#31 - Fire Hydrant

#31 - Fire Hydrant

Took a walk to check out the snow in New Town. It was so quiet!

#30 - Snowy trees

#30 - Snowy trees

I enjoyed watching the snow fall on Saturday and watching the cardinals chase each other outside of my back door.

As a side note, I tried a new recipe Saturday. Gorgonzola and Porcini Mushroom Risotto. Turned out pretty well even though it took a lot longer and a lot more chicken broth to get the risotto ready to go. I would definitely serve it as a side dish next time and not the main dish, but it took a lot of time to watch the risotto, stirring and adding broth, so I didn't have time to cook chicken too.

#29 - Monogram

#29 - Monogram

Another surprise! I got these cute monogram napkins and wine cork that perfectly match Andrea's Christmas gift me to - a set of shot glasses and a decanter - both monogrammed with the same design.

#28 - Rain Barrel

#28 - Rain Barrel

So I have to be honest, I didn't take this picture. But I did tell Sally to take a picture of it since she was using the camera, and it was the only picture I have from yesterday so it'll have to do. This is my favorite rain barrel from the summer - and the last one to get delivered/picked up from summer camp last summer.

#27 - Observing Systems

#27 - Observing Systems

Attended a workshop at VIMS today entitled "Using Observing Systems to Address Coastal Management Issues". Not a typical topic for me, but something that's very relevant to NOAA and some of the other people in my office that I felt I should know more about. Found it very interesting, especially the part about the Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System (I want to kayak out to the one in the James) and the picture shown here which is on NOAA National Weather Service. Hoping to schedule a time this summer during camp to see the weather balloons released on Wallops Island - I think that'd be awesome to see!

#26 - Recycled Jewelry

#26 - Recycled Jewelry

I love anything made out of recycled materials (well maybe not everything, but most things). I needed an insect pin for the upcoming discovery lab in February and found this awesome one on Etsy (which I'm slowly becoming more and more addicted to). Decided to also get the fish and pumpkin one while I was at it! These are made from aluminum cans and she attached foam to the back to make it a little thicker and then adds the pin.

#25 - Puzzle

#25 - Puzzle

Jared found this really cool wine bottle puzzle on clearance the other day at Barnes and Noble so he brought it over for me to try. You just attach to a wine bottle and then either give it as a gift or have it out for a dinner party and people have to figure out how to undo the puzzle to get to the wine. I think he mastered the puzzle last night so at least I can get my wine out when we use it again!

#24 - Gingerbread House

#24 - Gingerbread House

So some of you know that I had never made a gingerbread house before and all of a sudden this year I decided it was the year to do it! I actually had a kit last year but just things got in the way and I ended up throwing it away. So this year, looked and looked for a kit and couldn't find one, but Sunday while shopping with Sarah we found one for $1.99! Of course, I snapped it up and took it home. Jared came over last night and we put it together. Very fun and it turned out really cute. We'll see if all the pieces are still intact when I get home today. Next year, maybe I'll try and make one from scratch!

#23 - Great Wolf Lodge

#23 - Great Wolf Lodge

Sarah and I had the most awesome opportunity to go to Great Wolf Lodge last night. It was so fun! We rode the water slides, screamed, went around the lazy river, and enjoyed the hot tub. Great time! So glad that I finally got to see what it's like inside. This is the view looking up in the lobby of the resort.

And just to give you an idea of what the scariest ride was - the Howlin' Tornado - here's a picture from their website. Notice how small the people look in comparison to the tube. And it was completely dark). :)

#22 - Luau

#22 - Luau

Sarah and I spent the day on Friday prepping for the Luau - including making some fun Jell-O concoctions. :)

#21: Lebanese Pizza

#21: Lebanese Pizza

Went to Green Drinks in Virginia Beach on Thursday night with Sarah. Got to meet some really interesting people and some great contacts for future Williamsburg Green Drinks speakers. I'm very excited about upcoming opportunities. The meeting was at Croc's, a restaurant that not only has a "green" menu and drink menu, but has great Lebanese food! Tried this delicious pizza.

#20 Green Drinking

#20 - Green Drinking

We had our first Green Drinks meeting of 2010 last night and it was a huge success. We had a speaker talk to the group about green roofs, had over 18 people attend, and many of those were first timers! :) Great time.

Here's not the best picture, of our speaker talking to the group, but the best of the ones I took last night.

#19 - the lab

#19 - the lab

I get so excited seeing kids interested in marine science. I think I literally thrive off of it. It's just so cute and inspiring to see that what we have put together interests them so much and wants them want to know more! Sometimes it's the same kids that I see every month and I am just always surprised that they are still just as excited to be there. Sometimes it's new kids I have never seen before that invite their grandparent to the lab as a birthday present to the grandparent - b/c they wanted to share their love of marine science with their family. Just so inspiring and since I haven't had a program since November, I guess I missed it. :) Yay for 2010 programs kicking off well (other than the vomit).

#18 Quiche

#18 Quiche

My first foray into trying quiche and it was DELICIOUS! I mean seriously good. Bacon, onion, spinach, and feta. :) Great start to the day.

#17 (from Sunday) Planet Earth

#17 Planet Earth

Got a little surprise on Saturday night - Planet Earth DVD game!! :) Haven't played it yet but I did open it up and look at the game. Very excited to try it out.

