Check the Glove Compartment

For months now I have been drooling over the Nook at Barnes and Noble. How cool would it be to be able to read any book you want, any time you want without having to lug it around with you? I worked some overtime in the hope that I would be able to get one before we head to the beach in two weeks.

Today Adam and I celebrated 4 years of being a couple. When we celebrated one year of being together three years ago, we went to Washington, D.C. for the weekend. On the way home he asked me to look for something in the glove compartment of his car and when I did, there was an IPOD in there for me! It is still one of my favorite memories.

Tonight after dinner, he asked me if I wanted to go get ice cream, so we headed out to the car. Just joking around I opened the glove compartment and said to him, "oh, is there anything here?" Little did I know, there actually was something in there! A NOOK!!!

Of course, I felt like a total idiot because I completely ruined the surprise, but I am still really excited about my new toy.

Hello Summer

Does anything say summer like a fresh watermelon? I don't think so.

Full of it

Source

WARNING: THIS POST IS NOT DIRECTED TOWARD ANYONE IN MY BLOG AUDIENCE.

Do you have someone in your life that you avoid like the plague simply because they are so incredibly full of themselves? You know that if you so much as say "good morning" to them, they will launch into a huge soliloquy about how their day is going, what they did last evening, what they had for breakfast, what their children had for breakfast, what nail polish is on their toenails and what color lipstick they're wearing today. OK, so I might be exaggerating, but people like that have really been bugging me lately. Do you ever want to say to them, "_________, do you really, honestly think that I care about what you just said?".

I consider myself a pretty good listener and most of the time I remember things that are going on in people's lives: coworkers, family, friends. But sometimes it's frustrating when a person doesn't inquire anything about you in return, or everything that you say somehow turns into something about them. Sometimes it's nice to hear, "Rachel, what are you doing this weekend?" or "What do you think about this?" instead of, "Oh, you're going to the beach this weekend? When I went to the beach last weekend I almost got eaten by a man-eating jellyfish...blah blah blah."

The jelly fish probably got sick of listening to them too.

Crabby

We started out our Memorial Day weekend by going up to my sister and brother-in-law's house for crabs. They got two dozen jumbo crabs for us to pick and enjoy, and even though I'm not a big fan of getting my hands covered in crab guts and Old Bay seasoning, I still picked 3 crabs before letting Adam do the hard work for me. In the end, two dozen was too much and my wonderful husband got stuck with the job of picking the rest of the crab meat. Now I can make crab cakes tomorrow night.

It was baby Jacob's first crab experience and he was dressed for the occasion! He was a good sport during the photo shoot as we held stinky crabs up next to him. Maybe next year he'll be eating them along with everyone else.

Shot to the Eyeball

Last night, my Delta Gamma little sister, Missy came to spend the night because she is working in Baltimore today. I haven't seen her in about a month, so it was great to catch up. We talked as we watched American Idol and Glee. When the 10 o'clock news came on, we were about to get up and go to bed when an interesting story caught our attention.

Apparently, the new trend in getting drunk is to pour vodka directly onto your eyeball. Yes people, the taped footage showed people of questionable intelligence holding a cheap vodka bottle directly up to their eye and pouring it in. Apparently the alcohol travels more directly to the blood stream this way, resulting in higher levels of intoxication.

My favorite line of the whole story, "This activity is not about getting drunk, it's about pure stupidity." I would have to agree.

New Look

It's been a crazy week so far for me! My spring classes just ended (as in, I just turned in my take-home final about 2 minutes ago) and Adam bought be a new lens for my camera as a present for finishing. The lens is pretty amazing, and takes some great close-up shots, some of which are displayed below. Hopefully this summer I will have the opportunity to take a photography class at a camera shop right around the corner. I wish I could say things are slowing down for the next few months, but my online course already started and I have some big things going on at work.

The blog also got a new look, thanks to Adam. He is my personal web-designer, even if he doesn't always take my opinion on how things should look.

The Graduate

This weekend Adam and I went up to Penn State for his sister, Cara's graduation. It was fun to see everyone and celebrate such an important event in her life! The whole day was really nice, and we ended up going out with her downtown after all of the festivities.

I can't believe that when Adam and I first met, Cara was just venturing off to Penn State and now she is done!

Mother's Day

My family has many things to celebrate this Mother's Day. I invited everyone over to our place for a yummy Mother's Day brunch including my creation from yesterday, orange cupcakes with orange butter cream frosting and candied orange slices:


I also added a bit of color to our porch yesterday. Hopefully I can keep these flowers alive!


Sadly, my sister Sally and brother-in-law Andrew couldn't make it over for lunch, but I suppose they have a pretty good excuse:
Happy Mother's Day!

Jacob Andrew Birmingham

I just returned from visiting my sister Sally and new nephew Jacob in the hospital. I know I am a bit bias, but he is the sweetest, most adorable baby ever! I got to hold him for about an hour while he slept (I figured I would get my time in now before people are fighting over him). Sally was doing pretty well, but was very tired. It is so nice to know that this amazing little person will be in our family forever, I love him so much already.

La Cucaracha

How fitting that I have this to post on Cinco de Mayo! Today, I walked into the bathroom at work and this is what I saw (I know the picture is REALLY grainy, but I imagine you can still see the largest cock roach ever):

Now, I am extremely afraid to go to the bathroom in this building.

The whole situation reminded me of the time my family lived in this little rental house in Arkansas while our other house was being built. The place was full of roaches and when you opened the silverware drawer in the morning, they would all scatter away. Once, one ended up in my sister's shoe and she screamed bloody murder until we got rid of it. Just one of many hilarious childhood moments.