0 Food Adventures and Slapsgiving

The past few days I've been eating leftover soup (from the Mortobello and Rice Soup that I made), so I haven't made any new recipes. However, not only did I make some Key Lime Pie again:

but I also traveled to one of my favorite restaurants in Northern Virginia, Maple Ave Restaurant! For anyone who lives in Northern Virginia, or visits the area, I highly recommend visiting the restaurant in Vienna. As you can see below, my friends and I thoroughly enjoyed our dinner.

We finished the day with watching some episodes of How I Met Your Mother, namely the episode "Slapsgiving," which is a phenomenal representation of the show. Happy Mid-week!

0 Work, Christmas, and Blogs

Hi all! Sorry for being AWOL for the majority of the week, but I had a very busy time with tasking at work. On the bright side, I'm now on vacation for over two weeks, and am currently waiting in the DC metro to celebrate the season with friends.

Plan on seeing many more gluten free posts leading up to Christmas , as I'll have time and energy to experiment. Until then, here's a fun post from another blog (complete with Christmas story and recipe). http://a-bicycle-built-for-two.blogspot.com/2010/12/chocolate-peppermint-blossoms.html

Happy holidays!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

0 Christmas Season is here!

I hope everyone is excited for the holiday season, I know I am! Not only have a changed the banner to reflect the season, but the tree pictured is also the first real Christmas tree I've ever had! More festive posts to come this month.

1 Trans-Siberian Turkey Weekend

Happy Turkey Week! To celebrate, I'll be posting a roasted turkey and turkey leftover recipes (all gluten free), so look forward to that! I hope that those who have this week off of work, school, etc. have been enjoying themselves thus far, and that everyone has safe travels and good food!

This past weekend I had two significant events to kick off my week off: a trip to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and an Alternative Thanksgiving.

Thursday I attended the Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the Verizon Center with a group of my friends. We had seats in the nosebleed section of the theater, but lucked out and received floor seats from one of the employees at the Verizon Center. The result? The perfect seating for one of the best light show/Rock-Christmas concerts you could possible attend. (Some of the better images I captured included below.)

On Saturday, my roommates and I invited a group of friends over for an Alternative Thanksgiving that we could all have with one another. We had decided weeks ahead to purchase a free range turkey from a local Virginia farm. In early November after visiting some local farmer's markets and calling around, we came in contact with a farm west of Farfax called Smith Family Farms.

I've gone to many farmer's markets, but I had never traveled to a farm for produce or protein. It was such a fun process driving to the farm And seeing how a small farm operates. We were able to meet and discuss with the people at the farm, and with the person that prepared our turkey. After roasting, our friends came over in the evening, and we had a huge Thanksgiving feast!

Later today or tomorrow I will post the directions as to how to roast a turkey in the oven (whether its 10 or 36 pounds) along with recipes for transforming leftover turkey into something new and awesome.

0 Let's Move!

From LetsMove.gov:

"In the end, as First Lady, this isn’t just a policy issue for me. This is a passion.
This is my mission. I am determined to work with folks across this country to change the way a generation of kids thinks about food and nutrition."

- First Lady Michelle Obama

Two of my passions are Community Service, and eating healthy, delicious meals with friends and family. In college I was a brother in Alpha Phi Omega, a service fraternity that helped me grow into the person I am today through giving back to the community on a regular basis. I'm also a strong believer that eating healthy dinners and meals with those you love not only helps you grow closer together, but gives a family memories tied to food they've had together. That's why I really appreciate what the current first lady is campaigning to do, and that's help end childhood obesity by giving kids and their families the tools to be healthy.

I've joined Let's Move! Meetups to try to help and do my part in the community that I live in, Vienna, Virginia. As of now I'm the only one at my event, so any interested in joining, please join here because I need all the help I can get coming up with ideas and advertising for the event.

More info on Let's Move and links to other potential Virginia "Let's Move" events below the jump. Thanks to anyone who wants to help!

