Saturday, February 27, 2010

Secret Identity

I just realized it's been almost a week since I blogged last... I don't want to start getting behind again, but I haven't felt like I've had anything "new" to talk about. I did think of a funny story to tell, from a few months ago...

Back at the beginning of December, Brian took me to Pittsburgh for the weekend. We stayed at a hotel and played tourists for the weekend... we shopped, did some sight-seeing, had some good eats, and even went to a Steelers game at Heinz Field! We checked out of our hotel on Sunday morning and headed down to the Strip District (it's not what you're thinking!) to grab a few last minute souveniers before it was time for the football game. After the game (unfortunately, the Steelers LOST!) we went to my most favoritest restaurant in da 'Burgh, Primanti Brothers, before we started the 4.5 hour drive back home. Once we got home, I realized that I didn't have my cellphone charger with me. Mentally, I back-tracked my steps and right away I knew that I had left it at the hotel! I researched the phone number for the hotel and called the front desk. My conversation went something like this:

me: "hi, my name is Nikki Jomidad and I was a guest there this weekend... I think I left my cellphone charger in my hotel room and I was wondering if anyone had turned it in?"

desk clerk: "do you know what room you stayed in?"

me: "yes, ma'am. I was in room #131.

desk clerk: "what did you say your name was again?"

me: "Nikki Jomidad, but the room was registered in my boyfriend's name... Brian McGuire."

desk clerk: "ok, can you call back in about 10 minutes? I'm going to have to check the room."

I told the desk clerk exactly where I was 99% sure the charger should be... and I kept my fingers crossed that she would find it! This was somewhat of a big deal for me, but apparently people leave things in hotel rooms all the time! When I called back a little bit later, the desk clerk told me that she'd found my charger. I asked her what arrangements I needed to make, in order to get it back? She told me that usually people just provided their credit card number and they were charged the fee for shipping & handling. I gave her my credit card number and the rest of the pertinent information... the expiration, the name on the card (which I had to spell out for her), the security code on the back, etc. She verified my name and said I could expect to receive my charger in the mail in a few days.

Later that week, I found a package in my mailbox that looked like this...


I'm not sure how they derived "Crenshaw" from J-O-M-I-D-A-D... I could understand if they wrote "Nikki McGuire" since atleast that's the name the room had been booked under... but whatever! I don't know who this Nikki Crenshaw person is, but I'm thankful that I have my charger back! LoL

Monday, February 22, 2010

Happy 81st Birthday, Grandma!!!

My Grandma, Carlita Mae Whitlock, was born on February 21st, 1929 in West Virginia. Today, she celebrated her 81st birthday.

My Grandma has accomplished many things in those 81 years... she has been a mother to 9, a grandmother 14, a great-grandmother to 21, and even a great-great-grandmother to 1! How many people can say that?! My Grandmother was not only in the delivery room when I was born, she was also the first person to hold me! Our bond has remained strong and I'm very proud to be able to call her my own!

In honor of Grandma's special day, we had a family breakfast at my sister's house. Kelly did a great job of making a delicious meal... we had waffles, hash browns, sausage links, sausage patties, bacon, juice, milk, coffee, tee, etc. It was sooooo good!

After breakfast, we all gathered around the Birthday Girl in the living room so we could give her the birthday cards and presents we'd bought for her.

Happy 81st Birthday, Grandma... we love you VERY much!!


me and the Birthday Girl!! =)


Brian (the Bears' fan) & Grandma (the Steelers' fan), wearing their shirts proudly =)


P.S. Here's a neat little tidbit of information... Grandma was born in 1929 and in 2010, she will turn 81; I was born in 1981 and in 2010, I will turn 29! I'm not sure how often something like that happens, and I don't have the math brain to figure it out, but I think it's kinda cool anyway! LoL

Sunday, February 21, 2010

House Hunters

One of my favorite shows to watch on TV is "House Hunters" - I love being able to sit back and watch as other people pick the place they will call home. I like to try and guess which house the people picked, before it is announced. Most of all, I like to see the before-and-after pictures that show what the homebuyers changed or did differently in the house, to put their own personal touch on things.

For the past few weeks, Brian and I have been doing some real life house hunting. Actually, Brian is the one who is doing the house hunting and I'm just along for the ride... LoL House hunting is no easy task... there are so many factors to consider! It's difficult to find the perfect house, in the perfect neighborhood, for the perfect price! So far, Brian and I (mostly Brian!) have found a couple houses that we both like alot. It's fun to try to picture what color you'd paint each room, and the furniture that would fit just right!

