66 days ...

... til March 7th! The wedding countdown widget I've got on here I totally stole from my Hot Cup's blog.

Pictures <3

A wonderful family friend and photographer, Jean Allen, took our engagement photos. Here are a few of them. Hot Cup isn’t as big of a fan of a couple of these, but it’s my blog :p




I wasn't sure which ones to share. I tried to use ones that probably won't end up in the announcement, but if one of these does, sorry for the repetition :) I also tried not to use too lovey-dovey of ones, you're welcome.

Customer Disservice

Why offer a service you can't deliver?

I was shopping online and had a question when I saw they offered live chat. I've used live chat on other merchants' sites many times before, it's usually instant and helpful and I was pleased to see they offered it too. So I clicked to chat but no one ever came. I was at work so decided to do other stuff while I waited. But no one was there!

After a few hours I finally just emailed them and they responded very promptly. Why did they offer live chat if they weren't going to chat with customers who tried to use it? So lame.

LOVE

Someone proposed to me on Saturday! Who am I to refuse? Especially when it's preceded by an awesome date and accompanied with all sorts of romance? But seriously, I love my Hot Cup of Joe so much and am really excited!! I’m so lucky!

For those who don’t know, my amazing fiancé’s got a blog too, you can find it under Good Reads in the column on the left. Just click Hot Cup :)

Happy Anniversary

Today marks 1 year of blogging for me. Thanks to the few of you who continue to stop by, for making it so I’m not talking to myself.

Hope

Perennials establish themselves from seed the first year but do not usually flower until the following year.
~Source

Why didn't any of you tell me this? Didn't I tell you I know nothing of gardening? And why didn't it say this right on the package of seeds?

I'm not exactly encouraged, but I do again have a little hope that perhaps a little something will come of all those seeds I planted this year. Maybe.

Big Apple

Not The Big Apple, just a big apple.

And it was very yummy!

3 of Each

Mr. A.G.B. tagged me recently - - here it goes!

3 JOYS!

• New things/places
• Nature (minus the bugs that bite me)
• My family and friends

3 fEaRs.

• I had real stuff hear but then I
• felt like I was tempting fate and
• was creeped out so I deleted them.

3 Goals.

• Music - Piano & Ukulele
• Watching the Gilmore Girls series with my younger sisters; and watching the X-files series with Hot Cup.
• Reading all April’s conference talks this month.

3 Current Obsessions/Collections.

• Clothes
• Gardening
• Reading blogs / RSS feeds

3 Random SURPRISES!!

• I can't whistle.
• I own a tiara.
• ... I like cheese.

3 Tags. Your turn guys!

• Hot Cup
• B. B. Woolf
• Iggy

Ask 2nd

Sometimes I hesitate to write about marketing stuff because I like to think I know something about marketing and I’m afraid of being exposed as an idiot.

But recently Hot Cup posed a question which I was happy to answer, and so I’ll share it with you too. (I admit, I went a little overboard with it, which is why it can now make for its own post.) It was about the new Microsoft ads.


They are pretty bad ads. Although the 2nd one (New Family) is considered to be a little better than the 1st (Shoe Circus). There are a few companies that can get away with doing a no real message ad (ie. Budweiser) but Microsoft isn't one of them. Viral marketing is a huge thing. So that’s obviously their goal. And successfully working branding into viral marketing has proved challenging for more than just Microsoft.

The TV spots aren't as bad as the full versions, in my opinion. Maybe I just like that they're shorter. (I’ve seen versions on TV that’ve got to be only 30 seconds, but I can’t find them online.)

I think they want to show you Bill Gates doing something funner than you normally get to see. The message of 'New Family' is suppose to be about connecting with people. Bill and Jerry are connecting with people ... Microsoft connects people. I think that's the message anyway. And both ads hint toward innovation at the end, although there is no real tangible message there.

But they have led to some buzz at least. This article is the most favorable one I've come across.

Good Microsoft Commercial:

Tysons on Thursday

Yesterday I went to Banana Republic's 30th Anniversary Sale. For a few hours everything was 30% off. You had to show them your credit card to get in the door, which was a little funny. And they served champagne and little pastries. It was a mad house.

