Volume I

La Vida Lista Encyclopedia: Volume I

Every so often, I do a blog post inspired by a letter. Without further ado, here's letter I!

iPhone, MyMy old phone broke last week. I went into the Verizon store fully intending to demand my free upgrade and nothing more because what does this girl know about technology? Case in point: Just the other day, Dan and I were just trying to figure out what these things are:

What can I say? I've never been a gadget girl. Somehow, though, the Verizon salesperson talked me into the upgrade to an iPhone. When I protested that I would never learn how to use half the apps or whatever the hell they're called, he deadpanned, "My grandma has one. I think you'll be okay."

I totally understand the hype now! I've already downloaded an app for Finding movies (Flixster and Redbox)- Dan and I are boring most Fridays, so we need easy movie selection before we fall into an exhaustion coma by 11:00, and TripAdvisor, which I stalk even when I don't have a trip planned. Still haven't figured out how to scan those weird squares though or what they do exactly, but Rome wasn't built in a day.

Anyway, all this techie talk brings us to my next "I":

Instagram

Love how it makes the everyday look artsy. I've been playing with the settings (Toasted! Hudson! Blue steel!) non-stop.

Fair warning: The rest of the pics are probably mundane details from my Sunday to anyone but me. Dan and I met my family half-way in Fredericksburg for brunch.

My sis:

Dad:

Mom would kill me if I put the photo of her with her eyes closed on here, so I'll move on the yummy salmon benedict:

It almost looked like a heart. :)

Really cute bookstore where we sat and chatted:

Ethereal vibe, right? Instagram rocks my socks.

Then, Dan and I had our first snow day of the year today (March 5th!! In Virginia!!), so we did nothing all day and it was everything we dreamed. Our local coffee shop couldn't kick us out.

Of course, this meant more Instagram:

Moving on to another "I":

Ireland

When I was twenty- two, I did my first teaching practicum in Ireland for about three weeks. There is something about that country that is so beautiful and mysterious. Here's just a bit of eye candy from my trip ten years ago:

Notice the hokey Ireland sweatshirt and the frizziest hair I've ever had. Love that country's scenery and beer, but hated what that mist did to my do.

Oh by the way, I'm going to post kind of a funny story about my stay in Ireland around St. Patty's Day, now that I finally have the pics scanned. But time to move on to another country:

Inappropriate item from Italy
I've already told you about our trip to Italy, so instead of all those pictures and re-caps, I thought I'd just leave you with one you've seen before.

Dan and I were trying to find the cheesiest souveniers we could for family members. He bumped into a vendor outside of the Academy selling gear with The David printed on it. Dan couldn't resist this apron:

Immature souvenier? Yep! Just a little more "I" candy for you. :)

letter I from here, square from here

H is for...

La Vida Lista Encyclopedia: Volume H

Since I already had two posts about gratitude, I figured letter "G" is covered. I'm moving on to letter...

Randomly, there are three things going on in my life that fit neatly into this "H" category. I'm saving the best for last... an "H" themed party! Yes, really.

Hardware:

I kicked some more brass. That's right. Before the hardware on my front door looked like this:

I spent a Sunday afternoon unscrewing everything, positioning them on the cardboard boxes, and spraying them with this exact method I found from YHL. It updated the look for less than ten bucks, even if it was more time consuming to figure out how to reassemble than I had anticipated.

There are still ninety-nine problems with the front of our house, but our handle ain't one. Small victories, people. See the new dark look?

Moving right along...

Holiday decor:

More on my new holiday decor next week when I have a chance to breathe (NO school! Woo hooooo!), but I thought I'd share one thing:

I have a turquoise, blue, and white color scheme going on in my dining room:


So I took the mason jars that I scored from my sister-in-law's wedding, filled them with sea salt "snow", spray painted a faux tree and bush, and made a little snowglobe sans the water:


Next week, I'll show off more decor and the other one I made after bleaching a few faux trees white.

Lastly, to round off volume "H"...

The H party

Some of Dan's quirky friends from work through a holiday party with an "H is for Holiday" theme. They requested that everyone come dressed as something starting with an "H".

Interweb, I give you... my hubby dressed as Harry Potter:


Hahahahahaha! This has been cracking me up all week!

His graduation robe + a Redskins scarf + faux glasses = the sexiest Harry ever

I pulled out my "house" Halloween costume and my sister Bethy came along dressed as "Heaven and Hell"

Ignore my sister's odd "I'm hammered" expression. The above picture was taken at the end of the night.

