Brothers in DC!

Here are some pics from when Jon and Ryan visited me! Thanks Jon for sending me a bunch of your pics! :)

First stop was the DC Temple! It's so beautiful!Lovin' the shirts- "Let's Hug it Out" and "Jarhead" :)Iwo Jima Marine Corps Memorial
I'd say this is one of my favorite monuments. I drive by it everyday, but it's neat to see it up close. Touring Arlington National CemeteryArlington National CemeteryThe Marine Corps Museum is totally great! The Corps has a rich history filled with heroes. One of the displays- a Marines pack weighs like 60 pounds! It's ridiculously heavy, I could barely lift it!
And of course, the Capitol!
We had a great time! Come back soon!!! :)

Funny News

Nothing like a little silly news to lighten the afternoon!

Robber nabbed after mocking police in email

(Reuters) - A German bank robber led his pursuers straight to him after taunting police in an email over their efforts to catch him. Authorities in the southern city of Wuerzburg said on Wednesday the 19-year-old sent emails to police and two newspapers to point out factual errors in the report of his bank raid in the town of Roettingen a week ago.

According to daily Bild, he mocked the police for getting his age, height and accent wrong then pointed out he escaped in a car, not on foot.

"His game of cat and mouse went all wrong," a Wuerzburg police spokesman said.

Police traced his email and arrested him in a gambling hall in Hamburg just a few hours later.

"He was completely shocked," the spokesman said.

Canadian police find bears guarding pot crop

(Reuters) - A pair of marijuana growers in Western Canada appear to have been using bears to protect their illegal crop, but the well-fed animals proved to be a bit lax in their guard duties, police said on Wednesday.

Officers were dismantling two large outdoor plots of marijuana near Christina Lake, British Columbia, when they realized there were 10 large black bears wandering around the farm property, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.

Officers were initially worried the bears might be dangerous, but quickly realized the animals were actually very docile and content just to sit around as the marijuana was seized, police said in a news release.

Two people were arrested in connection with the drugs.

The bears, which were apparently being fed dog food to keep them on the property, may eventually have to be put down, police said.

The Real Slim Shady

The Cassini spacecraft has been out there (in space) since 1997 taking pictures and probing. An article caught my eye today called "This Summer’s Sexiest Images From Saturn" which, number one- great name for an article... and number two- I just had to see these images! Because, since when are planetary objects sexy? Well, I wasn't disappointed.
The moon Tethys makes its way around Saturn.

The moon Janus is above the rings, and Saturn’s second largest moon Rhea is below, partially obscured.

The larger Rhea looms over its sibling moon Epimetheus with Saturn and its rings in the background.

And, I thought I would do a little SHOUT OUT to Saturn's tiny moon named 'Pandora'.
Although notso sexy, this 50-mile-wide moon is the original Pandora. For those unfamiliar, the NEW Pandora is the alien planet in "Avatar". It looks like this:

Dresses, Camera, Chocolate, Ireland!

CONCERNING DRESSES...
My sis sent me a link to a really cool blog that this girl is doing! It's called New Dress A Day with the premise that the girl creates a new stylish dress, one every day, for 365 days straight, with a budget of $365 (most of the dresses come from DI I'm thinking). Check out the site! I literally just spent an hour looking at all her creations! SO inventive. :)

CONCERNING CAMERA...
SOooo... my silly little camera (that I wasn't too fond of from the get-go, Best Buy practically forced me into purchasing it...) decided to break. At first I thought, no biggie! My old camera will just have to come off the shelf. Well, my old cam came off the shelf alright, ALSO not working... so I suddenly find myself camera-less for the first time since 2004 when the only cameras I ever used were disposable! Remember these? They still exist.

