Tower Restaurant in Bel Air

Last night Tim and I meet up with Keith and Ashley and had dinner at the Tower Restaurant in Bel Air. At first we had decided to meet up on Sunday afternoon for lunch at Duclaw's but decided around 10:00 a.m that we should push it back to dinner. So DuClaw's was scraped and Tower was chosen. After record setting temperatures of 92 degrees I was looking forward to a nice air condition restaurant. We meet up Tower at 6:30 and decided to eat outside (what no A/C?). Although the sun was setting it wasn't a bad choice and we really enjoyed our time outdoors with a nice cross wind. So we decided to order an appetizer to share (Crab meat and onion spring dip) which was so disappointing. A thin layer of dip not enough for four hungry individuals. We ordered dinner and our salads arrived. Which was good and nice surprise to have bread with our meal. Our entrees arrived. Tim and Ashley ordered Calamari Linguine, Keith ordered Shrimp Marinara and myself I ordered Chicken Alfredo. I believe everyone was pleased with their order except me. The chicken was so awful (no flavor and so dry) and the sauce wasn't really all that. And after we left I was upset at myself for forgetting the 10% off discount that I had clipped in the paper. Ugh. We could of saved $7.00. All in all I don't think we will be returning to the Tower.

Another one checked off!

I was just looking over my blog and noticed that I really don't have that much more to check off my blog. Some of my items aren't going to be finished before March 2010, because we just don't have the time or the money to fly to California or Europe. Our big trip to Europe was canceled due to the bad economy and our money situation. We have planned another state side vacation for the 2009 year. We are heading to Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon and finally Salt Lake City mid May. Along the way, we plan on seeing Chris/Shelly and Heather/Milt. Chris and Shelly are hoping to meet us in Vegas for a nice weekend of gambling and eating. And at the tail end of our trip we plan on visiting the Gale Family.

Anyway, onto my checked off item. This past Thursday, Tim, Linda and I headed to South Carolina for a little family time. We left around 7:50 a.m. on Thursday morning, hitting a little bit of Ft. Meade traffic and Washington DC traffic too. We stopped oh about 5 times (or so, I kind of lost count after the fourth time. We arrived in Greer, SC around 5:15 p.m. Thursday evening we ate dinner with Sandra and Bill and then stayed up pretty late. Friday we headed to Piedmont, SC to visit some family on my grandfather's side of the family. I'm sure you know that my grandfather was one of thirteen children. All of the children are gone now, but their children's children live on. I met some family that I've never seen before. It was nice to see that everyone was doing so well. Saturday morning Tim and I headed down to Greenville, SC to the Beedy River Park. We had visited this park oh 4 years ago, on our last trip to SC, but we were pleasantly surprised to see that the park had grown and new shops had sprung up. We headed north after our short stroll around the park to the Town of Greer. It's tiny, with only about a 1/2 mile of actual shops. We then headed back to Bill and Sandra's house for some reading time in the hammock, were I proceeded to fall asleep. To bad it was only short lived. We headed to my cousin Ryan's house for lunch. At lunch we got to see more family and meet my 4th cousin, Carter, who is only 2 1/2. Cutest little boy and loves to show off for the ladies. Watch out David! Later on that evening we headed over to David's house for a tour of his house, which he is trying to sale. If your in the market, please send me an email. It's this beautiful house on 2 acres of land with tons of growth. To bad we don't live in SC or I might consider.

Later in the evening we headed to LGT (Little Greenville Theater) for a show. My cousin Ryan was part of the play "Leading Lady's". Great show and tons of laughs. I'm going to say this again, Ryan you make a awful pretty lady. LOL!

Sunday Tim and I drove ourselves along with Linda and Sandra to Charlotte, NC so we could catch our flight home to Baltimore. Linda is spending the rest of this week down in SC. I'm jealous, because I want to be on vacation, but alas, we must come back home and go to work. All in all we had a great trip. But don't worry folks in about a month or so we will be heading West for our 10 day vacation.

I may have a few pictures to add to this post, once I find my camera and upload them to the computer.

St. Michaels Review

Tim and I arrived in St. Michael's around 4:30 on Friday afternoon. Only a short hour and half day from Anne Arundel County. We stayed at the George Brooks House on the outskirts of St. Michael's. Our room was incredible, King size bed, with a two person jacuzzi tub right off of the pool and hot tub (although being that it was the off season, no swimming for us.) Each morning we were served this incredible breakfast. Both the owner and the employees were wonderful. Recommended several restaurant's to check out as well.

Friday we decided to have dinner at Town Dock. This place is a high hit with the locals. Every Friday night they have a Seafood Buffet. We decided to do the 3 course meal for $24.99. Our meals included crab bisque, flounder topped with crab imperial and raspberry cheesecake. Tim got crab bisque, salmon and raspberry cheesecake.

After dinner we decided to walk around to burn off the calories. Although by then the all of the shops were closed.

Saturday morning we checked out the Maritime Museum which I highly recommend. Definitely recommend going early. We were able to get a private tour of the boat house (where we got to witness volunteers helping with this years boat project.) Must check out the lighthouse and playing on the Chesapeake Bay building.

