Strange pictures? Yes please.

Everyone knows that camera phones only have one purpose...to be available when you see something completely random and hilarious, so you can send the picture to your friends and you can OMG, LOL, and WTF together. Since I just upgraded from a Blackberry to an iPhone 4, I figured it was time to clean out some of those random photos. 

 Spotted at Walmart in Tennessee. There was a whole vending claw machine full of these. Either they're hopping on the MTV trend, or they just made way way too many Guido Bears.

Also spotted at Walmart. This is the deal of the century right here. I don't know who came up with this combo, or what the intended use is. Did they just have a bunch of glue sticks laying around? I'm just confused...

 

This picture looks normal, until you look at the sign..."Shooties." I appreciate the fact that they're trying to come up with a catchy name, but come on.

Fake Legos. Fake Star Wars. One more and they would have a trademark infringement trifecta.

Now I'm confused. Are you supposed to eat these, or plant them on Barack Obama's head? (If you don't know what I'm talking about, I highly recommend you click on that link. Then buy one for everyone you know for Christmas.)

 

That's enough random photos for today. Don't worry, I have plenty more where those came from. 

I know what you're thinking, and I can't wait either...

Real life treasure hunting

Okay, so there is usually no real treasure involved, but it is a lot of fun! I'm talking about letterboxing :)

Letterboxing is an intriguing mix of treasure hunting, art, navigation, and exploring interesting, scenic, and sometimes remote places. ---Letterboxing North America

Shane and his family started letterboxing a few years ago in Tennessee, and Shane and I were excited to get to go again here in Maryland! It is a very easy and fun hobby, and if you have never tried it, you should definitely give it a shot! 

First, you need a notebook, a rubber stamp (lots of people carve their own, but we just bought one from Michael's), and an ink pad. Now comes the fun part! The clues! We get most of our clues from Letterboxing North America. They will give you a place to start out, like the name of a park, and from there you follow your clues to find the letterbox. A letterbox is a small, waterproof box that contains another notebook and a rubber stamp. Stamp your book with their stamp, and stamp their book with yours. It's nice to leave them a little note too! That way, you have a log of all the boxes you have visited, and they get to see how many people have deciphered their clues and found their box. Pretty cool, huh? It is a fun way to get to explore nature, and find some new places you have never been before! 

Here are some pictures from when Shane and I went letterboxing this Tuesday...

Letterbox #1--"Life's Little Adventure"

We found some pretty daffodils, and a cool creek, but no letterbox :(

 The clues mentioned a heavily carved tree.

 Was it this one?

Or was it this one? 

You can't tell from the pictures, but this tree's carvings were really old. Most of them had dates from the 70s. 

Charlie definitely had to stop for a drink.

We really weren't well prepared for this "little adventure." We went on a whim after work. I forgot to change my shoes, and had to hike a mile of rocky mountain bike trail in my Sperrys!

That letterbox was placed back in 2007, and there were way too many dead leaves on the ground to do too much digging. Oh well, maybe we can find it this summer!

Letterbox #2--"Maryland Black Eyed Susan"

This one was a much easier find

Yay! 

This box was located near this really cool old building foundation.

Here are a few more pictures from this weekend. We didn't go letterboxing then, but we did drive up to Pennsylvania to check out Codorus State Park. 

We saw people taking pictures of their kids sitting in this tree, so I had to make Charlie do it too. 

 There wasn't much to do at this state park, and it was pretty windy out! We only stayed about 10 minutes, then went to Cracker Barrel. That alone was worth the 45 minute drive, can you believe that is the closest one to us?!

Are we home yet?

I love the look on his face in this one. Isn't it funny how dogs enjoy the littlest things?

And last but not least, proof that there are rednecks everywhere.

I encourage everyone to get out of the house and enjoy the pretty weather. Go find a letterbox!

Happy Early St. Patrick's Day!

This weekend was the annual St. Patrick's Day parade, which is something that has been going on in Baltimore for more than 50 years. This year, Shane got to march in the parade! I love parades, so I was excited to have an excuse to go see it. I think most people went just so they could get drunk on Guinness at 2pm on a Sunday. A good time was had by all.


Anyways, I put together a little video from the parade. I actually had to cut out a lot, the parade lasted for almost 2 hours!  They had a lot of different chapters of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, which I learned is a fraternal organization of people of Irish Catholic descent. There were about a zillion more bagpipe groups too, but I figured one was probably enough :) The craziest thing was that they didn't completely close off the roads, they had to keep stopping at intersections to let traffic cross.

I hope this gets you in the St. Patrick's Day spirit!

