Favorite things

I figure if Oprah is important enough to broadcast her favorite things, then so am I. I also believe that people should share their favorite items, in case someone else has yet to "discover" them. Besides, if you buy them they are less likely to be discontinued, therefore benefiting me as well! I should say though that some of my favorite things are unique to me and are special to me because of their history, so you can't buy everything in this post. Without further ado, in no particular order:

I love these plants.

From Favorite things

Why I love them: The one on the left I bought when I got my first "real" job after college. I had my own office with a windowsill that begged for greenery. This guy was a little scraggly thing near death when I rescued it from my favorite rack at Fred Meyer....the plant reject rack. I think it was $1. Second from the left is the African Violet that Bryan bought me while I was just in Boston because he missed me and wanted a gift for when I returned. Skip over the Garfield chia pet...that's Bryan's. Next is the African Violet I won at my best friend Maria's wedding shower two years ago. I won for correctly estimating a bucket full of household goods from Target. I rocked at it because I am a faithful Target shopper. On the right is an aloe vera plant. This plant was started at Sherri's house long ago when Lani was just a baby...so about 6 years ago. She had a sadly neglected aloe plant, so I repotted it and all of the "sprouts." This is a world-traveler plant. It has been to Portland and back by car. Now parts of the first planted sprouts also reside at Bryan's sister's house.

From Favorite things

The top plant here was a gift from my internship supervisor Tamara when I was finishing up my master's degree. It had these beautiful purple flowers, then looked like a weed for the rest of the year. When I moved to Rochester I was going to throw it away (it had been a year without any new flowers), and lo and behold it had 5 just budding flowers. The bottom plant I "won" in the gift exchange my first year at PRE, about 4 years ago. All of these plants have been cross country with me, so I love them. Each one has a story that reminds me of something important in my life.

I love these Nike flip flops.

From Favorite things

Why I love them: These are the MOST COMFORTABLE flip flops I have ever worn. So much so that when Bryan borrowed them one day at a concert, he immediately wanted his own. Now I have 3 pairs, he has 2, and our roommate Krista has been known to slip on some of ours when no one is looking! I wear mine so much I have tan lines from them.

I love this scrub.

From Favorite things

Why I love it: I could sum this up with "I love Bath and Body Works," as you will soon see. This scrub is divine. A light scent of lavender, subtle scrubby stuff, in a creamy paste. Delightful! Even better that it was on sale for $4 when I bought it.

I love this shampoo and conditioner.

From Favorite things

Why I love them: Not only is this stuff cheap (on sale for $3 a bottle at B&BW), but it smells fantastic. The first week I used it Bryan was constantly saying how good my hair smelled.

I love this lip gloss.

From Favorite things

Why I love it: This gloss comes in many different shades and glides on smoothly with no clumps. But my favorite part is the mint scent it has. So fresh and soothing. Totally worth the $7.50 price tag, although I have never paid more than $3 on sale.

I love raspberries, hand picked

From Favorite things

Why I love them: I truly think there is nothing better in this world than a raspberry. Sweet, yet tart. Seedy, yet smooth. I love that in New York there are TWO picking seasons...summer and fall. These berries I picked this week, along with some blueberries and gooseberries.

I love tastycakes, namely butterscotch krimpets.

From Favorite things

Why I love them: My friend Travis introduced me to these in college. They come from his home town of Philly, so every time he went home I would give him money to buy me some. These light cakes have a sweet frosting on top. They are delicious, and at 6 grams of fat for 2 cakes, they aren't a terribly gluttonous indulgence. I hadn't had them in forever, and literally squealed in a grocery store in Florida on our vacation when they had them. Imagine the squeal I had a few months ago when I found out Tops has them RIGHT HERE IN ROCHESTER.

Saving the best for last, I love this man.

From Favorite things

Why I love him: There are a million reasons why I love him, but as of late, it is because he is my pool hero. Although he is stupendously busy with school, he has spent COUNTLESS hours skimming, filtering, and vacuuming the pool. He was the first brave one today to jump in so he could scoop the last stubborn parts by diving under and using the scoop. I think tomorrow I might just jump in myself. Man I wish I had a picture of the DARK green swamp we had just a few short weeks ago.

I think I'll go to Boston

Thankfully, unlike the Augustana song, I didn't go to start a new life where no one knows my name. I went to see my best friend from high school (who lives in Portland). She was in Boston visiting another friend from high school and studying for her medical school boards. She was kind enough to invite me to come visit for the weekend.

