February Photo A Day: Days 28 & 29

Money

What I Am Listening To



February Photo A Day: Days 21-27

Due to travel and sickness, I'm a wee bit behind with this photo challenge.

Nevertheless, here goes:

A Fave Photo of You

I'm about 2 years old here, and already sporting an attitude.

I refused to smile for this photographer.

Where You Work

On this day, I happened to be working at

the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

The CDC is the primary funder of the organization I work for.

Your Shoes

...or at least about 1/8 of them.

Inside Your Bathroom Cabinet

 

Green

 

Night

Something You Ate

The infamous Opera Cake!

February Photo A Day: Days 18,19, 20

Drink

Heading to the park with 2 kiddos,

so this is what drinks look like today.

Something I Hate to Do

Going to bed at night and getting out of bed in the morning.

I am basically a 5 year old.

Handwriting

Packing for a trip, so I've got to make my list.



February Photo A Day: Days 15, 16, 17

Phone

I haven't had a landline phone since 2005,

so this is a screen shot of the only phone in my house.

Something New

  

Time



February Photo A Day: Day 14

Heart



February Photo A Day: Days 11, 12, 13

Makes Me Happy

 My family

Inside My Closet

  

Blue



February Photo A Day: Day 10

Self Portrait

I'm deep in vintage thought.



February Photo A Day: Day 9

Front Door

And since I missed the sun yesterday,

I snapped a photo of it shining on the snow this morning.





February Photo A Day: Days 7 & 8

Button

I love this button. 

It hangs in my cubicle, so I see it everyday.

It's a great reminder.

Check out the Washington SAAM Campaign

site for more info!

Sun

Yes, I realize this is not a picture of the sun.

This is a picture of snow,

which was the reason I could not take a

picture of the sun.



February Photo A Day: Day 6

Dinner

With a friend.

At Coakley's.

Best buffalo chicken wrap I've ever eaten.



February Photo A Day: Days 4 & 5

A Stranger

BTW, it's really awkward

taking a pic of a stranger.

So, here is the back of a stranger.

10:00 AM

I love to look up on my wall

and see this vintage clock.

It hung on the wall

in my Grandma's living room.

Everytime I look at it

I remember fun times with my Gram.



February Photo A Day: Day 3

Hands

I realize this is just "hand".

It's really hard to take a picture of your own hands.

Anyway...here is my hand playing the piano.



February Photo A Day: Day 2

WORDS

This is why I do what I do.



February Photo A Day Challenge: Day One

So, that's one photo a day

for the month of February.

Let's see if I can do this!

And here's Day 1:

My view today.

 From the office.

Not too shabby.



Coconut Thumbprints with Salted Caramel

What's better than a coconut thumbprint cookie?

A coconut thumbprint cookie with

Salted Caramel, that's what!

Thanks to my lovely

neighbor/friend/fellow cookie lover,

who passed along the recipe link for these

divine cookies.

And special thanks to my fellow foodies

over at the Wether blog

for posting this fabulous Martha Stewart recipe.

They are very easy to make

and taste so delicious.

The hard part is giving them away.

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies (a.k.a. Best Cookie Ever)

While at the market to pick up ingredients

for Christmas cookies,

I came across a bag of

Candy Cane Hershey's Kisses.

WHAT?

How did I not know about

the existence of these amazing things?

I had a brilliant idea.

What if I made a chocolate cookie with these

little beauties on top (a la peanut butter blossoms)?

Brilliant, I know.

After searching my favorite site (hello, Pinterest!)

to find the best recipe,

I was sorely disappointed to find that

most recipes used box mixes. 

Now, I'm sorry.  But I am an old-school baker.

Everything from scratch. 

Seri0usly, who do these people think they are?

So, I finally found a chocolate cookie recipe that

would work.

Thanks to Jeanne's Chocolate Kiss Cookie recipe on allrecipes.com!
Just follow this recipe, but replace the chocolate kisses
with Candy Cane kisses.
You won't know what you
did before these little sweets were created!

And the finished product:

Adventure in Griffith Park

Last September,one of my travel

wishes came true.

I took a work trip to Hollywood.

I was off to LA-LA land -

home of the stars!