0 NYC

So we're in NYC filling up at this sketch little BP in Brooklyn on the way to Carrie lynn's. I am seriously in awe of this place here's a night shot of the empire state building.




-- Post From My iPhone7700 Bull Run Drive

0 Where do we go from here?

So I have an amazing job, a great place to live, and a strong group of friends and family. So, where do I go from here?

With settling in and finally feeling relaxed in a regular routine, I'm starting to wonder about where I'll be another 4 years from now. I've gotten past all the predefined 4 year land marks of younger life (elementary school, middle school, high school, college) which all gave you knowledge of where you would be for the next couple years. With this next stage of life, I don't have that. I have certainty that I am going to be working, but aside from that, where am I going?

Ps, I'm keeping this strictly professional, screw thoughts of dating, marriage, and babies right now. I'll let all my friends handle that right now.

I think I've come to the conclusion that within 5 years I'm going to want to have a Master's (either in Software Engineering, Software Design, or Management). My major will end up depending upon what I fall in love with doing the next year or two. Also, I don't know how realistic this is, but I'd LOVE to be a Senior Engineer, or somewhere in management....at least a E2...

0 Kayaks and fireworks!

Fourth of July was so much fun!


I went kayaking with some college and work friends on the Potomac, which felt reminiscent of crew, only way more fun and free of douchey jerks. We kayaked under the Key Bridge in DC, and went to some island that had the Teddy memorial. I discovered that this is one of the enjoyable differences between real life and college life. In college, I couldn't afford to spend 5 hours on a weekend kayaking (both in terms of money and time), but after college, weekends are kinda a time to find hobbies, experience new things. A couple of my friends and I have already started planning out what may be a trip to Great Falls or the Blue Ridge to go hiking. Oh the glories of no Stacks, Small, Olsson, Thorton, or any small cave I may have hidden myself in previously during school.

After going kayaking, my work friends and I went into DC to see the fireworks. They were amazing as usual, however I feel they were shorter this year in comparison to others, and kinda left me wanting more. Stupid economy.

Oh, and screw you Federer. Screw you. Maybe next time Roddick.

0 Leftovers from last night

Last night several of us hung out and had fun, and at one point I had a really good conversation with Caitlin and about the transition of college to real life. Now on Friday I went out with Feng, another new hire who's from Illinois and therefore new to VA, at one point we had a kinda similar conversation. Starting out with the conversation with him, we discussed being in a place you've grown up, and gone to college at, and therefore having a well established network of friends and people you associate yourself with. He posed the question about whether I had ever thought about moving to another state far enough away that the convenience of having friends close by is gone; where you have to pretty much prove to yourself that you can make it on your own, and survive in an unfamiliar setting. Its something I contemplated doing during my job search, and I didn't come across the opportunity to give it much thought since all my offers for jobs were in state. Giving it more thought however, I don't feel as though that I would really have the guts to do things similar to Feng or others I know from UVa who have made that large leap to unfamiliar territory.

This conversation flowed over to last night, when others and I discussed how relationships developed in college have that inherent convenience of being able to go grab a lunch with someone, be library buddies, or even just have the opportunity to just randomly run into one of your friends. When you graduate college, you leave that convenience behind in multiple ways. In one way, the way you interact with friends you developed in college changes; you can no longer just randomly run into them, or go walk five minutes to a house. The relationships from college lose their convenience, and you have to put a constant effort into your daily schedule to try to maintain those relationships. This isn't a bad thing at all, because the moments you have on gchat or via text message/phone call are still completely fun and enjoyable. Furthermore, the instances where you go to visit and see these people you consider best friends whom live hours away are amazing and exciting.

The other way in which this convenience leaves is that meeting new people, finding new friends become SO much harder after college. Thus far, I've made two new friends, and these are people I have met through work. Don't even ask me how your supposed to meet new people in the "real world," other than making a ridiculous interview tape for MTV to get on a show that in no way resembles the real world. Its an adjustment to something that many of us have been used to for 4 years, and is something that there's sadly no easy little handbook that has a 5 step program of how to adjust to a new lifestyle.