I'd never been to Boston before. The first night involved a BBQ, where I learned for sure I have no interest in ever moving to Boston. Many of the people there, albeit nice, were SO typical snotty east-coasters. The Boston area is home to many prestigious universities (Harvard, MIT, Tufts, etc), and many of the people were either former or current students (PhDers for the current ones). They couldn't talk about anything besides school. AT ALL. I don't ever want to be like that. The name dropping that went on was ridiculous. This was a group of argumentative "I'm always right and you're always wrong" kind of people. Sure, the copious amounts of alcohol didn't help, but I have never been one to understand that holier-than-thou attitude that seems to unfailingly go along with the more well-known universities.

The weekend really involved a trip to New Hampshire, which is a very pretty, green, fairly unoccupied state. Anne's (our friend who lives in Boston) boyfriend's parents have this very cute fairly rustic cabin that we stayed at overnight. We first went on a hike in the White Mountains. The day was perfect and it was very beautiful. It was a bit strenuous for a non-hiker like me, but the reward is that at the top is a lake and a cute little hut that serves food. They hike supplies up to the hut!

From Boston 2007

From Boston 2007

After the hike, the four of us (Maria, Anne, her boyfriend, and me) had a very fun "date night." It started off with dinner at a local pub in whatever town we were in in N.H. They had some unique beers. Of course, I liked the raspberry one :)

From Boston 2007

Then we went to a really neat putt putt course. I took a respectable second, although the most fun part of the night was the combination of Anne's VERY powerful swings (many went off the course) and her boyfriend's utter seriousness about the game. He did not appreciate the razzing that was going on. After all, putt putt is a serious game. Riiiiight :)

From Boston 2007

From Boston 2007

After putt putt, we ended the evening with some delicious ice cream at a local place. Sadly, Maria's camera fell off the table and broke, so the pictures of the weekend end here! Luckily there isn't much more to report except a yummy pancake breakfast the next morning.

All in all, it was a really fun weekend and great to see some familiar faces from home. But, when I came home to this, I was glad to be right back where I belong.

From Boston 2007

P.S. For those of you who are wondering about the house, don't ask. It's just better that way.

26 must suit me

Okay, so the first incident was 4 days before I turned 26, but that is just a minor detail! I already posted about the bagel guy telling me I was beautiful. Then on Tuesday I went into school to be Bryan's guinea pig for his nursing assessment final exam. I met one of his classmates while I was there, and she apparently told Bryan later that day "She is pretty, you guys make a really cute couple." While being prodded during the final exam, Bryan had to "catch" my kidney. It was really easy for him, and he cutely exclaimed, "oh, that's so cool!" to which the instructor grading responded "that's what happens when your patients are thin." So in less than 10 days I have been called beautiful, pretty, and thin, all by total strangers (two of whom were women). I think I could grow to like 26 :) I hated 25 though, so I'm very happy to be movin' on up.

I'm sad to say that my 4th didn't involve fireworks. I've come to learn that Bryan just isn't into holidays. New years, birthdays, July 4th, Halloween...they are all just days to him. He thinks (and I tend to agree) that it is because he doesn't have the traditions around holidays that I do. July 4th was almost always spent in the cul-de-sac. My brother would spend hundreds on illegal fireworks, as would some of the neighbors, and everyone would come out for the show and a big bucket of ice cream. It was so much fun! Here in NY you can't even buy any fireworks. Not even sparklers! We did see fireworks last week though. we live ~2 miles from Lake Ontario, and they had Harborfest. We rode our new bikes and had a funnel cake, walked around, and saw the fireworks over the lake. For just town fireworks, they were really impressive. I learned though that cameras don't take very good pictures of fireworks!

All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.

I have been so busy lately that blogging has fallen by the wayside. But I am a faithful blog hopper daily, so I'm doing my best to remain an active blogger myself.

First off, check out the braces progress! Sorry the first picture is blurry.

This is day one. Note the overlap in the front teeth.

From Braces over time

Day 20. Already the teeth in front are a bit less overlapped.

From Braces over time

Just shy of 3 months in, with one adjustment so far. Check it out! My bottom teeth are finally moving now too, and I've noticed a lot of progress over the last week or two.

