The Blog

of Tara Danielson

Taylor Swift's album Fearless is in the process of downloading as I type this. I love Amazon! $3.99 for random new albums! Snow Patrol's album was the same and 3 Doors Down's newest release was 99 cents! All songs come free of drm.

Can I just blog about UPS for a second...they are great! I have called for almost a dozen same day pickups, it works amazingly - driver calls me within an hour and tells me when he/she will return to the customer center. The Customer Service reps at the centers in Alexandria and Springfield are awesome!

I also need to backtrack, Jen and Jason threw an amazing Halloween party! There were costumes, food, and pumpkin carving! The weekend was also filled with playing the best game of all time - taboo!

I had a craving for pumpkin pie, so I made one...from the can...from the ready made can...all you need is eggs and evaporated milk :)

Next on my cooking craze: baked ziti - pasta dish. I got the idea from this crockpot blog: crockpot365.blogspot.com. The ingredients:

• Trader Joe's Brown Rice Penne
• Prego traditional sauce
• 1 Onion
• 1/2 Green pepper
• Package of grated cheese
• Pepperoni
• Random seasoning

While the ziti was cooking we took a walk to take in the fall colors and weather.

First things first - I saw New Kids on the Block in concert. It was magical. Natasha Bedingfield opened for them - she did a great job. NKOTB played all their hits - they were on stage for almost 2 hours. Their encore was "Step by Step" and "Hangin' Tough" with a little "We Will Rock You" thrown in.

Saturday I made my first roast, potatoes and carrots! It turned out just like my Mom's. On Sunday Sam and I watched the Capitals vs. the Bruins three rows from the ice - it was awesome. I saw my first hockey shootout - sadly the Caps lost.

Sam put our bedroom curtains up this weekend - stock pic from target.com and what they look like in our room:

I am a blogging maniac! We saw "The Women" in SF. It's a somber movie, luv Meg Ryan. Sam and I saw "Eagle Eye" last night - great! I luv Shia!

I found some photoshop tutorials to use on my SF photos:

I just got back from San Francisco, I was there for a week to attend Oracle Open World. Millions of sessions to choose from and two huge exchibit halls. Inbetween sessions we hit the mall, Haight Street, Fisherman's Wharf and rode the cable car. Appreciation night takes the cake - bus ride to treasure island where a carnival awaited us with free games, rides, food and drinks. We danced all night in a saloon turned club and ended the evening watching UB40 live in concert. It was awesome!

Fall shows are back! Grey's anatomy premiere did not disappoint, lyrics below are from Taylor Swift's song White Horse that played during the last few scenes of the premiere.

And now our living room debut:

This mini laptop is amazing! It's so perfect for travel. I disliked the Xandros distro that came with it. Sam installed eeebuntu. The interface is awesome - cube rotation and mac like dock.

I wanted to give some visuals of our "home" building :)

Our sofa

Living Room curtains I ordered today (set of green & set of tan)

We moved!!! The place is all unpacked. A lot of boxes were never unpacked in our last apartment. Decorations and pictures have been nailed to the walls. We found a couch and it is being delivered today. Lastly, we need to find some curtains for the living room and bedroom.

Emily came to visit for a week. She brought Ares, her sweet cat. Sam and I are going to keep her for awhile. We did a lot of shopping and checked out the Botanical Garden and the Newseum. We had a tropical storm roll through the area - Emily and I stayed inside and played Wii Mario Kart.

My birthday was an entire day of surprises (huge thanks to Susann) that ended with a surprise dinner at Old Ebbit Grill with all our friends. Sam got me an Asus Eee PC.

It is extremely warm here. Packing is moving along slowly. Procrastination has always been a problem for me. Sam and I went to see Wanted on Friday. Very entertaining.

I have a new selection at Noodles & Co.: Tuscany Linguine with a Cucumber Tomato Salad - yum!

Sam and I found our new home: a two-level condo (2 bedroom 2.5 bathrooms). We signed the lease today. It's about 2 miles away from the apartment we live in now. We move in on August 20th.

We went to the Alexandria Animal Shelter this afternoon. At the earliest, we cannot adopt a cat until we are in our new place for a month. We found the perfect cat: a 2 year old female named Happy...tbc.

Susann held my hand as I got my first pedicure today. On another side note, we have had some crazy thunderstorms this month.

Sam and I put in our 60 day vacate notice. The search is on for a new apartment.

Hello! June has flown by! Finally after 3.5 years of my allergies continually getting worse - I went in for an allergy test. As a child, I remember getting plates of needles lightly placed on your back and than 15 or so light needle pricks/shots into your forearm. As adults, this does not happen. The plates went into my left arm. Afterwards I received over 20 SHOTS into my right arm. I swear my lady was new - for the needle and pumping the antigens into my arm was not pleasant. After she left, I swear I almost fainted. And of course, my luck, she had to do some over because the antigens she gave me were not strong enough - so another 15 shots into my right arm! The results: I am allergic to one type of mold, dust mites, and every pollen they gave me. Ick! So I am taking daily drops for my body to build an immunity to the allergies.

