IRRITATING

prologue: there are certain rules, which must be adheared to when working in an office.

for the past 2 days someone has been reheating fish in the office kitchen.
now maybe i'm biased because i don't like fish, but am i wrong in assuming fish shouldn't be reheated? it smells foul, i mean really foul. whenever my mom cooks fish i am unhappy and my brother has a fit, saying it gives him a headache. so stop reheating your disgusting food in our microwave! IRRITATING.

instead, you could bring: peanut butter & jelly, peanut butter & jelly or peanut butter & jelly.


let's reverse this for a minute. it's breakfast, and i'm enjoying a nice warm bowl of strawberries & cream oatmeal. i'm satisfied, and then someone starts cooking bacon.
really?
really?
you're going to cook bacon, quite possibly the most delicious and permeating smell known to man?
how are you even cooking bacon? you're AWFUL. IRRITATING.

i'm going to start putting bacon salt in my oatmeal.

credit to monica.

annie anyone?

oh my

oh my

photo taken today on my iphone at the good stuff eatery with heather.

Richmond

Virginia's capital: A place that is seeped with history and PBR. A place where hipsters and hoodlums can live in harmony.

Richmond, VA. Okay, i'll admit you have some pretty good restaurants and porches and maybe the church bells sound really good on Sundays. And okay, so it was 60 degrees over the weekend, bigggg deal. Remember that time it snowed and everything was closed except Kuba Kuba?
Yeah you're right, i guess that's the exact place we wanted to go for lunch, but still, i didn't even bring boots for godsakes. And yeah, i guess the Byrd Theatre was open as well and I got to see The Fantastic Mr. Fox, which was soooooo good.

What i'm trying to say, Richmond, is that I had a pretty good time with you this weekend. The pickle plate at Balliceaux was a lot of fun and the fried oysters and truffle fries were delicious. The duck hash at The Black Sheep was pretty good too (and i've now been there for breakfast lunch and dinner).

Also you look good in warm weather. No really, you do.

What the Hell is That?

Seriously, what is that? It's red and brown and squarish. Oh could that be the goddamn ground?

Good News, i can walk again. Apparently Georgetown needed one good weekend of sunlight to make the sidewalks appear for the first time since i've moved here.

Me: This calls for a celebration

Me: What kind of celebration?

Me: A run!

Me: That's not a celebration

Running in the rain is really fantastic, it feels great. How do I know this? Well, 1. because i do and 2. a Georgetown student said so as i was running on the campus and dey smart.

Something not so fantastic is when scary people sit in their cars and say things to you as you go by.

"Yeaaaah you got that longevity girl."

Uhhh thanks? Wait:

Longevity

Noun. [lon-jev-i-tee]: 1. a long individual life; great duration of individual life.

No yeah, I was right before. Thanks.

Dear Shaun White,

aka, the Flying Tomato. It has been said that you are what it would look like if Kathy Griffin and Carrot Top had a daughter.

you give me faith in America.

i am fascinated by you.

Wake up in the Morning feeling like P Diddy

Or at least Shaun White: Last night I had a dream that I was snowboarding a half pipe and did a really "sick" trick and immediately woke up after I landed it. I knew then that it would be a good day.*

Georgetown Steps

A lot of funny little things happened before 9am this morning: My daily walk to the metro is always peppered with odd sights, especially since everything has been buried in snow. Every once and a while you will see bike handles poking through the top of the snow. Today I decided to take a peek through a break in a fence because I heard barking behind it. Here's an incomplete list of the dogs I saw playing in a makeshift doggy playground:
Golden
2 Bloodhounds
German Shepherd
Beethoven
3 Labs
English Setter annnnnnd
A Wolf.

I want a dog, big time. The rest of the walk was dedicated to deciding which was best: golden retrievers or bloodhounds. Still not sure.

I also saw a little boy walking down Barracks Row marking Xs in the snow drifts with a stick.

*It only turned out to be an okay day.