I was elated.  I have always wanted

to take that trip.

And better yet, some of my wonderful

work friends also came along.

As one might imagine, I quickly

created an intinerary of all the

must-see places in LA.

At the top of my list?

Griffith Park Observatory.

This fabulous place has been featured

in Hollywood films, and is

the best place to take in a view

of downtown Los Angeles.

After working all day

I,along with my friends Tracy and Adam,

hailed a cab and headed off to

the observatory.

As the taxi snaked it's way through

Griffith Park and up the winding, canyon drive, the driver assured us

that all we needed to do was call

the cab company

when we were ready to leave.

No problem.

First things first: we got in line

to view a constellation through the huge telescope. 

We waited.  And waited. 

We took some pictures to pass the time.

Finally, we saw the constellation!

And yes, I kinda had that feeling of,

"I waited in line for this?". 

But it was awesome, nonetheless.

We took more pictures.

I must say, the view of LA was

FABULOUS.

Since it was nearly 10:00pm

and the place was closing,

we called for our cab.

No problem.

We waited.  And waited. The parking lot

started emptying...quickly.

 We waited some more.

We called again.  Cabbie said he was waiting.

Where? At the bottom of that long, winding hill. 

Why?  The gate to the park was closed.

After a moment of panic, I noticed an empty

Park Ranger vehicle.  Surely they

would take us down the hill, I said.

Or, maybe we should just run down

the hill.

Oh yes, let's run down the hill. 

It wasn't that long of a drive up, right?

We started running. 
Only, my companions were jogging. 
 Me? I was sprinting.

I heard Tracy yell that I'd better

slow down or I'd fall

and knock my teeth out.

I thought that knocking my teeth out

would be better than being accosted by

a serial killer hiding in the woods.

At one point, I stopped and realized my
companions were a bit farther back than I thought.

As I waited, rocks fell from the ledge
above my head. 
I heard something move in the bushes. 
 Now, this was most likely a rabbit. 

But in my mind it was only one thing.

"Mountain lion!", I screamed to my friends.

And we all started sprinting.

None of us remembered that the road

through the canyon was neary

3 miles long.

Tracy, fearing the worst (think most
horrible, graphic Law and Order SVU episode),

 tried to flag down cars that were passing
us on their way down the canyon.

It took quite a bit of convincing

(and yelling)

from Adam and I that THAT

was NOT a GOOD IDEA.

We were in California, at 10:30 at night,

in a canyon.  I would

rather take my chances with the

mountain lions.

After about 30 minutes, we saw the lights

of the Griffith Park neighborhood
in the distance. 

We had made it!

But wait.  Where was our cab?

Cabbie, I'm sure assuming we had died

on the way down, had left.

We called for another cab.

The first thing this cabbie said to us?

"The park ranger would have given you a

ride down.  They do it all the time."

Great.

If we thought our adventure was over,

we were mistaken.

We were in the death cab. 

The ride back to the hotel

was more terrifying than anything.

For one brief second, as we

swerved to avoid a telephone pole,

I saw my life
flash before my eyes.

We had survived Griffith Park at night

only to be killed in a cab accident.

Needless to say,

we felt pretty lucky once we

were safely back on solid ground.

And we celebrated our survival with

milkshakes at Mel's Drive-In.



I *heart* NY

"NYC

What is it about you?

You're big, you're loud, you're tough"

What is it about New York City

that makes me want to break out

in tunes from Annie?

I love everything about the city.

The crowds, the sounds, the smells...

yes, the smells.

There's something about the mix of exhaust

and street vendor food carts

that blends into the perfect aroma.

Whether in winter, when the city is

aglow with Christmas lights and the air is

so cold you can barely feel your fingers and toes...

            

...and a Frozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity III

is so worth the wait...

...or in spring, when the flowers and trees are

blooming...

...and the NYC parks are

 just about the best

place in the world to spend a

Sunday morning...

...or in the fall, when the air is crisp and clear

and a walk through Central Park

makes you feel

 that all is right with the world...

...and a trip to Magnolia Bakery

is ALWAYS in order...

...whatever the reason, no matter the

season

I *heart* NY.