Day 205/365

We had such a great time at our 2nd annual Pumpkin Carving Party. This year was bigger than last! We really had such a blast. Steve made pumpkin martinis and I made vegan pumpkin cupcakes and also vegan brownies with pumpkin topping. I can't wait until next years party! My friends are very talented pumpkin carvers. Check it out. Mine is the flower on the top row.

Day 204/365

Pumpkin cupcakes take over the kitchen. All of them are vegan bottoms. Half have vegan icing. Guess which ones.

Day 203/365

Got home from work. Maggie was jealous of my scarf. So I let her wear it.

Day 202/365

The end of the day. No pictures taken yet. Jake strikes a cute pose. Problem solved.

Day 201/365

Went to the Vegan Store in Rockville today. So awesome. Steve tried on some vegan shoes. I found some that are ridiculously large. Vegans must have big feet.




And speaking of large, look at this gigantic leaf I found today. First I found the smallest leaf (see previous entry), and now this.

Day 200/365

Found an adorable, tiny leaf in my car. Took the first pic, then realized it didn't do it's small-ness justice, so I took the second. It's a little blurry, but you can better see it's size.

Day 199/365

My body started falling apart when I turned 40. Today I visited:

Day 198/365

Spooky laptop.

Day 197/365

Went to a Body Combat class at Gold's Gym with Jeanine tonight. It was great!

Day 196/365

Oops.

Day 195/365

Our jalapeno pepper plant was fruitful this year.

Day 194/365

Ball O' Cat.

Day 193/365

So, um, I found a dollar in my powder room's sink today.



If Steve tells you he doesn't like pumpkin shopping, don't believe him.

Day 192/365

Tyler could not be happier about the cold weather. Maggie however, not so much. So I bought her a sweater. Yes, I am one of those people. No, I don't think she is a kid. I just want her to be warm. And adorable never hurt anyone.

Day 191/365

I have tons and tons of clothes that don't fit anymore (Yay!) and I don't want to leave them here to fall back into. So I decided I'ma gonna sell 'em. I've sold some stuff on ebay before, so I going to sell the old clothes. I even bought a mannequin, which makes me laugh.

Day 190/365

Convinced Steve to go out on a Thursday night! We went to Cafe Nole to see Miss Tess. She was really, really great. REALLY. And she played at Nola in little old Frederick. For FREE. What a great night!

Day 189/365

Tonight we were invited to Moxie for a friends/family night. They open officially on Saturday, but we got to go for a sneak peak. It was so much fun and so delicious. I swear, that is going to be one of my favorite places. I even broke off my diet to eat tonight. By the way, I am down 39 pounds since I restarted my diet (60 from my highest weight). I am very excited!

Day 188/365

My guy and my gal, snuggled in bed. Bed is one of my favorite places. I really love my life. Have I mentioned that before? Because I really do.

Day 187/365

By Monday, I was in complete agony with my tooth. Called Paul, my dentist, to see if I could get a different pain med. He called the Endodontist and got them to squeeze me in as an emergency. So I headed off, scared, but as brave as I could be. Dr. Lessing was really, really great. And her office was so cool. Here is a pic of her front office and of me, in all my glory. Mouth dam, light blocking shades, the works. And of course, I had to pee really bad and when she took a break to get x-rays, I got to go. Dressed like this. To the bathroom. That was out of her office. And down the hall. Not embarrassing at all. Really.

Day 186/365

Tyler LOVES when Steve rakes up leaves. They are fun to play in.

Day 185/365

Kelly and Earl got married at the Pennsylvania Renn Faire today. It was a beautiful event and we had a great time. Took me back to the day Steve and I exchanged vows almost 11 years ago. I really love him and I am truly a very lucky girl.

Day 184/365

Got a tooth ache on Thursday that got worse by Friday. So day 184 was spent trying to get my tooth fixed. Sadly, my dentist wants me to see a specialist, who can't see me until next week. So now I'm on antibiotics and pain killers (which are NOT killing the pain, not even close). On an unrelated note, here is a cute bird taking a bath in the fountain in the garden in the hospital's patio. So cute! Sadly, you can't really see the bird. But he is there.

