Ants in my pants

One month till my mommy visits! Woo Hoo! I am super excited for her to be in town and am bummed that we have to waste some of her time over here with the stupid graduation ceremony hahaha. I am not exactly sure why I'm walking, but meh. I have my cap and gown (and hood! OK, maybe I'm a little excited about that part), but other than that I haven't even thought about school lately.

Work has been great. I am always busy, but I feel like I am doing better about not stressing myself out. Working full time has been a big change for me. I've lost a little weight, and I can't really figure out why. Not a ton of weight, and I don't look any skinnier, but I wasn't under 155 all through grad school, even when I was running all the time, and how I haven't seen myself above 150, which confuses me, as I haven't been running nearly as much as I should.

The house is coming along still. I am getting antsy for a closing date, and think it might be as soon as one month from now! I just want to be in my shiny new house.

Last weekend we went to Bull Run with Patrick's parents. It was a gorgeous day for it, and we got some great pictures. I just decided to look up how to code mouseover text. I will try it on this picture from Bull Run. (Try my mouseover!)



Neat.

100th Post!!!!

This had better be epic.

...

Damn.

I just wanted to share my excitement for new toys! I got a work BlackBerry, and it has been fun figuring out how it works. It's actually pretty un-intuitive and I wish I had some say into what they ordered for me, but whatever. It is so different from every other phone I've ever had, that I'm sure there would have been a learning curve for me no matter what. I'm getting the hang of it though, and already have my emails hooked up to it and everything. Neeeeeeeaat.

And in other "toy" news, I'M GETTING A KINDLE! Yeeeeeeeyyyy! Patrick starting thinking of stuff that we should get for me before going on the big tour this summer, and the Kindle was up there on the list. Then I got all excited about getting one, so we went ahead and ordered it now so that I could start using it right away. I also got a green case for it... of course. I am super psyched. But I'm also worried I will abandon my physical books too- I have a bunch that I need to read still, and actually just got a new series ("new" meaning new to me, not actually new) from a used book store we discovered by where our new house will be. I really want to read those still, but it will be tempting to download them onto my Kindle, making it pointless for me to have the copies after all. Except that I love having books anyway. I guess I'm not that torn. Hah.

Ok, so much for an exciting 100th post. Sorry, world. This weekend we're going back to the house site, so hopefully I will have some update pictures for you all.

Oh god I'm full

Wow. Just wow. Patrick and I just made Zuppa Toscana.

And it was ridiculous.



Yeah. It was awesome. I am very full. And I am very much going to be running tomorrow.

I made roasted garlic breadsticks (with my cutie stand-mixer) too, which were fannnnnnnntastic.



Since I'm in the mood (and not in the mood to work on my damn paper that's due in a week), here is the other stuff I've been up to lately:

A while back, Patrick bought this awesome print of Husky Stadium, which promptly sat in its tube for a good year-and-a-half (at least) without a frame. So, I got a coupon for 60% off custom framing at Michaels (they always have those sales) and got it done! I got a black frame with a white mat and Husky purple mat accent. Actually, the Husky purple just ends up looking black against all of the black and white, but whatevs.



I also framed the AWESOME present Steve got Patrick from PAX



For those of you who aren't dorks, these guys wrote video game reviews for Computer Gaming World and Games for Windows magazines (before they went under) and hosted the podcast "The Brodeo," under the pretense of talking about videogames. They are hillarious, smart, and awesome dudes, and now that they don't do The Brodeo anymore I follow their twitters and blogs pretty religiously and sometimes listen to their podcast off-shoots.



Yep, Steve got that poster SIGNED by all of The Brodeo members. Super badass.



I've also been working on getting our apartment up to our standards for the much-anticipated event which I love.... CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, I have a problem. I love the holidays. It's going to be especially awesome for me because the WHOLE FAMILY is coming out here for it! Yep, that's right. My mom, dad, and sister are coming out all the way from Seattle; my new bro and sis in-law are coming out and bringing my new niece and nephew; my cousins are coming out to visit their parents (my aunt and uncle who live in Baltimore); and of course we already have Patrick's parents over here as well. Serious family-fest. It's going to be spectacular.

