Heyo! My favorite new sponsor, What’s The Deal, has offered to do a giveaway here in this old place every now and then with a gift certificate to one of their ongoing deals. To this I say: ROCK ON, soul train. 

So deal the first! Is a $25 GC to Momo’s Sports Bar on U Street. B and I watched a bunch of the World Cup games there, and I absolutely love this place. It’s totally laid back, and we had fantastic service on one of their craziest days. Excellent. 

*cue Monty Burns fingers* 

Onward! There are three ways to enter the random.org drawing: 

1. Sign up to get the Daily Deal to your email 

2. Follow What’s The Deal on the tweet 

3. “Like” them on the ‘Book 

Do one, two, or all three- and leave me a comment telling me you’ve done so. A comment for each entry, please! 

And just in case you don’t win, you can sign up to get a reminder when this deal ($10 for a $25 GC to Momo’s) is ending. Winner announced tomorrow, 9/1, at noon eastern time. 

Do it. Do it. 

funny animated gif

Update: And the winner is…

 

@SaraLang!

Congrats, chica! I’ll put you in touch with the WTD people and get that GC over to you, stat. Woot!

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Technorati Favorites
  • StumbleUpon
  • Digg
  • Blogger Post
  • WordPress
  • Google Gmail
  • Google Reader
  • Share/Bookmark

{ 20 comments }

My world is absolutely insane lately. Everything is changing, but it’s all things that are out of my control. I feel entirely overwhelmed, a little bit hungover, and a lot bit lost at all times. I can hardly catch my breath, and when I do, I use it to agree to one more thing I probably shouldn’t, for my mental health’s sake. I’m trying to be in charge of it all, to be a part of everything, and because of that, I feel like I’m accomplishing nothing.

I’m running on ice with socks on. It doesn’t work very well.

The job hunt continues, but without a specific direction. I know I don’t want to be an assistant anymore, and I know now the things that I enjoy doing- AND I even have experience doing them!, but it’s so vague a world I can’t for the life of me figure out the path I should take to get there. Or what the destination is.

Shit, y’all, I really don’t know shit.

I miss my family, and friends who are too far away, but I’m exhausted from traveling. I desperately want to get back into an exercise routine, but I can’t get my ass out of bed in the mornings. I’m determined to stop eating like shit and cook dinner, but we’re out half the nights of the week. I’m sick of side projects and never being able to relax, but I’m broke as a joke. I love that my social circle is expanding, but hate growing apart from friends. My clothes don’t fit, my apartment’s a mess, and my bathtub looks like the swamp thing because it’s so backed up with cat hair. (Sink cat’s not so damn cute now, is it?)

(Ok, yes it is.)

So, yes. Things are a bit crazy.

But in truth, I’m fine. Absolutely, 100%, A-OK. Sure, a bit stressed, but I know it’ll work out in the end.

And here’s why:

Happy Birthday, darling. You’re cute and funny and thoughtful and you cook and you make up songs for me and the kitties AND you keep me (somewhat) sane, so you’re a hero in my book. I love you.

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Technorati Favorites
  • StumbleUpon
  • Digg
  • Blogger Post
  • WordPress
  • Google Gmail
  • Google Reader
  • Share/Bookmark

{ 52 comments }

Hiya! I’m back from Narnia the woods, alive and well save for a few (dozen) bug bites. It may not have been my ideal vacation on paper, but it actually turned out to be the perfect week of relaxation.

I agreed to go into the wilderness if I had four walls, a bathroom we weren’t sharing with strangers, and… a jacuzzi. So, yeah, I wouldn’t exactly call it “roughing it”… but if we hadn’t had said jacuzzi, then our friends Ken and Laura (and the bears, of course) never would have been treated to B’s and my very, very loud (and hopefully moving) duet of Disney’s “A Whole New World”. So there.