I didn't get very many pictures of all the great cosumes (Hokie! Hippie! Hermit Crab! Hester Prim! Holiday sweaters!) but here's a random one of Dan and a colleague dressed as a hiker:



H overload: Heaven and Hell, Hairstylist, Captain Hook, Heaven:


Random but fun party! I'll leave you with two more photos we took at the end of the night.

The hostess set up one of those stick-your-head-in-the-holes picture ops:

Happy holidays!

Encyclopedia La Vida Lista: Volume F

I'm back with the rest of my fall vacay. There's not much to see here, so I thought I'd break it down by sharing pictures brought to by the letter "F":

Dan and I went to the oh-so-charming town of Leesburg on our way home from the mountains. We saw...

Fun signs:





Ate fall food (like this pumpkin cupcake):


snapped pictures in front of this shop run by Redskin's tight-end Chris Cooley. He actually owns this pottery shop, and Dan is such a fan, he wore his favorite shirt:



And wonder of all wonders, the football player himself showed up! I guess Chris (we're on a first name basis now- ha ha) shows up to occasionally see how the store is doing and sign autographs. Dan could not have been more elated!

In the words of Dan, "Efffff yeahhhhhh!!!!"

La Vida Lista Encyclopedia: Volume E

I needed a break from blogging to deal with a few things, but I'm back with...

La Vida Lista Encyclopedia: Volume E!

Here are a few things currently going on in my life that begin with the letter "E":

Earthquake, The

You all may have heard that there was an earthquake in Mineral, Virginia that was felt through several other states too. Apparently, Dan and I are morons because we didn't even know it was an earthquake when it was happening. We were eating outside in Williamsburg, VA, and at first we thought the earth was shaking because a nearby water heater was buzzing slightly. It wasn’t until a nearby kid said to his grandpa, “Did you feel the tremor?” that the light bulb went off for us. Yes, an eleven year old figured it out faster than these two thirty-somethings.

Ever since 'Quake 2011, it has been NON-STOP fodder for "I survived an earthquake!" hysteria around Richmond. Never mind the fact that some people didn't even feel anything at all. It's actually a bit comical at this point, seeing that no real destruction was caused in Richmond. One panic-stricken teacher at my school almost shrieked, "One of my wine glasses cracked!" If Californians could hear these comments, they would probably pee their pants from laughing... given that they know what real earthquakes are like.

One of my friends told me about this picture that has been circling the Internet that I thought summed up some of the panic best. A guy sent this picture to a local news station:

Here was his tagline: Thanks to all of you for your kind words of support, as we look to recover from the devastation of today's quake!
I guess his picture is a good reminder that it could have been much, much worse and how we should all count ourselves very lucky.

This brings me to...

Electricity, No

Our house has been without electricity since 12 a.m. yesterday due to Hurricane Irene. We've been camping out at a nearby grocery store to use free WIFI all of today, hence the above picture of me with unwashed hair (can't use hair dryer).

Anyway, we knew this might happen earlier this week, so I got my Girl Scout on and bought a ton of energy bars and water. I put Dan on buying a lantern and batteries. Of course, he is not as anal as I am and forgot to go lantern shopping until Friday afternoon. When he went to three different stores, all he could find was spulunking lights that attach to one's forehead.

And to get him back for forgetting to get said lantern, I've made the executive decision to share ONLY the pictures of him wearing the gear!

For your viewing pleasure:





And here's a very dark picture of him reading in bed:


Yep, we read, played chess, and generally hung out for about five hours wearing lights on our forehead. Here's hoping the electricity comes on soon before we get a permanent flashlight-shaped indentations...

Lastly, I thought I'd end with the funniest homage to "E"


Eighties Hair, unintentionally:
You may be asking, "How can hair be unintentionally 80's looking?"

Answer: A hyper hairstylist with too many hairdos to do

My sister was a bridesmaid in a friend's wedding recently. A few stylists came to the hotel room to do everyone's hair before the wedding.

The bride got an elegant chignon.

The other seven bridesmaids got rather boring, but classy looking French twists.

My sister's turn was last. She told the stylist that she trusted her, and that she could do whatever she wanted.

Mistake.

But such a funny mistake!

During the styling, Bethany didn't have a mirror near her, but the stylist kept coohing, "Oh! You're going to love this! This is my favorite one yet."

Here are the hilarious iPhone pics that Bethany sent to me during the wedding:

That is a total side ponytail, my friends!

Bethany and I couldn't stop laughing afterwards about this! She actually looked cute with it still, even though she could have passed for a Pretty in Pink extra. (I'm dying to show you the pictures with her and all the bridesmaids because it's like the Sesame Street game, "Which one isn't like the other?" I'll post as soon as she sends them to me!)

