Foto Friday: Octoberful.

So no real theme for this week, just showing off what's been going on the past two weeks in mi vida, but first...

25,000 views y'all! (mini-milestone celebration time)

as of today, this lil blog has passed the 25,000 view mark! The views are almost all from this one concert-recap post and I can't be sure how many of these views are actual people and not just bots, but since I can't tell, I'm counting them all!

Now back to our regularly scheduled post:

The first weekend in October was filled with soccer and friends, starting with a very rainy DC United game (which they tied to clinch a spot in the playoffs)...

Yay for friends who love soccer enough to stand getting soaked in the rain with me!

...Then continued on Saturday at the RFK Auxiliary field for my coed league's All Star game #gopink! 

(we won, even if the blue team was much better at the whole organized-picture thing)

The representatives from our team also got to accept the trophy for having won our division last spring, chyeeaaah SSFC!

I also don't have any photos of it (which I guess defeats the purpose of FotoFriday) but I had my first performance on stage playing acoustic/rhythm guitar with the worship band at my church and it was great, everyone was so encouraging! And I also participated in a Chili Cook-Off with a Pumpkin Chicken Chili (recipe here)

Picture via original recipe (is this FotoFriday cheating if it's a professional picture? Imma say no, my blog, my theme,  my rules)

This past holiday weekend started out with some more soccer spectating (and another tie) with a group viewing of Landon Donovan's last game with Team USA

Saturday was spent resting up to attack the Army Ten-Miler with the family (minus 2OB, plus a Katie, who ROCKED the race with 12 hours notice) on Sunday.

The course was different this year but it was amazing as always and was the third Army Ten Miler for me and the third with AMAZING weather!

My sister and I also always run in matching shirts with HOO and AAH written on our backs. For anyone who doesn't know, in the Army, HOOAAH is kind of an all-encompassing/catch-all cheer, encouragement, response. We always get comments and cheers mid race and the best is when someone tells us it encourages them! We even had a gentlemen this year tell us around mile 8 that this was the third year he's seen us, that makes him 3 for 3!

The rest of the weekend was spent mainly recovering off my feet with #notsosecretproject14

bulky yarn = my favorite!

A (not very social) weekend's progress #bananaforscale:

My final activity this past weekend involved scoping out my soon to be new room (if all goes well)!!! 

Soon to be new room?!?!?

Lastly, yesterday I received the AMAZING news that a friend and former club and college teammate who is battling brain cancer had her first post-chemo scan return TUMOR FREE! She's not completely done with treatment but this is a HUGE positive step towards beating this disease! She is a fighter and we're all behind her, I can't wait to visit her in a little over a week! #KickAsh!

via

More Somethings I Drew

So since I am addicted to DrawSomething, I've once again decided to share the Somethings I've deemed most worthy of saving, enjoy!

  

"dum dum da da dum da di doo da..."

Bowties are cool!

I may have made this more complicated than necessary...

Shoulda done red clay in honor of the French Open

Atención, picante!

Almost drew Oscar

Not complete unless you imagine that annoying "Demo" tune on repeat

"stayin' aliiiiiiiiiive"

Spanx!

Maybe next time I'll crop the pics and have people guess what it was I drew... but that sounds like work.  Lemme know what you think!

Rickshaws, Kickballs, Wedding Bells

Thirsty Thursday's back again! This is through Jenn at Going the Distance and Trish from Tales from Trish.

What's In My Cup?

So since this is my last week hanging up in DC and since bicycle rickshaws seem to be all over the city my drink of choice in honor of the District is The Rickshaw.

 The Rickshaw

recipe and picture via

Ingredients:

 2 ounces gin
1 ounce basil simple syrup
1 ounce fresh lime juice (about 1 lime)
Cucumber slices (garnish)
Basil leaves (garnish)

     Basil Simple Syrup prepared ahead of time:
              1 cup water
              1 cup sugar
              1/2 cup fresh basil

The Basil simple syrup is what makes this drink, it is PERFECT for a sunny day as the weather starts to heat up a bit.  You can drink these well into summer and refresh yourself with each sip.

What's On My Mind?

