Cat Surgery

Yesterday Theo got neutered. It was pretty sad not having him around for the day, and I was worried that he was feeling sad and abandoned. When Keith picked him up the nurse told us that he was going to be drowsy, want to sleep all night, and not have much of an appetite. Oh but of course, our little one is no conformist haha as soon as he got out of his carrier he was running circles around the apartment and gorging himself on food. Here his is with his hospital band still on.

He was just as playful as ever, not subdued one bit. Apparently getting fixed doesn't calm down ALL little boys haha

Towards the end of the night we could tell that he was getting ridiculously tired, but was fighting off sleep. For an hour or so he just wandered slowly around the apartment like a zombie haha It was super adorable, I even caught him with his eyes closed standing up facing a wall haha After that we took lots of opportunities to hold him and pet him so he would get some sleep :)

I love these two boys a whole lot :)

No more painting!

Yesterday we finished the last installment of our apartment painting, woo! Our bedroom is finally done, so now all we need to do is hang some stuff up on these walls haha I think we're really starting to like this place :) Here are some pictures from our day:

I wanted Keith to take a picture with me, but he was on the chair with his paint cup... that led to me getting paint in my hair boo

It looks like bird poop haha

Our little helper

I love this little guy a lot, we really have the coolest little family ever.

We were too lazy to take the calendar down so we just painted around it haha We'll have to fix that before we move, unless the people who live here after us are really into a 5ft by 5ft white spot on the wall haha

Theo was all thrown off by the drop cloths and spent most of the day trying to swipe at us from under the plastic haha

WE ARE DONE!!! You should hire us to paint your house, because as a team we're pretty much pros haha



After painting Keith and I met up with some friends to go out to a bar. We don't normally "go out" on the weekends but we had a lot of fun. We signed up for the mailing list at this bar last week and then I got a call that said I could host my own happy hour, which meant that we could invite people and for $10 we got unlimited drinks and half priced appetizers for 2 hours. Things got pretty crazy, and I definitely drank way way more than I would on a normal night but it was great to hang out with our Philly friends and let loose a bit.

What I say vs. what I really mean

I will tell you this: Tonight I was really motivated to do some extra exercise after dinner so I went for a really nice walk along the canal since the weather was so wonderful.

What actually happened: After dinner I had an insatiable craving for ice cream so I put on gym clothes so that I looked serious and walked a mile down to Dairyland for a yummy yummy chipwich.


In the end, this was extremely worth it haha

Green

http://www.chow.com/stories/11617?tag=header_content;header_text

I just wanted to share this link that I found while searching chow.com for a falafel restaurant in Philly (I am having a SERIOUS craving haha)
Just some really simple ways to be more "green". After watching Food Inc I've been struggling with how to incorporate what I've learned about food into our daily lives and while it's pretty impossible to completely cut out processed foods 100% right away I'm trying to make sure that it is something that I think about when making food decisions. I would like for Keith and I both to be way more conscious of our environmental impact everyday and here are a few very simple ways to help that.

Date Day!

Very rarely do Keith and I have the same days off, so upon realizing that Monday we were both free we decided it would be a date day. These are the only two measly photos that came out of it, but it was a great, productive day.


We started by waking up and skipping our favorite morning game shows (Lets Make a Deal and The Price is Right) because that would leave us sitting around until noon. In lieu, we headed to the gym for an hour or so and then made some chicken caesar wraps for lunch when we got home. Because we aren't rolling in dough these days I wasn't able to get Keith the 3rd season of the Cosby Show for his birthday like I wanted, but through the power of Netflix I got us the first disk to enjoy this week and BOYYYY did I forget how much I love watching it with Keith. Then we geared up for a Target trip for a few necessities and to update our gift registry. This all took a lot longer than I think either of us had planned, but in the spirit of date day we both kept our cool and did our best not to scream at the employees who clearly do not value their jobs ugh (a coffee frappuccino helped with this). After more than an hour at Target, we headed to the grocery store to get some essentials for the week, which was much much quicker :)

We then came home and rested for a moment before heading down to the movie theatre to see Date Night.

It was definitely as awesome as we expected, and a perfect way to end our date day. I love Steve Carell and Tina Fey so the combination was a no brainer, I would recommend it.

Spring time for the cat

Ever since our neighbors put out a bird feeder, Theo sits at the
window and furiously wags his tail. He does not appreciate being
interrupted, and can sit there for hours. I just feel kinda bad that
he probably will not ever meet a bird :-(

Birthday Boy part 2

So on Keith's actual birthday (Wednesday the 14th) I already mentioned that I made him some breakfast and we relaxed at home for the morning, but then I had to pack up and head to school until 5 :( Keith came and picked me up when I was done and we FINALLYYYYYYY got to go to this burger restaurant we had been dying to try for months now.

