Day 32: July 31st Bouquets and Florists

Went out all day with my mom today to visit florists and locations to do hair and make-up for the big day.  We headed first to Sponsellers in Berryville since it is right down the road. 

I love looking at flowers!  We played with colors and different textures to figure out what we would do for the bridal bouquets, the corsages, etc.  We worked for about an hour before we had to leave to meet up with the next florist.  I thought that Sponsellers did a good job AND they were not nearly as expensive as I had expected them to be.

From Berryville, we headed out to Shepherdstown to visit the second florist.  I took a picture of the church in town because the florist didn't really have anything set up to look at.  The main designer wasn't in the shop that day so we ended up doing a lot of describing for the flowers instead of getting to point out exactly what we wanted.

The price estimate was pretty much the same as the previous location but there wasn't a lot of other information on which to make a decision so the appointment was pretty short.

We next headed back through Berryville and ate a lovely Mexican lunch at the Mexican Restaurant and Karaoke place, the place looks awesome!  So I know if anyone is looking for something else to do in Berryville, exactly where you should go!

Finally we headed out to Purcellville to look at a couple of spa places for the make-up and hair.  I found a great place which is affordable, and they look pretty nice inside and had a very nice group of people working there.

We went to Purcellville Florist last who was a very lovely woman and who picked out some really pretty flower options for us.  We don't quite know what the price will be here although she is mailing me the estimate and that will probably be what makes the difference.  She had  a good idea of what I was looking for (and my mom) and everything looked really pretty.

So a very productive day!

Day 31: July 30th Post from iPhone

So I dyed my hair today which I think ended up looking pretty good! Headed to the Apple store with my mom and Mark to look at toys. I think my mom is jealous of my phone ;) and now she'll be one-upping me. I have figured out how to blog post from my phone though, so that's pretty cool :)

Day 30: July 29th Project Runway

First episode of Project Runway!  *Woot*

Sorry that dreadlocks girl left because Casanova was narsty but I guess he makes good TV.  And everyone in the waiting room was really surprised by the decision.  Hopefully next week they wise up.  Although, it is interesting that Mark picked the winner AND the person who would be going home...perhaps he is a fashion psychic?

Day 29: July 28th Le Crueset

Mark and I received two more presents today!  My grill (yay so excited, thanks Jennie!) and Le Crueset (thanks Bob!) and yesterday we received our chair cushions (so pretty, thanks Kristin!).  Our little home is coming together so nicely :)

Day 28: July 27th Late Tuesdays

You may remember from my last 365 that I always work pretty late on Tuesday nights when my boss is in the Sterling office.  It's not so bad in the summer because the sun is still up when I leave.  The winter is depressing to arrive in the dark and leave in the dark.  This is my office and you can see the sun still shining :)

Day 27: July 26th iPhone 3gs

Got my iPhone all hooked up yesterday and the first thing I did was download Carcassone!!  Great game and you should get it too.

Day 26: July 25th Rainstorms and Brunch

Brunch at Market Street Grill this afternoon.  Trish left early this morning to get on the road for her SIX hour drive home!  She made it in safe and sound although I wish that she could have stayed longer.

Before Kristin headed home we went out to brunch at probably the best brunch place EVER.  They have a great buffet and so many options.

Kristin headed back to Boston around 2 and we hung out for an hour or so back at the apartment.  Mark and I headed down to the Apple  and AT&T store to get my new phone set up.  That's when everything opened up.  Wind exploded down the street!  This poor couple across the way were pushing a stroller and the wind completely upended it.  I hope the kid was ok, they took refuge in a Sephora's.  Mark and I hoofed it home and made it...completely soaked.  It was a fun run back though!  The iPhones made it safe and sound.

Day 25: July 24th Bridal Shower!!

Bridal shower!

It was so pretty, my bridesmaids did a great job and thank you so much to everyone who could make it!  In this picture we have Jennifer (sister) Jennie, Ashley, Conor, and Crystal!  On the other side of the room we had Traci, Mindy, Maria, Mom, Mary, Kristin, and Trish.

It was at Maggianos's and the food was so good. Calimari and salads and pastas and cheescake.  It was a very full day.  We played some bridal shower games and opened some wonderful presents as well.

I received so many pretty and fun things!  Had a great HUGE meal and got to see some people that I hadn't seen in years!After the bridal shower we headed over to see Salt (surprisingly good!) and came back to my house for some wine and cheese.  It was a wonderful day and I'm so glad that people came out for me :)

Day 24: July 23rd Gearing up for Bridal Weekend

Bixby is so excited about Bridal weekend!!  Or he's just excited about the cheese I'm holding above his head...one or the other.  Trish drove up and is staying with me and Kristin is flying down from Boston.  Her flight was really late so we were nice and toasty by the time she got in :)  Full house for the weekend!