So, I finally got around to fixing something that we've had on the to-do list for a long long time: replacing the cushions in our furniture. This furniture was handed down to us from Patrick's parents, and I don't think I'm exaggerating by saying that it is 30 years old, foam cushions and all. Yeah, I knew it was probably gross and filled with pounds and pounds of dust mites, but I really had no idea. We've been dragging our feet on this because foam is surprisingly expensive. However, once I opened up one of the covers, I knew it couldn't wait any longer. That shit was GROSS! It was all deteriorating and discolored (I'm assuming) and turning into a fine powder, which was working its way through the covers.

I've finished replacing the covers on the loveseat and ottoman, but the foam I got (on sale from JoAnns) was much firmer than what we were used to, so I'm going to splurge a little more on comfortable foam for Patrick and my chairs. Actually I started putting that foam on my chair, but after realizing how firm it was, switched over to the loveseat option.

My freshly polished chair:


(now it's just sitting all sad and bare without a cushion until I can get the nicer foam for it)

The foam I got:



Can you tell which one just had its cover washed?



Here's what it actually ended up looking like on the loveseat:



I sewed the buttons on it and everything myself!!! Not bad, if I do say so myself. (Of course, as I said, it is SUPER firm compared to how it used to be, so that kind of sucks, but at least I have the peace of mind knowing it's completely clean and will last a while now, and was done relatively cheaply.)

All of my other Christmas-related activities have been in purchasing decorations (I got these sweet icicle lights from Costco, and have been periodically using my 40-50% off Michaels coupons for Christmas garland) and planning out how to rearrange our place so that we can actually use our dinner table and have room to make Hilma a bedroom area.

You Could Call Me Ridiculous...

... and it would be completely justified....

...but how rad is this:

Classes, and Name Changes

Week one of the semester is over. That's 1/15th checked off of the last semester of my graduate program... that does not sound as positive as I thought it would. Moral is: I'M ALMOST DONE!!! Which means, I've got to get a job... hmmmmm.

This week I spent a lot of time getting the official documentation to get my name changed, and everything that it entails.

Thursday I went to the social security administration office to get my name legally changed to Emma Willa Moores. The social security office is a lot like the DMV, but less structured. I forgot to bring my school book in, which was a big mistake, so I just half slept the whole time. Except for the part where this weirdo guy who was there with his mom was pseudo hitting on me.... It was all very confusing. His mom was sitting next to me, but he kept leaning forward (even though I was feining sleep) and would ask me about why I was there, what I did for a living, where I was from... Yeah. It was weird. Especially when he didn't take my cue of: "I'm here to have my name changed." Guess I should have been more blunt.

Today I got my license changed, and opened a Virginia bank account. (Apparently BoA uses different systems in Washington, which has made most banking over here a pain for the last year.) I also got my Virginia state inspection for my car, which was actually overdue, but I didn't realize it. Good thing I didn't get a ticket. That would have sucked.

While I was out and about I also got a new purse from Target, which I'm pretty excited about. I wanted something smaller but classier than my beach-type handbag that I got last time. Unfortunately when I took it home I realized that my wallet doesn't fit in it, so while I was at the DMV I stopped at Icing and got a little metal credit card case so that my stuff doesn't just have to rattle around in the purse. It's cute and slim. I've been wanting one of those metal card cases for a while, so I'm glad I finally had an excuse (sort of) to go out and get one. It's a brownish metal color and the front is black with a metallic brown and white cherry blossom tree on it. It does get fingerprints on it like no one's business though, which sucks... In all I felt pretty cute today, what with my new haircut and a super cute outfit- I have decided to call the entire outfit my "Jessica" outfit, in honor of the awesome girl who gave me two of the pieces that make it such a cute outfit.

Jessica was getting rid of some clothing and had me try on a few of the things before she got rid of it in case I wanted it... and boy howdy am I glad she did, cause check out my adorable "first day of school" outfit I got to wear!

First Day of School by Emmuh featuring Steven Alan

So that's not actually the jacket Jessica gave me. I couldn't find an image of it, but it's a super cute wool (I think) jacket by club monoco that has three-quarter length sleeves that you fold up, and an interesting cut across the back that gives it a super chic and cute shape.

The jeans are also from Jessica- they're Joe's, which apparently is awesome, but I am fashion-ignorant and had no idea. I don't know what style they actually are, but the image I think is close. Actually my undershirt is also from Jessica, so that's 3/6 parts that are thanks to Jessica. hahaha.

The rest of the parts I put together, which I think is apparent in the bright color-age. I think it works though.

The shirt is from Kohl's and it was on sale, and it is AWESOME. I am thinking about going back to get another color or two in it. Especially since it was on sale. It was still $25, but it's that good of a blouse.