From Braces over time

Since I last posted, I had a birthday. I must admit, a late June birthday has always been the pits. When I was in school, it was just after school got out. Not only did I not get a fun classroom birthday, but everyone scatters on vacation right after school gets out, so my friends were rarely around. As an adult, I've had boyfriends who just don't get that my birthday is MY day to be spoiled. I always do fun things for their birthday, but it often isn't reciprocated. This year was no exception, although to no fault of the boyfriend. We have a severe lack of income for weekend get-a-ways, and my birthday fell on a Monday when he had a test from 8-11am and class from noon-7pm. Although I woke up feeling sorry for myself, a lot of people did a great job of making me feel special.

Krista, the roomie, got up early before the 8am test to make "Happy Birthday monkey bread." It was really yummy, and so sweet of her.

From 26th birthday

My mom and dad sent me these flowers, along with some yummy chocolates.

From 26th birthday

Then Sherri invited me over for an afternoon swim (it was 90 degrees on my birthday, a far cry from Portland birthdays!) and BBQ with she and the kids. They bought me cupcakes and were so excited to sing me happy birthday. Sherri made salmon, green beans, fresh strawberries, and potato salad. Awesome!

From 26th birthday

From 26th birthday

From 26th birthday

While I was at Sherri's, Kim and Anthony called to invite me to a birthday dinner. I obviously couldn't go, so they came over for cake that Bryan and Krista had bought for me. I love love love ice cream cake.

From 26th birthday

From 26th birthday

Lest it seem like the boyfriend did nothing, I should mention that he took me out to dinner Sunday night to Carabbas. It was delicious!

From 26th birthday

He also, the week before, got me a bike (and one for him) for my birthday. So far we have ridden to the beach a few times, and I'm hoping that once school calms down a bit for him we might take some longer rides.

My old co-worker also took me out to dinner on Park Ave on Wednesday for my birthday. It was great to see her and catch up on all of the old work gossip. We are definitely gossip buddies. I think we indulge each other in our guilty pleasures!

Thanks to Audrey and Brad's birthday generosity (Bryan's parents), this Saturday we went out to this new bar I had been wanting to try called The Chocolate Bar. They serve fancy martinis and fondue. There are 4 kinds of cheese fondue and 5 kinds of chocolate fondue. Kim and Anthony went with us, so we got 2 cheeses (spinach artichoke and southwestern). The awesome part was that the fondue and dipping items were unlimited. Here is the cheese one:

From 26th birthday

THEN, came the part that makes me drool just thinking about it. The CHOCOLATE! We got chocolate raspberry and chocolate peanut butter. But almost as exciting as two huge pots of chocolate was the tray of dipping items: fresh strawberries, pineapple, graham crackers, pretzels, bananas, little cheesecakes (strawberry and chocolate), oreos, and peanut butter cookies. Seriously, if you believe in heaven, this is it!

From 26th birthday

At $15 a person, this really wasn't a bad deal. But, with drinks, it would be something entirely outside of our budget, so THANK YOU Brad and Audrey. It really was the best time I had had in quite awhile. There was also a musician playing who looked like Chris Daughtry from American Idol. He sang pop cover songs, and he was pretty good. All in all, a really fun night.

From 26th birthday

From 26th birthday

The final possibly exciting news is that Bryan and I made an offer on a condo closer to school, and we finally came to an agreement with the guy today, after 3 rounds of offering. There are some pictures here:

Highland condo

Owning my house has become quite the financial burden. The condo is significantly cheaper and is within walking distance (more likely a bike ride) of school for Bryan. It will also be perfect if I go to grad school at the medical center. We will be able to pay more towards our student loans and have a bit more "play" money. While we aren't crazy spenders, we have recently come to see that having no money to even go to the movies really doesn't give us the break we need in life to feel rejuvenated from the stresses of work, school, and life in general. We'd also really like to travel (and see our families who are spread far and wide), and living in the condo would allow us to do that.

I should say though, that this is by no means a done deal. It is contingent on the sale of my house. I hope to get it listed this week with Anthony, so keep your fingers crossed for a quick sale and a great offer!

And finally, a few pictures of our "babies." Both Bryan and Krista are quite in love with Reesey, the fuzzy black one with the orange triangle on her head. I told Bryan if we move to the condo he can keep her, since we won't have the room to foster anymore. They are all doing fantastically well and are long done with bottle feeding.

Kitten love...it is not uncommon to see him loving on the kittens. Kissing them, holding them, talking to them, playing with them. So cute he is!

From Kittens

From Kittens

From Kittens

From Kittens

From Kittens