2009 in Pictures

January- Besides for watching good friends get married, and Kevin going to some med school interviews, we enjoyed the Colorado snow on a hike in Rocky Mountain Park, complete with hot cocoa. February- We celebrated Kevin's 29th birthday, and took a little trip to Buena Vista. Take a look those Collegiate Peaks- breathtaking!

March- We threw a fun surprise party for my dad's 60th birthday.

April- I took a trip out to Seattle for a conference, and decided I could probably live there someday....

May- ...but decided in May we were heading to Baltimore after Kevin got into Johns Hopkins and I got a job! We also threw a surprise party for my mom's 60th birthday, and tried to soak up the (still snowy) Colorado views while we could.

June- This was a big month. We visited Baltimore and picked out a new house, I went to Vermont for a conference, we threw my sister both a shower and, hey, a wedding, and we sold our first home.

July- I seriously focused on my dissertation while Kevin had his last day of work as an engineer along with a Colorado Life Crisis. Karma vegged in our tiny apartment.

August- We sadly bade goodbye to family and friends in Colorado, and took a cross-country moving expedition to Baltimore, seeing St. Louis, Chicago, some parts of Indiana I never need to see again, and Pennsylvania. I started my new job and Kevin started med school.

September- We celebrated 3 years of married bliss, I successfully defended my dissertation, and we got settled into East Coast life by spending some time in D.C. and Philadelphia.
October- Kevin mastered anatomy, we visited the Baltimore aquarium, I took a trip to Monterey, and my brother made a visit, during which time we finally tried some Maryland crabs.
November- We adopted the Countess, and gave thanks for our blessings when my parents made visit to see us.

December- I finally graduated, we had a great week in Colorado celebrating the holidays (more to come soon), and our cats became friends. :) Well, sorta.

2009 was a ride! I'm hoping 2010 might be a bit more chill.

Best Books of 2009

From the 50 books I read this year, here are the 5 books I loved the most (note: this doesn't include my re-read of the Harry Potter series, or... well, pretty much they would win. So I'm taking them out of the contest since they were re-reads):

5) The fifth spot is a tie between two dark books: The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which was very dark and descriptive and post-apocalyptic, and Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, which was more "teen angst" but also very serious, yet creative and memorable.

4) Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card: I can't believe I never read this book before. It wasn't a page-turner for me, but it's stuck with me since I read it, and in hindsight I find the whole idea of it very captivating.

3) Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins: I just devoured these books. When a book makes you want to stop everything else to read it, and you think about it when you're not reading it, you know it's good. I can't wait for the 3rd book next year! Meanwhile I'll be recommending this series to everyone I know.

2) Voyager & Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon: I probably liked Voyager slightly more, but both of these books were *awesome* if you're already sunk deep into the Outlander series. I can't wait to re-read them soon!

And my favorite book of the year:

1) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: This snuck in as one of my last reads of the year, but this is the best Holocaust book I've read since Maus. It may even be one of the best books I've read period. So creative, so haunting, so heartbreaking. Highly recommended.

Worst Books Of 2009

From my 50 books that I read this year, here were what I thought were the 5 worst:

5) Perfect Fifths (the 5th Jessica Darling)- some people love this book, but maybe I was just fed up by the pretentiousness of Jessica and Marcus by this point in the series.

3 &4) Sookie Stackhouse books #2 and #8- the Sookie series is fluffy. Doesn't require too much brain power. Which can be appealing in some cases (I loved book #4 for example) but at times can just be... bad.

2) This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen. A Young Adult book, which I typically enjoy, but this one just didn't do it for me- I didn't buy the characters.

And the worst book I read this year...
1) Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. Not quite bad enough for me to give up on it, but bad enough that I found myself rolling my eyes and getting angry with Dan Brown for how bad it was.

Books 47, 48, 49, and 50!

47) Seeking Sara Summers by Susan Gabriel: I received this as a free book from goodreads.com. I was interested to find out that the author lives in Fort Collins! This is the story of middle-aged Sara Summers, a married woman with 3 kids who is in the midst of breast cancer and a marriage that is falling apart. She decides to go to Italy to visit her old best friend from high school (Julia) and ends up falling in love with her. Ultimately she must decide whether to go back to her old life or not. So, this book was sort of like Under the Tuscan Sun, as most of the story takes place in Italy, and ultimately it's a story about Sara finding herself as well as new love in a new place. The big difference is there is some lesbian lovin' in this book. I enjoyed the plot and it was easy and fun to read. But certain aspects seemed slightly rushed, such as when Sara suddenly finds herself "falling" for Julia- the jump from best friend to physical attraction felt out of nowhere, in a way. I wished for a little more introspection on Sara's part (there was some, I just wanted a bit more).

48) Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher: This is the story about a girl who leaves behind audiotapes describing the 13 reasons why she killed herself. I loved this book, and I would recommend it to others. I couldn't put it down. I loved the way the story was told through audiotapes. I also loved Clay's story told simultaneously with Hannah's. While it was really sad, since you knew there couldn't be a happy ending, I just really got immersed in this teenager's world.

49) The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak: This book, about a German girl living during the Holocaust, was amazing. There aren't many books that make it onto my "favorites of all time" but I think this one just might. It was just so creative- I loved that the story is told from Death's point of view. The characters are real and have flaws but some of them are good to the core. They grow as the story evolves. You ache for them. It was such a heartbreaking book- both because it points to the evil in mankind and because it points to the inherent good. I loved it.

50) The Help by Kathryn Stockett: This book is about the relationship between white women and their black maids in the 1960s. I don't think I liked this book as much as most people I know, but I did enjoy it. It was definitely an interesting read, and I was invested in the characters. I especially liked Skeeter and her relationship with Aibilene and Minnie. That said, I think some of the characters were a little unrealistic. I do think this could be a good book club book.

I made it to 50! At the end of this week, I'll be posting my worst and best books of 2009.

Thanksgiving Recap

We had a very nice Thanksgiving, hosted by my cousin Laura and her husband David (they live in D.C). My aunt and uncle were also there for the festivities, along with my parents, and Laura and David's adorable baby. I did miss everyone we weren't with, though- my siblings, and Kevin's family. We did get to talk to them all on the phone though.

Thanks family for a lovely Thanksgiving!

Woodberry Kitchen

I've somewhat recently become a "Yelper". Here is my review of the Woodberry Kitchen, where we ate when my parents were visiting (please excuse the somewhat terrible picture and Kevin's freaked-out look). This place has recently been featured on Gourmet magazine's top 10 restaurants in the country, and on the Food Network.



"Wow, I loved this place! I'm surprised at all the mediocre reviews, but perhaps we had such a great experience because we followed advice from other Yelpers: skip the entrees, stick to the small plates, woodfired pizzas, and desserts. It seemed to work well for us.The building is gorgeous, with lots of tall windows and brick. The service was fantastic.

For appetizers, we tried the butter bean dip (sooo good- the crackers served with it were clearly homemade), the tuna (very fresh), and the orchard pears (the most humdrum of the apps we tried). We then tried the Heirloom pumpkin soup (thick and creamy- good thing we shared!), the sizzling shrimp (terrifically seasoned- the onions on the plate were nearly as good as the shrimp), and the Momo oysters from the wood-fired oven (my first oysters- can't say I was crazy about them, although the flavor was good).We then shared the air-dried beef and rocket flatbread, as well as the smoked pork and black bean flatbread. Both were soooo good. Cooked in the wood-fired oven just perfectly, so that the crust was bubbly, chewy, and crispy all at once. I'd go back just to try another flatbread.

For dessert we had the CMP (it's back!!!). We also saw this on the Food Network and were so disappointed when we read on Yelp reviews that it was gone- but they must have listened to Yelpers complaints because it's now on the menu. Oh my gosh, this dessert is a must- marshmallow, chocolate, peanuts, malt ice cream, and a thin sugary crust over the top- to die for.This is the best restaurant we've tried in Baltimore so far and we will definitely be bringing more people here in the future!"

Parents' Visit to Baltimore

We had a great visit with my parents over Thanksgiving week. It started off a little rocky when I went to pick them up from Dulles International on Tuesday night... it took us 4 hours to get to Baltimore. Four. hours. To go 40 miles. So painful, and I felt bad since that was their first impression!

But we made up for it at one of our favorite restaurants, The Helmand, which serves Afghan food.

The next day I sadly had to go to work (they don't give new Feds too much leave), but Kevin took my parents out to see some sites. My mom and dad stayed at a cute B&B just a few blocks from our house, Scarborough Fair:



Kevin walked them along the Inner Harbor, and then they took the metro over to Hopkins, where they got to see the simulation room (I'm a little jealous- I have yet to see this!). They even have a simulator of a birth.

Then they had lunch at Lexington Market in Downtown, and walked along Federal Hill Park for some great pictures of the Domino Sugar sign (which is our favorite landmark in the city).

