Whirlwind August

So I said I had returned...but then I left again. Then, I came back, but then left another time. Now, I'm back for good. First, we had the anniversary party at the end of July/beginning of August. Then, my birthday was that week. I got lots of good stuff including 3 (!) Michael's gift cards. My friend SH of Bostons in Virginia made me this awesome felt replica of my Honda CR-V complete with license plate :)

Thanks SH!

Because everyone knows I'm a crazy cat lady, I did receive many a cat card. The Gnome gave me this card:

I do love shopping, but I also love cake :) My friends C* and J* gave me this card as they are very aware of my OCD tendencies:

(the inside said: Hope you have a near-perfect b-day)

Birthday over...onto our trip to DC/Annapolis. The Gnome had a week-long conference in DC. We left on Sunday and arrived at our fabulous hotel, Wardman Park. This is the ceiling of the lobby:

My SIL J* picked us up to take us out to dinner at a Greek restaurant down the street. After dinner, I said bye to the Gnome and traveled to SIB (my bro) and J*'s new house in Annapolis. I didn't get a picture of the outside of their new digs, but here is the view:

B-utiful! It was M-U-G-G-Y (ahh, mid-August in MD), but we still had breakfast outside every morning. I made smoothies! Oh, and they had just gotten a puppy, a chocolate labradoodle. Her name is Mochi, which is Hawaiian rice candy (SIB and J* met, lived, and got HI*tched in HI). Mochi sleeps a lot, but that doesn't mean it's easy to get a good picture of her.

She's so cute...and blurry. Here is a pic of Mochi and SIB playing:

SIB had the week off so we tried to complete as many of the chores that J* gave us as possible. That included 2 trips to Home Depot, 2 trips to Target, 2 trips to HomeGoods, and other various stops. SIB is in the Army so we got to go to the PX and browse, ANNNNND SIB took me to the mall and IKEA. The Gnome won't go with me to IKEA. Ever. We did some browsing and found some things we wanted. Here's what we bought:

We got 4 hand towels, 4 plastic pet food dishes, and a squeegee. How much do you think the total was?

We got 9 items for under $4. That's pretty darn good I think. My squeegee was by far the most expensive item at $0.99.

The 3 of us also went to the Melting Pot one night while I was visiting (sorry Gnome) :) Delicious. I'd never been to one before. My fav was dessert. On Wednesday, the Gnome picked me up in Annapolis. Back to the hotel. Thursday night, we metro-ed out to Springfield, VA to have dinner with the Gnome's high school peeps at a local pizza place (Saratoga Pizzeria, for those of you that are interested). On Friday, after lunch at Chipotle (mmmm Chipotle), it was back to the mountains and our kitties :)

Look what we found when we went out on our deck:

The long-awaited plumeria flowers! The flowers smell like Hawaii. Anyone want to go with me to Hawaii? I love it there so very much. 

Next up...my post about judging crafts at the State Fair of West Virginia. Stay tuned...

Leaf out.