CONCERNING CHOCOLATE...
The reason I bring this up now, approximately 1 week and 4 days since I realized my camera was busted, is because this evening there was an experiment/incident that I would have liked to take a picture of! On that website about the dresses there was a recipe for making cake in the microwave! Crazy and brilliant, I know... well, it seemed so easy, only 5 minutes start to finish, so I gave it a go! I'd just mixed all the dry ingredients and was about to add the egg when catastrophe! I managed to knock over the mixture and in a puff of cocoa power, sugar and flour, my counter, floor and left foot were covered in the mixture! I think I stood there for about ninety seconds thinking "this is unfortunate" while considering how I could remedy the situation and STILL be tasting chocolate cake in 5 minutes. Enter broom, stage right. This is the sad part, my perfect cocoa powder footprint could not be cataloged. The good news though is that within about 6 minutes I took a bite out of fresh microwave chocolate cake and it was strangely delicious! Doesn't replace the real thing mind you, but definitely a fab option if you're in a crunch and must have some chocolate cake satisfaction. Here is what it looked like (thanks to that website):
And here's the recipe!
5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug (Microwave Safe)

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly before pouring in the milk and oil in. Keep mixing. Add the optional chocolate chips next (who makes that an option!) and vanilla extract, and mix again… Put your mug in the micro wave and cook for three minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don’t be alarmed! Allow it to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. Def enough for two.

CONCERNING IRELAND...
So my next step is searching for a new camera! Any suggestions? I want something a little better than basic because, if you haven't heard, I'M GOING TO IRELAND! Notice my handy countdown clock to the right. I'm pretty much so excited I can't stand it. :) It will be my first trip to Europe, and I'll be traveling with a good friend. We are going to have a blast.

Did someone say "Polo"?

Tonight I went and watched my very first Polo match! It was super fun. I realized right when I got there that I should have read up on the sport prior to going (as did half of my party)! But it was still a blast nonetheless. The match we watched was an Arena Polo game. This differs from a typical game because it is played inside an arena with dirt instead of grass, there are only 3 players on each team, and the length of the field is around 100m. Regular Polo is played on a grass field approximately 300m in length, 4 against 4. Thank you Wikipedia!

Valkyrie

Besides the fact that I love Tom Cruise (and all his movies)... I really liked Valkyrie. I was at the edge of my seat rooting for the good guys. Half way through a thought occurred to me- I already know the outcome. Not the finer details, though they did not shock or disappoint me. What an incredible movement that I have never even heard much about! German's trying to take down their leader from the inside out. Those people were good men, and they knew right from wrong, and they did all they could to stop a mad man (which by the way whoever played Hitler in the movie made him seem completely crazy). Anyways, this movie, along with a recent trip to the USMC museum has made me very very interested in learning about real life heroes, and less and less interested in fiction. There's so much more to learn and gain from history. So many brave men and women, and I'm super interested to learn more about them. All of them. :) See this movie if you like good movies about real life heroes!

OVER A WEEK!

I'm sorry. Things have been kinda busy... and my camera is busted. I'll see what I can do about that.

David Crockett Heirloom Pens

Shelby's talented Father-in-law hand crafts wooden pens, and they are fantastic! Shelby has two- they are so unique and special! Shelby says they are super comfy to hold, and I say they are very pretty! And YES his name is really David Crockett (Greer). Cool, huh!
Visit David's site on Etsy and see the different options he has- he can do custom orders too! Perfect as a gift for any occasion. These pens will endure for years (super easy ink refills) instead of throwing away cheap pens all the time. Perfect for those of you that are GREEN, or want to be. At the very least, check out the site and spread the word! :)

Alaska is cool

I reached for a quarter out of my wallet and was surprised by a very cool design! Check out the Alaska quarter. I mean, cool, right?

ZERO COLA

I made a recent (delicious) discovery that I'd like to share!

Hello Cherry Coke ZERO! No calories but super tasty. Here I have her lined up next to some other delights- did you know they turned Pibb into a ZERO too?! I wonder if that's any good!













I discovered something else very interesting. Dr. Pepper is distributed by the coca-cola company and Pibb is made by coca-cola. DP and Pibb! And all these years I thought they were bitter rivals. Or maybe they're more like Joe Montana and Steve Young, playing for the same team but jockeying for the same position! That's right people, sports analogy.

Shout out to our favorite beverage through the years, DP. Ah refreshing!