Kickball:
Once again, it's kickball time! I had a blast returning to kickball last week! I scored 2 runs and really had fun seeing some friends again.  Then on Saturday we got together for an inter-squad scrimmage followed by a team cookout.  While I admit we may take this simple game a little too seriously, the best part about this team is that everyone makes sure to have fun and actually connect with the other people on the team and last weekend was a blast!

Speaking of last weekend...

My AWESOME Mamma:
I forgot to do a Mother's Day shout out last week (I'm a bad kid) but I really have the most wonderful mom and we had a family-filled Mother's Day and I'm so spoiled at my parents house I don't want to go back to Richmond (although that might have something to do with the fact that returning to Richmond = Bar Prep.

For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll?
Lastly, I will ikely not be able to join up next Thursday as I will be headed up to PA for one of my BEST friend's wedding! This will be my first time as a bridesmaid and I can't wait to share in and support this awesome lady as she gets married! Anyone have any good tips that all bridesmaids should know? Since I'm a noob I welcome any and all assistance!

My Best Somethings Drawn

So I'm sure by now you've heard of Draw Something, the pictionary-like game with no rules where you basically play with (as opposed to against) other iPhone, iTouch, or iPad users and guess what the other has drawn, earning coins based on the difficulty of the drawing.  The coins allow you to buy more colors, and then be able to make cooler drawings.  Here are some of my best so far (I know they can't touch the "all-time best of Draw Something tumblrs but I have fun and this blog is my oyster so by golly I'm gonna post them)

your choice of "Taylor"s

camo is fun to draw and I've never seen a rule that you can't write slogans

i love how simple this one is, (done when I only had one shade of brown)

I've drawn this one maybe 5 times, it's become a favorite

She guessed at the hat + braid

this one was fun

She got this pretty quick

I find the squid's expression HI-larious!

smushed fossil + field... got it! Also, i will now refer to driving long distances as burning a lot of smushed dinosaurs

(she guessed it when I had only drawn the igloo)

Spring Break Recap Video *Insert Excited Face*

"But Bitz... Spring Break ended a month ago..."
Yeah, well some of us had stuff like law school to do and kept forgetting to upload the footage to the computer...
Anyway, I recorded a little recap video of the whole trip as soon as I got back, it just took awhile before I had the time to get it up on the interwebs.  There is actually a 1/2 hour of footage from the trip and I made a lil movie for each of the ladies but since I have yet to ask their permission for eternal glory on the interweb (and I haven't had THAT much time to make a highlight-reel or edit out faces) , I haven't included all my footage. That might occur later. So stay tuned:

check out my horribly awesome Aussie accent at 3:28-408, and then at the very end

Also, let's take a moment to think how this is only my fifth numbered vlog entry and I had already forgotten which number I was on when I uploaded it...

As I face the last two weeks of law school and finals, we can be sure I will either ignore this blog completely... or devote all the time and energy I should be spending on my studies here instead.  

Never Before...

Never before has a University of Richmond Track and Field female-athlete thrown a javelin farther than 47 meters. Since the inception of the program the best competition throw by a member of the women's program was impressive, but this Saturday, for the first time ever, someone threw 48.08. Heather Roush threw approximately one whole meter farther than the historic best that UR had to offer. This is even more impressive considering her penultimate throw set her own PR to day of just over 44 meters. It's such a great concept to think about, not only continually improving ourselves and our own best efforts but being able to build upon every one else before us and to be better than they're ever been.

This is not the first time I've witnessed people surpass the historic "best-possible" level set by all other people who've tried before. Everyone likes the idea of human progress, surpassing what has been the best effort of mankind thus far. We've all read an edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, there are people who have made it a goal to jump more times on a pogo stick than anyone else ever has before. My sister, who swam at GMU, broke records while she was there, and is friends with a young woman who holds a world record in distance swimming. It's mindblowing really, when you think about it, that thought that for a time, that is the best time that recorded history has ever acknowledged.

I guess I just love this thought, that we can continually improve and build upon and expand what others have set before us. This ability becomes so apparent in sport, in quantifiable measures of human body and its athletic feats, but its application in the world around us causes me to hope.