Finally!

Guess what I made this pile of junk into?

......!!!!.....

We FINALLY got a bar cart! Horray!! Mike and I put it together the other night and filled it up with all of our boozes, and some new glassware (from ChezCat- my apartment.) Along with our other bar goodies. :) Sweet! Its nice having all the booze, glasses and tools for cocktails sitting right next to the beer fridge.


Furthurmore, if anyone needs glassware, or tableware..we have tons. really. TONS.

Brew Day! Pumpkin Ale!

Duct Tape Thermometer: Classy

12:52, Mike wonders why I'm not upstairs documenting his new brewventure. I'm still healing, and not willing to give up my couch potato status. "BUT! How am I going to remember that I popped the yeast at 12:45?!?"  Time to shift into advanced healing.

1:21, After trying to work on my resume and failing due to head poundings and the lack of coffee, I'm back to la blog. Mike's steeping and watching the pot.

goop, or malt, whichever you prefer

1:26, A lively debate over book vs google in terms of brewing knowledge or learning a new skill. It should be noted that this debate is going on strictly on Mike's side of the room, as he talks himself in and out of both.  The little yeasts are growing in their baggy and the soontobe-beer is in the not too cold, not to hot water.

say it with me now..

1:52. Mike is on the hunt for brown sugar. "Add the sweetness, Sweetness." I can officially say I helped now. Also, malt extract looks gross and goopy, and I have taken to calling the grains "GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAINZ" in a zombie voice.

2:26 Ladies and gents, We have a boil.

2:37. "I got me some good yeast, I am a happy Man"

mmm, floaty pumpkin bits

2:54. Me "is there anything exciting happening?" Mike "no"

3:15 He's added the pumpkin into the brew. Did you know pumpkin is a fruit? 5 minutes left to boil, then we have operation cool down.

Milton.

3:26 I'm supposed to go outside and help turn on the water spicket. spigot? really.. spicket is spelled spigot? weird..ANYWAY, I'm supposed to go outside and turn on the water, but Milton lives nearby and we already angered him once today. He's grown a crap ton, and I am not a fan of him moving closer to me.

Floaty Ice oooo!

3:33. Operation COOLDOWN has begun. We started sawing open the water bottles we bought. We have a goal of 15 minutes to cool down, since last time took 2 hours. The bottles are completely frozen so there's a ton of freakin cold water squirting everywhere. I completely ruined my nails (oh hush up, I know) Mike has frozen toes and is questioning my blogging judgement.. "So, it's more important to you to blog this *now*, than to get me a towel?"

carnage

3:45, we are out of tools to cool down the beer. its 75. Holy crap, that worked...

4:02, While waiting for the brita to fitlter to add the end of the water. Mike reviews, edits and corrects my post. Awe, couples who blog together... well, until he scurries to take the OG: 1.060 and it "tastes great" Apparently, that means it's be a really..um...strong..beer.

4:26 Beer is fermenting. Mike is cleaning. All is well in the HershLer household.

WHAT? I never blogged Florida!?

I. Fail. Badly.

My First Palm Tree. AWWW

For Mike's gramma's birthday, we headed down to Florida to visit the family. To sweeten the deal, we also headed to Universal studios for HARRY POTTER WORLD.  It was a ton of fun, and the photo albums for the day are available online, if you so choose to peruse them, however, I'll do my best to sketch it out. Cause, yeah, seriously, it was an awesome awesome trip. BUT, never travel US Air. We finally got in super late at night, and basically crashed. Hard. The first morning in Orlando we woke up and went off to HPW. 






They have done a remarkable job of replicating everything. I took dang near 200 photos in that part of Universal alone. There's a Hogwarts express with a conductor as soon as you walk in. He's a very very friendly man and was super charming as I dorkily asked for a picture. Mike also got in full swing with the "lets take all the pictures we want game" and for the price of admission, you really can't do it any other way. There's a Hogwarts ride, that the line is ridiculously long for, but it doesn't phase you because the line weaves through the castle where they have tons of movie props and interactive things for you to see and watch. I'll meet you down near the end of the HP pictures in a minute...

I thought he did a good job..

Hello Butterbeer. :)

Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home. 

 

 No, I didn't get a wand. Yes, I regret it...After  I finally got my fill (only temporarily, I promise.. I already wanna go back) of Harry Potter, Mike and I finally went around the rest of the park. We played some old school arcade games (I was better at skeeball) and even rode the Hulk. My motion sickness was not a fan of the Hulk. I was. There was also an old school comic book land.  Seriously, old school. Rocky and Bullwinkle, Marmaduke, etc. They had these signs all over the park which made for delightfully fun photo ops.

curses!

