happy easter hammer

easter wouldn't be easter without a little egg decorating and quality family time. the donovan's adopted me for the weekend and invited me to their cozy home in harrisville (small town), PA. brian, erin, colin and i decided to send a special easter greeting with our masterfully colored easter eggs and baby lamb cake. this one goes out to big mike the hammer (be sure to click on the picture for the full effect). note the bunny ears, compliments of erin. after taking this picture, all eggs were deviled and eaten... yum. the baby lamb cake was good too. happy easter!

meet ray

my office had a gift exchange last christmas... the kind where you can trade for what you think is a better gift but you can also get the crappy gift if you're not careful. the game takes a lot of strategy. well i picked ray (actually, ray came with a friend named spot... but he didn't last long). luckily no one else in the office tried to take ray from me... probably because they'd hate to squelch the look of elation on my face. ray is mostly orange with some black accents. for a while he had a black spot on his side and a cute little black mustache... but now he's back to being mostly orange with just black tips on his tail. i guess he's a little chameleon. everyone in the office loves ray. people come by to talk to him on a regular basis. if i'm out of the office, several people feed him several times a day (making his water very dirty), and folks have been known to come in and adjust my window shades to make sure he's getting enough light, etc. ray loves to swim around and make bubble noises. he's a very happy fish. a big thanks to suze for being cool enough to come up with the idea of bringing fishies to a gift exchange in the first place. ray is the gift that keeps on giving!

boulakasha!

back in the days of beirut at "ESL" in good ole lex, chris clark used to call me a "ringer" because my aim was so perfect early on but steadily declined as the games continued. (can't imagine why!) well, it seems the same may be true in my fantasy baseball league. i've been climbing the charts the past three days and now i'm ranked number ONE! woohoo! i felt compelled to share this newfound glory since i'm sure it will be short lived (i inadvertently benched one of my better players and can't fix it until next week... shoot.) i'd like to thank the guys that put this together (the hammer and sweet sassy molassy), and the guys that joined up just to make sure this little girl could learn the ropes. girls still win, but y'all get props for humoring me.

girls always win

so the o's may have lost again friday (and saturday... and sunday...) but that didn't keep this group of girls from having a good time.

somehow daley and megan didn't make it into the pic , but this is me with carolyn, christina and anna at camden yards. all three girls happen to be in my bible study... spending time with them is always one of the highlights of my week.

i'm not sure what it is that makes girls so special. i've actually always been one to surround myself with guy friends. growing up with two brothers, i tend to be pretty comfortable around dudes. in the past year, however, my girlfriends have been such a blessing... this weekend was no exception. i love all my friends. this week though, girls win.

orange brownies

my aunt pat made these while i was in texas and i was hooked! i've made them twice for parties since then... everyone agrees they're a little slice of heaven. (except joe, who doesn't like orange stuff). super easy and super yummy...

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
4 eggs
2 teaspoons pure orange extract
1 teaspoon grated orange zest

Glaze:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon grated orange zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan and set aside. In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, and salt. Add butter, eggs, orange extract, and orange zest and beat with a handheld electric mixer until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until light golden brown and set. Remove from oven and pierce top of entire cake with a fork.

Glaze:
Combine all ingredients in a bowl, stirring until smooth. Pour glaze over cake. Cool cake and cut into squares.

(thank you www.foodnetwork.com)

shout out to a marine

this is my friend garreth. we went to college together, and he's cool. a great leader with a real heart for people and a way with words. he's in iraq now and has been for several weeks. he's the only friend that i know of serving in iraq, and i'm really proud of the work he's doing.


garreth is in charge of a 60 man platoon of marines, soldiers, and staff sergeants... currently the largest platoon in his battalion. i'm writing this as if i know what i'm talking about, but i don't really. i had to reference his emails just to make sure i got the facts straight.


i'd post his command philosophy (because it is pretty amazing to read) but i a) don't know what he would think of that, and b) think it may be too much text for all you short attention span-ers. just wanted you to have a face to put with all those "support our troops" bumper stickers. i'm glad garreth is looking out for me.

the first cook out

i loooove spring. it brings so many good things: green, flowers, baseball, cookouts, baseball, and i get to keep the top down on my convertible. what's not to love? some friends kicked things off right with the first (of many, i'm sure) cookout/roof deck party of the season. i'm going to have to pick and choose what i post since we were all in such a celebratory mood.

ahh, nothing like a game of beirut to ring in spring. you're sure to lose a ping pong ball (or 47) if playing on the roof, however. note the lovely backdrop.

here we have some dudes... but only one is a dude roller. team captain, to be exact. hence the odd expression. mmmm... maybe that's because we've lost all 4 games this season?

the host got a little wet... totally not my fault.

okay... i can't help it. this pic is just too funny. i promise we're drinking water and eating pizza at this point. amazing how daley still looks classy, even with zabel acting like a fool.

caller #10

so i've been listening to 103.1 WRNR (annapolis radio station) all week and calling in every time they announce free ben harper tickets. usually i get a busy signal... yesterday morning i was caller #2 (i was excited just to get through!)... and yesterday afternoon I WAS CALLER NUMBER TEN!!! i actually won free tickets to the ben harper show on the radio!!!! they even said, "congratulations to lauren from baltimore... " i'm famous. i can't believe i won something!