Day 23: July 22 The First Wedding Present

Went over to my Mom's for our first wedding present!!  How exciting, thanks Crystal!

Day 22: July 21st PEACHES...in an apple bag

Had a full day at work and then headed over to my mom's house for Warehouse 13 Wednesday.  Watched some Top Chef and cooked a peach pie!  Russ had brought a bunch of peaches home so I got to take some to Mark.

I know that this is not a picture of peaches...tried a couple of different angles and they just kept ending up icky looking (even though they taste great!) so went with a picture of the bag they came in :)

Day 21: July 20th Rain and Sunsets

It has been raining nearly everyday lately!  Went to the mall with my Mom tonight after work to look for her "Mother of the Bride" dress.  No luck but we did get to play dress-up which is always fun :)

Day 20: July 19th Chocolate & Strawberries

Monday Monday Monday...

Did get to come home to chocolate covered strawberries though!  Oh how I love Mark.  Look-it-wat-he-did!

Day 19: July 18th New Phone & Bikes

Mark and I headed over to the AT&T store in Reston TC to get my new cell plan in the works and to transfer to my HTC Tilt.  Finally a smartphone!  Although I haven't figured out how to get it to work yet.

There was a bike event in the Town Center, some kind of 35 mile race.  I liked all the bikes hanging on the park racks with the ice skating rink behind it.  So figured I'd snap my pic o' the day.

Day 18: July 17th Fondue FUNdue

Mark and I had  Ashley, Jennie & Rick over for cheese and chocolate fondue.  This is the last cheese based meal until the wedding or I'll never fit the dress :)

Listened to our new Pandora station and played Trivial Pursuit, which I didn't win.  There was a tie between Rick and Jennie.

Good times, although no one wanted to play the Star Trek Trivia game...wonder why.

Day 17: July 16th Turtle Doo on a Day Off

Oh how I really enjoy working from home!  And I even got stuff done, it's incredible.  See how happy the world is when I'm not at work?  My little turtle was happily swinging in the breeze.  Got my Response to Interrogatories done and mailed, *woot*

Day 16: July 15th Doctor...Who?

Rough day at work, big problems but nothing my fault...dealt with it :)  Time for a Doctor Who night!

Day 15: July 14th Whine Wine

Work is getting hard and stressful.  We've downsized an attorney so it means that I'll have additional work and fewer hours to do that work.  Keep tuned, this is sure to get exciting!

After work (and getting through crazy traffic due to a horrific accident on Rt. 7) I headed out with my mom for our weekly eyebrow visit and Chengs.

Finished the evening with food shows and Warehouse 13, good end to a stressful day.

Day 14: July 13th New Candy

Been seeing these commercials for the lil' pieces on the telee and Mark got them for me!  May I recommend them :) (pieces corporation, feel free to send me a check for my sponsorship). 

Mark and I tried out a fondue recipe for this weekend's festivities and it was super!  Left work early since my overtime has been cut but I do rather enjoy having a normal work week.

Day 13: July 12th and Rare meat

Filet mignon, broccolini, sweet potato puree and onion and mushroom reduction.  I do enjoy a good meal at the end of my busy day.  Little MST3K and Doctor Who and my night is complete.

Day 12: July 11th Reston Festival

So...hot...

Mom and Russ came over to have dinner and cards so Mom and I decided to run over to the Reston Festival to look around.  The sun was beating down.  I ended up having to carry Bixby because his little feet were burning.  We headed back pretty soon.

Mark made a delish filet mignon with his special sweet potatoes for dinner and then my mother and I won a game of Sequence.  Finished it up with some INCREDIBLY moist bourbon chocolate cake :)

Day 11: July 10th Hi....How are ya?

Jennie came over this evening after a day of apartment cleaning.  We enjoyed a lovely night of chicken satay and peanut sauce and "Whip It".  If there's one thing I like, it's chicks playing roller derby!  Highly recommend :)

Day 10: July 9th Drill Baby Drill

Our landlord had installed this huge wall unit in the spare room, she took the wall unit but left two giant wall anchors which we can't hang any pictures over because they're HUGE.  So Mark did his manly duties and pulled out his Makita Impact Driver to get them suckers out.  Pretty hard core huh.  It went very well, although now we have two giant holes in the wall...but we'll just fill them with golfballs and hair, or nuke it, we'll figure something out.

Day 9: July 8th Appearances are Deceiving

Oh yeah...he looks cute now.  You should see the holes in my mom's arm because of his widdle sharp teeth.  He's keeping a tight hold on his toy (sleeps with his paws around it to prevent our stealing it from him). He also has a squeeky Kong which he can only get when he's locked up during the day.  Keeps him entertained AND relatively quiet (encourages him to go in there too).