There were tons of people. I spent half an hour in line for the fitting room. And then another half hour in line at the check out.

It was like social hour. Girls were there with their friends loading up on clothes and drinking champagne. Having a good time. A lot of guys were there for the sale too, but my favorites were the ones who just stood there with womens clothes draped over their arms, drinking champagne.

I know this isn't unusual among fashion retailers, but I haven't gone before.
I'm a little surprised that I wasn't put off by it. I didn't bring any friends with me, and I don't drink champagne, but isn't shopping fun? (Well, sometimes it depends on the sales associates ... and I'm not crazy about the before Christmas madness ...) Oh, and the 30% off is fun too!

Plants

It's been so long since I've posted anything I'm having a hard time deciding what to share.

I guess I'll show you my cucumbers from my garden. Haha, it's so funny that I keep blogging about this.

Here they are!

And here is a little watermelon plant that I planted too late. I'm hopeful that a watermelon will start to grow before it gets to cold, but I've been advised that it will get too cold for a watermelon plant before I have a normal sized watermelon. I guess it is September already.

Yesterday at the Arboretum I saw these pomegranate plants. I wish I could grow yummy pomegranates but my dad said I would have to move somewhere like Arizona for the right climate, so there goes that idea.

Look at these pretty flowers from the US National Arboretum.

And these darling sisters with a rock penjing.

And these wackos blocking the bonsai.

Now Playing

I swear I’m not some sort of X-Files freak, I just enjoy watching it. Thank you Costco, for allowing me to complete my collection for an affordable price. [And Iggy, for starting it :)] Anyway, due to circumstances beyond my control, I’m not going to get to see the movie for another week :(

My First Harvest - Ever!

After writing that last post I decided I wanted to eat some of my beans! So I went out and picked some and then cooked 'um up! Yummy!

I Spy Vegetables!

Guess what I found in my garden yesterday! Beans!

I’ve been out of town a lot lately. I’ve been checking on my plants, but mostly just to make sure they’re not drying out. Then yesterday I went out to take a look and found beans!

Here are the flowering bean plants and some of the vegetables themselves. Almost ready to eat!

These are some flowers from the cucumber plants, no signs of cucumbers yet.

A couple weeks ago I finally planted some watermelon seeds. Hopefully I didn’t wait too long. And hopefully they’re getting enough sun. Here’s what’s come of them, so far. Do they look healthy to you? I’m not sure they’re going to work, but I didn’t have a sunnier place to put them.

I don’t dare to post a picture of the flowers I planted. Nothing’s bloomed yet. As far as I know they’re actually 100% weeds. Seriously, I don’t know what’s flowers and what’s weeds. How can you tell?

Really Chocolate Chocolate Cake

Yesterday I made my first layered cake! It actually went pretty well, I think. I worried that it would fall apart before it was ... assembled, but my biggest issue ended up being the frosting.

I realized only a moment too late that I probably should have stuck to one style. Frosting it smooth around the sides but not smooth on the top made it look like someone’s hair that’s been shaved only around the sides/back but not off the top. Maybe I should have had it the same all over. I don't know. What do you think?

Also, I think I should have put more frosting between the layers. It could have used a little more. It worked at least. Overall I was pretty pleased with this first attempt. It was edible :)

It must have been someone’s birthday!

Let's Go Swimming!

Wahoo! I found a swimsuit! It’s amazing. Some of you may not appreciate how amazing this is. I’m not in the habit of complaining about my body, but I’ll easily complain that designers don’t exactly make clothes to fit it. When it comes to swimsuits it’s the worst. Being super skinny and [ahem] flat-ish makes 2 separate characteristics that no one makes a swimsuit for.

Last year I found this halter-style suit which turned out okay after I had it altered, but this year I was pleasantly surprised by a suit I found in Urban Outfitter’s retro swim collection. This suit arrived today and seems to fit just fine! I picked the one that's adjustable because I thought that feature was promising.

I’m not used to having the suit to want to ask this - anyone wanna go swimming?

Adorable

My mom requested I scan some pictures onto a disc for her.
Naturally I’ve kept my own copy of everything.