Day 183/365

Met Team Fun at Bushwallers. They were having a date night, but invited us to crash it. Haven't seen them much lately and miss them terribly! Here is Geri, trying to put on a drunk look. How did she do? I think she nailed it, lol! This night was fun, but too short and it did not give me my fill of Team Fun.

Day 182/365

Poor Tyler has a very bad ear infection. So we took a trip to the vet today. He really, really, really dislikes having anyone put stuff in his ears. Really dislikes it. Really. Although he looks pretty happy in this picture. Don't let it fool you.

Day 181/365

One difference between Frederick and San Francisco- SF folks do not put up decorations like this one. In fact, I did not see any decorations at all. And I kinda liked it.

Although as far as tacky decorations go, this is a pretty cool one.

Day 180/365

Day 180 was spent traveling across the country and there is no photo to prove it. You'll just have to take my word for it. It was a loooooong day.

Day 179/365

The last day of the festival was super awesome. We got there really early and set up camp in front of the banjo stage. We spent the day listening to bluegrass legends. Steve and I also caught Booker T and the DBTs and Mike Ferris. Great music all day. And the weather was a lot warmer. What a beautiful day all around. Great music and great friends. After the festival, we had dinner at The Plant. Addicted to that place. Asked them to come open a store on the East Coast.

Day 178/365

Went to brunch at The Plant, which is officially my all time favorite restaurant ever. Yummmmmmy. Then off to the festival. Boy was it crowded. We decided to plant ourselves in front of the Star Stage and just catch what came on there. Saw some great music, but it was COLD when the sun went behind the trees. We ended up leaving a little earlier than planned. But we were happy because apparently, it was a cluster fuck trying to get out of there after the headliners. We had a great dinner at an italian restaurant in The Marina.

Day 177/365

First full day with Chris and Andrea in San Francisco. Had a great day. Started out by doing the touristy stuff in Fisherman's Wharf. On the way to the bus to get to the festival, Andrea noticed a trash can was on fire. It was by a construction site, so she got their attention and they had a hose they gave us. So Chris got the fire out. Our good deed karma was repaid when we got to the bus stop. There were two buses and the first one told us to get on the second one. The second one told us we couldn't get on yet. So we went back to the first one and told him. He got on the bus to make a call, we figured he was calling the other driver. Well, the asshole just drives off without us. So we go tell the other driver and he says he isn't supposed to be leaving for a while. Then he says, ok, get on, "but I'm not stopping at any stops until California St". This is fine with us, since we are going that far. So we get a whole bus to ourselves and we don't have to make any stops. Our very own express bus. Karma is a good thing. We got to the festival to see John Prine and Lyle Lovett perform. Had dinner then went to bed tired!

Day 176/365

Our first full day in San Francisco. Andrea and Chris were driving in from L.A. So we had a yummy breakfast in Marina then hopped on a bus and went to a Giant's baseball game. They had a day game. It was so much fun. They have a new stadium overlooking the water. On the way, on the bus, a local hipped us to a cool location called South Park that is relatively unknown and near the stadium so we could grab a bite or hang out without the game crowd. It was the most peaceful street in the city. Loved it. Love local tips. After the game (or the 7 1/2 inning rather) we hopped on the train and made it over to Haight Ashbury for shopping in the vintage shops. Fun time. Came back to the room to wait for the Tickner/Starks. They arrived and we hit The Plant for dinner for a fantastic meal. Then hung out in our room catching up. Then we caught some zzzzs.

Day 175/365

Woke at the crack of dawn to fly to San Francisco. Steve took the GPS on the flight with us. He was very excited because he could see where we were and how fast we were going. We had a great first day. Our motel has a view of the Golden Gate. We are in Marina area, which is a very cool little town. We can walk right down to the water. We walked and walked and walked along the water. Ended up in Fisherman's Wharf. Way too touristy for us. We knew of a really cool vegan restaurant so we hopped into a cab and went to Herbivore, where we had an amazing cruelty-free meal. Got home and went to bed, exhausted. The entire SF photo album will be put on Facebook. Here are a sampling of shots from day one. Our plane going 483 miles per hour. The view of the Golden Gate from our motel. Me and Steve on our walk by the water and the obligatory Fisherman's Wharf photo.