I attended two weddings this month. The first one was my dear friend Courtney whom I have known since we were babies. Her wedding was in Wisconsin on the 14th. I flew into MKE and my dear father picked me up from Algoma. I stayed with my brother's family - got to hang out with my neices. I drove with my parents to Wisconsin Rapids where we drove by our old house and had lunch with neighbors. The wedding was beautful! We drove to MSP, we had brunch with relatives. My other brother was evacuated from Iowa - due to the flooding, so he was on his way to our parents house. I went shopping at the Mall of American and then met Sam at the airport around 6:30pm. We spent the evening with his family. We were lucky to make it home on Monday on full flights.

Wedding number two was my friend Meredith. Her wedding was in Virginia on the 21st. She had a beautiful outside wedding. I tried to take many pictures :)

First things first, let the countdown begin: there is going to be a Transformers 2!!

Let's see...the past 13 days: (1) I traveled to Iowa to visit my brother and attend his graduation from the Iowa Writer's Workshop. An analogy for me to brag about my bro: Iowa Writer's Workshop is to writers as MIT is to IT people. (2) Been getting over my semi-annual - never fails - allergy/cold attack.

Some movie reviews: Indiana Jones (OK, funny parts, fan of Shia). Made of Honor (Funny, predictable ending)

It rained all weekend - pretty much non-stop with some sunlight on Saturday evening. Sam and I took a walk on the paths in the Overlook townhouse community. Everytime we walk the paths I hope to see a deer, we finally saw a doe - about 30 feet from the path - just minding her own business - she did not run - even when people walked by with barking dogs. It was very cool to be so close.

My bro, Jim was in DC for a visit, we met up in Chinatown - ate at Clyde's and went and saw Iron Man. My review: pretty good movie. Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow did a great job. I laughed out loud quite often.

My loyality to American Idol has left the building - no more voting and no more watching. Everyone should watch Greek! Hilarious! Season Finale of Brothers & Sisters was great!

Click here to read about our trip to Italy!

P.S. Wii Mario Kart rulz!

My BF Lisa was here. We were touring maniacs! Rain did not stop us. We dedicated an entire day to monuments and ended up walking for 15 hours. Our feet paid the price.

Music: I love Sugarland's Life in a Northern Town with Little Big Town and Jake Owens. I am also in love with Lady Antebellum's debut album!

Hi. This is turning into a "once a week" blog. I love music - a little getaway for me. The lyrics that these artists write are amazing! I have discovered another band: Grace Potter and the Nocturnals - check them out.

I'm trying to get back into the practicing guitar mode. I'm currently working on two songs - Battle by Colbie Calliat and Whiskey Lullaby by Brad Paisely and Alison Krause. Chords are frusterating - I am finally getting the hang of G, I think I will always have a problem with C. I need to take a music or guitar 101 course, to understand the notes and chords and why you can't strum certain strings for certain chords.

Cherry Blossoms are here! Not sure when Sam and I will be able to take our annual walk around the tidal basin. If and when it happens, I will post pictures.

First, I must express my love for the mac & cheese at Noodles & Co. An amazing dish that I crave once a week.

I finally finished Season 1 of Friday Night Lights, and to my surprise nbc.com has both seasons online to watch. A great addiction! I really hope the show comes back! I am glad the primetime shows are making an April comeback!

I have been attending a Cardio Kickboxing class after work on Thursdays. It's a great workout!

Finally, I have finished The Horse and His Boy in the Chronicles of Narnia series. My goal is to finish Prince Caspain before the movie comes out in May.

Very sad that UND lost to Denver in the final five. Alright, that's my random update :)

Today was spent sleeping in and relaxing. I finally left the apartment around 4pm to get some much needed groceries. I watched "Catch and Release"-great movie!

Day 01: Sam & I flew US Airways direct from DCA to MCO - just a little over two hours. My parents met us outside security. We ate at a buffet for a late lunch. We checked into the Bonnet Creek resort - the place was beautiful. The resort had several pools (one with a slide), a cute river for tubing, hot tubs, a playground and mini golf. Emily arrived around 9pm. Troy and Marsha and the kids arrived at midnight (due to missing their original ORD connection.

Day 02: We spent the entire day by the pool. Morgan and I made Tye Dye t-shirts in the afternoon. We had a huge dinner with Tore and Lisbeth, relatives who were visiting from Sweden.

Day 03: Sea World-I enjoyed the dolphin feeding. The Dolphin show and Shamu show were great! My camera battery went low almost immediatly, sadly I forgot to bring my extra battery. We ended the day eating dinner with Shamu! They have a buffet restaurant right next to one of the aquariums behind the Shamu show.

Day 04: Magic Kingdom-first ride was "It's a small world". Sam and I split from the group as they went and had lunch with Cinderella in the castle. We ate at a cafe in tomorrowland. We went on most of the rides in that section. Space mountain was the craziest ride! We met up with Troy, Marsha, Morgan and Emily at Minnie's house. We went on a couple more rides (Haunted house, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.). We ended with the Country Bear show. Just as the show began it started pouring outside. It continued to pour the rest of the night. Everyone bought rain parkas except Sam and I. We got drenched! This did not help my cold that began in the morning.