Also tried out a new recipe Sunday night. Made Blackened Chicken Pizza which has this delicious salsa topping of tomatoes, garlic paste (I made), onion, thyme, and lime. Yum!

#16 - (from Saturday) Riverview Farm Park

#16 - Riverview Farm Park

Decided to start in on my volunteer hours for Master Naturalist on Saturday (have to do 40 hours in a year). One of the other classmates is doing a Wildlife Mapping project at Riverview Farm Park where she goes out every other month and records all of the wildlife that she sees and the quantity. So we counted mammals, birds, butterflies, and reptiles/amphibians that we saw. We mostly saw birds, which I figured b/c of the cold weater, but it was good practice for me since I am an inexperienced birder. Got to practice id'ing birds too. We saw buffleheads, goldeneyes, mockingbird, etc. Couldn't get close enough to get a picture of the birds but it as a lovely view.

#15 - Spire

#15 - Spire

Played around with some of the shells that I have in my office and decided on this one of the spire of a knobbed whelk sitting on my bookshelf.

#14

Kinda forgot about a picture for the day so took one of my cool project runway pillows that Carolyn made for me. I was passed out on them after zumba!



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#12 and #13

#12 - doodles
Trivia last night and Jared and Justin entertained themselves with some doodling before the game started.




#13 - throwback

Today I was at a workshop in Norfolk and at lunch saw a "throwback" Mt. Dew that I had to try. Pretty much the same taste but interesting.



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#11 Crabby

#11 - Crabby

I was having a hard time finding inspiration today so I decided to snap a picture of my crab on my desk that has been lovingly covered in aluminum foil by Ms. Russo back a couple years ago as an office prank. He's stayed that way ever since.

#9 and #10

#9 - 52/52

Combining my two projects for the year, I was reading one of my 52 books for the year on Saturday and just enjoying a lovely afternoon to myself after cleaning out my closet and running some errands. The photo turned out super bright and faint colored so I did a little photoshop action on it to make it more interesting.

#10 - Top Chef

Tried out a new recipe (or several new recipes) on Sunday, one of which was mashed potatoes. NEVER made potatoes in my life! So it was a new challenge for me. Turned out very well I think. And notice the lovely new cutting board in the background Jimmy made me for Christmas...which I don't want to use and mess up so I just use it for display in my kitchen!

#8 - Hockey!

So things are starting to get back to normal, with getting back into the swing of things at work and getting to catch up with friends again! Last night, Tracy, Justin, Jared, and I headed down to Norfolk to see the Admirals play against the Syracuse Crunch at the Scope. It was only my second hockey game ever, and still quite a confusing game to me at some points but fun! Even though the Admirals didn't win, we had a good time and then hung out at Kelly's Tavern for a while afterwards.

#8 - Hockey!

#7 - Winter Wonderland

# 7 - Winter Wonderland

Picture of my lovely new table runner that the amazingly crafty Andrea McNeely made for me for Christmas. I think it was a premonition of the snow that we got last night. Wanted to show off Andrea's craftiness and my new "tablescape" hahahha to Carolyn at work.

#6 - Sunset at the point

#6 - Sunset at the point

Snapped this one as I was leaving work today. I was picking up my lunchbox from the fridge and saw the lovely sunset over the river.

#5 Name tags

#5 Name Tags
Back in the office today - snapped a photo of the madness that is my bulletin board and my collection of name tags. Nice to have a regular camera again!

#4 (a day late)

#4 - Diving Deep

It's day 4 and I'm already posting late. I think I just need to get into the hang out doing this everyday. #4 comes from a day trip down to Nauticus - very cool museum if you haven't been there before and they have a fun National Geographic Pirates exhibit there until April. I thought it was done very well for a traveling exhibit which sometimes they just aren't that great. Even got to touch real pirate treasure! :)

But this picture isn't from the Pirate exhibit, it's from the main museum. Playing in the submersible and trying to pick up things from the ocean floor. Very good hands-on exhibit although it proved difficult to pick things up.

# 2 and 3

Photos #2 and #3 are from the last weekend of Christmas vacation.

#2 Money Tree

Went to a surprise 60th birthday for Andrea's mom and one of the gifts was a money tree. Very cute idea.

#3 Snow
So I'll always have snow...a Christmas gift snow globe!

Going to work on taking better pictures now that I have my actual camera since I'm back in the burg. Been using just my phone for the past three.

01-01-10

It's a new year and I've decided to start a project that you'll be able to watch as the year goes by. I'm going to do a photoblog for the entire 365 days of 2010. What's a photoblog? Well, basically I'm going to take a picture every day for the next year. Just to see what I see each day and remember the year a little better.

The idea came from Beth, one of my Jagernaut kickball team members. She's almost through 300 days of her project and it's really interesting. She got the idea from this site http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/ and one of her friends doing the project.

So here goes! I'm going to try and post most days but might do a posting for a week. Not sure yet. Going to use a mixture of whatever cameras I have close by whether that's my iphone, FinePix at home, or the Nikon at work. I'm excited for 2010!

Photo #1: Just me. Enjoying a lazy New Years Day at home.