It's Coming...

So I'm driving to the store to finish up my Christmas shopping last night after work and I hear on the radio that we are expected to get 10-20 inches of SNOW this weekend... SAY WHAT??!? Nah that can't be true. My ears must have been hearing wrong because this is D.C. and D.C doesn't even know what real snow is. 1 inch of the white fluffy stuff and the whole city shuts down...or better put, 1 inch of rain and the city shuts down. (these people REALLY need to learn how to drive...Ha Ha I should be talking ;)

Anyways, I just checked weather.com to make sure I haven't certifiably gone nuts (which at this point I hardly doubt, because I very well may have) and sure enough this is the forecast map I see...

There we are...right smack dab in the middle of the darkest purple!

Bout to rush home from the office, grab my snow pants and a couple days worth of clean clothes and head over the my best friends house. If I have to be snowed in for a couple days, I might as well be snowed in with people I love :)

I see a whole lot of movie watching and game playing in my future!

Hope you all have a great weekend. I'll definitely upload some pics if we actually get as much as we are expected to.

Quote of the Day: “Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, "I'm going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that's tough. I am going to snow anyway." ~Maya Angelou

I've Gone Bananas

My boss' birthday was a couple weeks ago, and as we always do when it's somebody's birthday in the office, we got together for a fun little lunch time celebration. Since work somehow always ends up consuming the conversation at these gatherings, my boss, being the awesome person she is, decided to bring in her favorite game to share with us and make things a little bit more fun.

Being the huge board/card game fanatic I am, if I don't own it, then usually I've definitely at least heard of it. So I was completely shocked when my boss pulled a banana-shaped zippered canvas bag out of her purse and started explaining this game to us.

The game she shared with me, that I'm now sharing with you is....
BANANAGRAMS...my newest obsession:

The very next day after she showed it to me I got on amazon.com and ordered it for myself ($15). No pens, no paper, no keeping score. You can play by yourself or with up to 8 people. Similar to scrabble but way better.

Friday night a huge group of my friends got together and had a blast playing and then last night my bestie and I hung out at my apartment and played a few rounds. I'm not going to tell you too much about the rules, but just go ahead and buy it for yourself. You will love it too. I'm sure of it. Can't wait to go home and share it with my fam. I know my mom is going to be a big fan.

Quote of the day: “I laugh, I love, I hope, I try, I hurt, I need, I fear, I cry. And I know you do the same things too, So we're really not that different, me and you.” ~ Colin Raye

Never a Dull Moment

Since our murder mystery party started at 5:30pm on Saturday, we were done by around 9 and weren't ready to call it a night just yet. So we decided to head down to Dave & Busters for a little post-party game playing action.

A beautiful young lady from my church was tragically murdered last year, so in honor of what would have been her 30th birthday, a bunch of us planned to meet there for a celebration of her life type thing. Being that we were already quite a bit late for the event, rather than waste more time running all the way home to change, we thought it would be okay just to show up in our costumes...

Boy was that a bad idea! Dave & Busters on a Saturday night = teenager central. I've never been stared at, talked about, and made fun of more in my life. I just wanted to scream "YO, I just came from a murder mystery party! This is not how I normally dress, especially not for a night out at D&B's, and especially not in the winter!"

But whatev...I tried not to let it ruin the night. Took off my bling, hid myself...as best I could...under my winter coat (sweating the entire time) and went about my business.

Stopping to pose for a pic before heading into the game room

Riding along on the back of the stationary jet ski

And being extremely angry because I just lost...to a girl!
Do I even have to tell you how much I hate losing?

So despite the outfit fiasco, Dave & Busters turned out to be a fun ending to a VERY fun Saturday night!

Quote of the day: “Without passion you don't have energy, and without energy you have nothing.”~ Donald Trump

A Taste for Dinner, Wine....and Murder

This past Saturday evening (as I'm sure you all remember) was my much anticipated Murder Mystery Party. And I am happy to inform you that it was indeed A BLAST!... As much fun as I had hoped it to be and wayyyy more!

If you're thinking about something fun to do with a small group of your friends I would highly recommend it. My bestie bought this particular wine themed kit online for around $20 and it contains everything you need, short of only food and costumes.

The setting:

Underwood Wine Estates, Napa Valley, CA ~ circa 1997














The story line:

Barry Underwood, owner of Underwood Wine Estates, disappeared 5 years ago at the annual wine festival. Due to lack of clues the case went cold....until last night...when a minor earthquake shook the mansion, revealing Barry's body underneath the floor boards.

