Fairly uninteresting 2 weeks

The last 2 weeks have been fairly uninteresting.  I've been to Mitch and Doms 3 times for grillin/bbq's.  Out of those 3 times I managed to take 0 pictures.  So here's a stock photo of happy people grilling:

Last weekend Rich came over and tried out my new Kung Fu:  High Impact game for Xbox Kinect.  He did really good!!

After video games, we had chicken and pizza which Rich had brought (because he spoils me rotten)!

This weekend I didn't get a chance to hang out with Rich, but I did get to babysit.  It wasn't great.  The toddler cried for a whole hour.  She was tired, but wouldn't fall asleep!  Here's a creepy stool from the house I babysat at:

Did I mention I'm studying for the GRE's?  I took a practice test this weekend and BOMBED it.  The scores run from 130 to 170 for Math and same range for English   I need a 155 or better to be considered for the masters program I'm applying to.  What did I get?  A 146 in English and 148 in Math.  It said I was in the 26th percentile.  Yup, I did worse that 76/100 people.  Ouch.  Well, I better get to studying!!

2 Weeks and a Whole Lotta Nothin'

After the big Philly vacation, I've been taking it easy the last couple of weeks.  Nothing big/special happened.  The first weekend after the Philly trip I literally stayed in all weekend and cleaned and relaxed and just enjoyed some quiet time.  This weekend was slightly more productive.

Saturday after work I went over to Mitch and Doms for grilled burger/chicken and drinks.  They had made skittles vodka of varying flavors:

Mitch and I drank some strawberry flavored skittles vodka mixed with mountain dew out of some epic cups:

Dom grilled us some burgers and bbq chicken which was DELISH!  Seriously super good.  Dom also made a fire in their fire pit to keep us warm.  All and all it was a really fun night...I even got tackled by Mitch (I don't remember why?)

Sunday was Mothers Day, so Rich spent the day with his family while I relaxed at home.  The most exciting thing to happen on sunday was I got a spam email from "Poopy Inferno"

Monday I went over to Rich's for dinner and hanging out.  I only stayed for a couple of hours, but it was nice to see him after not seeing him at all the weekend before!  I was so happy to see him, I forgot to take pictures!  Oh well, maybe next weekend.

Tonight I'm going to see the midnight premiere of Star Trek Into Darkness (and will hopefully convince Mitch to join me).  I LOVE midnight premieres!  That's when all of the hardcore fans come out!

Philly Trip 6 - Cheese Steaks, Water Ice and more Amish

Friday we didn't really have anything specific planned.  Dad made oven pancakes for breakfast (pretty much the most delicious thing evar!)

Around lunch time Joel asked if we wanted to go to Pat's for cheese steaks   For those of you who don't know, Pat's and Gino's are famous for their cheese steak rivalry.  Pat's cheese steak was SO good!  Joel bought us fries because he is the BEST brother ever!!

I am honestly considering driving back to Philly for another cheese steak.  SO GOOD!

Right after cheesesteaks we went for Rita's water ice.  Mmmm....water ice <3

Once Kate was done with work, the 4 of us piled in Joel's car again and went to Booth's Corner a huge flea market with lots of Amish stalls.  Joel got a knife:

Kate got a frozen banana (well, technically Joel bought it for her):

Rich bought Jams and PB and chocolate covered pretzels for his family and I bought F.R.O.G jam for myself (Figs, Raspberries, Orange, Ginger).

In the evening Mom made lasagna (which was SO GOOD) and homemade french bread:

and Grandma made Whoopie pies:

Before we left the next morning, Mom braided my hair.  Cute right?!

We left the next morning, and on our drive home had our first fight.  After only seeing each other once a week, spending all day everyday together pushed us both the the breaking point.  Good news, is I found out our fighting style:  We both go quiet for a bit before eventually calming down enough to talk it out.