The shoes I got in a moment of need from Payless because I needed comfortable shoes that I could wear with a dressyish outfit while I was in Seattle. They were $10, and they still feel cute even though they're supposed to look worn, and they're just junky flats.

And of course, that's the purse I got from target. And of course it is green. Actually I was looking for a shiny black and metal purse so I could feel all classy, but I didn't like any of the ones that fit that description at Target. The black purses were either a dull black, or a ridiculously fake shiny black. Wasn't into it.

Yup. It is great feeling cute. I need to go shopping more.... which means I need to get a job...

VIDEO GAMES LIVE!!!!

Last Friday, Patrick, Me, my friend Dani, her boyfriend, and one of his friends (whew long list) went to Video Games Live! at Wolf Trap. It was my first Wolf Trap experience, and it was AWESOME!

We tried out the second-newest of our electronic devices (toys, as my mom would call them), Creative's "Vado HD." I was a pretty crappy video camera operator, due to my shaky hands and annoying talking, but I will get better.

http://www.youtube.com/user/emmuhwilla

Patrick videoed this one, which explains the better quality.



We brought a cooler (purchased at Five Below, the $5 store here, where everything is $5 or less) filled with beer, and a backpack of snacks and a ginormous sub sandwich from Wegmans. Joey's Old Fashioned Sandwich For the Whhhhhiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnn!

It was such a good time. It reminded me a lot of the drive in, which was nice, because I was missing that, and the closest one to here is basically in West Virginia. It was obviously much better than a drive in (c'mon, the National Symphony Orchestra playing live video game music?!), but it was similar in that it was casual and you could lay back with a blanket and talk to your friends and eat your own food. Plus the big projector screen, and being outside for all of this at night in the summer.

I'm looking forward to seeing The Two Towers at the end of August in the same format!!!!

Shoooooooes!

So I've been trying to find shoes for my wedding. I've looked a little bit in department stores and stuff, but to be honest, I've mostly been looking online. Because, ya know, it's easier.

I was hoping to find something green since I'm a fan, it's my wedding color, and my dress has green in it. I wanted something with a tall heel, since Patrick is 6'5" and all, needed to be able to walk in them (narrowing my choices significantly), and still wanted it to look good with my dress.

Anyway, I finally ordered a bunch of candidates off of Endless.com since they had free return shipping. I found several options, but actually had trouble finding the ones I liked in my size (9). I ended up getting a few of them in sizes close to mine just to see what they looked like anyway.

First I tried on these. (Luichiny Ripple Sandal, Green, 8M):


The size was too small (I'm a 9 usually) and the gold was much more intense that I was expecting, otherwise I thought they were pretty good. The height was great, and they were surprisingly not that bad in the being-able-to-walk category.

Next I tried these. I immediately thought they were all wrong, but I tried them on anyway. (Punkrose Chainey Pump, Green/Silver, 8.5M):

Ya, not a fan. They were too small, were uncomfortable (partially due to the small size), and not exactly what I was looking for in a bridal shoe (even though I'm not looking for a traditional bridal shoe).

Ok, next I tried these. (Dv by Dolce Vita Skye Pump, Lime Patent, 9M):

Ya, kinda cute, but I didn't like the shape of the toe. For some reason I've never been a fan of shoes when they show "toe-cleavage," if that makes any sense. So, back they go.

Okiedokie, next up is one that I thought was a pretty serious contender, since it looked like it was a pretty close match to my dress color. Unfortunately they only sold it in size 8, so I wasn't sure how it would hold up. (Bella Vita Lola Dress Pump, Celery, 8M):

Cute shoe for a wedding. Definitely too small. Not something I would wear again even if I did wear it for the wedding. Patrick liked it better than all the earlier ones, so I wasn't going to rule it out, even though my heel kind of flopped over the back of it.

This next one was cute, but I immediately thought it would be too dark for wedding shoes. (Mia Mable T-Strap, Hunter Green, 8.5):

Super cute, comfortable, fit pretty well, but the color just wasn't going to work. I'm deciding to keep them anyway though so I have another cute pair of shoes!!! yeeeey shoooooooes.

And now.... I was very hopeful for these babies... I thought they were subtle enough to be wedding shoes while still having the spunk to be MY wedding shoes. Unfortunately they were out of my size in this color, and only had a half size up. (Laura Brandon Panama Pump, White/Green, 9.5M):


TA-DAAAAA!!! Done and Done. I love them. They're not too big. They're subtle, they're flashy, they have GREEN (without being greeeeeeen) and I love them. They are mine. They are my wedding shoes.

