Johnny Joes & Adrian Blitzer

We were out last night like a boner in sweat pants. Last night was the official party night of our anniversary. We first stopped to visit with the Ryan's folks and Uncle Bob at Snappers. We then made our way over to Johnny Joes to meet up with other friends to listen to Adrian Blitzer rock the house.

Johnny Joes

First off, I love Johnny Joes, they always show us the best time. We always get wonderful service. And when you spend money you want to get good service. As to not become an idiot, we ordered a $5.00 large pizza. I got half mushrooms (Yum!) and Ryan had half pepperoni. The pizza was awesome! It was super hot and tasted really fresh. The only bad thing was that we forgot to take the left overs home with us. Sad Face!

Ryan scooped up his slices before I could get my camera out.
The pizza was very tasty.

Captain on Acid

Brett & Ryan

Steph & Ryan

Steph, Erica, & Ryan

Ryan may have his head down in embarrassment

Later on Steph and I were trying to do sexy faces at the camera.
Please note, I do not have a sexy face. I have a smiley face or
a face that looks slightly retarded. Here is my sexy face aka retard look.
I will not put Steph's sexy time face up, I only like to embarrass myself.

Now, the reason we are at the bar at all is to see Adrian Blitzer. This band is freakin rad. I had taken plenty of video with my phone, but I'm not video person. My hand keeps moving like I have Parkinsons. Not good at all. Then I kept moving it back to the bar where we were sitting so I could watch us ALL sing along badly. I found a couple songs off Youtube that show case the band a little better than me.

This video is when they played at the Drinkin Bone in Wormelysburg, PA. Ring of Fire, Johnny Cash

The band played all kinds of awesome songs. Kid Rock, Johnny Cash, Snoop Dog, Green Day, Creep by Radio Head, Jay-Z, Sublime. I knew and sang to the best of my ability every song with them.

 

Anniversary Breakfast

Happy Anniversary to me, Happy anniversary to me, Haaaappy anniversary to me...I mean us! Happy anniversary to us! This morning Ryan surprised me by taking off too. I had today off, but as usual, he didn't request off in time. So, I was just going to putz around today, maybe watch multiple episodes of Law and Order. But Ry got the day off! And I am soooo happy!

Today is magic number five. Ryan and I have been in wedded bliss for five years. LOL. Maybe it hasn't been bliss every moment, but I won't complain about my marriage. It has been pretty damn awesome so far. We do whatever we want all the time and have the debt to prove it.

Before I give you my anniversary breakfast pictures, I'm going to bore you with the story of how Ryan proposed. It's laced with obscenities, so children may not want to read this next part.

Ryan and I have been together pretty much since 1996. It has not been all sunshine and pink hearts. But it 2005 we were solidly together hanging out in my townhouse. I was washing some dishes (miracle!) and we were bantering back and forth. Now, I'm all about the marriage thing, we've now been going on nine freakin years. Marry me or just kill me already.

While still washing the dishes I wave/flail my arms around and in my most whiniest voice ask Ryan when are we getting married. I'm pretty sure there was a foot stomping in there too. Ryan returns with, "You wanna fucking get married? Let's go to the fucking mall and get a fucking ring." And right then and there we had my proposal.

We went to the mall right after we ate.

Best Pancake mix I've ever used. Biscuit is good, but this is better

Don't forget the thick bacon!

More rose pics

Here is the finished product. Note, there are no glasses for the milk and juice. We don't need no stinkin glasses, we're high classin it. Plus, we don't have kids to replicate us drinking out of the carton.

Peeps be jealous

Sooo....originally I was going to post about my father in law's awesome potato soup. But that just got bumped til tomorrow. Tomorrow is me and Ry's five year wedding anniversary. Eat that for dinner! Quite a few people thought we were definitely not going to be married this long. But, that is a whole different blog post.

Anyhow he had a dozen beautiful long stem roses delivered to my office. The first things my coworkers' said was now I better put out. I love the people I work with! I replied yes, I would make sure everyone will be taken care of in my house. LOL

These flowers are so big, I couldn't even get them in the whole pic!!

Don't the flowers look great against my orange walls?

Ryan could have sent me these flowers at home tomorrow, but he wants peeps to be jealous up in this piece. And you know what? I'm totally cool with that. Can't wait for the rest of the weekend to start.

Repeat After Me!

I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym.  I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym. I will go to the gym.


Repeat as necessary until I actually go to the gym.

I think I like paying for a gym membership. But I'm pretty sure I have lost my ability to drive my car in that general direction.