B and Ken have been getting into trouble together the best of friends since they were wee lads, so one nice thing about the trip was getting to know Laura a lot better. Since the boys were frequently off in the canoe playing “Vikings of the Shenandoah” and lighting things on fire, we had a lot of time to drink wine and talk and drink wine and watch “The World’s Fattest Man” and drink wine. And it was a grand old time, save for one small detail: while we did try desperately to bring everything we thought we might need in the wilderness, Laura and I managed to let down ourselves, the boys, and most importantly, AMERICA by forgetting the single most essential camping item…

S’MORES.

The first night, as the boys were building a fire (um, sidebar- men are OBSESSED with fire- wtf?! See below…), Laura and I looked at each other in horror as we realized our huge, gigantic, shameful misstep in planning. We simply HAD to fix the lack of s’mores in our life before the last day; a camping trip without s’mores would make us no better than common Commies.

We remembered seeing some graham crackers in one of the cupboards, so one of three bases was covered, at least. The next day, as we were out and about visiting Luray Caverns and getting creative at a few wineries, we made the guys pull over at every gas station and 7-11 we saw searching for marshmallows. We could only find the miniature kind, but we went for it, thinking that was as close as we were going to get. The Hershey’s was of course up front with the candy, so we would have to make do.

That night as we made dinner, I skewered mini marshmallows onto satay-style sticks. Later, as the fire was roaring, it was time to put the s’mores into action.

Let’s see how that went:

DSC_0374

1. Those skewers? Are very, VERY tiny when you’re thrusting it into a molten lava hot fire (twss). Just sayin.

2. Once our marshmallows were cooked (in some cases burnt to a crisp; in mine, just above lukewarm), we cracked open the Hershey’s, which we all assumed would be the best part of the whole thing. I glanced down at the chocolate as I opened it…

Me: Um… there appears to be some sort of plastic on the bottom. Hold on… *tries to tear off* Oh… okay… apparently that’s just what the chocolate looks like. It’s kind of… white? Crusty?

Laura: What does the expiration date say? Is that… holy shit. It says 2001.

All of us: EWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3. The graham crackers were beyond stale, as were the marshmallows, but shockingly enough, the Hershey’s took the cake as far as the worst ingredient to our horrible disaster makeshift s’mores. Fail, fail, fail, HUGE freaking FAIL.

And yes, we all took a bite because we were drunk and had to make sure they were really that bad. Well, except Ken, because he smelled it first, and I would say that makes him the smartest one in the bunch…

If he hadn’t thrown his shirt in the fire moments later, “just because”.

We’re a special bunch. But honestly? I can’t wait to do it again.

I have a rematch with those goddamn s’mores.

P.S. This is what it looks like when two men obsessed with fire finally, well, get to build a fire:

Re. Dic.

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Technorati Favorites
  • StumbleUpon
  • Digg
  • Blogger Post
  • WordPress
  • Google Gmail
  • Google Reader
  • Share/Bookmark

{ 33 comments }

If you follow my tweets, you know I’ve been in the great outdoors for the past few days. While we are “cabin-ing”, not camping, with a couple friends in Shenandoah, it’s still been much more nature-y than I’m used to.

When we walked across the lawn- yes, lawn- for the first time, heading down to the river with our canoes (who am I??), I actually couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt a whole plot of grass under my feet. At least, one not littered with the homeless and stray chicken wings.

Yesterday was spent touring a few of the local wineries, which was delightful… at first. By the time we got to the third one, we were running out of adjectives with which to pepper our banter with the taste-givers. Let’s face it, you can only say the words “bold”, “earthy” and “full-bodied” so many times before even you start to hate yourself. So, we decided to branch out from the average descriptions and make things a little more interesting.

I believe I started it off when I declared a light red table wine “whimsical and flighty”… and it just plain snowballed from there. (I believe the increasing ridiculousness would most likely directly correlate with the number of tastings ingested. Shocking, I know.)