Day 05: We went shopping at downtown disney, had a treat at Ghirardelli's. We all took a nap in the afternoon. Then Dad and I went to the airport to pick up Jim.

Day 06: We went to Seaworld (they had a buy a day get a day free). We saw all the shows again and checked out some attractions we had missed on day 03, We rode rollercoaster, Kraken, twice. We got to feed the dolphins again!

Day 07: Troy, Marsha, Morgan, Brooke, Mom and Dad went to Animal Kingdom. Jim, Emily, Sam and I went to Epcot. We got there around 10am and stayed until 7pm. We went on every ride - the newest ride, "Soarin", was awesome. We toured every Country, going into almost every gift shop and eating along the way. Our feet were killing us by the end of the day. We ran after the last ride to try and catch the shuttle to the resort. We just missed it, we ended up catching a taxi. We tried to go to Hard Rock Cafe, the taxi driver did not really understand us, he ended up dropping us off at downtown Disney and there is no HRC. We ate at Planet Hollywood instead. For the record I am very disappointed in HRC for only having a restaurant inside a Disney theme park.

Day 08: Troy, Marsha and the kids were gone by 4am for their 6:45am flight. The rest of us left around 8:30am for the airport. Sam and I landed in DCA around 2pm. The week went by so fast! We had an amazing time! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Go Giants! I am happy the underdog won! Started Netflix - two at a time, started with "The Waitress" and "Gracie". Record high today - 60's. I am a new found fan of Missy Higgins.

I have discovered oatmeal all over again. I remember growing up, my dad made oatmeal over the stove. As a kid I would put a little milk and a lot of brown sugar. My toppings are the same, but I have yet to master the stove. Microwave is still my friend.

Another movie weekend. Susann and I saw Mad Money and 27 Dresses, we had Sushi inbetween. Both excellent movies. As tempting as it is, don't believe the critics.

Season 7 is here! And OTH has returned 4 years fast forward. This week's episode introduced me to the new artist: Kate Voegele

I saw two movies this weekend, both excellent: National Treasure: Book of Secrets & Juno. Weather is very winter like - I am secretly enjoying it. :-) This weekend I also watched season 1 of weeds, a little too vulgar, but addicting. Weeds is a combination of Sex in the City, Desperate Housewives and swearing of an R-rated movie.

Just in case you did not know: Applebees has a Loaded Baked Potato on their menu!

Sam's appendix removal surgery on Monday went well! He arrived at the hospital at 1pm, rolled into surgery at 2pm, talked to the Doctor at 3:15pm and saw Sam in the recovery room at 4:30pm. He spent the night and I took him home at about 10:00am on Tuesday. Recovery is being spent in his favorite room: the command center.

Work is back in full swing after the holidays. Our unit is moving offices, Susann and I will be getting separate offices, it will take some getting used to after sharing an office since June.

Record highs this week. It was in the 70s yesterday.

Happy New Year everyone! After toying with the idea of using the blogging software, Mephisto, I ended up sticking with php, but finding a new template.

Sam and I rang in the new year in Berkeley Springs, WV with a bunch of friends in a 5 bedroom 5 bathroom cabin. Great time!

One of the many things I've noticed while living on the East Coast is the lack of country music fans. Where have all the country fans gone? There is only one station that plays country music in the No. VA area. Very sad.

I haven't posted for almost a month. I just got back from the movie, Beowulf. Definitely a guy flick. My Thanksgiving travels started poorly: I made the mistake of flying out of DCA at noon. My noon flight did not depart until almost 6pm. Missing my connecting flight to GFK (of course), I had Northwest fly me into FAR - arriving around 11:30pm. I made it to my parent's house around 12:30 am CST - turning a 7 hr travel day into 14+ hrs. Time at home was grand - very relaxing! Family played a lot of solitaire and Pinochole. My sister and I also cooked the entire Thanksgiving meal, with the guidance of our Mother of course. It turned out great. On black friday, I watched my hockey team beat Duluth 8 to 3 - awesome game!

Sam the genius, figured out a way to convert mythtv recordings to play on Pitot. He also found a way to record DVDs to put on Pitot. These recordings saved me during my unexpected airport delay.

Sam is currently getting over some flu/infection and I am fighting a cold. Brothers and Sisters seems to be beating Grey's Anatomy. Everyone must go watch this hilarious iPhone 'Delay' Parody

The boycott of social networks is over. I opened a facebook account this week.

Hi. Transformers was released on DVD today. So it's been several weeks...what have I been up to...the obvious-working Relatives were in the area for a week - went to the top of the Washington Monument for the first time. I went to Williamsburg for a week with the family. I watched a couple movies. I flew to MSP for a night. I read a book in two days. I flew to EWR for a night. I bought a puzzle. I am watching new and returning fall shows. And lastly, my allergies have returned with the fall season - I am enjoying the cooler weather.

I attended the best cookout of all time this weekend - in addition there were Smores!! Smores are awesome. Well that's all I got. Shout out to the iPod "phatty" nano.