And later, when I got home, Kev and I used some Domino sugar in our cooking for Thanksgiving the next day! It's weird, I never heard of Domino sugar before moving here... must be an East Coast thing?

More to come....

FACE and The Sing-Off

I'm so excited- our friend's a capella group, FACE, who sang at our wedding, is going to be on National TV for the next two weeks in a vocal competition! They are competing against 7 other teams from around the country.

NBC's website for the show is here: http://www.nbc.com/sing-off/

The 2-hour premiere is this Monday night (tomorrow), 8/7c.

I would love for anyone reading this blog to listen and vote for them! They are so awesome.

Hopefully, Driver won't mind that we post this picture of them:

For those of you out there who love Glee, or a capella, this is for you! These guys are great and I'd love to support them anyway we can.

Buddies

Karma and Bixby are getting along quite well... except when it's playtime, then there's much batting and hissing that goes on. But look how sweet they are here (do you think Karma doesn't realize Bixby is there because of the blanket?)



My little vampire cat....

A good picture of Bixby and her green eyes...

Things I Love Right Now

1) Glee. If you ever did choir or theater in high school, or teach high school, or were a dork in high school, please watch this show, right now. I love it so, even when it's over the top ridiculous, which it frequently is.

2) The Wire. Okay, it took me awhile to get into the first season, but now that we're partway through the second season, I do really think this show is extremely well-done. I mean, the characters are so believable I almost expect to see them sometime walking down our street (except maybe the drug dealers)- and well, it is exciting to see our city while watching. Even if I do have to have Kevin explain to me what the heck is going on half the time.

3) This American Life. Have I mentioned my love for the This American Life podcast before? The sound of Ira Glass's voice is like instant happiness for an hour. Certainly the highlight of my commute. I wish it was more than just once a week.

4) Google Reader. I've mentioned this one before, but seriously, I love my blogs. Some current new favorites include Pioneer Woman, Annie's Eats, Busy Bee Lauren, and xkcd.

Flobots

Way back in the day at George Washington High School I had a friend I met doing theater. His name was Andy, and we were in the Music Man together. My junior year, we even went to prom in the same group...

Andy has been obsessed with music as long as I've known him. I drove him to his first gig (his band was called The Funktion) because my jeep was big enough to carry his gear. The great thing about Andy was that it was always about the music. He didn't play because he thought it was cool, or that he'd be rich and famous someday. He just wanted to be on the stage.

A few years back, Andy started playing guitar in another Denver band, the Flobots. A year or two ago, they hit it big with a song called "Handlebars" (check out the video here), which became a huge radio single and paved the way for an international tour and a signing on a major record label. I bought the album and I really enjoyed it, but I didn't get a chance to see them live until they visited Baltimore this weekend, and Amy and I went to see the show...


I may be biased, but they put on an incredible show, and we had a great time listening. When the show was over, we hung out and waited for about 20 minutes until they came out to sign autographs. Andy took a second to recognize me (I'm much better looking than I used to be), and immediately insisted that we come hang out backstage and have a drink. Once he had signed autographs for his legions of adoring fans, we went backstage and talked to him and Stephen (another member of the group that I knew from high school) for about 30 minutes. Then he introduced us to the rest of the band, gave us a quick walk through the tour bus, and the three of us went out for hot chocolate and grilled cheese at a local diner (mind you it was 2:30 am). It was great to catch up with him, and to get an updated photo...


(He asked us if we could swing by the Dunkin' Donuts because donuts are a very valuable commodity on a tour bus.) It was a great evening all around, and I can't think of a group of people who are more deserving of success. If you have any interest in alt rock/hip hop you should check out their music and see if they're coming to your town.

New Moon

I think I might be a 13 year old stuck in a 29 year old's body. Because I went to see the new Twilight movie with my friend Michelle, and I *totally* loved it. There's just something so great about watching a totally cheesy romance movie with hot guys and laughing at all the cheesy moments with a girlfriend that is just so... fun. I seriously want to own this movie, and I totally realize how sad this is.

For all you Twilight fanactics out there... okay, I am totally for Edward when I read the books, but watching this movie... this almost changed my mind (uh, Rob, I think you need to buff up a little bit!):

Adjustments

Here is our new kitty- getting adjusted to her new home. It's been going pretty well- Karma and Bixby still have some spats, but we've also found them sleeping together (when they think we're not watching). The feeding is tricky though- they each only want the food that the other has. Bixby really isn't supposed to eat adult cat food yet and Karma hardly needs to eat more food other than her own- any ideas? Right now I have to supervise while they eat but this could be tricky when we go on vacation.