Here is Keith out front of Sketch. I found this place online while scouring the internet for good Philly burger joints, and one day when we were in the area we stopped in to pick up a menu. So, we've had that menu on the refrigerator since about February and it has been teasing us ever since. We attempted to go when Katelyn was in town for Easter and they were rather inconveniently closed for the week and we were very very bummed. When my mom was in town we mentioned making a trip there but ended up just staying in the neighborhood so thankfully Keith had a birthday and we had an occasion to go out.

I would have to say that it was VERY worth the wait. Despite their "sketchy" name, it's actually a really neat place where you can draw and color all over the walls. They also sell vegan friendly burgers and shakes? Which is cool, but we went for the meat haha

These fries, were.... incredible. We could have eaten like a million more. Also, they make all their own sauces and the one we chose was delicious, Keith had to ask for like 3 extra sides haha

I had a turkey burger and Keith had just a regular beef burger and we both left with very satisfied bellies. I would go again in a heart beat. Meaning: come visit us so that we can take you here!


After Sketch, we went and picked up some photos that Keith had ordered to decorate our walls, and then we stopped by the bar for a few beers (Keith had coupons since it was his birthday).

Overall I would say it was a pretty successful birthday, and I CANNOT wait until we can celebrate next years birthday as a married couple :)

Birthday Boy!

Happy Birthday to the coolest guy I know :) I honor of Keith's birth we had Dan and Aly over last night for dinner and some drinks

I slaved away in the kitchen all afternoon to make a glorious feast for everyone.

On the menu was:
- Kathleen's yummy salad with strawberries, almonds and craisens (we forgot the feta... oops)
- Homemade lasagna... with ground turkey and broccoli
- Cupcakes! Yellow cake with chocolate icing. Mmm I found the only Betty Crocker box that called for an entire stick of butter... of course that paid off.

Keith felt that he was too old for candles and singing, but he was a pretty good sport when I insisted.


Thanks Dan and Aly for coming over!

After we sufficiently stuffed ourselves, we all walked down to a bar on main street to have a few more beers. The boys got a chance to catch up on some baseball and Aly and I bitched about school haha Our guests had work early in the morning so we packed it in relatively early.

This morning I woke up and made Keith some bacon and eggs and now we're just relaxing in our fancy new bed watching The Price is Right. I unfortunately have to go to class but afterwards we're going to go out to dinner for a little bit of further celebration. Love you Keith, have a happy day!

A little project

Now that our apartment is starting to look more like a place where two people actually live we're trying to think of ideas for decorating our bare walls. I've been looking around online for some vintage maps, because I thought it would be neat to have a framed map of each state Keith and I have lived over our bed. Here are some that I found for Florida, Georgia and Pennsylvania. Now I just need to find a map of Tennessee.

Mom was in town!

This past week/weekend was pretty crazzzzyyyy. I had a presentation on Thursday afternoon, mom got to Philly in the evening, I stayed up all night writing a presentation that I gave friday morning and things didn't slow down from there haha

After my presentation on Friday, mom and Keith picked me up from school, we grabbed some lunch and then headed over to the Barnes Collection for a few hours of looking at art. Mom had never been before and we really enjoyed our afternoon away from the loud city.

After we left the Barnes, we went straight to Ikea. Keith and I have been saving forever for a new bedroom set for awhile now and with our tax returns, coupons and gift certificates we were finally able to go and pick it out. Here's Keith looking over joyed at the store... I should have taken a photo of us after we hauled everything up the stairs to our apartment because there were not such big smiles haha

After Ikea the three of us went out to dinner to celebrate Keith's upcoming birthday (it's on Wednesday, you should call him ;)) We had a few beers and just relaxed a little bit and once we got home I completely passed out.
At 6am mom and I got up so that we could head to Chinatown and catch a bus to DC. Some of my moms college friends were getting together to see one of their sons play lacrosse at the University of Maryland and since we were so close we headed down for the day. Our trip took much longer than we had planned but we eventually made it to the stadium to check out the second half of the game.

Here is Cathy (who's son we were there to watch) my mom and Kathy.

Here is Dan playing... Maryland won the game, which made it lots of fun.

Turtle.

Beth, Cathy, Kathy and Mom.

After the game we all went to a large tailgate party for the team and ate lots of food. We went back to Kathy's house relaxed and then set up for another mega feast. Mmmm food.

THEN! I got to hang out with two of my favorite people! It wouldn't be a trip to Maryland without some hangout time with Andi and Katelyn. I also got to meet their super awesome new roommate Anna (she's on the left). We headed into the city and went to a party with some of their friends. Very nice to get a chance to not be stressed about school.