Oyamel

I've been very fortunate in that i've been to some amazing restaurants over the past few months. Was Oyamel on my list New Years list? I don't know, but I loves me some Jose Andres. Megan and I went on a whim during DC restaurant week. The decor was clean, interesting and colorful and the tables were pretty intimate, perfect for the date night Megan and I had planned. It's also located right in Penn Quarter near a ton of shops and the verizon center (i'm always amidst Caps traffic).

My Menu

Drink: Ponche. Pretty unimpressive, but it was just too cold to get a Margarita. It sounded like a Sangria formula with wine, tequila and fruit, but it honestly tasted like lightly flavored water.

To Start: When we sat down at the table they brought us chips and salsa, which had hints of coffee in it.

Dinner: Oyamel is a small-plate restaurant, so we had a choice of 3 entrees and a dessert. My first entree was a mexican squash casserole. It was a squash sliced and topped with crumbled queso, crushed peanuts and hibiscus dressing. The flavors were interesting but it's nothing I would ever order again. My second entree was scallops. They were seared, topped with pumpkin seeds and garnished with pumpkin seed sauce and orange segments. Though the presentation was really interesting, that's ultimately why i put that picture at the top (and i took it from yelp because when mine uploaded it was too brown), I could have done without the garnishes. The scallops were, however, cooked perfectly and melted in my mouth. The third entree was a choice of a soft-shell taco. I had a classic beef taco, the beef was amazing. It was simply topped with fresh salsa. Megan had a mushroom and guacamole taco, which was better than mine.

Dessert: Amazing. It's not on the menu anymore (I went to look it up to make sure I got it right) but maybe they will bring it back for the sake of mankind. The dessert was a chocolate custard with fresh pomegranate seeds mixed in. The custard was topped with a dark chocolate sorbet and coarse sea salt. CHOCOLATE AND SEA SALT TOGETHER IS AMAZING. This was really the stand out for me.

So all in all very good, I thought Megan was going to die because she was so full, she couldn't even finish her last two plates (pish-posh, i was fine).

Ellicott City, MD

A few weeks ago I went to visit some of my family Maryland. Saturday morning we went to Ellicott City, a charming town built around the history of a train stop. They had a lot of antique shops and restaurants, a classic combo.

It is supposedly one of the most haunted places on the East Coast. Discovering this tidbit was not a surprise to me because it seemed that nearly every building we passed was haunted, according to my younger cousins.

Ellicott City is part of the B&O Canal that runs through DC, and the many of the buildings along the Main St. are built over the river, it was pretty neat.

Anyways, here are some pictures, the colors really seem to be off when I post them up here, but I'm not dealing with it now because my hot chocolate is almost ready. The last picture is of a black stiletto inexplicably up in a tree.

DC Winters, enough already.

After being snowmageddoned in this weekend, i've learned a few things:

1. i love all things Trader Joe's.*

2. i could star in a Campbell's Soup commercial.

3. sledding has lost zero of its charm.

*when shopping at Trader Joe's, always check to make sure your corn dogs aren't meatless.

I Let My Arms Swing

iphoto

Last week was truly awful. It was 5 days of self-pity and watching Twilight so i could fall asleep. This considered, no one is more surprised than me how my outlook has turned around.


Today is good, really good. I think i had to have everything happen last week to make today seem so great. Was it worth it? Hell no, but guess what. I'm moving into an apartment in Georgetown, i no longer have a 3 hour commute AND it's 65 degrees and sunny outside right now. This calls for some exclamation points !!!!!

After utilizing my Monday morning by making ONE calendar update, i said Kerry, you need a break. Today would be a good day to try out that Anacostia River Walk. As i was walking i took my hands out of my pockets. I swung those things we call arms and took a stroll to the river. Whilst strolling, i forced a line of Marines carrying rifles onto the other side of the sidewalk and even after that, they called me M'am (i'd like to be m'ammed more often). Rather than alarming me, this made me feel safe because maybe i took a wrong left turn, if you know what i mean, and maybe i saw a man chugging his 24 Loco at 1:30 in the afternoon so he could get on the bus. If you don't know what i mean by a wrong left turn, please refer to my River Walk/abandoned building picture at the top of this post.