The suspects:

Marilyn Merlot ~ Hollywood movie star












Otto Von Schnapps ~ German wine merchant












Hedy Shablee ~ Hippie owner of neighboring vineyard












Ralph Rottingrape ~ Bad boy heir-apparent to the Underwood Wine Estates












Tiny Bubbles ~ Barry's fiancee at the time of his death, now married to Ralph












Papa Vito ~ Vineyard worker, devoted his life to develop Underwood












Bonny Lass ~ Scottish tourist, best-selling mystery novelist











And the FBI Agent assigned to the case:

Bud Wizer ~ Beer-drinking man determined to solve the mystery












So who did it? Ummm...guess that's for us to know, and you to find out!
Wouldn't want to ruin it for any of you future murder mystery party planners.

Check out more pics from the night


Quote of the day: "Live life fully while you're here. Experience everything. Take care of yourself and your friends. Have fun, be crazy, be weird. Go out and screw up! You're going to anyway, so you might as well enjoy the process. Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes: find the cause of your problem and eliminate it. Don't try to be perfect; just be an excellent example of being human." ~Anthony Robbins

Little This, Little That

I heard word a couple days ago that we were expected to get 5-10" of snow on Sunday night. Being that we rarely ever get snow here in D.C., especially not in March, and especially not 5-10", I was super surprised this morning when I woke up and saw that the weatherman was indeed correct for a change... Crazy how that happens! :)

Since I work from home normally, snow days unfortunately aren't as exciting for me as they are for most everyone else. But the white fluffy stuff still put a smile on my face and made my Monday a little bit better, so I can't complain.

But on another (random) note (s)...

• Did you hear? Chris Brown and Rihanna are back together...hanging out, jet-skiing at P Diddy's house in Florida...Shocking...actually not so much, I predicted that one from the very beginning. The stupid things people do when they think they are in love. Someone really needs to show her that police picture of herself again, because I don't care what he's packin', honey he is not worth it.
  
  
• Oh yeah...And have you seen today's google design?OMG I love it! Those people come up with the cutest stuff, I swear. This one is in honor of Dr. Suess' birthday, but pretty much every holiday or special day they come up with something amazing. I already go to google about a hundred times a day (it's bad), but today I'm sure every time I do, it will still make me smile all over again.

• And finally... I've been invited to a Murder Mystery Party on Saturday. So fun, I know! I can't wait. I received the invite in the mail last week sometime and my character is Marilyn Merlot. Costume suggestions: A sexy starlet look. Tight fitting, sequin-covered dress, high heels and a daring hairstyle. Could it be anymore perfect for me? Can't wait to tell you (and show you) all about it.

Happy Monday!

Quote of the day: “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” ~ Dr. Seuss

Board Game Madness!

Last night my friends and I got together for our very first "Weekly (or more than likely, what will turn out to be our Bi-Weekly) Game Night". We have been talking about starting this up for some time now, but with all the hustle and bustle of life our idea never came into fruition...until last night that is.

I know you wild twenty-somethings might be thinking how lame we are for putting board game playing on our social calendars, but we all actually had a discussion about this last night and we think its just a sign that we are growing up, and as crazy as it might sound...maturing. The fact that we now find more enjoyment in sitting around at home, talking, relaxing, laughing and playing together rather than going out in our skankalicious outfits, getting pissy drunk and not remembering any of it the next morning...is indeed a big clue that our lives have changed. And in my opinion, changed for the way better.

So, our first attempt at this whole "game night" thing, I would have to say, turned out rather well. There were only four (and a half) of us there...three gals, a mini gal and one lucky dude. We ate dinner together first, played Scattergories and then Loaded Questions-Adult Version ;)

Scattergories is an old classic and I haven't yet found anyone that doesn't like it...at least a little bit. I will admit it is rather intense with the anxiety inducing timer and high potential for controversial answers, but despite the bickering I think we all enjoyed it.

Loaded Questions, on the other hand, was a new game for all of us. Fresh out of the packaging, we didn't quite know what to expect, but were actually pleasantly surprised. Although the lone male in the group was a little less than thrilled about this one at first, he quickly warmed up to it and might possibly admit he found pleasure in hearing all about such things as which male and female celebrity we would all like to have a threesome with. So, the overall verdict on this one is... if you haven't played it yet you definitely should. The questions are hilarious and sure to bring about a night of laughs.

On the agenda for our next game night...Pop-5 and Bananagrams. Anyone have some other fabulous game night suggestions for us?


Quote of the day: "I play to win, whether during practice or a real game. And I will not let anything get in the way of me and my competitive enthusiasm to win." ~ Michael Jordan