Valentines Day

Hearts Day 2012

 Valentines Day this year was a muli-day affair. Monday night, Mike took me to Bella Monica where we had a DELICIOUS meal and bottle of wine. (Sorry, no photos) Afterwards, we headed home for Day1, Part 2 (as Mike called it) which involved a basket that had cheese, crackers and wine in it. We set up a little picnic in our basement on the faux fur blanket, and chatted well into the night.

faux Polar Bear, of course.

On *the actual* Valentine's Day, we headed to Durham to Broad Street Cafe. It's actually located right next to NCSSM, so I always get a little reminiscent when I go there. 

  

They were having Periodic Tables, which is a monthly event where they team with NCMLS to bring in a speaker on various topics. As a bonus for this month, they had a keg of Sexual Chocolate. (A really hard to get a hold of beer..just trust me)

tap handle

They tapped the keg at 6pm and Mike got the last pint at 7:15

fin

 It was a really interesting talk, and we had great pizza and beer before we headed home for Day2 , part 2. 

Mike brought home a nice bottle of Champagne. 

"To celebrate us"

We've had champagne together before, to celebrate various other things, but this bottle was just for us.

I wouldnt let him open it with a knife.

 Id never opened a bottle of champagne before, (it scares me) but I did that night. Mike even filmed it for you

It was a lovely couple days, with an absolutely lovely man :) 

Finally saying "Peace!" to 2011

Oh, 2011. 

January: 

We drove to Charlottesville to NYE, 

we ate chicken wings

we got the plague

and won tickets to the NHL All-Star game

RBC Center

February 

we threw our First Annual Superbowl Party
we had an excellent trip to NYC
and we went the Science of Wine

Times Square

March

we had a little house guest

went to a parade

went to another Hurricanes game

we hit up HotLanta for a few days

and celebrated the 1yr anniversary of our first date.

St. Patty's day, ATL

April
we had our 6 month "for real?" anniversary
went to Raleigh Beer Fest
and tried out some of Raleigh's best food
and survived a tornado

the crew, under a rainy nasty tent

May

we introduced Mike to the cats

i had an excellent birthday

we went to Artsplosure
oh, and yeah WE WENT TO HARRY POTTER WORLD. 

what do YOU look like during Tornados?

June
we went to a Paul McCartney tribute show
plenty of brewery tours with friends
and visits to the Durham Bulls

Summer Lovin

July

i tore my knee. 

but we brewed

i painted. a lot. 
we saw Harry Potter. I died a little inside. 

and went to Cirque du Soleil

it ended



August

we went to Beer, Bourbon and BBQ
we brewed
and  started to put the house together

even on crutches, we were happy. 

September

we packed. 

we cleaned. 

we went to NY for 9/11

we saw the Jets

we moved kittens

I apparently forgot to blog. 

we managed to make it to the Science of beer

October

truth be told. this month was horrid. seeing as I never posted most of the posts I had written or even any photos, it feels like I owe it to you. (me?)

mom and dad came to the state fair

we moved all my stuff in from my old apartment.

we carved pumpkins with old friends

we ordered pumpkin lattes and raked leaves

then. 

it happened. 

I came home from work one perfectly normal Tuesday, to this:  

devastating. 

 Our front door was kicked in. Electronics, jewelry, luggage and other random things were gone. My biggest fear was realized. I fell into a deep hole that lasted most of November, with random spurts of Normalcy. One of those being our week long vacay (that I never blogged about -see deep hole-) to Vegas, Zion, and the Grand Canyon. It was nice to leave my broken home 4 days after it happened. I didn't realize how much  it to take to come back. I am back now. The house is back. The things are back. The alarm is good. All is well. 

Zion National Park

November 

we cleaned. 

we went up to NY for Mike's Family Thanksgiving. (I adore them, they're all so nice) 

we went to Charlotte (again posts lost in the deep hole)

checked out a Panthers game 

December

we celebrated the holidays

enjoyed our weekends. 

and headed out to Asheville for the New Year 

-----

Thanks 2011. You were rough, but you made me stronger. You made me appreciate who I had in my life, and grateful that the ones I didn't have anymore were finally gone. You showed me how strong I was and how weak.  You gave me adventures I'm grateful for. But, honestly? 2012? You don't have to teach me so much. We can just hang out and have fun. I'd like that.  :)

Weekend Recap

       This weekend was glorious. We got some early moving done, watched some football, cleaned, odds and ends checked off the list, and Mike got school work finished.

Click Me!

          We also managed to make a trip to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC. They were having their Science of Beer event on Thursday. Basically, they open up the Museum and all of it's exhibits, throw in a bunch of craft breweries (handing out free samples), Arts and Crafts booths (see the awesome pink koozie pictured) and they even had Beer Pong Physics. (You can see Mike signing the Wall of Champions)