Brian has set a goal for himself... he would like to settle on a new house before April 30th, so he can take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit that is being offered to new homebuyers. I hope he finds something good soon! =)

Friday, February 19, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day!

Since Valentine's Day fell on the Sunday that Brian's parents were in town for a visit, we chose to celebrate it on Tuesday 2/16 instead. Brian & I had been debating back and forth about whether or not we wanted to go out to dinner, and if so - where? I thought it would be nice (and cheaper!) to make dinner at home. After a little research, I found the perfect meal... with a Greek theme! I would make Shrimp Guvetsaki, a Greek salad, and some fresh baked bread with butter.

Brian had to work that day, so I had all day to prepare for our special night! I spent the morning running some errands. I went to the mall to pick out Brian's gifts, and then I went to the grocery store to buy the ingredients to make our yummy dinner. I picked up 2 cute balloons for Brian... one was heart shaped and said "Happy Valentine's Day" and the other one was a giant frog who was holding a heart that said "I Love You!" I also picked up some candles, to make our dinner even more romantic! =)

During my travels, I accidentally left my wallet in my cart at the ghetto Food Lion... I realized it about 10 minutes later but it was already too late... someone had taken it! Sneaky, sticky-fingered CROOKS!!! Luckily, I only had $1 in cash in my wallet so they didn't get away with much... and thankfully I realized it was missing pretty quickly, so I got home and canceled my credit cards before any of them had been used. That part was a pain-in-the-butt, but I wasn't going to let it ruin my night!

Brian came home from work with a dozen long stemmed red roses for me... aren't they beautiful??


Our dinner turned out GREAT! Even better than I had hoped it would! Here's what everything looked like...


Shrimp Guvetsaki


Greek salad


our cute table!

After dinner, we exchanged gifts. Brian got me 2 cards - one was funny and the other was sappy. The sappy one made me cry, but they were happy tears! I got Brian some new cologne called Lacoste Essential... it smells SO good!!! I also got him a pair of pajama shorts (with cute little polar bears on them!) and a couple new t-shirts. Brian got me some perfume that I've really been wanting... it's called Clinique Happy In Bloom, and I LOVE it!!! He also got me a pair of pajama pants and some new socks (I have a "thing" for socks!) and some yummy delicious candy! Afterwards, we watched a movie called "I Hate Valentine's Day!" which was pretty stupid, but it was fun to watch a movie together anyway.

What a perfect, low-key night for me and my valentine! He is the bestest! =)

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Meeting the folks...

As I mentioned in my last post, this past weekend my boyfriend's parents flew in from Chicago to spend the weekend with us. Their flight was a little delayed, so we ended up picking them up from the airport at about 11:30pm on Friday night. Since it was so late, we didn't do much of anything except go to bed when we got home.

On Saturday morning, we headed to the Metro station and boarded the train that would take us to Washington D.C. for the day. Brian had scheduled a tour of the U.S. Capital building for us at 12:30 but we were running late (as usual!) so we skipped that appointment and decided to grab lunch first. We ate at the cafeteria there, which actually had pretty decent food! After lunch, we resumed our original plan of going on our tour. The tour started out with a short video that was called "Out Of Many: One" which told about some of the history of the United States, and the meaning behind "E Pluribus Unum" (the phrase that is found on the back of most coins). We saw alot of statues and paintings and heard lots of stories about the history of our great country. Our tour guide was a tall guy named Mike, who looked pretty dorky at first glance but he turned out to be very funny... maybe even hilarious! After our tour, we went to the gift shop and bought a few souveniers. Then we took a cab over to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. We walked around there for awhile and looked at all the different exhibits... then, of course, we visited the gift shop for some more souveniers. After another cab ride, we boarded the Metro that would take us back to our (my) car. We were supposed to meet up with Brian's college buddy Jith and his girlfriend Christine (a.k.a. Marathoner) at an Irish Pub/Restaurant in D.C. called James Hoban's but we decided to meet somewhere else instead because Brian's dad's feet were sore from the boots he was wearing and that would've involved too much walking... secretly, I was pretty glad about the change in plans because A) my feet were hurting too, and B) I had looked up the menu for James Hoban's and pretty much nothing there sounded very appetizing to me! So, instead, we met up with Jith & Marathoner at the Buffalo Wild Wings in College Park. We had appetizers, dinner, and many MANY drinks during our 4-hour stay. Yes, that was FOUR hours! As the only sober party, I was appointed the designated driver... and, as only my luck would have it, very shortly into the 11-mile drive there was an accident about 30 feet ahead of us on northbound 95... a tractor trailer that was carrying a 2nd piggy-back trailer decided to jack-knife in the middle of the road and rupture one of it's saddle tanks. After two hours of sitting in gridlocked traffic and not moving whatsoever, we were finally on our way. It took us about 2.5 hours to go about 12 miles from the restaurant to home. CRAZY!!! If that's not some quality bonding time, I don't know what is! LoL