 Mike's favorite part..this bridge. There was a small water ride going underneath the bridge and if you stood on top you could squirt the unsuspecting riders with water. He had a blast. Seriously. I haven't seen him giggle and run back and forth to plan his attacks like that before.

sneaky

 After all that was said and done, we headed out to dinner at Bubba Gump, and then home to the hotel room. I have never passed out soo quickly in a hotel room like I did that night, but seriously I was gone. 

You have to have the ears picture!

We woke up the next morning to head down to Boca Raton, but we had a few hours to kill so we headed over to Disney for a bit. I mean, you kinda have too.Seriously. They have everything. There's an entire store dedicated to kitchen decor (all Mickey themed), one dedicated to Christmas ornaments, one for Mickey collectable pins, and that's not including the large array of other shops. We popped into ESPN world, for Mike to get a Mets hat, and then in and out of a few others until we found the general "everything" store.  We walked around playing with the Star Wars toys, the Pooh bears, the Princess things, clothes, jewelry, mugs, stamps, .... Yeah, I'm gonna stop now. 

the ceiling

Once we got hungry, we headed over to Rain Forest Cafe. I've wanted to go for a while, and never had the opportunity, but Mike was game so, yeah. They had mechanical animals that would come to life every 15minutes. They also had a rainstorm every half an hour. The sky would get dark and thunder would creep around and lighting would go off. The "sky" or the ceiling, also went around the times of day every couple hours. You would see an awesome sunrise, then mid day, sunset, nighttime (dispersed with the storms). We were sitting right next to a GIANT fish tank, and it was pretty cool watching all the fish come over and stare at us. 

 Before we left, we made one final stop at Goofy's Candy Store. Mike (and a young dork in training) were enamored by the Disney table of elements and the Baking calculus on the wall. I was enamored by the BIGASMYHEAD caramel apples.  As we were leaving, the REAL skies opened up, so it was nice to make it back to our super swanky rental car. On the way to Boca, I finally had a Slushee, and we arrived at his Aunt and Uncle's just in time for tea and B&W cookies. We spent the next few days hanging out with his family, and we had a great time. His family is incredibly warm and friendly and welcoming and I had a great experience meeting everyone. Hopefully we can make it back to visit everyone shortly.

It really was an excellent, excellent trip. And now, that I've finally blogged about it, I feel better :)

Sammich Wars!

how do you make an awesome, adult, fancy grilled cheese?

BOOM: Grilled Cheese, apple, pepperoni, avocado, and tomato. DELISH. 

you're welcome :)

LustLust

I tend to become obsessed with certain things. Then, I stalk them. I have to prove to myself that they're something I want more than 20minutes, and THEN, I can have them. This LustStalk gets worse when I have little money...

Late last year, I fell in love with this awesome coat from asos.com. I watched as it trickled down from 112.05 to 52.94 , and then as the choices in color when to Khaki and the one I wanted "Doe" and then ..low and behold, there was only 1 size left. US Size 8. Now, normally. I wear a size 8. So, you think this should be perfect. HOWEVER, it's a coat..so it should be alittle large right? and the sleeves? what if they're too small? or what if the color looks like baby poop on me? UGH, normally. I would go to the store and try it on, but, asos is from the UK, soo yeah, I bit the bullet...

Buy me!

AND THAT BEAUTIFUL BABY FIT LIKE A GLOVE. Seriously, the sleeves are perfect, color looks AMAZING, and its definitely "my style." I wish I had a great picture so you could see the back, but, that will have to wait.. AND I saved $60! 

Inspired by my awesome luck, I started allowing myself a bit more LustStalk. So far, I only have three tiny wishes...

$148, VS, it's a steal

First off, because now I have an awesome coat in Khaki, I need one in a darker color, right? My new favorite neutral...yup, leopard. I first started wanting the MadMen leopard trench from Banana Republic, but I kinda like the large graphic print on this, and the darker hue. It's cheaper too, soo, maybe a sale will hit soon?

only $34?!

You may have seen my Sephora blockbuster palette from two Christmases ago. The only real complaint I had with the SUPER HUGE PALETTE, well ok 2, was that 1) I didnt really know how to blend and mix the shadows without playing with 80+ randomly, and I dont have that kinda time, and 2) the lipglosses suck. They're great for *right that second* but, you have no chance of reapplying unless you take it with you. ENTER the pallet from the lovely ladies at Allure magazine. They have instructional videos on line, and you can pop each little set out and take it with you, ALSO, LOOK! They have real live glosses, that you can carry, and keep applying! Horray! I have a mini goal set for the rest of August, if it works, we shall be the newest owner of this lovely set. Ohhh, yes we will. :)

$54, oh nordstrom, you devil..

