Lemon Tree

In 709 we have a third roommate. It's our lemon tree. I love this lemon tree. He is a very complex plant. I have been trying to figure this thing out since day one. The lemon tree's most recent development is all these flowers. I am stunned by these little white things. At the beginning of January the tree started turning yellow limb by limb and then each limb would lose all of its leaves. Naturally, I was very stressed about this. By mid-February we had lost the majority of the leaves, but then the little white buds were everywhere. They have turned into these beautiful little flowers and they smell amazing. It reminds me of how Hawaii smells. I am so hoping for some lemons, but I'm thinking not this year. So anyone with some advice on lemon tree growing is very much appreciated. 

I Am Number Four

The taping of I am Number Four inside FRHS

Saturday night Matt and I went to see I Am Number Four. Now typically this would have never crossed my mind as something I would like to see, but the fact that it was taped inside my high school and in my hometown peaked some curiosity. Overall the movie was pretty ridiculous with it's aliens and superhuman powers, but it was a little better than expected. The main character is an alien hiding out as a high school student. Some other alien troop is trying to hunt him down and kill him. Of course along the way he falls in love with just a regular girl (Diana Agron from Glee, another bonus of going to see this), and together they take on the bad aliens. All of this while totally blowing Franklin Regional High School to shreds. They did portray the area very nicely, and it was interesting to see where you spent a few years of your life on the big screen, but I think I could have waited and put this on my Netflix queue. The movie didn't have a firm ending so I can foresee an I Am Number Five in the future.

Recipe of the Week!

So I've decided that maybe I should start posting one recipe a week, preferably one that I have actually tried that week. Today will be my first such post. Tonight I made calzones. This is not something new in 709. We eat calzones every once and a while, and tonight we were due for some. I use to get my pizza dough from Wegman's, but we recently purchased some from The Italian Store in Arlington and it is very delicious. The Italian Store in general is very delicious. Anyway, my point is that you can just get your favorite dough and roll it out on your countertop (Matt and I usually split a 1lb. ball and its more than enough for 2 people). 

Then you can fill it with whatever you like. Typically, we do ricotta cheese, caramelized onions, hot sausage, and mozzarella cheese. I needed a change of pace so I put ricotta, caramelized onions, mushrooms, pepperoni, and mozzarella in tonight. Before putting everything on the dough it needs to be cooked. After you are satisfied with your filling just fold it over, seal it, and pop it in the oven. I like to drizzle the outside with some olive oil too.

I highly recommend the piece of foil under the calzones incase they explode. I learned this the hard way. Leave the calzones in the oven on 400ish for about 20-30 minutes depending on how you like your dough. Then take them out and eat them!

As you may have noticed I am not the measuring type. I pretty much guess at recipes until they look or taste good, but I really feel like this is something you can't mess up. I think the hardest part is rolling out the dough. Happy eating!

Eventide

Eventide: the latter part of the day (the period of decreasing daylight from late afternoon until nightfall). Eventide: a restaurant in the Clarendon neighborhood of Arlington. I'm blogging about the second. I really like this restaurant. It has great ambiance and good food as well. Matt and I went here for dinner tonight so I guess you could call this my first blogged restaurant review. Most of the times we have eaten here have been during their Sunday brunch which was seriously beyond delicious. And that is saying a lot considering I don't often like anything breakfast-y beyond Cheerios. Bad news, they stopped serving their Sunday brunch in December. Heartbreaking. The reason we went tonight is because a whole bunch of months ago Living Social offered a coupon for $40 worth of food for $20 and I bought a couple since we loved the brunch. This was our last one and we had to go for dinner. Not that I minded. Like I said its good food and a cool place to go. Tonight I had Virginia Rockfish with caramelized cauliflower and Matt had Winter Squash and Lobster Gnocchi. Both were great! We are about to have some Girl Scout cookies for dessert, compliments of my day job. Bad news for the night...when we walked back to the car, Matt had a parking ticket. He's not happy.