 

My newest venture

Since I moved to Baltimore, I have only made three things: a bracelet that took 2 minutes to make, a bag that I used once, and I knit a hat that is too big for my head. Actually, I take that back. I have made three and a half things, because I have all the pieces cut out for a purse, but never sewed them together. And if you know me, you will know that this is actually a pretty high rate of return for me. This is probably more things completed in two months than I did all last year. Considering that I have a whole dining room full of craft supplies, I decided it was time that I use them for good (potentially make money) and not evil (multiply without abandon until I drown in balls of yarn and spools of thread).

So onto my original purpose for this post, here is my newest crafty endeavor. Cute, custom picture frames. I started with the sorority frames (because I know how hard it is to find cute sorority gifts on the cheap!), and have come up with a bunch of other ideas already.

 This one I love, it's for a friend's one year old, who is having a Minnie Mouse themed birthday party this weekend.

So what do you think? I am thinking of making a bunch of these and listing them on Etsy. What would you like to see on a frame? And how much would you pay for something like this? All input is appreciated :)

And while I'm still thinking about that hat...

Hmm, reminds me of something...

 Oh yeah. That's it.

Oh well, at least mine matches my jacket.

Quick trip to Naptown

Annapolis, capital of Maryland, is the home of many important historical landmarks, such as the oldest functioning state capitol building, the United States Naval Academy, and Chick and Ruth's Delly, home of the six pound milkshake and three pound hamburger (yep, you read that right! Those things are huge!). John and Shane have been there a few times before, and they thought it was about time I had the Chick and Ruth's experience too!

There was a huge wait just to get in! Chick and Ruth's was actually on an episode of Man vs. Food, he had to eat the 3lb hamburger and and 6lb milkshake by himself in an hour. 

I don't know what took him so long, I downed that whole thing in about 20 minutes...

Haha just kidding! John and Shane actually split the 6lb peanut butter milkshake.

I tried to get a picture of them drinking out of the straws at the same time, but no dice. 

I went for a somewhat healthier and more manageable option, a small chocolate milkshake. It was one of the best chocolate milkshakes I have ever had, they used a LOT of chocolate syrup!

The giant milkshake, next to the little baby one :)

After lunch, we walked around Annapolis a little bit to sight see and burn off some calories. Something I thought was pretty funny was when we went into a gift shop and saw this:

This is actually a whole display of jewelry from the lady I work for. She sells jewelry to stores all over the country. It was pretty neat to see the things I see every day at work, outside of the office!

Everybody say "guten Tag!"

Before I introduce the newest member of the family, let me first explain to you what a process this has been. My car accident was three and a half weeks ago, and I have had the hardest time with the insurance people. They haven't been the quickest to respond unfortunately, but my plan of calling them every day and bugging the sh*t out of them finally paid off. They did finally total my car out (which was soo sad, I am glad that I wasn't there to see it hauled off to the junkyard) and my consolation was a nice check.

Some of you will already know about how obsessive I am with decision making, but for the rest of you, let me just fill you in. Like any major purchase I make, whether it be a new laptop, a car, or a different scent of soap at Bath and Body Works, I do research before I buy. Lots of research. I'm talking every spare moment is spent on the computer reading reviews, looking at pictures, etc. It's annoying. It stresses me out, and I think it bugs Shane too, because I am too busy googling to pay any attention to him. For the past three and a half weeks, I have been obsessing over cars. I have visited so many dealerships, test driven a bunch of cars, sat in just about everything at the car show, and checked Craigslist and Cars.com about every hour for new additions. I considered every option, I was even *thisclose* to buying a Kia Soul. In the end though, I decided I wanted another VW. I was just getting used to the idea of the Horner family being a VW family, plus I would feel pretty funny getting out of another car with my giant yellow VW umbrella.

Now just because I narrowed my search down to VW, that doesn't mean my choice was any easier. In fact, the only thing I knew for certain was that I didn't want another Beetle. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved my Beetle, but mine was too special, and I didn't want to feel like I was replacing it. Plus I kinda wanted something with four doors. So then I test drove a bunch of VWs, including a manual (which I am still learning how to drive) diesel Golf, which was covered with dog hair and the smell of cigarette smoke. I finally found one that would make me, Shane, and the parents happy.

 

I'm thinking his name might be Max. Not sure yet, but it's just giving off the "Max" sort of vibes. Anyways, Max is a Certified Pre-Loved 2010 Golf. That means that I still have 2 years remaining factory warranty, and then another additional 2 year Pre-Loved warranty. That's even better than if I had bought Max brand new! Plus, he (it feels weird to say "he" lol) only had 14k miles, so I was basically getting a new car for several thousand dollars cheaper.

Now I just need to start saving my pennies so I can do some upgrades! I already have quite a few things on the list, like getting rid of those hubcaps and getting some real wheels! Good thing I have a job now :D