"Jam" Packed

The other day I received a package in the mail. A very special package from one of my best friends, Kebi.

In this package were the last two books in the Twilight series, which Kebi was gracious enough to loan me and two jars of jam. One cherry and one peach.



I have been eating on the peach jam the last few days. Did I mention it's delish and Kebi hand-canned it?

If you get the time, head on over to Kebi's blog and tell her how awesome she is. She had a rough day and I'm sure could use some cheering up.

Love you Kebi!



Peach jam.....a girl's best friend!

Awesomely Bad Etsy Items Volume 3

That's right folks, another round of awesomely bad and weird Etsy items. Enjoy!



Not sure what this is? I wasn't either. Evidently it has a secret compartment for your fine jewelry. Yeah....not sure I'd be storing anything valuable in that, but to each his own.



Ok..could be cute if you work in Silicon Valley, otherwise....not sure.



Bad hair day? Never fear! Just grab your squid hat. Problem solved!



Nothing says girl power like this Ovary Quilted Block.



Kid birthday party to go to? Scare the crap out of them with this Devil Bunny Painting. *sigh* Where does this stuff come from?!



Last, but certaintly not least these buttons. Cause we all like buttons about bodily functions, right?

Grandma Dresses

First off, I wanted to say sorry to all those blogs that I subscribe to and regularly comment on. I haven't been around the computer much at all, but I promise in about a week I'll be back. Until then I know you guys understand why I'm not around much.

The trip to Venice yesterday was great. I was expecting it to be hot and crowded, but it really was neither. I'll try to post pics and more of a trip report tomorrow or the next day, but until then know there was the Great Train Adventure of 2009. No, I didn't miss the train, but it's a halfway interesting story so look for it soon.

Today we're all kind of resting and I made scones today. Orange and cranberry to be exact and they are delish. I've posted about them before, but I'm not taking the time to look for that post. If you want the recipe go on over to Andrea's blog and click the tab under recipes, you'll find it if you do a little searching. Sean is making steaks and potatoes tonight, so we're all looking forward to that.

My mom and I have been looking at some pictures of me when I was little today and they are a hoot. I'm not one to toot my own horn, but I was a very precocious and amusing child. One of these days I'll scan a few pictures so you can get a good laugh.

So, I've been wearing some of the dresses I recently ordered from Forever 21 and Sean made the comment the other day, "Why are you wearing all these grandma dresses?" I scoffed and told him they were fashionable. Well, today I was wearing this little number:



And I had two people compliment me on it. Both over the age of 40. Hmmm...maybe he was right?

Spaghetti and Sightseeing

So, a couple of you asked yesterday what I thought was appropriate wear to the PX.

In short, I don't want to see your girls pushed out of the top of your shirt and I don't want to see your butt cheeks hanging out of your skirt or shorts. If I can't see either of those things, then we're good.

Let me clarify that I don't show up at the PX in heels, dressed to the nines. I've appeared in workout gear before and I often wear jeans and flip-flops. All acceptable. Showing off pieces of skin that only you or your husband should see? Not appropriate. I'd be mortified if one of my husbands co-workers saw me in something like the woman was wearing yesterday. If you want to wear things like that, then wear them at home. In private.

Last night I made Pioneer Woman's Chicken Scallopine. It was good, but not great. I think the chicken was the best part of the recipe.

Today my mom and brother, Sean and I went out to explore Vicenza. Sean picked up some loose wine, we attempted to use the bathroom at McDonald's which required a code to unlock it. I managed enough Italian to ask a employee for the code, "Cosa codice toilette?" On to lunch at a restaurant we'd never tried before. It was family owned and the people were so nice. Only the father spoke English and with my patchy Italian we managed to order the buffett and spaghetti with some sort of fish. The buffett was amazing. It was all kinds of Italian appetizers. I had zucchini slices with olive oil, fried potatos, anchovies, caprese with the best mozzerella I've ever tried and shrimp. The spaghetti was good too.

After lunch it was time for some sightseeing. We tried to find the Olympic Theater with no success and then opted to drive up to Monte Berico for a wonderful view of all Vicenza.

Days like this I really enjoy Italy.

Question of the Day and An Awkward Website

Do you consider Daisy Dukes and a Hooters Camouflage shirt as appropriate wear to the PX?

Did I mention she had her three young children in tow and her NCO husband?

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Oh..and I saw this on Megan's blog, but you must check out AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com.


Here's just a preview of what you can expect:


(Photo courtesy of awkwardfamilyphotos.com)

I promise you won't be disappointed!

Early Birthday

Well, I am happy to report that my mom and brother have arrived in Italy. I was a little nervous about getting to the airport, but that was a breeze. The airport is actually a lot smaller than I thought it would be, so it made finding parking and arrivals a lot easier. We didn't do much yesterday, just came back to the house and talked about tons of different things. My mom has a suitcase that I have started referring to the Mary Poppins bag. She produced birthday presents for both Sean and I, treats for Boomer and endless other things.

For my presents I got a Gap black Maxi dress, a season of Sex and the City, Twilight Zone DVD and a couple of books. Overall an excellent collection of birthday presents.

Today we had planned on going to downtown Vicenza, but due to the jetlag, they didn't get up until about 12:30, so we've postponed that until Thursday. Instead we went to one of the malls and I showed them Emisfero, the most awesome store known to man. There are so many amazing things to buy there that I don't even know where to start. If any of you ever come visit Italy, you HAVE to go to Emisfero. It's like a gourmet Italian version of Wal-Mart. We had gelato today too. I got my standard lemon flavor, but tried coconut today too and it was freakin AMAZING. I love gelato so much more than our ice cream because it's bursting with flavor.

Friday we are headed to Venice. I'm all about doing the touristy things that Sean and I didn't do last time we were there. Sean wants to go, but he says he's going to the Hard Rock Cafe. I'm not sure what all the fuss is about with him and the Hard Rock. I've eaten at a few in my time and I didn't think they were anything to write home about, but to each his own I suppose.

I got my Forever21 order in today and I cannot wait to go home and try on my new clothes.

*sigh* It's the little things in life.

New Toy

Sorry for the short blog yesterday. I was mucho tired from the event yesterday. Overall it went really well, even though we had a few bad apples in the bunch, but I guess that's to be expected.

My favorite was when we were drawing for three bikes and by that time a lot of people had left, so there was only a small group there. We drew ticket after ticket, each time announced by one particularly annoying lady, "1, 2, 3, You snooze you lose. NEXT!" Seriously by the sixth ticket I wanted to tell her to shut up. Yet somehow I kept my composure and kept my mouth shut. With people like that it's really hard.

Sean made his awesome quesadillas last night and I made Steph's awesome salsa to go with them. Seriously...a small slice of Mexican food heaven in our apartment last night!

I finally took the plunge and bought a GPS for us the other day. I went ahead and went with the Garmin nuvi 275T and it is already amazing me! I'm such a nerd about that stuff. It doesn't take much to impress me.



My Mom and brother are flying in tomorrow and I'm very excited. We have trips to Venice, Verona and Cinque Terre planned. I'm also planning on taking them to a couple of the smaller towns around here. So...if my posting is a little sporadic, that's probably why.

I hope you guys had an amazing weekend. What all did you do?