little bit.  She has a nasty bruise now, but the marks from the teeth of the escalator didn't last too long!  The fact that she was able to laugh it off just reminded me why I love her so much :)

And then we headed home... have I mentioned we're foodies?  I freaking love food.  I take pictures of my food all the time.  It's way prettier than most landscapes.  Before we started the movie (Beginners - different than I thought it would be but the dog and the deceased gay dad are super cute!) I decided to try my hand at homemade potato and bacon soup.  I didn't have a recipe, but it is definitely a new favorite.  Yum.  Again.  I know this will make you want to come to dinner at Your New Neighbors' house...

My homemade potato & bacon soup.  You may notice it's in an Ikea bowl.  Surprised?

With our bellies full of the deliciousness you see above, we both ended up passing out early and didn't even make it to movie #2 :)

Now it's another weekend and we're about to head out the door to explore what (food) makes this nation so great!  Let's hope Groupon treats us well :)

~Tater

Friday, February 17, 2012

Our genius Ikea project (one of many)!

Well lately it seems like we are on our way to having an Ikea furniture/items filled house so why not go all out and give the cat an Ikea litter box, right?

 Inspired by something like this that we saw in a SkyMall catalog.

We got a great deal on a storage bench with 3 compartments in the "As-Is" Ikea section a few months ago. The genius idea that made us break down and purchase this was "We could so make one compartment hold (HIDE!) a litter box for the cat and we'll be litter box "free"! So we purchased it and spent a solid 30 minutes trying to make this huge box fit in Tater's Honda...which ended up w/ me in a super uncomfortable awkward position smashed under the heavy box and Tater laughing in the driver's seat.

Now, this piece of furniture sat in the box in the spare room for at least a month.  It wasn't until we found out that Tater's mom would be staying with us for a few days that I decided to put this thing together for her to have a place to put her stuff while she was here. So of course the morning of her arrival I started working on this project.  A few hours later it was all done even if I had a few pieces left over (crazy Ikea instructions...I mean who really knows how to read those things correctly?!) it looked great!


 A few months pass by....still a great piece of furniture in our spare room, but still haven't had the time to turn it into a fully functional piece with a hidden cat box!

Then one February evening, after a few mimosas, we decided to pull out the Dremel Tater's mom bought us (best house warming gift ever!) and get started on this project!



After several broken dremel blades, more mimosas, a hand saw, mallet and determination we (mainly Tater) successfully cut out a square opening in the side of this wonderful Ikea wooden storage bench...and we immediately say "This damn cat is gonna have the coolest s!@* box in town"!"

 Tater thinking this is going to be a piece of cake.

 Me hard at work wearing my "safety goggles."

  We even made her a ramp.  We were so excited after we cleaned up our mess and put her litter box in the compartment and shut the door...surely this cat is going to love this!  NO.....not at all!  She. Hates. It! So now the litter box just sits beside it...FAIL!




After all that work and planning of our amazing idea...I'm just hoping she warms up to it soon!  If not...then like Tater says "Well, we can just put a blanket in the compartment and she'll have a really neat place to sleep and we'll be really sweet cat owners for making her a comfy hideout."

We'll keep our fingers crossed and start planning our next home improvement project...over mimosas of course.

~Shrimp


Thursday, February 9, 2012

Missing People & Places

It's a funny thing, missing someone.  I don't really understand how or why it works, but it really starts to mess with you!  I've never been the type to get homesick.  I left home for college almost nine years ago and haven't spent much time under my parents' roof since.  I don't pick up the phone nearly enough to stay in touch with my far-flung loved ones (thank goodness for Facebook!), despite having a downright wonderful relationship with my family.

...But Shrimp leaves me on a business trip for less than a week and I am all sorts of flustered, disconnected and just plain functioning below par.  It doesn't help that this week a project I had been planning for since November finally had to be executed, or that I got sick, but come on, I should be able to handle this, right?  I mean, we've not even celebrated our first "official" anniversary yet, and for over half the time we've been dating we've lived 1000+ miles apart.  It's true, though, she's become a pretty important piece to the puzzle of my life.

It became apparent this afternoon when I was pulling in to the driveway.  I saw Shrimp's car and I got so excited.  That was right before I remembered she wasn't actually home yet.  I would have to spend one more afternoon with the beasts (the three dogs and a cat we have between us) and without my girl.  Ugh.  And that led into my longing for the good ol' days.  It was actually before we were even dating, when we were back in the town where we met.  We had an amazing dog park and we could just go there and run and be with the pups and each other.  It's hard to explain why it's such an amazing place, but if you have dogs you know how nice it is to be able to take them somewhere and not worry about leashes or cars, and to have a large expanse of land and trails to just go to.  The area where we live now has nothing like that. I.  Miss.  It.  (Note to self: Add "dog park" to list of needs at next residence.)

 The awesome park we all miss!

Well, enough of that.  Needless to say, I am extremely excited to pick Shrimp up from the airport tonight, even if it is really late and I have to be at work really early.  Just to have the comfort of her being home will be great... and she's not too bad at cuddling, either :)

~Tater

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Meet the Neighbors!

Hi!

Nice to meet you.  We're Your New Neighbors!  You've probably noticed us struggling to maneuver Ikea boxes from the back of an SUV, chasing our dogs when they escape the front door, and racing to pull out the recycling bin as the truck pulls up on Tuesday mornings.  Yep.  We're painfully normal.

 But there's something a little different about us.  Sure, we're just a couple of girls trying to get by in the crazy race of life.  Somewhere along the way, though, we figured out how much better it would be to run the race together.  So here we are, hand-in-hand.

The intent of this blog is to document our adventures (and misadventures) and hopefully connect with a few amazing like-minded people along the way.

Have a great day!
~Your New Neighbors