0 Braving new territory

Last night I went out with one of my coworkers who I met on Monday. He just moved into the area from Illinois, so he came to a new area where he didn't know anyone. While discussing all sorts of stuff, we got on the subject of braving new territory, seeing things you haven't seen, going off and living somewhere for at least a year without knowing anyone in the area, and if you can sanely, economical, and socially do well.

This discussion kinda made me wonder if I would be able to or not, I know this past year when thinking of it one of the reasons I would take anything in my home state is because it would be so close to the ones I love. I dont know if I'd quite have the will to do so. So to those of you who read this, what do you think (not quite necessarily about me, but about yourselves and in general?).

1 Reflections, baseballs, whifbee, WORKKKKK

So, as I said in my first post, I wanted to write down my thoughts and close out all the reflecting I've done in the past 2 months. But I also wanted to share where I'm at, and what I'm looking forward to.

I guess reflections for me started before the thesis was done, and around the time of APO banquet. I had only attended one, and through what I witnessed and experienced, I held it in my mind as a time of reflection, open thoughts (even though that forum should always exist...), and respect for those who have paid their dues (both literally and figuratively). Coming into it, I had no clue what to say to those I'd be leaving, and frankly didn't feel I had anything wise to share that had not been shared before. After getting there of course, and while playing LOOFA bingo (thanks Mark) I learned how I had felt about my college experiences, and how they shaped the person I am today. I came into college a shy introverted person, not proud of who he was, and left with what I was missing before college. I found confidence, BSG, cooking skillz that killz, myself, my strength, and most importantly I found those that I could never see life without, those who complete my crazy wacked out family. As JD said in the video I posted previously, "It's all about the people that you let into your life."

Which pretty much leads into the immense feelings of pride I realized I had for not just those I surround myself with, but with myself. Thesis. Done. Finally. That is what I felt when I turned it in, although I admit that sadly I didn't have a rush of pride, excitement, or anything of that nature after initially turning it in. I don't know if it was sleep deprivation, effing 436, or a comment about my thesis that I'd rather forget that caused that. However, after a phone conversation to let one of my APO littles know I had turned it in had that feeling of pride started to well up and really start to sink in. With that thesis done, I was effectively done with what was frankly 4 years of scholastic hell.

Which all of this led to a beach week (which at some points were rather overwhelming with the degree of craziness...I kinda wanted to creep back into my cave) that despite some craziness I loved and enjoyed. Being able to spend that time with 2 of my closest friends throughout college, my group of ridiculous but amazing service-doers, and the friends and littles that defined my fun part of fourth year was totally worth it, and a good way to wrap up the college experience. And I will never forget the amazing hell that is polish/APP poker.

Graduation happened, it was a whirlwind, got a HUGE piece of paper, sat through a boring speech, took some pictures, ate some food, and finally took a deep breath of relief. I feel like everything above kinda summarizes the graduation feeling.

After graduating, I had to get my own car, which, I DID! I got a blue, Honda Insight Hybrid, and I love it. Its not the raptor of CMelt's that I saw at beach week, but the best name that I have for it right now is Bumblebee (thanks lil). Yay car.

Although related to the car, for those who have yet to encounter it, real life is swarmed with disgusting paperwork. And I have a dreadful feeling it will not go away.

So right now my quality of writing is decreasing, along with my inspiration, so I'll continue with these thoughts later.

1 old, busted, yet fresh and new

So following in the tracks of several of my friends who have graduated, I decided to start up a blog (only after recently starting to read blogs) to have an easy way to convey what's on my mind and let friends follow up on what I've been doing (if any of them actually wish to do so lol).

So, past month...major events....thesis completed, graduated college, bought a car, moved to NOVA, and starting my job in just a few days. As of now I wanted to just get a first post out there, but thoughts and reflections on the past month and 4 years of my life are soon to follow, along with my looking ahead. Cliffnotes version, alot of it was actually summarized in the Scrubs finale, in the following clip (don't watch if you don't want the finale to be spoiled.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SliYzq3htBg

-T