Is it bad that I know the exact date I stopped really going to the gym? It was June 27, 2010. Now, don't get me wrong, I've stopped and started the gym so many freakin times that I've lost count. But this past time I knew the exact day that I got complacent/lazy/tired/hungry. I was on a roll and figured that roll would just keep going even if I didn't do anything and I ate everything.

For losing weight and being healthy, I have to work out and eat right AT THE SAME TIME. None of this half assed shit other people do. It's most definitely work out AND eat right. It works when I do both at the same time.

Before I continue on, I know I hear peeps in the background saying, but Rita you're pretty/awesome/special. Yes, I agree I am special, awesome, and pretty.  And thank god, I have a good face! Some people will say, I'm happy the way I am, you should be too. I am happy. In fact, I think I'm rad. I just don't feel like shopping at Lane Bryant all the fucking time. Thank you very much.

The previous two years I had my health on my mind. Then it just slipped away in a mouthful of jelly donuts and fried foods. By the way, they were all very tasty.

So last month I meant to go to the gym. Then it was last week, then it was yesterday but we had to grocery shopping. Today is the day. My ass with the zip lining bruises is going to the gym.

I went home for lunch and packed my bag to go to the gym RIGHT AFTER WORK. I'm looking around for my new gym shoes. Where are they? Mind you, I look everywhere in the house except my closet. I'm positive I would not have put them away in my closet. Finally, I am make my way to my closet and they still are not there!

Where could they have gone?!?! Did Ryan hide them so I could feel like a dumbass for not putting them away? Did he hide them so I would just come home and hang out? For your info, he would never do anything like that to sabotage me, it's just me freaking out now about what the hell I did with my shoes. I couldn't possibly have lost the shoes already? I just wore the damn things on Saturday. Did one of the dogs eat my shoes? WHERE ARE MY DAMN SHOES?

Then it dawns on me. (The Ah Hah moment) They are in my car. Coolio right? No, not freaking coolio. My car is in a parking lot in Lancaster because Ryan parked my car there while he drives his work vehicle home. (His car is way more awesomer than mine.)

Shit.

What do I do now? Should I pretend to go to the gym and hang out at Barnes and Nobles? Should I quickly go buy ANOTHER pair of shoes because I am not organized? No and no.

I'm going to wear my beautiful naturally dyed green shoes. Courtesy of mowing the grass. Am I a little embarrassed that I'm wearing my yard sneakers? A little, but repeat after me....I am going to the gym.

What I do during meetings.

"Meetings are what you do when you're not working."- Elon Musk

I can agree with that statement 100%. If you don't know who Elon Musk is, look him up. Super smart dude. Got a rocket up into space on his fourth try.

I hate meetings. They're boring and I have a tendency to not pay attention. A lot of meetings I already know what's going on or they have nothing to do with me. I just start floating away in my brain or possibly fall asleep. If you want me to pay attention you better just send me an email. Or even better talk to me one on one. I'm almost guaranteed to pay attention to you if you standing right in front of me.

While I'm in these meetings I doodle. Sometimes I'll make lists of what I have to do that night. Sometimes I draw flowers or spell my name in block letters. Totally fifth grade shit. Here was today's little doodle.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/68412344/Meeting

Normally, I would love to have this pic in my actual blog, but I did not realize that blogspot does not accept PDFs. Fail on my part.

I have a couple items on there that I was going to get from the store. I realized Ryan and I go up and down ALL the isles anyways; there really isn't a reason for me to write that shit down. Then I started to draw my sheep on a motorcycle. My drawing capabilities are much better in my brain.

When I'm having trouble sleeping, I count sheep. Probably many people do. I have cartoon sheep on little mini motorcycles that have to ride up a ramp to jump over the fence. Sometimes, if I'm not counting fast enough the sheep yell at me and the jam up before the ramp. Ryan thinks I should try to think of them as claymation figures. I like the cartoon version in my head better.

Anyhoo, my sheep kind of looks like a large mouse. I guess you can't expect greatness when I'm supposed to listen to people talk.

Freakishly Awesome Potatoes

I was having the worst blog block of my short blogging career. I was going to be all sentimental and stuff, but I didn't have it in me today. Instead I shall blog about my freakishly awesome potatoes. Now mind you, I didn't say freakishly awesomely healthy potatoes. I just said freakishly awesome potatoes.

These pan fried potatoes take about 30 to 40 minutes. I'm pretty much always cook them way earlier than the rest of the meal. I've learned that if I start all the food preparation at the same time as the potatoes, the rest of the meal goes cold waiting for me to finish them.

