O Baltimore... how I love thee

My typical posts are about what we did over the weekend or family happenings, this above snippet from a recent issue of GQ magazine was a must share so that people can truly understand, well I guess, ME.

The article was titled "75 things we can all agree upon" and this one I surely couldn't dispute. I think people have always questioned my love for the city of Baltimore. This was especially true when I headed north to Boston for college (another great city in and of itself). At the time, the HBO show The Wire was extremely popular, and the questions would pour in. "Is that where you live?" "Is it really like that?" Etc Etc.

To the nay sayers, yes Baltimore has its rough spots. Maybe more than other cities. And yes, there are neighborhoods in the city of Baltimore that are exactly like The Wire. I mean they got it pretty right with Baltimore newspaper writers creating the show, and even former Baltimore police commissioners as actors in the show. There is also a strong movement out of the city into the suburbs. This occuring as we were moving into the city. The corruption is there, the crime is there, the "problems" are there, but the pride is there as well.

It's an extremely smart city, we do have Johns Hopkins, one of the largest employers in the state. One of the WORLDS leading medical institutions and universities. It's a beautiful city... See Below

It's a prideful city. I, along with most people I know, are proud to proclaim that city that we come from. And we have our sports teams. The O's have seen better days, but people still sport the Orange and Black and head to Camden Yards for a game and an Eskay Frank. And the Ravens... now, I was in New England for four years, during those four years, the Red Sox broke the curse of the Bambino and the Patriots won two Super Bowls. Taking nothing away from a great sports town, I never saw the excitement that I saw when the Baltimore Ravens made the playoffs. The whole town was behind the team, from lighting buildings in all purple, to painting the roads and lawns with Ravens logos, and finally celebrating pre-games for days!

So, I am sure that whatever you have heard about Baltimore is true, and a true Baltimorean is proud of it. We are proud of our accent, our roughness and even our brash attitudes.  People come and go from this city all the time, and the ones that have remained for years and generations, will continue to grow their families here and take pride in "their" city. Outsiders may never understand, but we love it!

Happiest of birthdays Jessica!

Wow! My "baby" sister just turned 24 yesterday. I cannot believe it! I still think of her as a first grader, but in reality she has grown into a beautiful twenty-something who is ready to take on the world. So smart and beautiful, and still just as stubborn as the day she was born! I am so glad that she is my sister, and I am excited to share so many more memories with her!


Last night we had such a great time celebrating at her favorite Italian restaurant, Chiapperellis, in Baltimore.  The food was so good, and we sent Jessica home with all of our leftover salad. Oh, this place has the most delicious salad EVER! And you get a huge plate of it with every entree. So, Jess gets to have all the extras, I mean it is her birthday and all!


Well Jess, welcome to your mid-twenties. Enjoy every moment, because just as everyone says, it sure does fly by!

Me and the birthday girl about 20+ years ago! Sisters and friends always!

On my wedding day. So glad that my sister was by my side for this special day!

A weekend trip to the beach

This past weekend had Tyler and I packing up the car and hitting the road to Ocean City, MD. The real reason for the trip was to help my friend with some wedding planning. Her wedding is this summer, and I am honored to be one of her bridesmaids. We also thought it would be fun to spend some time with our friends though over a three day weekend. Finally, the dogs have never been to the beach, so we thought that would be an adventure as well.

We got there at lunch time on Saturday, and while I went to get my dress for the wedding, Tyler made the first trip to the beach. It was a super cold weekend, so we didn't go again so I could see that day. We did get up early and head to the beach again on Sunday morning. We were secretly hoping that this would expend enough energy that the dogs would sleep while we all sat around watching the Ravens in the playoffs on Sunday. Well, it didn't but it was a good try.

Anyway, the dogs loved the beach, but did not love the water. My friend's dog had no problem jumping right in, even though the temperature outside was 32 degrees. Our little pups stayed in the sand. Well, here are some pictures from the trip!