So there you have it: Volume E! Hope you enjoyed! Oh, wait... here's one more:

Errors, I hope there are no

No home Internet = no way to fix errors = an English teacher's pet peeve

D is for...

delighted to bring you

La Vida Encyclopedia: Volume D!

It's been a while (*ahem... four months) since I've written a LVL Encyclopedia entry, so I thought I'd post a few of my current "D" favorites:

Dairy Godmother, the

Two weeks ago, I hung out at my sister's apartment for a week in Alexandria while Dan worked in D.C. completing a short fellowship with C-SPAN. Besides once again seeing Wicked (still love it!) and catching up over dinner with friends in Georgetown, Dan and I also decided to visit the famous Dairy Godmother for sundaes.

Besides their creamy frozen custard, this sweet shop is famous for two things: cute atmosphere and a visit from the president and his daughters.

I appreciated the adorable fairy tale theme, with a giant magic wand in the front window:

stars to distract from the office space foam tiled ceiling:

and wands for sale at the front counter:

Yes, even though President Obama's visit was over two years ago, The Dairy Godmother has immortalized this claim to fame in a chalkboard and by bedazzling the chair Mr. President sat in, of course.




Dan and I were kind of surprised that the shop sold only three flavors of frozen custard at first. I like the old-school simplicity of it, though, like an old ice cream parlor you'd find on a beach boardwalk or something. Besides, what's better for sundaes than plain ole vanilla?








We walked around the surrounding area (Del Ray in Alexandria), which has the most charming main street and neighborhoods. There were bungalows with over-flowing window boxes that made me want to overhaul the front of our house. Might have to be a summer project I try later in August. There were coffee houses and book stores that I wanted to peruse. Oh, and there were enough puns on the main street to make Carrie Bradshaw happy-sigh. For instance, a sign for a meat and cheese shop read, "Let's Meat on the Avenue" and a Mexican restaurant pronounced itself "The Tac-O the town!" Let's just say the Dairy Godmother is in good com-"pun"-ny with these other cutesy stores.


That was bad. I'll leave the puns to the Del Ray business owners. On to the next "D" entry...

Dogs on parade

When we're in Richmond for the 4th of July, Dan and I like to go to the rinky-dink Ashland parade. There are no floats, no marching bands, and no beauty queens waving. Nuh-uh. Instead, there are kids riding red, white, and blue bikes and dogs.

We go for the dogs. Should I say, more precisely, Dan makes me go to watch the Bassett Brigade. He had a bassett named Lucas that he loved as a kid and he never gets tired of watching these droopy guys mosey down the main street. They crack me up too because inevitably one of them will catch wind of an interesting scent and he's off in the wrong direction while his owner tries to coax him to finish the course.

This year, we snapped a pic of this guy in his Independence Day best. Gotta hope that isn't paint...

Of course, the dogs on parade isn't the only thing this event has to offer. It usually ends with the lawn chair brigade, where a troop of retirees march down the street with a lawn chair looped over their left arm. They stop and unfold the chairs with military precision and rest every so often. It never fails to kill the Ashland attendees every year!

DSLR camera

Why I want to save my tutoring money to buy one of these babies:


* I want my boring pictures of dogs on parade to come out clearer


* I want to take pretentious photos of trees and leaves and title them "Leaves Series 1" and "Tree Series 2"

* I've heard repeatedly that a DSLR camera is magic and will make my pictures brighter, clearer, and the people in said photos will look prettier and their hair will appear amazing, but of course the camera will airbrush the rest of the body to be cellulite and hair-free. Or at least this Italian girl is hoping for the latter things.


* Yeah, I had to Google "DSLR", I'm not sure what "aperature" is exactly, and I couldn't give an eff about learning about "white balancing", but I like pretty pictures. In the modified words of David Sedaris, "Me snap pretty one day".


Basically, I'm not looking to become another wannabe photographer. I just want to be able to have slightly better ones for me and my blog. Keeping sort of an online scrapbook, challenging myself to try new things and documenting those efforts, and being able to share bits of my very ordinary life with other is what I like best about keeping this blog. I'm planning on slowly saving money to get a DRSL... errr... DSLR camera and lens to have some more fun on here.


And yeah, if I save my pennies and actually get one of these babies, I guess I'll have to pick up a "Photography for Dummies" and actually learn more too as I don't think simply clicking a button will do much. Perhaps a future Just Do It challenge?


Just had to get one more "D" in before I ended with my favorite:

Dan (also see: Danimal)

Enough said.