Above are the ingredients I use. I chop up the whole onion and potatoes in small pieces and put them in the pan with a little EVO and a couple of heapings of butter. I keep the temp of the stove around medium and put the lid of the pan.

 

 

Gotta keep stirring every 2-3 minutes. I like my potatoes really soft on the inside and crispy on the edges. After about 20 minutes I take the lid off and pour a little white wine. I leave the lid off now.

Lastly, I put the spices on. A little Italian seasoning, garlic, pepper, and don't forget the nutmeg! That's the special ingredient. You don't have to use that much nutmeg to get a good taste. I always put the spices in last, and I don't use salt. If you want salt on them, put it on yourself.

Cook them babies for a couple more minutes and this is what ya get. It goes really good with the Rib Eye steak on the grill.

Zip Lining Part II

Now that I have almost recovered from my hangover from last night, I can tell you about how I was the most hated person in the zip lining group (well deserved). It all started out so well. There was so much promise that this was going to be an awesome adventure. Yesterday's weather could not have been more perfect. It was beautiful outside.

It was me, Sherry my awesome M-I-L, and her friend Kim. I was horrible with my recuitement of people. (Thank God!) We got our gear on and headed up the mountain. I should have realized that when the instructor said you will be high off the ground that I should have quit. There will a lot of should haves in this blog.

The ride up the mountain was nice and easy. No panic yet. I could have rode that a couple times. This was the view at the top.

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First Zip

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The view from the platform

Me, Kim, and Sherry

Take a good hard look at that happy face. That's the last time you'll see it. This is still pre-zip. 

Little pre zipping jitters

I did it! And this is the last time I have fun. Why couldn't we just keep doing this one over and over and over and over and over again? Once you get on to the platform you have climb down this net thing. The instructor told us that if we let go, we just fall to the bottom of the net and it's tied off so you can't fall to the ground. Of course, I got stuck in the god damn net thing. And I let go and fell to the bottom. I was flopping in this net like a caught fish. I barely managed to get myself out of the thing. I had to crawl up on the platform by my belly. Not my proudest moment, but there's worse to come. There was another net to crawl down to get back down to the ground. I pretty much scooched my way down giving myself an incredible wedgie.

Next up is more non-awesomeness. We had to walk over this super wobbly wooden "bridge" if that's what you'd call it. Then right after that, you can see next rope-like death trap wire "bridge" that I barely made it across. I wasn't hyperventaliating quite yet. But I was sweating profusely and shaking. Oh and swearing. There were a lot of swear words. This is where I stopped having fun.

The next couple shots will be of Sherry and Kim doing the next couple obsticles. I'm pretty much having an anxiety attack and can no longer do anything but swear.

In this picture is the next zip platform. The instructor tells us this is the POINT OF NO RETURN. That means it's all zipping for the next 45-60 minutes. We'll be high and the platforms will be small. Once you start, supposedly there's no way down except if the have to belay you. NO WAY DOWN. You might as well have been telling me, that Rita you are going to die. Panic is increasing. I told the instructor I quit.

Everyone in the group was horrified that I wanted to stop. I'm like dudes and dudettes, I really don't care what you think. I'm a pussy. I quit. But I didn't quit. I should have quit. I could have saved the last ounce of what dignity I had. Everyone went I was still standing on solid ground. At the last moment, I was like F-it, I'm going. I took a big step of the rock and went. Holla, I made it. That's when shit hit the wall.

I decided I'm going to go balls to the walls. I'm going first. I went first and zipped right into the platform with my ass and leg. Yup. Full force. No slowing down. I could see the instructor yelling at me as I'm flying through the air. I'm coming in real hot and I know it. But I couldn't hear his words and everything the instructors told me to do I didn't do. It was like he was going in slow video motion. Thank god, for the padding on my body cushioned the blow. Just kidding, it really fucking hurt. Bad. As soon as the instructor got me up on the tiny platform I yelled. I QUIT! He's like ok.

But wait Rita, didn't you just say that you are past the POINT OF NO RETURN? Why yes, I did say that. And that is exactly how I became the most hated person in the group. The instructor has to radio to another worker to come get my dumbass. Mind you, we are 40 feet in the trees. I am hugging the tree while he preps the rope to belay my ass down. No one else can zip to the platform. I hold everyone else up for like 20 minutes while they get me down.

I hate being that person that fucks the whole group up. I should have quit before the POINT OF NO RETURN. Because then I wouldn't have tie a rope around me and take a step off the platform and get slowly dropped down 40 feet. I was extremely apologetic to the dude that had to save me and to the dude that had to drive me to the bottom.

The last thing he said to me was, well see ya around. My reply was, no you won't.