Here are the dogs waiting patiently for Tyler to throw a tennis ball

All three dogs heading back to us after retrieving the ball

And here was my friend's dog George, jumping right on in to the frigid water. He was having a great time, and I don't think wanted to go home.

I tried to convince our dogs that it was a good idea to get in the water. In hindsight, it was probably good that they didn't listen to me since it was so cold.

They did love running on the beach and playing though. Here is Jack after his victory in the ball chase.

Oliver patiently waiting for his turn to go

Here's Tyler playing with all of the dogs.

Jack and George

Jack gets the ball again! For a dog with such short little legs, he is awful fast!

And then we went home where three tired pups got baths because they all thought it was a good idea to roll in the sand! Now my car needs a bath too! They were so tuckered out, it was fantastic!

Thanks to our friends Brittany and Tig for their wonderful hospitality this past weeked. We had such a great time just hanging out and watching football, and the dogs had an even better time than we did I think. They were both sound asleep on the couch the minute we got home. And thanks to Brittany for the wonderful pictures! We can't wait to get down there again, just hope that the next time will be a little bit warmer!

Holiday Photo Shoot 2011

Now that all of our Christmas cards have hopefully made them to their intended recipients, we wanted to share some of the pictures from our photo shoot. We had so much fun as always with our photographer/friend Leah and her boyfriend Jeremy. And recommend her to anyone who needs a photographer in the Baltimore area. Here is her webpage: Leah Rhianne Photography

This year we headed to the Visionary Art Museum in South Baltimore. They have really fun artwork outside that we thought would be fun to have in our pictures. Then we went over to the water to get a few more pictures, including one of my favorites with the Domino Sugar sign in the background. It's always fun to show off the city we love in some way in our pictures for our out of town family and friends.

We hope that you all love them as much as we did! Some you saw on the card and some you didn't. It was so hard to choose our favorites again. Thanks Leah!

Back to work, back to work... well one of us

Ok so, I get up this morning, go to the gym and as I am heading home I give Tyler a call to say good morning because he usually isn't awake when I am on my way out, and he is always already at work by the time I get back from the gym. So he answers my call and says he is getting ready to come home from work. I immediately, being a worrier, think something is wrong. But no, there was a water main break by the school he teaches at, and no water at the school. No water means the kids have to be sent home and so do teachers. Well I was on the bitter bus as I had to come back to work today after a fantastic 10 day stay-cation. And I knew that Tyler would be watching movies and hanging out with the dogs and taking a nap. Although he did tell me he would vacuum, so that's good!

Instead I will be looking at this all day:



But I guess there could be worse things. And only 38 emails after a 10 day break from work really is nothing!





Oh and they gave me this window to look out of, so at least I can day dream between answering phone calls, letters and emails!

Happy New Year!

Wow! What a week it has been since Christmas time. Tyler and I both had off this past week, and I have to say, it was the most relaxing week we have had in a long time. We spent the last week going to the gym, hanging out with family and friends, going to the movies and just doing nothing. Now we are refreshed and ready to head back to work tomorrow. Well kinda... I think that the dogs are gonna like it though so that they can catch up on their sleep. 


Well our week wasn't terribly eventful, aside from what was listed above. We had a house guest for the week as my friend Ashley and her dog Sarah stayed with us while she was in town visiting family. We saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie, which we both highly recommend.


We are starting the New Year with a resolution of our own, it's time to save lots of money so we can finally finish all of the projects around the house that we have been talking about for the past five years... since we bought the place. Next weekend we will start with the living room. Stay tuned for updates! Oh and next week will be perfect for our start time because the Ravens are in the playoffs, but have a bi-week, so we have a weekend that is football free. We truly get nothing done during football season. It's kind of nice once the season ends.


Well 2011 was a crazy year, and we are ready to see what 2012 has in store for us. Keep checking back for updates! Hope everyone had a great time celebrating the holidays and ringing in the New Year!