When I was unpacking when I got home I dropped a razor on my big toe.  It bled SO MUCH!  I went thru 3 band-aids, got blood the the carpet and left a small pool of it on the bathroom floor.  I was starting to wonder if a gal could bleed to death from a toe wound.  Thank goodness it finally stopped!!

Thus ends the Philly Trip saga of '13.  From Amish to Water Ice it was a blast!!

Philly Trip 5 - Center City Philadelphia

On Thursday, Rich and I caught a train into Center City Philadelphia.  The train dropped us off at Reading Terminal Market (similar to the West Side market for Clevelanders).  The first thing we did in Philly was get a Philly Cheese Steak!  We went to Carmen's in Reading Terminal.  They gave us a playing card, and when our order was up we gave them our card!

Rich got a cheese steak with mushrooms and provolone cheese.  I got one with onions, mayo, lettuce, tomatoes and american cheese.

After being well fed we went on a Big Bus Tour.  The tour would take you to different sightseeing spots, give you some history.

Our first stop on the tour was Eastern State Penitentiary .  It was an audio tour.

The tour took you inside the prison!  I'm glad we went during daylight hours, because it would be super creepy otherwise.

While we waited for the bus to pick us up again, I snapped another pic of Rich.  So handsome!

Our next stop was the art museum, so Rich could run the Rocky stairs.  To get psyched for the run, Rich posed in front of the Rocky statue:

Rich ran the stairs!  When he came back down he wasn't winded at all!!

The bus tour took us next to the liberty bell:

Right across from the liberty bell is independence hall.  Sadly, we didn't get tickets in time, so we only got to see the outside of independence hall:

Our next stop on the Big Bus was Love park.  We got 2 really cute pics:

We then met up with my friends Chris and Katie at Fado's.  We had some drinks and dinner and laughs.  It was an all around really fun close to an adventurous day!

This was our last busy, action packed day of the trip.  The next two days were a bit more relaxed.

Philly Trip 4 - Valley Forge

If you haven't guessed by now, Rich loves anything to do with history or war (he loves the military channel...I didn't even know there was a military channel before I started dating Rich).

On Wednesday  Dad and Rich and I all went to Valley Forge.  We watched a video in the visitors center (which may or may not have put me to sleep), then we took some pics.  These things were obviously made for kids:

After the visitors center, Rich worked on building a log home:

And Dad made sure it was stocked with lots of firewood:

And I did what girls of the 1700's did, I stood there and looked pretty:

Here's dad and Rich in one of the log houses (please note how gangsta my daddy is):

There was a really pretty arch:

Dad takes the best pictures:

As we got closer to the arch, dad pointed out some random guy laying on his back kicking his legs.  It was super weird.  My only regret is that I didn't get a video of it:

There were some weird faces in the arch:

Inside George Washingtons house, dad saw a piece of his childhood...I guess it's the thing that came before the computer:

Rich did a pretty good Washington impression (still at the Washington house)

Also in the Washington house was a a picture of Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens.  Is it me or does this guy look like actor Zachary Quinto (Sylar from Heroes)? 

After being inside for a bit it was time to man the cannons!!

We then went to the valley forge chapel.  The stained glass was sooooo pretty!

Also in the chapel was a list of state flags and when they joined the union.  Ohio was number 17:

3 + hours later, we finished up at Valley Forge and went to the Limerick outlets.  I didn't take any pictures because we didn't buy anything, but we did have fun looking!

After the outlets we went to Wegmans for lunch.  It was AH-MAHZING!  It's 1/2 grocery store and 1/2 cafeteria style restaurant.  You pay by the pound, so we each picked what kind of food we wanted and then sat and ate at the fancy Wegmans tables.  We even split a white cake (that Grandma had been raving about):

Dad, being the awesome son he is, bought Grandma a cake too since she loves them so much!

In the evening we used puppy dog eyes to get dad to make us dinner.  He made us homemade noodles with browned butter.  OH. MY. GOODNESS.  It was SO FREAKIN Good!  I want to eat it all the time!!

Everyone went to bed full of food and good memories.