Have you ever seen such a beautiful, wide-eyed baby?

I love the smiles on these kiddies.

Iggy: You’ve got a cute smile too, we were just all grown up in most the pictures. Too grown up to call adorable :)

5 Days Later

I finally planted those seeds on Saturday. And look at these pictures I took last night!

If I can keep them healthy I'm going to have a good amount of string beans and cucumbers! Yummy! I didn't realize vegetable plants grew so fast.

And here's how the flowers are coming, they're just starting to peek out of the dirt.

I've never done this before and I wasn't sure anything would grow at all. If real edible vegetables grow and beautiful flowers bloom, this will be very exciting!

G'day!

I always eat my lunch at my desk while I work. Well today I must have been working hard because it was 2:30ish and I still had like half my salad. A coworker walked by my desk and said "still grazing?"

Also, one of my coworkers is moving and my boss asked if I would call the removalist. Then she paused [maybe I looked confused] and said, "I think here you call them 'movers.'" [I have such a glamorous job.]

Haha. Australians.

Sign Disobedience

I realize it’s not unusual to see signs being ignored, everyone everywhere does it. But here’s a couple of places I’ve seen it lately.

JFK Plaza, Philadelphia

Calvert Cliffs State Park, Maryland

Can you guess what they made me think of?

Don't forget to guess.

If you guessed a sign like this:

From this book/tape:

Then you were right!

Click here

Disclaimer: I'm working from memory, so if I've mixed up a Standin' Tall reference (I don't think I have) I'm sorry.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

I’ve been excited about planting some seeds out in my backyard. A few vegetables, some flowers. But the weather has not placated me. I’ve been waiting for the rain to let up. I’m probably a little early on some things anyway [and a little late on others] but once I decided to do it, I just wanted to do it! The trees that crowd my backyard aren’t going to make it easy for them to get sun. [My tiny backyard has 4 trees, not to mention the ones that come over the fence.] This may not work, we’ll find out!

This is my first attempt at this, all gardening advice is welcome!

ANZAC Day

I’ve been pretty sick lately. But this past week I’ve been getting better – I’ve been out of bed and back at work. But since I’ve been back, one of my co-workers has been on vacation. I say this because he is the one with the most … Australian vocabulary, so it’s been a few weeks since I really had to interpret Australian. But today is ANZAC Day so I am going to try to remember some of the words and phrases I’ve learned to expect.

Phrases like don’t catch yourself a light. how’re you traveling? get some yum yum? and good on you. And words like nibblies, mobile, tele, bin, uni, and texter.

There they are. Happy ANZAC Day!

The Commute

If you’re dumb enough to not put the name and address of your establishment on coupons you’re giving everyone exiting metro, at least call it out repetitively. No waffles for me. I don’t know where to go.

Speaking of metro …

Did any of you see the set up at Rosslyn station this week? It was there right in time for the Russell Crowe/Ben Affleck movie State of Play they were filming, and then it was gone.

Speaking of metro … again …

My bus driver of 8 months is gone. [So the one I’ve had since I moved to my new place.] I think he is the best one in the whole system. I may have had a little crush on him.

Pink & White

Yesterday I saw this year’s Cherry Blossoms!

But first we went to the Kite Festival. There were kites everywhere, and all different kinds. For a second we saw a legs kite but by the time I’d turned on my camera it was gone. This ship kite is a probably suppose to be a Pirates of the Caribbean kite or something, but it reminded me more of the scene at the end of Peter Pan where Tinker Bell covers the pirate ship in pixie dust and they sail through the sky. Yes, the man in this picture has a beer can on a fishing pole. [Click on pictures to see them bigger.]

We also saw the pro-kite flyers and all their tricks, which was pretty cool. The youngest competitor was only 8 and he’s well on his way to becoming a real pro, I’m always amazed by kids that are really good at something. After that we saw a kite fighting contest. This is where competitors fly kites with lines coated with glass and the objective is to cut everyone else’s lines and have the last kite in the air. It was pretty intense.

Then we made our way to the Tidal Basin where the Cherry Blossoms were beautifully bloomed!