Busy day once again but got all the important things done!  Had a sushi feast for dinner which was pretty sweet.

Day 8: July 7th Catching up

Spent a LOT of time today catching up from the three WHOLE DAYS that I missed from work for my Boston vacation.  There was a lot to do and a lot of stress I was feeling.  My major court case has been continued to October 6th...so yeah, my honeymoon will be spent in the Alexandria bankruptcy courthouse, BUT other than that everything is swell ;)

I had to actually leave work on time so that I could go with my Mom to get our eyebrows done.  Isn't it just a scary setup?  The last time I went I got a black eye which was super.  This time she took it easy on me.  I am putting a lot of effort into this October wedding :) 

All in all...even though it is a stressful day and I have so much to do tomorrow, I'm feeling pretty well.  Managed to recover from some interesting whoopsies today and finished it with several different food related reality shows.  PLUS Warehouse 13 is back on!!

Day 7: July 6th and Back to DC

Woke up at 4am this morning and had to finish loading the rental car and headed out to Boston's Logan Airport.  The flight was delayed by about an hour so I had to alert work that they'd have to reschedule my morning appointment.  Still made it into work by 10 though!

Spent the day trying to get caught up on all the emails and work that I hadn't looked at for a week.  Then headed over to my Mom's to pick up my nasty little bitey rat dog...

Day 6: July 5th BBQ 2.0

Day before we leave to head back to DC.  We headed over to Katie's place for Sausage Feast 2010 and ice cream!  Claire LOVES ice cream and bounced back and forth between her parents' popsicles, SO CUTE!!

Headed back to Sam and Steff's for some Gloom cards and finally to bed because I have to be up at 4am...tomorrow will be a long day.

Day 5: July 4th, Happy Birthday America!!

Woke up this morning in SO MUCH PAIN!!!  Ended up having to go down the stairs backwards because my legs hurt so badly from yesterday's climb...WOW.

After having nummy french toast with strawberries and playing a game of Carcassonne (I didn't win) it was already time to head over to Bob's for a Fourth of July Barbecue. 

Had some REALLY good salads and hamburgers.  Met some new people which is always enjoyable.

Once it started getting dark we headed over to the river to watch the Boston fireworks which were spectacular.  They have music playing in the background and there were so many people there!

I have to admit that the show was pretty amazing.  The last couple of years all I have gotten have been the Lexington, VA variety.  Boston puts on a pretty good show.

Once they were all over we headed back to Bob's house but there were so many people it looked like we had just either won or lost a soccer game.  We ended up cutting through the MIT buildings to avoid the throng.  Very interesting night.

Day 4: July 3rd Up up up up Mt. Adams and then back Down down down down

Started out this morning with the lighter day pack to make it up the Mountain.  The first ten elevation lines took us to where we hit Alpine height where the trees stopped growing and turned into shrubberies.  The weather was great again, cool but not too cold so we were rocking it up the mountain.

We made it to the top!!  My first "real" mountain.  The wind was really raging at the top and I went from a t-shirt to a fleece and wool hat pretty quick.  The view was incredible although the pictures never quite capture reality.

The going up part was pretty hard but where the pain really began was going down.  There was no flat terrain so dropping down on knees and ankles started to get pretty rough.  Plus, don't forget that I had WalMart boots which meant that my feet were pretty cut up too.  There was a real death march pace set there at the end so we barely braked. 

We made it back home at about 10pm where I had a lovely shower and came back down for some games!

Day 3: July 2nd Hike to Mount Adams (Not Without Peril)

Got a much later start to the day than we had hoped.  The traffic heading up to New Hampshire was horrible!  Watched a poor Lil' Tang lose her tire on the highway, sucker just crunched!  We had invented a nice little backstory about her and her Geo Metro and then...BOOM, there goes the tire.  Luckily we could get by her on the right so we didn't get stuck...I'm sure she was fine...

When we finally made it to the foot of Mt Adams it was almost 7 o'clock at night so we really had to run up the first two miles to the Log Cabin which is where we were staying for the night.  It was a bit difficult because parts of the ascent were pretty steep and we all had our ruck sacks on which made me a bit top heavy.

We made it to the cabin on time though so we had a little bit of light to make an interesting dinner and get set up for the night.  We enjoyed our lemon pepper tuna and Chardonnay before bed.

Day 2: July 1st of Running Errands and Preparing for the Hike

Today we took it a little easy and ran some errands that needed to get done.  We are going on a hike tomorrow so we needed to get things arranged.  Had lunch with Mark's mom and headed out to the grocery store to get the preparations for tomorrow.  Ended up with some interesting food choices but it should be fun.  These are my WalMart hiking boots which I hope will get me through the next two days...I'll keep you posted on that.