family night

i have so many pictures from this weekend, it's hard to know what to post. the following pics are from dinner saturday night at the johnston's casa. i may add more later once i see the pics uncle ben took. he's much better at this than i am! this is me with my great aunt betty doris. she's my "friend in faith" and checks my blog regularly. she'll make you laugh till your sides hurt. (love you, betty doris!) here we have cousin bev, her friend zac, cousin blake and little bro pierce. pierce is actually making fun of the cheerleading pose i did in high school. dufus. this is lily... the youngest cuz. she's a broncos fan, but also loves her mickey mouse ears. uncle danny also loves lily's mickey mouse ears. and last, but not least... this is me with my granddaddy. not only is he handsome, but he also has perfect attendance at rotary for a ridiculous number of years (46.5 to be exact).

big 100

though dorie's birthday was thursday, the whole famn damily congregated saturday for the big celebration. here you see all 33 of us... kids, grandkids, and great grandkids together. over 100 people shared in the festivities, and dorie talked to every one of them... she kept saying, "i didn't intend to get this old!"

i love this pic of dorie with me, stephen, mom and pierce. clearly, we were having a good time. (this may be pierce's first appearance on the blog... he's also my little bro... and also not so little.) poor dorie was tuckered out by the end of the party!

dorie's b-day

after two trips to the doctor and lots of medicine, i finally got off my death bed and onto an airplane thursday morning for a very special trip. i am sooo blessed to have great relationships with all four of my grandparents and my great grandmother, dorie. this trip was extra special... dorie celebrated her 100th birthday on march 23! amazing. can you imagine what life was like in 1906? here is a picture of dorie blowing out her candles. lots more pics from tx to come in the next few days!

karaoke part deux

i promised karaoke pics about 2 weeks ago, and here they are. (thanks for the files, cousin bev!) "nevins" is a little bar on cross street that serves up karaoke every single night... oh, good times. here we have eva and my brother stephen rockin' out... i think to garth brooks. next we have stephen and me singing a little bonnie raitt. note the country theme... we are all from tx, you know. here's me and my bro doing a little jig. (ps my bro doesn't normally wear a pink hat.) i apologize for the graphic nature of this last one. cousin bev met a dancing buddy at the bar. i guess you could say she had a little attitude... yay for local color :)

erin the dancer

my cousin erin is quite the dancer (second row, far left). her dance company won first place in the musical theatre category and best overall in her age group. yay erin!!

i'll have lots of pics to post next week. right now i still feel like death, so thanks for cutting me some slack.

sick day

normally i'd be posting the weekend pictures right about now... but i'm sick and headed to the doctor. hope y'all understand. i'll post the weekend's events as soon as i'm able! take your vitamins...

what up cuz

i'm close with my cousins... like really close. while most people would drag their feet to family reunions, my cousins and i would count down the days till our annual trips to colorado. our grandparents deserve most of the credit for that... in any case, my way cool cousin beverly made her way up to the b'more/dc metro area to visit her best friend eva and (of course) her awesome cousins and rockstar aunt. so here we have bev, mom, little bro stephen, me and b-day girl eva at everyone's favorite metropolitan cafe.

we also stopped by thirsty dog (aka pizza and beer and dog heaven) for dinner and ropewalk tavern (aka lau's favorite reagan friendly bar) for libation and conversation. stay tuned for forthcoming karaoke pics... oh get ready! bev heads back to texas today, but the whole famn damily will unite once again next week in lubbock to celebrate a VERY special birthday. again, stay tuned. (don't you just love the suspense?)

dude rollers game 1

the long awaited sobo football season has begun and team dude rollers was out in full force saturday. okay... so we didn't win our first game. honestly, we had just as much skill as our opponents. our one weakness was the fact that we'd never played together before. pretty soon we'll be rockstars individually AND as a cohesive team. have faith dude roller fans! (oh yes, we do have fans).

most of the team made it out for some bonding activities after the game. little havana has drink specials for sobo players as well as outdoor seating right next to the water. perfect to shake off a loss or celebrate a win... we'll be doing a lot more celebrating in weeks to come. ps: i am so extremely sore from saturday's game. i thought i was in okay shape... but yikes!

movin' out

less than 2 hours before the opening show of billy joel's "movin' out" at the hippodrome theater, my friend brandon offered me two tickets (thanks!) minutes later i got a call from bryan, who at least said he'd wanted to see the show when it was on broadway. bingo. tickets in hand and a dude roller on my arm, last minute entertainment at its finest. the show was 10 times better than what i expected. great music and super fun dancing. it's in b'more till march 19, so check it out if you can!

shootin hoops

some of my friends coach inner city basketball on the weekends. their team is comprised of 6-8 year old boys and girls. watching this game was soooo much fun. i laughed and cheered a lot. the kids were behind most of the game, but tied it up at the very end. everyone was a winner... for real. ably coached by colin, dawn, george (ben?), and mike... these kids (the young and old) are surely a gift to each other.

belly dancing bash

those of us who know susanne know that she is extremely creative. her birthday party friday was no exception. many many friends joined to celebrate a quarter century of this lovely lady in none other than a hookah bar complete with belly dancers. here's a pic of susanne and ryan taking a little taste of some peach tobacco. happy birthday girlie! the belly dancer really seemed to like jason. we're not really sure why. okay, yes we are. one of the highlights of the entire weekend was a little visit from my old roommate lily... all the way from argentina. here's the old gang back together again.

g. love

last night's sold out show with g. love & special sauce (great idea, john!) was a throw back to high school days. this kid lights up the stage. and i don't know how he ever got the idea to put guitar, harmonica, and rap together... but it really works. the crowd loved the old school tunes like "cold beverage" and the grand finale "baby's got sauce," but g. love's newer track "love" was a big hit as well. one of my favorite moments was definitely the surprise appearance from amos lee who came in to sing his baltimore song "charles street." yeah... that's my street. holla.