The Anacostia River folks, it aint pretty, it's dirty. Luckily the Marine Corps Barracks was blasting marching band music from their speakers, so i sat down in the sun on the sidewalk, took off my jacket and listened for a while before making the dreaded walk back to my cube.

But i won't stay here past 4 and you can't make me!

You Knew This Was Coming

This is my dog Koa. She is cuter than your dog and more entertaining too. I love her and half the pictures I take on my camera are focused on capturing her every movement.

I make no apologies.

Like, Kerry

The transcript of my gchat with Monica a few minutes ago and an explanation of sorts.

me: you NEED to hear the i didn't even know those homes were there jingle.also i don't like iKerry that much anymore. I'm thinking about changing it to Like, Kerry. like, like. get it? like i say like all the time. and it makes me sound dumb, and i kind of am, but i'm also kind of not. because i'm like, college educated.

monica: hahahahahahaha. you like inspired me to blog.

iSteal from Monica

<- A

Monica has a little blog where she writes about things that annoy her. Im gonna stell et.

There is a roll of paper towels in my office's kitchen. SOMEONE in the office keeps taking HALF a paper towel. And that someone is killing me because nearly every time i go to get a nice paper towel to clean up my coffee that i always spill or eat during Derrell's Pop it Like it's Hot popcorn snack time, there is HALF of one left on the roll.

Now, i know that half a PT aint gonna do it for me, but those cute little otters and the polar bears that EAT THEIR OWN YOUNG (A!!!!!) really get to me sometimes.

So now i have a small stack of paper towel halves underneath my 3 hole punch and it makes my disorganized cube look even worse and i'm never going to use them. Thanks environment hater*

IRRITATING.

*I realize by taking half this person may be trying to not wasteful. Do. Not. Care.

For Monica

i miss u like crazy my angel....my angel fly back to me from the heavens...dont waste your time anymore with him..u know our connection was True.....come back

Hi Megan

Thanks for giving me a hot sauce addiction.

Hi not Mom because when i told you i got a blog you made fun of me and asked what i had to write about.

_____________

Tonight Alli and i ate at Ray's Hell Burger, which happened to be on my New Year's goal/resolution list/compilation thing/two posts ago. First off, let me just say that Miss Heaney deserves a metal for her swift and thorough work on her burger.

Though i maybe racked up some bad KARMAA in the parking lot, Ray did not disappoint me. It was a small and cramped place with zero pretension, but it was really the perfect atmosphere for what you are getting. I wanted to create my own burger but Alli kept being all I'M HUNGGGGGRY hurry UP find a table i only ate two clementines today choose your burger NAOW. So i went with The Big Poppa (They love it when you order Big Poppa). It was cooked au poivre and had a peppered crust around the meat and was topped with Aged Danish Bleu Cheese and sauteed peppers and mushrooms. My only complaint would be because the burger was oozing oil and fat and gooey cheese (not, by any means, my complaint) it soaked the bun and made it soggy. Toast dat. At the register there was a hand-written sign that listed the beer they served. There were only 5 or 6 offered, but I got a Bell's Two-Hearted IPA and Alli got a Bud Light.

Near the end I put my head in my hands and the guy walking around taking everyones plates and greasy paper towels away said "trust me, that's gonna feel great in about 2 minutes." He was not wrong, Alli and i were literally giddy from the food. I can only assume that friendly man was Ray and he put green in our burgers.

A Walk to Remember.

My path through the Blizzard of 2009. If it's going to be so cold it should really just really just snow, honestly.

Accio Twenty Ten

A New Years Eve Tree at Radegast Beer Hall in Brooklyn. Okay, maybe it was a Christmas Tree.

Today I created new correspondence templates for 2010. As I was creating a folder for July, I became extremely excited just knowing that the month will come, sometime, and it will be warm. This has provided me with more excitement for the New Year than any recap or resolution.

That being said,

2010 New Years Goals:

French Language generally, my accent specifically.

Volt.

Minibar.

Zaytinya.

2 Amys.

Ray's Hellburger.

The Gibson.

Run a half marathon.

Visit Monica in LA.

Take more pictures.