All in all, my first experience with shoe shopping online was pretty fun! Lookit all my green beauties:

Now I'm sending back all but the dark green ones and MY wedding shoes! Hopefully it won't be a hassle- if it is, I'll let ya'll know. So far though, I am a fan of endless.com.

BTW, the dress I'm wearing in the pics is the one I blogged about earlier that I got from Target that I'll be wearing for our engagement pics and the rehearsal dinner. It's kinda wrinkly, but you get the idea.

Summer Weather

So apparently Virginia is skipping Spring completely and we've gone straight to summer weather. It is already 90 degrees and I guess is going to get up to 94 degrees or some such. It's bit too hot, really. I want to go outside because it looks so nice, but then when I actually do, I get overheated and feel crappy, so I've been staying indoors with the lovely air conditioning mostly.

But today, Patrick and I decided to try out a new burger joint that we heard of... from somewhere. I can't remember if he got it from Yelp or somewhere else. Anyway, it's a place called Elevation Burger, and the one we went to was in Falls Church, VA. Their deal is that they use fresh ingredients; organically raised, grass fed, free range beef; fresh cut fries cooked in olive oil; and other things that have the words "organic," "natural," and "fresh" interspersed here and there.

This is the interior where we ate. It was pretty noisy, but I'm not sure if it was more because of the kitchen noise or because of the 15 babies present; apparently babies love organic burgers.


Patrick and I both got the "Elevation Burger." He got his with raw onions and the elevation sauce, and I got mine with ketchup and mustard and caramelized onions- other than that they were the same.


Here is mine in the process of being devoured:



And for reference, the receipt. Not too unreasonable. You'll see that I got a cream soda- it has been a while since I've had one of those- was DEEElish.



Patrick posed an interesting question as we were pondering where Elevation Burger ranks among the other burger joints we like. "Do you think more people come here because the burger is good or because it's organic?"

It seemed a stumper at the time, but then I thought- let's take a peek at the clientele. Took a quick look around and it was pretty obvious. Organic for sure. Everyone there was either a mom with a baby (or three), or a thin girl in running shorts. Pretty much. The second test was the "count the SUV's and Minivans in the parking lot" test. Well, take a look:


Apart from the red one, which may or may not have even been a customer since it was on street parking, every car in the lot was a minivan or SUV.

So that was it, our Elevation Burger experience. It was really good, and if it were closer to us or easier to get to and park, we would definitely be back. Buuuut, since we do have a Five Guys literally one street away from us... not so sure we'll be back. It was a good meal though, and I definitely needed to lay down when I got home. Heat plus burgers and fries has a tendency to make Emmas such as myself verrrrry sleeeepy.


Since I'm in the picture postin' mood, here are some more shots of the recent happelappining's:

I polished my desk for the first time. It has always looked really pretty, but I figured it was probably in need of some furniture oil, being that I haven't actually treated it with any since I got it in the fourth grade.

Sure do love that desk o' mine.

And then I pile on all of my shtuff:


Oh, and we went to Target this weekend because we needed a new splatter gaurd, and they... they got me. Got myself a new $10 purse. Definitely worth it, even though I hate spending money on myself. It definitely matches the beautiful weather outside and is easier to carry around than my giant laptop slash school bag.


And last but not least, Patrick got a new computer (finally- his laptop was dying on him) a couple weeks ago, and I haven't posted pics yet. So here it is in all of its glory with a beautiful desktop pic of Seattle. That monitor is bright and huuuuuuge.

First Bath

My cutie Scion xD got its first oil change and car wash today. Probably should have washed it sooner, but ya know- things kept coming up. It is sparklin now though. Isn't it the cutest?
*Update 4/22/09: It was a good thing I took those pictures then- My car is covered in pollen today... So much for the car wash.





I also got my teeth cleaned at the dentist today. I have a pretty cool dentist over here. They have a computer screen attached to the chair that has your "file" all diagrammed out for you, the xrays load straight to it so you can see them about three seconds after they were taken, and they took really really close color pictures with a little hand held camera/webcam type thing of each tooth that they also put up on the screen immediately. And I mean really close pictures- my teeth looked super scary and disgusting. I'm not sure anyone's teeth would look very good that close. From normal distances though, my teeth are nice and clean now! Until my daily tea routine gets back in gear that is... I'm sorry teeth... It's... It's just so delicious.