Oh, sparkles are important to me. I would have never known this little beauties existed, had Apes never worn them out one night to Big Boss. They added the neatest little POP of sparkle, and I've heard Toms are seriously comfy. Plus, for every pair bought, another pair is donated to kids in need. If I get the new job at DreamJobPlace, I will buy these with my first paycheck. I dont care if they skyrocket. It's all about goals here people. 

Hopefully, this teeny little list makes it through the rest of the week. It's been rough. Also, Mike is drawing on my toe, as he desperately needs a shirt ironed for tomorrow, and apparently the Iron is not his friend. Goodnight :)

Rememer the Big Goals.

explodingdog.com 

Tonight's BIG GOALS:

Make Chicken with Peach salsa.. (not feeling it)
CLEAN THE KITCHEN, kthx
get mike to clean the basement (bahahahaaha)
write a blog about B, B, BBQ. (maybe)
nap? or shower? (i feel I must choose one)
a bit of wine and scheming, mayhaps.

Girls Night Out

Everyone needs one occasionally, and this was mine. Possibly my oldest friend is getting ready to move to NYC for school, and though waters have gotten choppy, she's still the closest confidant I've got. So, I was thrilled to get all dressed up and head to Carrboro to see her for one last dinner date.. (for now)

I feel like I should be forced to explain the super girly photo below. B  made me a makeup addict, and then showed me her AMAZING Sephora makeup "Blockbuster" palette. I waited, not so patiently, til last christmas and scooped it up as soon as it hit shelves. Ive used it ever since, and as you can see, barely touched it. The lip glosses aren't the best, but the shadows, blushes, liners and pencils are awesome. Needless to say, whever I use it, I think of her, sooo yeah, it's totally fitting. Also, please ignore the broken into 2905729014812 pieces toilet, Mike's in the process of "fixing" it.

After getting ready, I traveled on down to Carrboro. I've really never been, since its a 40minute drive, but it really seems worth it. I mentioned to Mike renting a cheap hotel somewhere there and making a weekend vacation of it (right in the backyard almost.) B mentioned some awesome bars, ice cream places, and brunch eateries, paired with the tons of things to do in Chapel Hill and (now I need to find "activities" in Carrboro)

you know it's good if this is the only photo I take.

We ate at ACME and  we both got the steak. B mentioned that the crab cakes were equally amazing, but possibly not the grouper. Anyway, two bottles of wine and an AMAZING peach /blueberry cobbler later (or 3 hours..however YOU measure time). We had covered just about every subject, chatted the whole time, and was faced with the fact, that we had to leave. :-(


Oh well, we're having a goodbye party on Friday for her, and Mike does live in Long Island, so I'm not too tore up about "never seeing her again." But, I do adore her for introducing me to new places, new make up and always having my backs.

Good Times

Sushi Dinner and Setting Goals

I had huge plans for August. No, really, I did. I had EVERY MEAL written out, recipes marked, lists made, blog posts I was gonna make. It was gonna be awesome.

And then life got real.

Seriously, Monday I worked 10 hours and had one of those days. Tuesday and Wednesday were wash, rinse and repeats. By Friday, I was pooped. I managed to scrap together 2 actually "made" meals last week (and one of those was totally bagged salad), and none of which were photographically worthwhile. This week, is gonna be equally rough, but I'm gonna attempt to do it all. (BA!)

On Saturday, a bunch of friends went to Beer Bourbon and BBQ, and had a blast.. there was a HUGE group of us. I will do my best to post a whole post about it tomorrow, when I can sort out the pictures a bit more.

told you, HUGE group. 

Today was a day for recoup and trying to prep for the upcoming week. Mike and I managed to make it to the grocery store, fix my car, mow the lawn and then SUSHI DINNER. Horray. We tried out a new place in North Raleigh, TASU, which has BOGO sushi every day.

now THIS, is a sushi menu. 

 Have I mentioned how horrible I am at chopsticks? I try, but I always end up completely smushing a piece or two before I get enough hang of it to eat some.

no worries. we'll be back. 

i love the "two spoons" part. <3

Ok, so, hopefully, we can get on top of the game this week and get some stuff done. Til then, I will dream of Bagel rolls and bourbon. <3