I am having a terrible horrible very bad no good day!

F*** You, originally uploaded by Mo, In The 415.

Everyone has those terrible horrible very bad no good days and today is mine.

I figure that we all have them so you just have to write it off as a bad day, go home, and go to bed.

(sorry for the rough image but...)

Happy Mother's Day Mom!!

Here is to you Mom...

even though you don't read my blog because you have no idea how to use the internet.

even though you make up nicknames to call yourself. aka pertunia.

even though you make me laugh when you tell me about the criminal reports on the other kids I went to middle school with.

even though you cried in my boss's office because you are just so proud of me.

even though I tease you for being so short and cute.

even though you pick on me about the outfits I wear.

even though you place me on hold to take a kid's tempature when I call you.

even though you try and match me up with guys that I am not interested in.

even though you can never quite buy me things that are my style.

but I love you more because of these things. thank you for making me who I am today.

i love you.

Flickr Friday: Raining on the Rim

Raining on the Rim, originally uploaded by poeticdarklove.

This is on the Rim right by my home in Arizona.

Sadly, it is raining here in DC too. I had to stand out in the rain all morning waiting for people I was suppose to take on a tour.

So I am drentched and look like a wet dog and I run into everyone who I didnt want to see looking the way I did.

To Do: Take Care of Your Feet

For those of you who know me know that I hate feet. This grosses me out...

The Open Toed Shoe Pledge

I pledge to follow the Rules when wearing sandals and other open-toe shoes:

I promise to always wear sandals that fit. My toes will not hang over and touch the ground, nor will my heels spill over the backs. The sides and tops of my feet will not pudge out between the straps.

I will go polish-free or vow to keep the polish fresh, intact and chip-free. I will not cheat and just touch up my big toe.

I will sand down any mounds of skin before they turn hard and yellow.I will shave the hairs off my big toe.

I won't wear pantyhose even if my misinformed girlfriend, coworker, mother, sister tells me the toe seam really will stay under my toes if I tuck it there.

If a strap breaks, I won't duct-tape, pin, glue or tuck it back into place hoping it will stay put. I will get my shoe fixed or toss it.

I will not live in corn denial; rather I will lean on my good friend Dr. Scholl's if my feet need him.

I will resist the urge to buy jelly shoes at Payless for the low, low price of $4.99 even if my feet are small enough to fit into the kids' sizes.. This is out of concern for my safety, and the safety of others. No one can walk properly when standing in a pool of sweat and I would hate to take someone down with me as I fall and break my ankle.

I will take my toe ring off toward the end of the day if my toes swell and begin to look like Vienna sausages.

I will promise if I wear flip flops that I will ensure that they actually flip and flop, making the correct noise while walking and I will swear NOT to slide or drag my feet while wearing them.

I will promise to go to my local nail salon at least once per season and have a real pedicure (they are about$25 or $30and worth EVERY penny).

I will promise to throw away any white/off-white sandals that show signs of wear... nothing is tackier than dirty white sandals.

Recipe: Monterey Jack Asparagus Pizza

My favorite!!! Umm, not a big "red sauce pizza" fan but I love asparagus on pizza. I first had something like this at Comet (delish) and I have been making them ever since. I love this recipe from Unruly Things' new blog Milk + Eggs + Chocolate. MMMmmmmMMM.

Monterey Jack Asparagus Pizza
makes one 14" round pizza

pre-heat oven to 425˚

:: for dough ::
3/4 cup unbleached white flour
1 package rapid rise yeast
1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
1/2 cup very hot water
1 tbsp honey
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
extra white flour for dusting
1/8 cup semolina flour for bottom of crust

• whisk together white flour, yeast, and sea salt in a large bowl.
• mix honey and hot water together in a heat proof cup and pour into flour mixture. mix water with flour until smooth. pour wheat flour into mixture and mix until just blended.
• place dough onto a floured surface and knead until blended and soft, about 15-20 times. I tend to knead my dough until it "feels right", so after a few times creating this pizza dough, you'll know what I mean.
• form dough into a ball and cover with bowl. allow dough to rise at least 30 minutes.

:: for topping ::
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 medium sized shallot, about a 1/4 cup chopped
about 15 stems of asparagus
1 cup spinach
1/4 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup Monterey jack cheese

• heat olive oil on medium heat in a heavy skillet. add shallots to skillet and cook for 3 minutes.
• snap the hard ends off of the asparagus by holding one side in your hand and gently pushing down on the other side until the stem naturally snaps. add to skillet and mix with shallots. cook for about 10 minutes, or until shallots are browned. separate asparagus and shallots in skillet so that adding them to the pizza is easiest.