Munny

Image by Buffawhat™ via Flickr

So Steve and Jessica got me a Munny for Christmas among other awesome presents (a pretty necklace and LOST, which we are totally hooked on now) which I've been slowly working on and am more or less done with.

If you don't know what a Munny is, neither did I before Steve and Jessica had them. They are these plastic dudes by kidrobot that you are supposed to draw on. Each one comes with a suprise accessory- mine was a badass axe.

So for my Munny, my basic approach was to incorporate designs that I thought were pretty on the head, and make the body like Midna, from Zelda: Twilight Princess. The designs for the head I got partially from a design blog I follow: Design*Sponge, as well as generic designs that I just googled, like paisely and stained glass.

Turned out pretty neato- the head kind of looks like a Faberge egg, and I really like how the Midna part turned out. The head and body don't really go together very well though, and some of the white part on Midna got dirty, so I'm thinking about adding stuff to the body so that it is more uniform.

Oh, and my parents got me this weird airy neon playdough stuff that supposedly hardens if you leave it open to the air, so I decided to make my Munny a background with it... But it looks kinda weird and so far hasn't hardened (2 days later...) Whatevs. Enjoy my beautiful Munny:

Super badass.

tree from Design*Sponge, stained glass, loopy pattern, Midna-fied axe

Kickass Midna action, Stained glass, loopies

Awesomeness.

I like how the design looks like facial features- the red flower = eye, diamond thingies = teeth? Also, that axe is totally tits. This side is normal axe colors, and the other side it's all twilight-ified so it's just black and light blue.

The other side of the axe- twilight world-ified.

Ya. the neon playdough is kinda lame. oh well. Work in progress I suppose.

Sigh

So today is my last day in Virginia for a while. Got my final at 4:30, then a last class that I have to sit through until 10. Which translates to not being able to hang out with my Patrick on my last day in Fairfax till January 5th. Very sad. Looking forward to going home and everything, but you know. Thought I would post random pics before I left, since it would take me forever to do it if I waited till I got back!

So, without further ado, get ready for some randomness!


Here are all of our lovely matching electronic devices.... It's kinda cute, really. From largest to smallest, my new laptop, patrick's new netbook, the ds lite, and patrick's ipod touch


We were out shopping, and I found this lovely piece of work... seriously people, watch your sticker placement!

Speaking of shopping, we got this for our friend Josh (I'm pretty sure he doesn't know this Blog exists... hopefully). I like my handy work on the packaging the best.
If you look closely, Jack Bauer closely resembles said Joshua... I am so tricky!
We made burgers at some point- they were tall:


My suitcase is primarily filled with presents. I love Christmas!!!!!


Speaking of which, since I'm leaving early, I got to open my present from Patrick early!!!! A gorgeous diploma frame!!!! It is awesome- already put my diploma in it!


And! We got to open the present from Mellisa!!! Thanks so much!!!!!! Super awesome plate/bowl/placemat set!!! (I look horrible, but I am very excited, really!)


More on presents, check out my awesome wrap job of Patrick's parents' present! hahahahahhaha. Ohhhhh man, hillarious how hard it is to wrap a grill pan...
And then the second hardest part, wrapping brown paper around the package to mail it... when all you have is trader joe's bags... ridic.


Had my last day of work- this is the beautiful showroom I got to work in:


And these are the ridiculously nice things they gave me on my last day!! Couldn't believe how nice that was! Good thing I got them a card and poinsettia! Phewf!


It snowed at one point:
I like my car a lot, and it is adorable in the snow too:


Was taking pictures of the ol car to show the fam, and I like how this one turned out for a number of reasons: our apt in background, me in background, radiohead sticker hilma gave me. three. three reasons:
Been working on my Preedy Christmas gift: Coming along nicely. Still have to get the sound gizmo working, but it's coming along. Btw, Clark Kent is really hard to draw without making him look like a perv.


This came in the mail: Apparently Patrick found it for free on some site. If you would like a large poster of cow cuts, talk to the man.


Made another pizza. They sure are delish. I've still got some work to do keeping my crusts consistent, but dang homemade pizzas are ridiculously good:


We make the Schlotsky's bread ALL the time too, thanks Mel!! Baking is fun. I need to learn some new breads and doughs. And, if I were less of a pig, this might have made for a prettier plating job on our new dishes! Can't resist that second slice though...