After the museum we checked out the St. Michael's winery, which again I have to say arrive early. The winery doesn't open until noon on Saturday's. There we go to taste several flights of wine and some local cheeses. My favorite was the Golleywobbler Red and Tim loved the "Island Belle".

Afterward we did a little bit of window shopping and had a late lunch at Ava's pizza and wine bar. Very yummy and I highly recommend grabbing some pizza and a game at this cute bar.

All in all we had a great time in St. Michael's. I definitely say check it out if you have a few hours to spare.

A wine-o weekend!

Last weekend we spent most of the day drinking wine with 10 of our closest friends. Back in October I had bid on a few items during the Shoppawlosa that the MD SPCA holds every year. Last year I won a few gift card and the private wine tasting for myself and eleven of my friends at Woodhall Winery in Parkton. The twelve of us decided to rent a limo and enjoy our time at Woodhall. We prepared a beautiful arrangement of fine cheeses, bread, fruit and sampled some awesome wine. After the wine tasting all ten of us rode back to Abingdon, although we did make a pit stop at Wine World.

I'm sure Wine World has shocked to see this big limo pull up outside and several people jump out. Every weekend (Friday-Saturday) Wine World has wine/beer tasting. One of my items was to participate in a wine tasting with Lauren. We did accomplish this on Saturday, along with the entire limo. LOL!

The rest of our weekend is as followed. After arriving home, limo departed (we were quite sad that they day was almost over), we proceeded to entertain our friends. Although the main reason for them to stay over was to sober up, that didn't happen. Okay, I didn't sober up. I'm sure at least one in every party did sober up because they all left.

Sunday Tim and I headed down to Mother's in Federal Hill to meet up with Jay, Lauren, Jen T. and Dan for their bi-annual PJ Brunch. We had a great time. We saw some interesting PJ's. My favorite was Jay's robe (which was really Lauren's robe), he definitely pulled it off.

The rest of Sunday was spent laying in bed. Yes, you read me correctly, we can't party all night along and then get up early for brunch and still have enough energy to function for the rest of the day.

Both Tim and I had off on Monday, so I visited with my Mom, while Tim stayed home and cleaned the house (okay he really didn't do this, but I asked him too) and read, relaxed, and watched TV. All in all it was a great weekend.

Weekend Review!

This past weekend Tim and I busied ourselves in home improvement projects. We have been in our house for almost three years and for those three years I have been staring at white walls. So after many months of checking out colors, we finally decided to paint the largest room in the house. The LIVING ROOM! We cleaned out the room last Monday and taped as well. We bought our paint on Wednesday from Lowe's. We ended up going with Churchill Hotel Bronze from Valspar. We also recruited three additional painters to tackle the large job. We started around 10:00 a.m. on Saturday and was finished by 12:30. I have to say we make an awesome team. Thank you Lauren, Mom and Dad for all the help. After pizza and coke was served our three painters left. Tim and I took about an 2 hours nap and then started back painting later that evening. By 8 p.m. I was done. Sunday morning Tim woke up early to do some last minute touch ups. We finally got the room back into working order around 4 p.m.

We enjoyed the room for a few hours and then headed down to Baltimore for dinner with Lauren and Jay. This week in Baltimore is Restaurant week. There are 90 restaurants in the area that are participating. Lunch is $20.09 and a three course dinner starts at $30.09. Last night we decided to try out Pazo which is a Tapas restaurant. We arrived right on time after trying to find a street that map quest swears is a road, when in reality it's a alley way. Thank goodness Tim knows the area, or we would of been lost. The food was plentiful until the main course came. I think I made out with my shrimp. Tim and Lauren's steak was on the same side and poor Jay only received one piece of sausage. All in all it was a good evening to enjoy this experience with friends. Wine and drinks were flowing and the waiter it was just to cute for words. Although I'm still trying to figure out what exactly he was talking about re: dancing.

Later on this week Tim and I are heading to Blue Sea Grill in Baltimore with our friends AJ and Michelle. I'll update my blog with our experience on the last restaurant of choice.

In our family news we just got word from Norma and Mike that Tim's cousin Ryan is getting married November 7 in St. Louis. Congratulations to him and his fiancee Stephanie.

I hope everyone has a great week.

50 Books in a Year

Are you up for the Challenge? Do you think you have what it takes to read 50 books in a year? That's 50 books in 365 days? I know it sounds like a lot, but if this slow poke can read or at least think she can read, anyone can.

I started obviously on January 1 ,2009 and I have successful finished reading one book last night. If you would like to participate, please let me know and I can forward you the spreadsheet that I am using to keep track.

Happy New Year and good luck reading.

102-Complete & Happy New Year

So I challenged myself to go without Starbucks for one entire month. It was hard for me, because I really crave that stuff. For Christmas I received two gift cards for Starbucks. It was hard not to run off to Starbucks the day I received them. Although I do have to admit that I have used my gifts twice over the weekend.

I'm still going to try and stick to no Starbucks after I use the gift cards up. I want to say I have $23.00 left. Oh and the husband is helping as well.

I know every year people make New Years Resolutions and I feel like by middle January I have already failed. So I am not making any this year. I just decided to work other things through out the year.

These are the things I would like to accomplish this year in no particular order:

1. Get Pregnant
2. Loss weight
3. Maintain a workout routine.
4. Spend more time with Tim.
5. Take more photos.