• meanwhile, after dough has had enough time to rise, gently pick it up to make sure that none of the dough has stuck to your surface. spread out semolina onto your surface, then place the dough back in the center. carefully roll out the dough until it's about 1/4" thick.
• spread ricotta cheese evenly in center of dough, leaving about a 1" border on the outside.
• arrange spinach on top of ricotta.
• place asparagus stems artfully around pizza, concentrating on covering. sprinkle shallots on top.
• lastly, generously top pizza with Monterey jack cheese, making sure to cover all open spots.

Al's note: I find that when I bake pizzas that have heavier or larger toppings they are often difficult to transfer from the prep surface to the stone. for this pizza I used a baking sheet and prepared my pizza on the baking sheet for easy transfer.

• if using a pizza stone, place pizza directly onto the stone and bake for 10 minutes.
• if using a baking sheet, line with a sheet of parchment paper and cook for 15 minutes or until crust is golden.

My Favorite Thing Today: Obama Girl/Mike Gravel

Movie Review:

Here are the most recent movies that I have watched:

August Rush: As Miss Emily called it, the movie was "cheesetastic and awesome." It was totally unrealistic but it did bring tears to my eyes. Such a fun movie.
Rating: ****

Enchanted: This is a really cute movie and a great family movie. I liked it but I think the kiddos would enjoy it as well. Just makes you love Amy Adams more.
Rating: *****

Juno: I saw this in theaters and still rented it again. Its a really good movie and its really funny as well.
Rating: ****

To New Favorite Blogs

Stuff Hill People Like

They ramble on about everything that I love/hate about living in DC (in the Capitol Hill area at that too.)

Although, I didn't really find myself in too many categories at Stuff White People Like, sadly I did find that I fell into many Hill Categories, mostly T-Coast. I guess I really am a Hill Person at heart.



Sorry I Missed Your Party


This picture says a lot.

The blog is a collection of pictures of other people's parties that the blogger found on Flickr. Pretty much the funnest thing ever.

To Do: Color Code

My life is pretty much color coded. I am not kidding. I have color coded all of the accessories in my life to go with certain rooms or other aspects of my life.

Please keep in mind. Everything in my life is pretty much black and white and I use color to accessorize.

car - Tiffany blue
office - green

gym - pink

living room - yellow

bedroom - navy

bathroom - navy and hot pink

I recently joined the gym at my work. I love it. I love that everything I take to the gym is color coded too.

-my gym bag is a cute gray and black Ralph Lauren bag

-my waterbottle and my gym towel are both pink

-my iPod is gray

-my gym shoes are pink and gray

-my gym clothes are all black (note to self: always wear black at the gym, you look like you know what you are doing, you dont get gross sweat stains, and its totally slimming)

To Do: Read Books

I found this list of classics on WWJAD. I need to start reading more. :(


(image via here)


Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth (my favorite book of all time)
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

To Do: Watch PBS Carrier

I spent the day falling in love with soldiers. Anyone who knows me knows that I love pretty much all soldiers and I would love to marry one. :)

PBS has this new special (or at least new to me) called Carrier. Its pretty fun and I love watching and hearing about all the stories of all the individuals.

Check it out. Its my new favorite.

Saturday Rants

I have a couple things on my mind on this beautiful Saturday.

First off, friends. I am starting to learn a couple things about my friends and those people who I thought were my friends. There are a couple people who I have moved away from and it has made our friendship stronger. Those are the friends who I know are my true blue friends. There are also those people who I thought were my closest friends but moving away from them shows me that we were just convenient friends. I think its just part of life and you take what you can away from those friendships.

Second, dating. I think that I have created a Dick Cheney approach to dating. To catch everyone up to speed, Dick Cheney was named the head of the committee to find a vice presidential candidate for President Bush and then named himself the candidate. I use this approach to finding a boyfriend. I know a lot of great guys but I hate the pressures of dating so I hang out with them, go to coffee, go to lunch and so on trying to get to know them better so that I can hook them up with my pretty gal friends. But if I find a great guy while trying to find him a girlfriend, I can just nominate myself for the job. :)

To Do: Buy Local

Here is a local DC photographer. Steven Miller.

I love his work. I bought a picture this weekend titled "Joy" of a woman in Mexico working in a landfill with a huge smile on her face.

Check him out here.

***Update: here is another photo that he sent me. This is the one I bought. I love it. Hope you enjoy it.

Flickr Friday: Remembering Arizona

John Ford Point, Monument Valley, Arizona, USA, originally uploaded by TerData.

I am not blue today but I love the colors in this photo.

There really isnt anything more beautiful than Monument Valley. Haha, I guess I moved from those nature's monuments to the National Monuments here in DC. :)

Ohhh... Arizona. I miss you.

Daily Candy: Bang for the Cure

What: Bang Salon hosts a fifteen-hour haircutting marathon with mimosas, hors d’oeuvres, and 100 percent of proceeds going to the American Cancer Society.

Why: Nothing to get snippy about.

When: Sun., 9 a.m.-midnight.

Where: 1612 U St. NW, at 16th St. (202-299-0925).

Should I do it????