FINALLLLYYYYY.... since Keith couldn't get off of work to come to DC with us yesterday he worked very hard to build our new bedroom set! Here is my new dresser (he hasn't built his yet, that's next)

and here is our new bed with pull out headboard deal... love it. We're very excited about finally having furniture that is our own and not hand-me-downs from who knows where. Also, when we were at Ikea Mom got us some wall sconce lights which I did want really badly :) Now we just need to get something to put on the wall to decorate haha (sorry for the crooked picture, I promise the lights on the wall are straight haha)

Presentations

This semester I really enjoy all of the papers that I'm writing, much much more than what I worked on last semester. (Though this doesn't mean that they're any easier to write haha)

Here's a little overview of what I'm currently slaving over:

For my Northern Renaissance I'm researching the cultural history of a series of 3 tapestries at the Met named "Courtiers in a Rose Garden" I'm focusing on the conservation work that has been done over it's history and discussing the differences in how it looked when completed vs. how it looks today. This is something completely different for me (being that my focus is 20th century American art) but this is one of my favorite papers I've written so far. I've recently gotten reallyyyyyy into conservation, and tapestry conservation is pretty cool.


For my 1960's class I'm writing about Mark Rothko (my serious favorite of all time). Though he did a majority of his famous works in the 40's and 50's there is definitely something significant about the work that he did in the 60's. I'm talking specifically about the commission of the Rothko Chapel in Houston Texas and how Rothko was obsessed with the environment in which people viewed his art. He nitpicked over hanging, lighting and spacing all to create these places where people could have special experiences. It was pretty neurotic, but it's what makes entering a room of his works so incredible. Love it.


Lastly, for my Art and Environment class I'm focusing on conservation again haha I'm researching the damaging effects of pollution on our cultural institutions like museums and national monuments. Acid rain, smog and general poor air conditions have a greater affect than many care to think about, and conservators are working like crazy to develop new methods of cleaning and caring for these important cultural icons.

Anyway, it's going to be a challenging couple of weeks trying to get all of this out of my brain, but I'm pretty excited about the end result. Dear blog: stop distracting me haha

Today,

-My favorite letter is R. Soon my last name will begin with that.
-My favorite number is 131. Days until I am someone's wife.
-My favorite color is pink. I love all the flowering trees in our neighborhood
-My favorite flowers are tulips. So many people have these in their gardens.
-My favorite place is my bed. I crave naps.
-My favorite animal is Theo. He has been such a cuddle bug this afternoon.
-My favorite smell is freshly brewed coffee. Mmmm.
-My favorite season is spring. Even though today was 80 degrees and I was a bit toasty walking home.
-My favorite food is burritos. I had two little ones for lunch, I could eat two more haha
-My favorite show is 24. It's Keith's favorite, and on tonight. He gets off at 8, so I was given instructions to watch and pay attention really well so I can catch him up when he gets in.
-My favorite candies are Starbust jellybeans. Thanks Aunt Liz for the yummy Easter treats.
-My favorite movie is Mulan. But I could watch that everyday.
-My favorite time is 8:15pm. Because Keith worked his first day at the new store today and that is the time he will be getting home.
-My favorite band is Cartel. People on the train must think I'm crazy because of the awesome smile this puts on my face all morning.
-My favorite drink is V8 fruit juice. It gives me a serving of fruits and veggies when I'm too lazy to just eat them fresh.
My favorite book is Harry Potter. I say this because my life would be happier if I had less school research to be doing, and could read the whole series right now.
-My favorite word is PALCI. It's actually an acronym though, and is a means of getting books from other libraries so that I have all the info I need for upcoming presentations.
-My favorite thing is my life right now. I live with two really cool boys and I love them to pieces :)

April good times

Katelyn came to town!

We had a really nice a relaxing weekend. Yesterday we went into the city, shopped a little and then had a picnic in the park. The weather was unbelievably nice and it was great to be outside.

This morning we slept in and had some breakfast, watched a movie and then embarked on some Easter egg dying.




Keith went late last night to get egg dye for us, so the only kit left was a Star Wars one that came with glow in the dark stickers haha

We wrote names on our eggs, so there was one for each of us, one for Theo and Spooky, one for "mom's and dad's" because there were not enough for individual ones, then there was one for friends, one for fun, one for Star Wars and one that just said Manswers haha



We got dye on our hands, but then Kate pushed it to the limits and gave herself a green thumb. She looked diseased haha

After egg dying we knew that we needed to take advantage of the beautiful day so we walked down to the park for some frisbee and to play around a bit.







Yay for friends :) Thank you for coming to visit Katelyn, and Happy Easter to all!