On Sunday, our original plan was to go to the Inner Harbor but since we went to bed so late on Saturday and subsequently woke up so late on Sunday morning, we revamped our game plan. Brian wanted to take his parents to a restaurant called Timbuktu in Hanover. The problem with that was that Sunday was Valentine's Day and EVERYWHERE was packed! Without reservations, you were pretty much screwed. We waited for about 45 minutes before we were finally seated, only to find that they had changed the menu for the holiday and nothing was under about $25. So we revamped our game plan... again! This time we went to a restaurant not far from Timbuktu called Gunnings. We got crab balls as an appetizer, since the whole point had been for Brian's parents to try crabcakes for the first time. Brian's mom had a bowl of Maryland crab soup for her lunch and his dad had some steamed shrimp. After lunch we went to a pretty neat place called Savage Mill, and walked around for awhile. Once we were back at home, Brian's dad went to work on his famous pork roast. Brian had bought a rack for the roast, but the pan he had wasn't long enough, so he and I went out to look for a bigger pan. As we were walking out to the car, I slid on some ice in the parking lot and fell FLAT ON MY FACE! Despite the many layers of fat and my ginormous boobs that should've protected me, I felt my ribs hit the ground. My elbows were both bruised and scraped up, one of my knees was bruised and scraped, the palms of my hands were scraped up, and my right index finger was jammed pretty bad! It was NOT fun, AT ALL!! I'm still sore but I'm feeling much better than I was a few days ago!

On Monday, we went to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. We walked around for awhile and bought some more souveniers... and we went for a tour of the U.S.S. Constellation, which was pretty cool! We headed to the airport and grabbed some lunch at Du Claw while we waited for it to be time to say goodbye to Brian's parents, as they headed back to Chicago. It was sad to say goodbye, but we'll be seeing them again in about 6 weeks when we'll be spending 5 days there for a wedding. All in all, it was a great weekend! I think things went well and I hope that Brian's parents liked me as much as I liked them!

*** on a side note... for the entire weekend, Brian's dad kept calling my cat Myrtle "Mildred" which I thought was quite possibly the funniest thing ever!!! ***


Thursday, February 11, 2010

Playing catch up...

Hello world! Although I created this blog about 2 years ago, I finally decided that today (02/11/2010) is as good a day as any to write my very first post! What can I say, I'm a little late! Nikki is my name... procrastination is my game! =)

So... where do I begin? Well, I've just lived through a little bit of history that people will probably be talking about for years and years to come! Right now, Maryland is in the midst of it's snowiest winter EVER. In addition to that, we've had THREE blizzards in the past 2 months... and two of those were in the SAME week! And people are worried about global warming! LoL So we're doing alot of digging out... or rather my boyfriend has been doing alot of digging out! I'm not sure what I would've done without Brian and his superior shoveling abilities over the past week! My poor sweetie... =(

Speaking of Brian, his parents are flying in from Chicago tomorrow evening and will be spending the weekend with us. This will be my first time meeting them and I am quite nervous! We originally had planned on touring Washington D.C. one day and Baltimore another day, etc... but I think the weather has put a pretty good wrench in our plans, so we'll have to see what we end up doing!

This Sunday is Valentine's Day, and it will be the first one for Brian & I... but since his parents will be in town for the weekend, we're going to celebrate it on Monday instead. That's ok, because it'll give me a little more time to figure out what to get him! What do you get a GUY for Valentine's Day anyway? I'm open to some suggestions from all you men out there!

After this weekend's festivities, it is finally time to crack down on my diet. I joined Snap Fitness, a 24-hour gym close to my house, a few weeks ago. I subscribe to Weight Watchers Online. Now it's time to put those tools to good use and get some of this weight off... lately I've been inching closer and closer to my highest weight ever. Thanks to these back-to-back blizzards and being stuck in the house for so long, boredom has taken its toll and I have now moved PAST my highest weight ever... BAD TIMES!!! But I know that I CAN do this... I've done it before and I WILL do it again! I've got a goal that I'm working towards... Brian & I are flying to Chicago in April, to go to his friend's wedding. I'd like to fit into a smaller size dress by then, and most importantly, feel less self-conscious about myself. I need all the support I can get...

Until next time...

P.S. Here's a short video of what things were looking like in my neck of the woods last night... my own personal Winter Wonderland!