Snow Day

Miraculously my already fabulous three day weekend turned into a four day weekend with a snow day! I took this picture from my balcony about mid-day today to show you what a snow day in the commonwealth of Virginia looks like. You can sort of see some snow, right? Granted there was ice coming down when I went to bed and I did take this pic halfway through a somewhat sunny day, but still. I'm not complaining, though...it's half the reason I continue to live in Virginia :) I also took this picture because I wanted to show you all the lovely construction project that is my view. I have a love hate relationship with this construction. I hate it because it's obviously very loud and it starts a 7 a.m. every single morning (yes, even Saturdays and sometimes Sundays) and its a dusting nightmare. I love it because I think its going to bring some newer and cooler shops and restaurants to my Vienna and they will be right next door! It's also great people watching. Ok so taking this balcony picture led to me taking pictures of the rest of the condo because lots of people have been asking what it looks like. So you can take a little tour below.

Mostly, I love our condo. It gets tons of sun. So much sun that we have yet to even turn on the heat this winter, and we still have to sleep with the window open sometimes so we don't sweat to death. I fear what this extreme temperature will be like in the brutal summer months that DC often experiences. It's also located really close to metro if Matt needs it for work, or just for funsies. The work commute (for both of us) is not the best, but it is manageable, and its right in the middle of DC and Manassas. 

Ok, moving on. I would consider this snow day success, but lazy. I finally filed my taxes after leaving them in limbo on turbo tax for a few weeks. I ended up having to redo everything cause VA changed its eFile system so that I was going to have to pay to file my state return. No thank you! I used H&R Block's system so that everything would be free. Just a tip for those of you who should be able to file everything for free. I also spent a good portion of the day looking for some new recipes to try. I love to cook and we need a little change of pace here. I'll give you some reviews in coming posts. Yay for only three days of work until the weekend!

Long Weekend!

My dance partner, THON child, and myself 

I love a three day weekend! Who doesn't? This was a very fun filled three day weekend too...even better! But before I get to all of my events of the past few days, let's do a little flashback to 2005 (and the blonde highlights to the right)...This three day weekend, six years ago, I stood up in Rec Hall and didn't sit back down for 48 hours. Penn State Dance Marathon, or THON, raises money to help fight, and find a cure for, pediatric cancer. This weekend 700 student dancers stood up in the BJC and danced the days and nights away....and you know what happened?!?! They raised a record breaking $9,563,016.09! AMAZING! That's about 9.5 million more reasons to love Penn State more than I already do.

Back to 2011. My parents came for a visit this weekend. We went on a tour of the Capitol Building on Saturday afternoon and then did a little walking tour in the Dupont Circle area. Matt has these city walk cards so we picked out one to try. Each card has a map to follow and a few landmarks of things that aren't the typical tourist spots in DC. The landmarks are things that you walk past and wouldn't know the history behind them, but the card gives you a short little explanation about it's relevance to DC culture. Definitely something to look forward to on some upcoming spring weekends. We finished up with dinner at the Daily Grill and watching the Social Network. On Sunday we took my parents to Old Town Alexandria for brunch at Murphy's and then headed over to TopGolf for some driving range action. I love TopGolf! Those of you living in the metro area should totally go. It's fun whether you are a terrible golfer or a pro. I highly recommend it.

Super windy day, but very happy for some sun!

Matt and I both had Monday off so we decided to run a bunch of errands. I will spare you the details. I will tell you, though, that I did make an exciting purchase. I am going to keep those details a surprise. I'm sure it will be seen in future blog posts, once the weather gets nicer. So tomorrow it's back to work. At least it will be a short (and hopefully quick) week.

Blogging?

So I've decided to become a blogger. It's a lot of pressure. Like while I might think my life is ever so interesting and important...do you? And not to mention, a blog is almost like a popularity contest - stressful. Ok so back to my new venture. Be a blogger. I think my aim is to post about my favorite things. Those being people, food, fun, and interesting places. Pretty broad, but we will see how it goes. I'm also hoping to keep up and blog as often as possible with no excuses about being too busy...I mean this is an optional addition to my life. Maybe they will make a social network movie about me next :) Stay tuned!