Some of the phrases we quite seriously deadpanned at our poor taste-givers, as well as a few brainstormed around the fire last night:

“naive, yet playful”

“reclusive, with hints of confidence”

“the finish has a sense of immortality”

“positively existential”

“dirty… even sinful”

“starts out with a bit of agony, finishing with a sense of euphoria”

“slightly prepubescent at first…”

“a note of spoonerism in the nose…”

“very cosmic… gives a real sense of animalistic sensuality”

“the nose cajoles you to drink more”

“very boastful!”

“almost iambically diabolic.”

“claims your palette with a hint of dirt”

And finally, the crown jewel from B:

“No wine is an island unto itself.”

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Technorati Favorites
  • StumbleUpon
  • Digg
  • Blogger Post
  • WordPress
  • Google Gmail
  • Google Reader
  • Share/Bookmark

{ 55 comments }

The “AMERICUH FTW” Happy Hour!

August 20, 2010

(Apologies for the above. It was simply too horrendous NOT to share.) Well now, it’s just not like me to let a holiday go by without a celebration of sorts. Especially a holiday that means we don’t have to go to work on a Monday. BLAM! So Thursday, Sept. 2nd (so you peoples heading out [...]

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Technorati Favorites
  • StumbleUpon
  • Digg
  • Blogger Post
  • WordPress
  • Google Gmail
  • Google Reader
  • Share/Bookmark
Read the full article →

I Choose My Friends Based on the Videos They Send Me.

August 18, 2010

Which is why @LexaLemmy is one of my most favoritest people in the world, forever and always amen. Oh, Marcel! How I want to hug you (gently)!! And maybe buy you some rollerskates. Smooches. Sidebar: I’m also over here today, but it’s a bit emo. Probably better to stick with Marcel the Shell with Shoes [...]

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Technorati Favorites
  • StumbleUpon
  • Digg
  • Blogger Post
  • WordPress
  • Google Gmail
  • Google Reader
  • Share/Bookmark
Read the full article →

The Shiz My Boyfriend Says, Vol. XXX

August 17, 2010

You all know this game by now. Time for another installment of “The Shiz My Boyfriend Says“… ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On the couch, completely and totally out of the blue: B: You know what our problem is? Me: What? B: Neither of has ever bought the other person a wolf. (reflects) You should probably get on that. My [...]

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Technorati Favorites
  • StumbleUpon
  • Digg
  • Blogger Post
  • WordPress
  • Google Gmail
  • Google Reader
  • Share/Bookmark
Read the full article →

So What’s the Deal?

August 16, 2010

The deal is this: I have a new sponsor, and they’re freaking awesome. I’d tell you about What’s The Deal (WTD), but the picture on their “How It Works” page does it better than I ever could: Much like the other “coupon-y” sites out there, right? Except 1) they’re DC-centric (love), and 2) WTD doesn’t put [...]

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Technorati Favorites
  • StumbleUpon
  • Digg
  • Blogger Post
  • WordPress
  • Google Gmail
  • Google Reader
  • Share/Bookmark
Read the full article →

It’s Not You… It’s Your Aesthetic. (Alt. Title: It Ain’t Rocket Surgery.)

August 13, 2010

Remember last summer when we all “Got Our Kvetch On, Blogging Style“? We bitched and moaned about the things that drive us INSANE when it comes to blog layouts, features, writing, etc. Well, as a contributing editor over at DC Blogs, we deal with that shiz every time we go through some hundreds of blogs [...]

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Technorati Favorites
  • StumbleUpon
  • Digg
  • Blogger Post
  • WordPress
  • Google Gmail
  • Google Reader
  • Share/Bookmark
Read the full article →

Taking Life By The Horns. Or, Well, a Bull, Anyway. (I’ll Take What I Can Get.)

August 11, 2010

I keep my promises… without further ado, living proof my my bull riding experience at the The NYC 20sb Happy Hour… cape and all. *shame *wait no *quite awesome, actually.

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Technorati Favorites
  • StumbleUpon
  • Digg
  • Blogger Post
  • WordPress
  • Google Gmail
  • Google Reader
  • Share/Bookmark
Read the full article →